Dead Man's Stuff

I get my hair cut at The Best Little Hair House in Belfast. Often on a Saturday. But you don't really want to know that do you? Andrew does it usually. A wee snip here and there, leave it messy please, a little more off the front. And while he clips and cuts, we always have a nice chat about what's going on. He's got his ear to the ground. He knows stuff.

None of this is relevent to be honest except that on my way home afterwards I tend to take a sneaky peak in at the charity bookshop en route. If I'm lucky I might pick up a…Pelican (or a Penguin). Last Saturday though I picked up a whole different bundle of shit. Tucked in behind the atlases (atlas's? atli?) was a murky old folder. Interesting, I thought, what's in that then?

Well this is what was in that. 

It turns out the previous owner of the folder was a seafaring type. In fact, there he is. Perhaps recently deceased, in his earlier, very much more alive days, I imagine nothing could keep that grin on his face like setting sail for a voyage of adventure around the British Isles. My favourite thing though is that chart at the bottom there. That's Stangford Lough, which locals will know and is a very beautiful part of NI - and encompasses our favourite place, Castle Ward.

Anyway, a folder full of dead mans shit: £1. Thank you very much.

Comments

[Mike Reed]

Wonderful. When I was a kid, I bought a leather briefcase at a jumble sale that turned out to have naval messages in it. I have a letter from the Admiralty explaining what they were. (Well, I hope I still have.) Stuff like this is brilliant.

Oh, and: ‘atlases’. ‘Atlas’s’? Really, Richard.

[Richard]

Yes, yes, of course I knew it was "atlases". Although, are you sure it's not "atlusi"?

[krelsk]

man, that shit's fantastic! jealous. nothing like that in my old bookshop.

[MickStatham_]

That sir is a very, very impressive find. If I were so inclined I might even use the word jammy :)