The abundance of experience called for a post outside of the weekly schedule. The experience was both aesthetic and revelatory, and – as usual – was characterised by a sudden lift in mood and a sense of reconnection with a certain period from the past. In this case I felt a reconnection with the time when I lived in North Yorkshire, and the event that triggered this reconnection was today’s trip to Poundland in Earl Grey Street.
Whitby Poundland was a place I would go to regularly in my two years boarding a school near Robin Hood’s Bay. Poundland was the place where the greatest dreams would come true, particularly those that you didn’t know you had. The Whitby Poundland is bigger than the Earl Grey one. Two ‘top’ memories from the Whitby one are: one, from my first visit in the town, where I was amazed to discover the existence of chocolate-covered biscuits with the One Direction brand; two, the time we went shopping with our maths teacher for the Halloween event we organised for our school. I remember deciding on which decorations to pick and how many glass jars of hot dogs to get. (As you may guess, not experiences you can easily forget).
I immersed myself in Sixth Form history as I roamed the shop and tried to decide which kind of cheese to get (camembert? mild cheddar? or spreadable? Note: I got the spreadable, because it would keep longer). I took a selfie and sent it to my friend who still lives in Whitby, captioning it Greetings from Edinburgh Poundland Earl Grey St. It’s almost like going on holiday: remembering memories, the greetings part, and the feeling of unrestrained choice.
It was raining outside. Hesitant to break the spell of the past I made my way back home as long as possible, window shopping at charity shops. (Charity shops is another thing I loved to visit in Sixth Form, and Whitby had quite a few, although it is York PDSA where I got my favourite jumper that I still wear with love).
I bought: the cheese, two bags of nuts, a £1 cup of gummies (I mixed the shit out of them), and a £1 bag of ground coffee. The coffee scares me the most, but if it turns out undrinkable, it could serve as a great smell absorber in the fridge.
I found out about this at Shrub, after I asked why they had five humongous bags of popcorn and an army of chocolate M&M’s bags on the counter.
kotersey 