A Blue Mountains institution…read more This independent bookshop is one of my favourite places to wander and catch up on new releases. Although the shop isn't large, they carry a well-selected stock covering all areas, and the staff are helpful and knowledgeable, happy to special order anything you're after. There's a big children's section out the back, and an unusually large History section where I've picked up many an odd tome. The fiction section tends more to the literature side, so no airport reads here. There's even a bunch of DVD's of the foreign-film, superior-culture variety. In scanning the shelves you can so easily find a treasure, then ask a bookseller about it and have a chat and get recommendations. Can't do that online. Sometimes old-fashioned is good.

I simply cannot visit Katoomba without a long, leisurely browse around Mr. Pickwicks. Over the…read moreyears, I have never walked out of this treasure trove without some unique find. If you are entering looking for a pristine shop, you will be disappointed. If you are stopping by to find surprises, you will be thrilled.

As I perused the shelves, chuckling quietly at titles like 'Little Miss Grouch', 'The Woman Haters'…read moreand 'Some Eccentrics & a Woman', the wonderfully gravelly-voiced staffer was telling a story about Winston Churchill's mother having her leg chopped off from gangrene after a fall from wearing Italian high heels. I always thought high heels were bad for you. Walking along the very well organised shelves of secondhand and antiquarian books downstairs, you also come across 'The Vault' - a kids room with chaise longue and all. There's glass cabinets full of antiques and collectibles, Satsuma vases and ancient Roman fibulae. Downstairs is the bargain section with lots of furniture, but head upstairs. First you pass an amazing actual magic lantern, slides and all, and up you go, up the echoey stairs that feel like you're walking through a repressive girls' school, of Enid Blyton era. Upstairs there's a big vintage clothing section, and more affordable books, from comics to a huge range of Penguins so you can stock up on your Worthy but Forgotten Authors. There's lots of chairs everywhere, inviting you to sit, and classical music seeps out from speakers all over the place. You will be steadfastly ignored by the staff unless you ask them something, as they show you the respect of assuming you can find your way around yourself. You could wander in Dickensian referenced abandon for hours.

Poor selection of books and a terrible place to browse, poor to horrid customer service and the…read moreplace smelt.... Asking the staff member a question was like you had committed a crime. He looked down at you and treated you with contempt... Customer service skills of ZERO..... I cant write a lot as I left as fast as I could and put this place down as one never ever to go back to. There are other book shops in Katoomba that know what customer service is. Did I say that the shop smelt....

It's a glorious sunny Saturday and I have a wedding in four hours…read more I'm MCing said wedding. I have a few pages of ballpoint scrawl, scarred with notes, arrows and scratch-outs. I can't read from this. But it's the weekend, even if I type my speech up, where can I get it printed? *Office Choice rides in on a shiny white unicorn* Not just a repository of everything good and great in the stationery world, Office Choice (and, by proxy, their mascot Judy the office lady), can print my notes at short notice. I honestly do not know what I would have done without them. YOU GUYS THE WEDDING IS SAVED!

From the owner: Looking for office furniture, business supplies, office stationery or business equipment? Office…read moreChoice is your one-stop-shop.

Having heard so many stories of Aborginal artists ripped off by galleries, my suspicions are eased…read moreby the detailed info provided with pieces in Ochre. Many of the arts & crafts come with information on the artists - even some lovely wooden bracelets had photos and 'design owned by' material with them. You see the words 'Aboriginal owned art centres' all over the place as sources for the artworks, so you can be sure that you're supporting the artists, not merely some exploitative middleman. The very visibility of this info quietens the nervous flutters, and makes a change from some of the more dodgy city galleries. And the work itself! Surely no-one needs to be sold on the seeing-through time experience of staring at a real piece of Indigenous artistry. Works on paper, bark, weaving, jewellery, carving, even dolls named in language and translated for your own little one - there's a bit of everything in here. The staffer who was on duty the other day was quietly efficient, and I had a lovely browse through the books, music and art on offer. There's even books for the kids (something you don't see often enough in most bookshops) and there was one artwork I felt if I looked into long enough, it might just spirit me away.