Halfway Home for the Great Preloved

Halfway Home for the Great Preloved

• 10.10.08

I love clearing out things quite frequently that are no longer useful, fixable or beautiful. And yes, I have made some overly hasty mistakes. Nowadays, I tend to use my car boot as the Halfway Home for the Great Preloved so that I have a window of opportunity in which to exercise my female perogative to change my mind.

And this proved very handy not long ago. I had a pair of tealight holders - the kind that look like little lamps, with metal stems, glass tealight holders and pretty pink shades that go over the top. After only a few uses, the glass cracked on both of them (obviously Monday or Friday glasses and the Quality Assurance department had been hitting the hip flask by the time they passed through) and I couldn't find anything the right size to replace them. With a tinge of reluctance, as they really were quite glamorous, I booked them into the Halfway Home.

The next day, I was having my mum and sister over for morning tea Chez Shelley and had clipped some sprigs of bougainvillea to put on the table. Hmmmm, what to put them in??? Suddenly, I thought of the pink shades and signed them out of the Halfway Home. I turned one of them upside down and put in a glass of water with the flowers and was reminded that sometimes things deserve a second chance ... and it is always useful to look at things with fresh eyes. (Just like people.)