As previously canvassed on this blog, I’m a great fan of the discarded furniture and such that’s often found in my back laneway.
At a philsophical level, my view is there’s enough crap in the world without adding to the level of consumerism by polluting the planet with even more useless crap.
Clearly my neighbours disagree, as they’re prone to discarding the most fantastic array of items, most of them in good working order.
I’m happy to salvage the miscellaneous items they have decided are no longer fashionable on the basis that a) I’m doing my bit for the environment by recycling things; and b) they’re free, and doing so is saving me a lot of money.
So far I’ve managed to salvage a very good computer desk, a really lovely light fitting, and a bookcase, amongst many other items.
That said, I have completely turned into a man who collects aluminium cans, having recently bought a new fridge and having spent a small fortune, obscene amount on a vacuum cleaner.
Today, though the back laneway has yielded another discarded gem: a Sony sound system.
I wasn’t the only one who spotted it though. There was a bloke about 50 metres up the lane way who spotted it just seconds after I did, and was walking towards towards it at an increasing pace, as he obviously noticed my interest.
But I was there first, and so it was mine.
“It’s a nice system”, said the young man as he approached, realising he was already too late.
“Yes”, I said, as I picked up the first half of the sound system, making it completely clear that it was “finders keepers” on my part.
By the the time I arrived back to pick up the second half of my “haul”, I realised he’d taken his own little souvenir: the remote control. “What a prick”, I thought to myself.
But by the time I got upstairs, had plugged in the system, and started enjoying the superior sound of the system to my old system, all of the angst had disappeared.
Not only does the system sound significantly better than my old one, it’s fully working. They’ve obviously thrown it out because they’ve bought something better. I, of course, am happy to have such a hand-me-down.
At the risk of pre-juding comments on this post, I think Graeme will be appalled, while MsA will be mightily impressed.
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