November has been a busy month for me, and brought on a lot of Harry Potter-related news, too. First off, I managed to get a new box of the Danish special collection. I already had the books themselves, but the box and serial number were missing in my set. I found the box set for 300 dkk (40 euro). Usually these sets go for about 200 euro, so I feel like it was a good deal. A couple of the books look a bit worn, but since I just wanted to have the full set and already had books in a nice condition, that’s fine with me.
I also went to London for a convention and although I was working for most of the trip, I did have half a day to look around a bit, so I went to MinaLima shop, looked at Primark’s Harry Potter-things, so Leadenhall Market (was used in the movie for some of the Diagon Alley shots) and of course went to Platform 9 3/4. I was surprised how much it had changed since I last visited a decade ago – back then, there was no shop and no photographer doing scarf-photos. While I do think it’s a nice idea, I also find it a bit annoying, since before it was just a “free for all” attraction, and now they’re monitizing it. You can still take your own photos, which is also what we did, but the queue is quite a lot longer when it’s set up this way. Anyways, the shop itself was kind of cramped and I was sad to find that there were no Ravenclaw scarves.
The MinaLima shop was surprisingly cool. I thought it was mostly a shop, but I was wrong. The top floor was a regular shop with books, artprints and various items that featured artwork by the art duo. The basement was a gallery with both original and copies of some of the props from the movies. The atmosphere in the shop was nothing short of magic, and I really enjoyed visiting it. I bought a couple of posters there.
I know one of the Primarks has a dedicated Harry Potter-area, but sadly I had a hard time figuring out which one, and apparently went to the wrong one – in any case the things were spread out through the whole shop. I did find the Christmas decorations, which I thought were super cool, so I got a tree topper and some baubles.
Last, my birthday was this past weekend and as always, my friends and family know what I love. I added 2 new books to my collection; HP6 in Lithuanian in the original cover version (Mary GrandPre) that my father-in-law searched 2nd hand sources to find and Modern Greek from a friend who went there for a vacation recently. My dad got me a beautiful set of vinyls with the complete soundtrack from the movies (each vinyl is a different colour corresponding to a Hogwarts house), so now I’ll need to get a record player.
Another pair of friends got me the Hogwarts Battle boardgame. I’ve tried it once, but never managed to finish it, so I look forward to playing it! I also got a Ravenclaw Quidditch-style sweater from another pair of friends. All in all, a great month in the name of Potter! Below are photos of some of the things – including an after-party dead me with a cuddly cat.
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