Collecting things

Not on purpose, but I seem to end up with a lot of tote bags. Every book fair or café opening hands them out, and I now own about twenty, which is ironic for something meant to reduce waste. If we're talking about a proper collection, though, that would be the bus and train tickets I've saved from every trip since university; they live in an old biscuit tin. From my childhood I've kept less than I'd like. There's a shoebox at my parents' house in Hue with my primary school report cards and a one-armed robot my grandfather bought me at a Tet fair, and my mother keeps threatening to throw it out. Back in primary school, the big craze was Pokémon cards that came free inside packets of snacks. The boys bought the snacks, threw the crisps at each other and kept the cards, and we traded them at break time like tiny stockbrokers. In the future I'd quite like to collect vinyl records, but I should probably buy a record player first, and find a bigger room.