Half a loaf

Do you buy things you need when you need them even though they aren't exactly what you're looking for? I tend to avoid that sort of thing. I've been needing a pepper-mill for. Oh. About a year now. Also some larger, more flat plates (not popular in Chinese cooking) for breakfast and such. Also a wooden or bamboo spoon so I can eat porridge right out of my non-stick pan.

I've basically been looking for all these things for a year, on and off at different shops. In the mean time I've done without. I've seen plates that were large, and flat, and expensive and ugly or just plain boring. I've seen pepper-mills almost none at all (also not popular in Taiwan). I've seen tons of wooden spoons and bamboo spoons but they weren't right somehow. I haven't been looking hard - just going down the checklist whenever I'm in the vicinity of these items.

Then the other day on my way to work in town, I passed by a restaurant supplies wholesaler. They had deadstock of just about everything. I bought a big old corning plate, a pyrex plate, a wooden pepper-mill (with a metal mechanism) and a bamboo spoon.

For a negligible sum of money as they were all dead stock.

It's just the way I shop, if I feel like I will have to be stuck with something for a long time... Don't like to commit too soon. Consequently my flat still has a lot of empty space.