The kid who lives in this bedroom chose between a space ship, race car, castle and pirate ship — it’s a little indulgent I think, but kudos to the designers and builders for a really incredible project!

More pictures of the pirate ship bedroom.

There’s a shop in a small village in rural Scotland which still sells boxes of goods marked with pre-decimal prices which may well have been placed there 80 years ago.

This treasure trove of a hardware store sells new products too. But its shelves, exterior haven’t changed for [...]]]>

There’s a shop in a small village in rural Scotland which still sells boxes of goods marked with pre-decimal prices which may well have been placed there 80 years ago.

This treasure trove of a hardware store sells new products too. But its shelves, exterior haven’t changed for years; its contents forgotten, dust-covered and unusual, branded with the names of companies long since out of business.

Photographer Chris Frears has immortalised this shop further on film.

From How to Be a Retronaut

This shop reminds me of the old hardware store on Great Western Road — it was similarly stacked to the rafters with items that could have been there for 50 years, but is sadly gone now.

My favourite ‘time-forgotten’ shop, however, has to be the abandoned shop/funeral parlour in County Donegal. A legendary urbex site, the shop shelves are almost fully stacked with products that expired in 1974 and empty coffins and hearses fill the funeral parlour.

The shop has been boarded up but  a few adventurous urban explorers have documented their visits from the last couple of years over at 28 Days Later and Derelict Places. It seems that while the funeral parlour operated until the mid-1990s, the shop was closed sometime in the early 70s. I do wonder what the story behind that is — the funeral parlour and shop are part of the same business, so why did one close while the other remained? And, even more intriguingly, why did it close so suddenly that there wasn’t time to clear the shelves of what must have been reasonably valuable stock?

Details about the shop are very patchy, as if there’s some kind of local reluctance for the story to be known, but it’s probably for the best: I think I prefer the mystery.

Well, well, well. Hasn’t it been a long time? I’ll be honest, I’ve been hiding out since failing NaNoWriMo entirely. Images of my (3, 4, maybe 5?) readers chasing after me with pitchforks for such a heinous crime filled my dreams and kept me away. Truth be told, life just got in the way [...]]]>

Well, well, well. Hasn’t it been a long time? I’ll be honest, I’ve been hiding out since failing NaNoWriMo entirely. Images of my (3, 4, maybe 5?) readers chasing after me with pitchforks for such a heinous crime filled my dreams and kept me away. Truth be told, life just got in the way of both NaNoWriMo and doing anything with this site. (I say life, but I really mean my new internet-enabled TV and LoveFilm account.)

In 7 days, however, I’m going to have a bit more time on my hands and a need for some serious distraction: I am giving up smoking.

I’m not attempting to give up smoking: I am giving up smoking. At midnight on 1st February 2011. No going back, no falling off the wagon. No excuses.

Let’s hope it goes better than NaNoWriMo, eh?