HOT: Vinnies Centre, 121 Johnston St, Collingwood

Yesterday a thought popped into my head that I should buy a baking dish.

Today I spotted the perfect dish in the window of my local Vinnies Centre. It was meant to be - a $2 white Corningware dish! My charitable contribution to St Vincent de Paul Society also extended to:

• one clip-lock plastic container $1;
• two glasses beakers to be used as bud vases $1 each;
  
• one set of plastic cup measures $1; and
  
• Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb $2 (a un-Valentines Day present for RM)
  

HOT: The Searchers, 93 Smith St, Fitzroy

In a bid to save money, RM has been valianting attempting to curb his book-buying habit. I think this is a worthy goal given that at great cost we have recently packed, shipped and unpacked twenty boxes containing our combined book collection, and when we move again I don't fancy packing and moving forty boxes of books. Plus, we have a library 5 minutes walk from our house, with more books than we could ever read in our lifetime.

But I don't want to be known as the no-fun-fiancee. So when RM turned his big sad puppy eyes at me, I couldn't bear to deny him a little look inside The Searchers. The airy, well-organised and well-stocked shop is the antithesis of the dusty higgledy-piggledy mess of your usual secondhand bookstore (they also sell vinyl records) and I'll admit it's a pleasant place to browse. But naturally RM couldn't just browse - he came away with The Road by Cormac McCarthy (even though he warned me from against this supposedly unreadable book to my book club!) and The Art of Travel DVD by Alain de Botton.