Borders Closing Down Sale

To my dismay, the following email hit my inbox today:

The London flagship Borders bookstore was closing down!!!! :( To my delight, this meant that everything in the store (bar magazines and Starbucks) was 50% OFF!!!! :D I kinda feel a bit like Homer when he had to eat Pinchy.

Given that I work nowhere near Oxford St, I had to endure an entire work day before making my way down to the store. Getting there at 6.15pm was a pretty decent feat. The store was crowded but not Primmy mosh pit crowded. A lot of the shelves had been cleared but there were still some decent titles available for purchase.

I have a pile of unread books at home so exerting a certain level of self control came with relative ease (and the fact that a lot of popular titles were gone) but I walked away with eight Roald Dahl books (yes, eight because we never owned them as children), a knitting pattern book (dammit! the good ones were gone!), Fish by Mitch Tonks (for Smee) and The River Cottage Fish Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (for J). 

It might not sound like much but with all the shopping baskets unavailable, my purchases were restricted to how much I could hold in my arms.  The two hardcover books weren't exactly heavy but holding them in the 30+ minute queue that snaked to the registers did give my arms a workout. 

The store started becoming chaotic soon after I arrived and customers were prevented from entering 30 minutes before the scheduled closing time.  I ran into Leesh as I was leaving and told her 'They won't let anyone in!'  She walked to the tube disappointed.  I walked to the bus stop satisfied :) <-- I'm not trying to rub it in - I was just happy with my purchases!