Question from a reader...

"I heard recently a new op shop has opened at Kingston and that the diplomats leave their old stuff there so it’s good quality, but no one has given me the address. Have you heard of that one? It didn’t sound like the YMCA at Kingston."

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Hello, I'm new here! *waves to the old hands*

Hello, I'm Zoe, a long-time op shopper, somewhat less long-time Canberra blogger (here on food and here infrequently these days) and very new member of the I op therefore I am team of Frugalistas.

Our car is in for repairs this week, so I made the most of clearish day last week to traipse around with traps with my 2 yo for assistance entertainment.

We went to the Salvos and Aussie Junk in Mitchell, to the YMCA in Kingston and the Salvos in Fyshwick. I had an appointment in Belconnen in the afternoon, so we finished up with a lightning raid on Salvos at Jamison, which confirmed its reputation (in my house at least) as the most "dreamin'" overpriced op shop in Canberra. I ended up with a most satisfactory haul that I think's a pretty good reflection of my particular op shopping fetishes - cookbooks (especially the Time Life Good Cook and Foods of the World series, some vintage and modern Australian cheffy type ones - here a TL Foods of the World folder with the Middle East volume), weird stuff about cats, cast iron cooking pots and pans, ($13 for saucepan, frypan and lid that fits both) vintage melamine (50 c), mystery kitchen appliances, some kids' videos (50 c each) and the occasional clothing item (a very nearly new pair of size 10 1/2 shiny patent boots for $25 from Salvos Mitchell).

Score of the day was the mystery appliance, which was $5 at the Fyshwick Salvos upstairs. It turns out to be the Benriner Cooks' Helper, $79 new at the Asian supermarket at Belconnen Mall. Even better, the manual's on the web, so my older son's been having "vegetable spaghetti" in his lunchbox. I love the internet ; )