The Art of "Opp Shopping" 27 Jun 2014

Sister Smith asked me earlier in the week if I would like to go with her and learn how to "Opp Shop."  Well I first asked what that was and after she explained it, I said I was game for the outing.  We met at the gate at 9 a.m. and walked the two miles to Felbridge where we caught the bus to East Grinstead.

We had a lovely time walking and visiting with each other.  We enjoyed the freshness of the morning, the quick pace we were keeping, and the beauty of the growth and the homes along the way.

Brownwood is the name of the home.

Our neighbors in Yuma are the Whittington's - Gene & Gina.

St John's Church seems to be old, as are the headstones.

I saw this one with the angel and it made me think of the book/movie, The Christmas Box by Richard Evans.

Well, you can guess who this is.

When we got on the bus, we went up to the upper level and sat in the front seat.  What a view we had!  It gave a different perspective to the town seeing the streets from this angle.  Plus, we went down streets I had not been on before.

Not so heavy with trees here.

Looks more suburbia here.

Here you can see houses back up into the trees.

We arrived in East Grinstead and got out on the main street where all the shops are.  This is actually where we shop when we come on Thursdays.  Now for the lesson in Opp Shopping which stands for opportunity shopping.  We went into second-hand clothing stores looking for deals.  This type of shopping is very popular here and there are many more such stores that are nice organized and have very good products than in Yuma.  Sister Smith says the goal is to not spend more than £5 pounds for anything.

We walked into our first store and she said to start looking .  The racks are set out in size and color order.  It was very easy to look through things.  Each store was of this nature and we managed to make it into four different stores before it was time to catch the bus back.  We looked things over pretty good and tried on quite a few different tops and skirts.  When all was said and done, I left with a blouse and she had a skirt and sweater in her bag.

The little shops were fun to be in.  They are kept in good order and they have very good quality used clothing.  We saw a set of china for £20 that made me think of Becky.  Too bad it costs so much to ship things.  Sister Smith says they get new clothes in on a weekly basis and to get the best advantage of opp shopping, you need to go weekly and get very familiar with the stores and what they have so you see what new items have come in.

We got back to our flats at 12:30 p.m.  That gave us time to each, rest, and be to the temple for our shift at 2 p.m.  Bob had taken the bus to Crawley while we were gone and bought himself a raincoat.

We were busy for the afternoon with all of the sessions as well as a special session for a ward at 7:30 p.m.  With the last session beginning at 8 p.m., we weren't home until after 10 p.m.  There were three new patrons on the special session.  The group that was with them were happy and joyous to be there with fellow ward members.