Out with the old, no room for the new

Several years ago my friend, Nerissa, was getting ready to leave Korea. I was with her and my mum and we were talking about how hard it is to throw things away. Ner then shared a secret with us. She gathers together all the things that she doesn't want to throw away and takes a photo of them. Then chucks the lot. At least this is what she told us she did.

Guess what I just got rid of! It was hard. Their little rabbity faces woefully looking at me as I piled them into the plastic bag. I guess that the real question is why a 30 year old woman has enough soft toys to need to throw them away.

Two words, crane machines. Those irritating machines with the claw wavering over a tantalising selection of cuddlies. I used to be able to resist, back in the days when I thought that boys were taught how to use these things along with fruit machines on the day that girls are taken to one side to have periods explained to them at school. Then I got the bug. To limit my expenditure I had to make some rules:

• no having a go on the hamster crane machine- easy enough to resist really. This is a machine that has live hamsters instead of cute and not-likely-to-die-or feel pain- toys.
• stay away from the lobster machine. As above only with live lobster

• ditto the goldfish machine

• limit my targets to Mashi Maro toys.

These are the rabbits pictured above. It was still a terrible habit to break and I only did so with the plague of ugly toys that were suddenly rampart in every crane machine here. Now in case that gives the impression that I was some kind of a rabbit hunting expert, I should point out that I won very few of these little fellas. I was great at winning Gamzadori toys- potato character and my favourite- but most of the rest of them were given to me. Some of them were even hunted on demand-- 'Rory, I need a fake sailor Mashi Maro for my collection, be a dear and get one would you?' Man the hunter in action.

But I can't take them with me around the world. And I didn't think that anyone else would want them. So I took them to school and gave them to the kids.

I guess that the next question is , Ner, what do you do with all the photo albums full of photos of things that you didn't want to throw away???