Two of mine, actually.
Both of which are from my very first trip to Texas in 2002.

The first was a badge I was able to con from a guy who was at a software expo in the hotel I was staying at in Austin. I convinced him I was with a guy, "Dave", who I waved at in the crowd and he let me in to the room where they were holding it. He also gave me free candy. Too bad the software was all pretty shit... the company was Indexed Visuals, if anyone knows them.


The second was better. It was a pebble from outside the quasi-military complex that George Bush senior lives in in Houston. I yelled out I thought he was a cunt. I didn't get any happy words from the family I was staying with that day. It was worth it though. If anyone's ever been there or sees it, you'll know just how intimidating it looks.
(the_fracturedpope, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:49, Reply)

I have 2 pressed flowers.
Buddy Holly and Karen Carpenter are buried in the same cemetery not too far from where I live. Ex hubby and I went and he nicked a flower of Buddy Holly's grave, and as Richard Carpenter has just put down flowers on Karen's memorial shrine, I nicked one of them.
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:48, Reply)

a flattened one cent coin
with a picture of the World Trade Centre on it, which was done in the gift shop of the WTC at the top of one of the towers in 1998.

also a collection of now spooky photos of New York taken from the same vantage point.
( brianftang www.brianftang.co.uk, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:46, Reply)

World's biggest Fridge Magnet
Anyone who lives or works in the Nottingham area, will probably have heard of the "Robin Hood Line" - it's a name given to the local railway line. When it was first launched, British Rail made up some magnetic signs to stick on the side of the trains.

A couple of years ago, the Station Manager was having a clear out and gave me a bag full of stuff, including one of these signs, at just over two foot square it's too wide for the fridge!



It now has pride of place in the living room of one of my mates, on the side of his 6-foot-high "Coca-Cola" fridge which was rescued from the Co-Op downstairs when they took delivery of the new one.
( Amos E Wolfe makes vinyl signs and things like that, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:46, Reply)

Freaking out my mother
I have a ticket for a trip up the World Trade Center dated 9:04 PM September 10th 2001. This after an email to my mum that morning saying: 'We're going up the world trade center either this evening or early tomorrow morning'. Needless to say i got drunk and didn't email to let her know we'd already been up.....
(kitteny_goodness, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:44, Reply)

Remember Channel 5's reality game show "The Mole"?
When they canned it after 2 series, the producer sent a load of props from series 2 to the fans on the messageboards, which got dished out at a meet.

So I have some flags from the ice hockey game, some puzzle pieces from the first game, and a load of other obscure stuff.
(MrMessiah, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:38, Reply)

Cool, but feel a twat using it

I managed to get my hands on a White House press photographer's camera bag used as a prop in the West Wing. As a West Wing fan it's a nice thing to have but you don't half feel a twat using it in public.

I mean, you wouldn't want anyone to think you worked for that tosser Bush, wouldya?
( Sausagegirl, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:36, Reply)

While I remember
I once met someone who had a plastic cup with a piece of fruity chewing gum in it that had been chewed by Darren Hayes, the singer from Savage Garden. She chewed it once, then developed a rather nasty throat infection. Yeuch.
( useful_idiot, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:34, Reply)

Second thing I thought of
A year ago England were unquestionably the finest rugby team in the world. Remember it guys?

Anyway, I have a hospitality security pass - the kind that hangs on a rather lully red neckcord - for Stadium Australia, 22 November 2003...

I've been meaning to Ebay it for a while. If you're interested make me a reasonable offer and you might tempt me, I can do photos etc. Catch me whenever and say so if you do.
( Gizmo.mp3 does not exist, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:28, Reply)

i've got some spare Drogna
that were made for The Adventure Game, but were never used on screen.
( brianftang www.brianftang.co.uk, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:28, Reply)

Very very poor, but...
When going through the attic the other week, I came across one page of original script from the 1993 BBC2 Yoof series "Cyberzone", complete with annotations by the director.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:27, Reply)

Many many things... so I may post many many replies...
Background: As recounted previously, I was in France during April-May 2002, time of their last Presidential (and subsequent government) elections. For those not aware, the French system involves anyone who can get 500 signatures to their candidacy running in a national first round, whereupon the two with the most votes run-off in a second round a week later. This time, the incumbent centre-right Chirac won the first round but instead of the centre-left Jospin, second place was won by the extreme-right Jean Marie Le Pen (UK people: think 18% of the electorate voting directly for Kilroy the BNP).

Cue (a bit of) rioting, but mostly huge amounts of soulsearching and demonstrating in the traditional French manner. Which I joined in with wholeheartedly until I was roughed up by a CRS (military-ish riot police) for taking photos of them...

Anyway, I have a full collection of the newspapers (Libération, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Parisien, 20minutes, Métro) from the morning of the results (Monday) and at least one every day all week. Why? Well, I was a French student, but I've never read all the way through any of them...
( Gizmo.mp3 does not exist, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:22, Reply)

should i admit it?
I have a piece of mosaic that i borrowed from a roman villa in hampshire on a school field trip.

I guess it has quite a history too it as well. Also managed to get a couple of extra pieces for a couple o school buds too.
( Smashy only 35 years of work to go :), Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:20, Reply)

i got the last ice cream
from the icecream man! how do i know? cos afterwards he drove off with his tune playing..
(5lab, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:08, Reply)

Beat this....
I managed to 'acquire' the brake cable from Dodi and Princess Di's limo. Apparently the car got wrecked shortly afterwards, so lucky I got it when I did......
(Desolation Angel, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 15:01, Reply)

when i was at school way back in the 80's we still had a language lab.
It was the type with all the wooden sections, dividing each desk. On each desk was a small unit with numerous controls, plug socket, headphones et.
One day we heard that they were going to update it all, and it was all going to be pulled out to make way for the new stuff. Everyone wanted a piece of it, people were leaving lessons with pockets bulging with electronics. I managed to get two volume controls.
It was however not true about the upgrade, but the place had been stripped in 24 hours.
(Redbull_(UK) pfffft, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:59, Reply)

More stuff
We have the original newspapers reporting the shooting of JFK somewhere in my Mum's loft.
( Snollock Biffer I don't really sniff Bollocks, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:55, Reply)

War Stuff
I've got pieces of bunkers from Pointe Du Hoc in Normandy, as well as pieces of the Berlin Wall. I've got a 16-inch battleship shellcasing that I use for a trash can.

The best piece I ever got, though, was the one that I got from your girl. I treasure it still.
(FleetlordVT, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:40, Reply)

foreign gift
i house sat for a friend and he asked me if i wanted a gift from his holiday destination (bali)i asked him to bring me back something you could only get from that part of the world... but NOTHING phalic.

2 weeks later he came back and gave me a "gift" of an ornamental pipe in the shape of you guessed it a wooden cock .... the funny part was he made sure the local wood carver made him a bigger one... think he may have something to prove?

I have recenently bought some wooden balls to go with it.*

*-above statement may not be true.
(spongles, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:39, Reply)

Foxing the postman
My older brother went through a phase (well, more like a career really) of going out on the lash with his mates and coming back with an assortment of street-name signs. His greatest prize was one he'd ripped clean out of the pavement in a particularly impressive Incredible Hulk-like display.

People in Sturton Way got no post for 3 weeks.

His entire collection was stashed behind the shed and only discovered when we moved house. Turned out he'd managed to cover a distance of 11 miles.
(spacecowgirl, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:35, Reply)

Pah, what a load of tat/
beat this, I have a original piece of Saddam Hussiens Baghdad Palace on my mantle piece. It was a chip of polished marble that was removed from (one of)his palace(s) not long after the man himself was.

Also i met Bez of Happy Mondays fame a few weeks ago (working as a photographer, and little chemicaly inbalanced) and asked him (trying to look cool of course) for a light at a convenient point during his DJ set. he didnt have a light.
worse still i had the fag the wrong way round in my mouth.
he didnt seem to notice though.
(everything, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:33, Reply)

not worth a whole lot...
I have managed to accumulate:

*Rocks from assorted places I have visited
*A chunk of wood I found on the beach in Florida
*Pennies that my cousin and I flattened on the train tracks
*Stray bullets I found at band camp
*A school paper I stole from a boy I had a crush on way back in the day
*Matchbooks from all the bars I've gone to with friends
*A kernal of corn from a corn cob we were using in biology once. We were told not to steal the corn, but I did anyway.
(pk, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:32, Reply)

A bag of dried, powdered red pepper
Years ago I had the pleasure of working in a job which required me to spend a week grinding dried red pepper into powder. I was so offended by the smell that it was years before I could eat red peppers again.

I decided to take a bagful of the powder home, and I kept it in a drawer for years. I think it's gone now, after my mum's house burnt down.

Why did I keep it? Because I thought it might be useful, of course.
( dr_fonz, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:27, Reply)

Keith Moon's Drumstick
From a gig in Walthamstow many moons (excuse the pun) ago.

100% Fact.
( Snollock Biffer I don't really sniff Bollocks, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:26, Reply)

Obscure Stuff
I have Ton's of old tat collected and stored over the years.

Pebbles from a beach my family holidayed on regularly as a child some of them are 25 years old!

Jumpers my nan knitted that i have never worn but cant bear to part with

Every toy lightsabre made

ALL my old toys

Cub scout hat, goes down a treat with the laydeeze

Signed Copy of a Williams Renault Brochure by Nigel Mansell wishing me good luck in the future, dating back to the 80's sometime the when he was still winning.

Some flakes of leather from the oldest copy of the Quaran (spl) stored in the British Library, on a visit thru work

And my most interesting item is a piece of the original Tower Bridge steam engine that i aquired on a visit thru work some years back.
Nice heavy lump of brass. I always think they are going to track me down and demand it back.

No apologies for spl as i am dyselxic
( M o D, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:18, Reply)

A bottle of bubble mixture
That was thrown directly to me - TO ME I tell you - my the late great Ian Dury oh, 11 years ago... Pride of place that has!

I aso used to have an old Diet Coke can discarded by a comedian I stalked admired about a decade ago. Alas a couple of years later I met him, and the scales fell crashing from my eyes. The can was recycled. Nowadays I could probably sell it on ebay for a packet. Well, a pound or two maybe.
( Dekazer, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 14:14, Reply)

A Video
Was in show many moons ago with the National Youth Music Theatre.

Stepdad filmed it.

Skip forward a few years and a new band called 'Busted' was on TV.

Thought I recognised one of their faces from somewhere!

Still got the video* :)



*And no...I haven't sold it on to press etc as i'm far too nice! Although saying that lots of other cast members have copies of said video, so who knows!
(Mogg Questioned her own sanity on, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 13:52, Reply)

the newcranes
played nottingham rock city in 94. i have their playlist from the stage.

woo he yells in a sarcastic fasion.

i also own a broken propeller from a launch, capsized infront of IC the day before the 2002 boat race. i was rescued by the bbc camera launch, and got his equipment wet.

looks good on the sideboard.
(magictorch, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 13:52, Reply)

Mabbs
I've got more than my fair share of Gary Mabbutt (ex-Spurs mifielder) autographs.

At least 4 different ones on paper, plus 2 t-shirts signed by him (did have 3, but Mum washed one of them). Oh and a birthday card.

I went through a phase about 10 years ago where everywhere I went, so did Gary Mabbutt for some reason.

Was he following me, or was I following him???...
(yiddo, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 13:51, Reply)

the guardian...
... from september 12, 2001

with bush reelected i think of starting a file.
( bierbelly, Thu 4 Nov 2004, 13:49, Reply)