If you are a shopaholic, Vinnies will indulge you for less than ten dollars. The range of goods on offer changes constantly: this week's 'special' was a black-and-red négligée with attached handcuffs for just a dollar! Since the staff was reluctant to model it for me, I stayed in the book section where I found some interesting reading:
The People Smuggler The true story of Ali Al Jenabi, the 'Oskar Schindler of Asia' by Robin de Crespigny
Under Water to Get Out of the Rain A love affair with the sea by Trevor Norton
What the Dog Saw and other adventures by Malcolm Gladwell
How to be a Megalomaniac (or Advice to a Young Politician) by Mungo MacCallum
Life Without the Boring Bits by Colleen McCullough
The serious shopping took place a little later in a department store where the wife picked through the swimwear to eventually find her matching size of XP (extra plump) at a staggering hundred dollars. There was a time when you could have built a whole swimming pool for that kind of money!
There was just enough time left before lunch at the bowling club to quaff one of Billy's Specials, a glass of Wombat White with a slice of lemon, served by no other than Billy himself. The club was packed with bingo players who were frantically crossing out numbers for such delectable prizes as bottles of tomato sauce, dishwashing detergents, and six-packs of toilet paper. The caller's final announcement that next Tuesday's bingo would be cancelled because of the Melbourne Cup was met by a collective moan of disappointment. This is truly the bingo that stops a town!
A beautiful lunch of roast beef, followed by a few laps in the pool, and we were on our way home again.
