robot serendipity

Thinking about yesterday’s blog post about items in one’s home that have meaning, it reminded me of a funny incident that happened to me back in 2010.

I was on my way to London, and stopped in a café (which is no longer in existence) to get a decent meal into me before the cavalcade of airport security, waiting rooms, flight, collecting luggage, train journey, and bus jaunt that would deliver me to my destination.

The café was one of those cool joints with books and nifty knick-knacks arranging in pleasing ways, and I spotted this diorama of objects.

(This has subsequently become of my favourite photos, so I was surprised today when I realised I’d never uploaded it to Flickr.)

I arrived in London, and the next day went into a favourite shop which specialises in eccentric objects. I visit pretty much every time I’m in the city.

Much to my surprise, the pink girl robot I had just taken a photo of in Ireland was in the shop for sale! How often does robot serendipity happen in one’s life? I purchased her immediately, and carried her back to my home in Galway.

Currently, she resides in a small diorama on top of my fridge – here’s a photo taken today of it in my living room (the light was too poor to take it in situ).

Note she has arms, which had been absent in the first robot I photographed. The robot to the left is a ceramic figure that separates into two, and its metal companion is a wind-up variety – I like his wide grin. Both of them were gifts. The plastic giraffe and monkey are cheap decorations that dangled off cocktails I was served at some event over the years.

The colourful metal tree is an inexpensive object I spotted and fell in love with about a year ago, and that’s when they all moved in together.

Robots and animals, happy under the tree.