certain treasures

About a year or so ago I discovered eBay and for a while became a bit addicted to it. See, I'm a big collector of memorabilia - TV, film, theatre, music (and that's just for starters). Instead of being limited to my usual method of tracking down certain treasures - scouring markets and junk shops - a whole new world opened up to me. The great thing about eBay is it makes obscure stuff more accessible. One of my collections is Aussie showbiz biographies. I know everyone's writing their memoirs these daze, but this wasn't always the case. One of the first, back in 1973, was Australian TV's original sex symbol, Abigail, the sultry star who rose to fame as Bev Houghton in Number 96. Her autobiography, Call Me Abigail, is the one gaping gap in my otherwise impeccable collection. Another great thing about eBay is the facility to automatically search for items. So for the past however-many-months I've patiently been waiting for Abigail to crop up. Well, you can imagine my excitement when I logged on to my email account yesterday and there she was in all her buxom glory at a starting price of just $4. And with not one single bid. My search was over, or so I thought. Unfortunately, the auction was also over...

I've literally been waiting years to find this treasure and I can't believe that when it finally turns up I miss out on it by a few hours (because of some eBay search malfunction). Thankfully it remained unsold, so I've emailed the seller and asked if I can just buy it from them, but I'm not sure what their response will be. I guess if he/she won't sell it to me I'll just have to bid next time it's up for auction. I know it's only a book, but it really is the missing link, the lost jewel and I HAVE TO HAVE IT. Why is the Universe being so cruel? It's too hard for me to be optimistic and look on the bright side (there's actually an autographed copy coming along if I just wait a lil bit longer, yeah right). Sure, there's a lesson somewhere in all this - though I've got no idea what it is.