Charity Shop wonders

I have found a new "chain" if you will of new charity shops. And they are awesome. They are in Pimlico - there's three of them, the Fara charity shops which raise money for Romanian orphans. One is just for kids (not so interesting if like me you don't have children), one is a regular charity shop but with a very decent selection of clothes and one is a vintage charity shop which not only has an awesome selection of clothes and accessories but also an owner/manager that will chat the legs of fdonkey telling you all sorts of facts about the clothes you're trying on.

From the regular charity shop, I bought a big puffy petticoat-like white skirt which works amazingly as a dress. I like to think it's a petticoat - trying it on it reminded me of that line in Gone With The Wind when Rhett and Scarlett are on their honeymoon, Rhett says his Mammy always "wanted a red tabita petticoat so stiff that it would stand by itself and so rustly that the Lord would think it was made of angels' wings". The cotton of the skirt is so thick and there is so much of it every time I moved it made the most delightful rustling noise. Also, it is incredibly satisfying to sit down and dramatically fling the fabric around me - spreading the skirt to its full width. All that satisfaction for just £2 - you can't get better than that!

When I entered the vintage shop, the first item I saw was right at the back - a navy style coat, it was on a model with a feathered hat over it and looked distinctly pirate like. Hency my attraction - I love all things military and all things piraty. I however made myself go through all the rails first at the front of the shop, glancing furtively at the coat every so often. It was a bit ridiculous to be completely honest, you'd have thought I was approaching an exotic animal, or that I was 14 again and trying to approach a boy I had a crush on. But for some reason I just didn't want to walk straight up to the pirate mannequin and the gorgeous coat.

I did get there eventually - and it was every little bit as good as I wanted it to be. The lining was destroyed but the coat itself in amazing condition considering it was from the 1930s (so I learnt from the shopkeeper while i was trying it on.) The geek in me loves that my coat isn't just "army style" with embellishments chosen by someone with nothing to do with the Army. My coat is a real McCoy army coat. When I got home I immediately went to google for answers as to what rank in the navy my coat represented - another tid bit I learnt from the shop keeper is that the insignia on the sleeves represent different ranks in the army/navy. Well, my coat's a commander's coat apparently. Bring on autumn, I can't wait to march around town in my new/old Navy coat, I intend to do so with the authoritative and commanding air of someone in power.

And, on top of it all, there's the added bonus of knowing that the money I spent will not line some rich person's pocket but go towards helping orphans. Best retail buzz ever - high from awesome new clothes, knowing they're one of a kind, and knowing you've done something to help! It's winners all round....

The coat fits me pretty perfectly - which means the man who owned it was either very small or I'm pretty big. I'm going to say it's the former....

I'd like to point out - I'm not the kind of person who wears sunglasses indoors - it just feels a bit odd to post photos of myself on the internet. So I'm staying in the safe anonymity of my sunglasses for a bit!