Yesterday I went out op-shopping (yay!) with a small amount of money and a big wish-list. I thought maybe I might find one or 2 items, all going well. I've been feeling good about not needing everything "right now" and not worrying or being upset about lacking certain items, and it's a big contrast to "old me" who would be driving myself insane trying to figure out how to procure every single missing household item instantly and then getting upset when I couldn't. It's an odd thing, how obsessive I used to get when I felt I "needed" something, it would consume and depress me. Lately I don't feel concerned, we have a roof over our heads, beds to sleep on, food in the fridge. It's a much nicer way to live, not "needing" things all the time.

So anyway I went to one opshop and fell in love with a lounge suite, I had found another I liked but had cancelled buying it in the end because it didn't "feel" right. I had been moaning that morning that I didn't want a little couch, all I could afford, because I hate bumping elbows and not being able to sprawl out, (first world problems I know) but it's funny because I walked into another op-shop that I normally don't go to as they have more upmarket stuff and high prices, and found this lounge suite that I am sure angels were quickly knitting together for me as I was on my way to the store, LOL. It has the biggest couch I have ever seen, daughter and I would almost need megaphones to shout at each other from one end to the other!! It was in very new condition, an expensive brand, one of those rare finds that make op-shopping really fun. Unfortunately it was more than twice the money I had and there was no way for me to buy it and on top of that I would have to hire a trailer to transport it as they did not do delivery. So this LOVELY  gentleman came over to me and said he could see I was quite smitten with the lounge and did I think I would buy it? I told him I would just love to, but that it was beyond my budget unfortunately and he said "Oh, well, you know we are having 20% off furniture today, does that help" and I said sadly it's still a bit too much. So I asked if I could buy it without the arm-chairs, just the couch and he said yes and quoted a lower price but still beyond my reach. So I went about the store and found a great number of things from my list, a bedside table (I think that's nightstand in american), a shelf for the bathroom that was just the right size, a coffee table to my exact specifications, a frypan, a really lovely dinner set, some groovy  milk glass serving ware, (I had a bit of a thing for 70s crockery lol), some nice matching dining chairs, and so on and so forth. It was as if  someone had hand-picked everything I needed, to my personal taste and donated it to the op-shop for me to buy, lol.  So the gentleman came across to me and said, with a real twinkle in his eye lol, (I'm sure he is part angel), "You know I forgot to take 20% off that price I quoted you for the lounge (he hadn't, he had already deducted the 20% and then subtracted the chairs) and he quoted a price for the couch that was by now too good to refuse. Then he said "It's a shame you can't take the chairs too, but you know you will have to hire a trailer, I forgot to deduct that from the price (that is NOT their policy lol) and he then added the chairs back in at a very small amount each and then said "now, we will take that 20% discount from that prince and... (we were now at a fraction of the original price due to his creative accounting). So then he turned his attention to the other items I had accumulated and he and his coworker started ringing them up...."Oh, well we were going to throw that one out anyway so that one is free". "Oh, that one is on sale today, it's just $5". "Oh those are meant to be a set, they were marked wrong and they're on sale today". Apparently everything I wanted happened to be free or "on sale for $5",  and then as I was leaving the man came out with a new crock-pot he had found out the back (I need one for making soap) as i had been asking if they had one one earlier and, well would you believe it, crock pots were on sale yesterday too. Isn't it just uncanny. Then when I returned with the trailer he helped tie the lounge suite down, showed me how to tie and untie some cool truckers knots, and then gave me 3 blankets (nice ones too) to cover the furniture as it was starting to rain. I said i would return them later in the day and he said "Oh, you keep them, we have blankets coming out of our ears here".

I just kept shaking my head all day and saying "what lovely people. I can't believe how nice those people are". I ended up leaving the store with everything on my list and change in m pocket, I had expected it to take me months to find them all and be able to afford them. And I just love this lounge, it's enourmous and cool and comfortable, no elbow-bumping for us ever again. I could NEVER afford something like it even from an opshop under normal circumstances, it feels like a great big plush lavender gift from HP LOL!!!!!!

I don't normally go to that store because it is "expensive" and also because I went there once and a lady was rude to me so, I thought of it as the expensive store run by rude people!!!! Glad I gave it another chance, was I ever proved wrong.

Also I hired the trailer from the hardware store as the man had suggested. The girl at the service desk advised me that the trailer would cost me $35 for 2 hours OR if i bought something big from the store, it would be free. I said "So I should probably look around for something big that is about $35" and she said "well that's what i would do". So I bought a door, a plain wooden door for $30 and got the trailer hire free, and now I don't know what I am going to do with a door lol, perhaps have daughter paint it and turn it into a tabletop. I have a feeling we will create something cool with it anyway. How odd, I bought a door so that i could hire a trailer for free LOL.

So the day just felt surreal, I couldn't believe the luck and goodwill that was showered upon me, it felt like Christmas Morning coming home with all of those nice things for such a small amount of money. 

So nice things do happen, and there are some lovely kind people in the world!!!

Today I am very grateful for both and I must remember, when next times are hard, that they can also be really nice. 

It's important to me to relish and appreciate these nice things because when it was going badly for me I really had started to believe that there would be nothing but rotten luck and disappointment forevermore.