What's in your bedside table?

[Lightning Phil]

Cash in various currencies. Norwegian Kroner, Euros, Swiss Francs, US dollars, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Indian Rupee , South African Rand amongst them. A travel wallet. Order of service cards from the funerals of a number of friends and family over the years. Cuff links.  Various other stuff that could probably be chucked if I went through it.

[Mrs Pingu]

Oh yes I have NOK, and some Brazilian Reals (kept because they have cool things like jaguars on the notes), and some Cuban money because I couldn't get it changed back at the airport (don't even get me started) and various other stuff. And various optical prescriptions (read: very bad)

[Pingu]

Ah yes. Euros, Swiss Francs, Irish Pounds. My 3 CUC note is at work where I haven't been since March last year.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

In a moment of carelessness I put Bitcoin in mine. They take up very little physical space but their latent energy is overpowering and it’s impossible to open the drawer without releasing dark forces, squeaking and gibbering like the sheeted dead in the streets of Rome while leaving carbon footprints all over the ceiling. It’s not conducive to a good night’s sleep.

[arabella]

I don't have a bedside table, I have a chair next to my bed pretending to be a table (pile of books, sucky cup aka water bottle, random stuff).  Underneath are some fluff bunnies and maybe the current knitting.
I have a stool to put my clothes on, it's square and rush seated so they don't slide off.

I don't think I've ever had a bed side table per se, or not since I was about 4.  And that really was just a table.  Oh yes, followed by another table with a lamp.  then a chest full of maps (1960s or older, this was in the 70s onwards),  Then chests of drawers full of clothes in various permutations until said chair.

(there, wasn't that fascinating!)

[T42]

On mine there's nothing very surprising. I tend to toss credit-card receipts on it when I'm putting my wallet & papers away, and since you're supposed to keep them in case the shop tries to diddle you they tend to gather there, alongside the two bike rear-lights, the helmet lamp, the tube of bug-bite ointment and the lip salve I used during a trip to the Vaucluse in 2004.  The rear-lights are for use during bladder-o'clock cludge trudges, since white light wakes you up even more.  And since that lot takes a bit of moving there's a certain amount of dust as well.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I don't have a bedside table, I have a chair next to my bed pretending to be a table (pile of books, sucky cup aka water bottle, random stuff).  Underneath are some fluff bunnies and maybe the current knitting.
I have a stool to put my clothes on, it's square and rush seated so they don't slide off.

I don't think I've ever had a bed side table per se, or not since I was about 4.  And that really was just a table.  Oh yes, followed by another table with a lamp.  then a chest full of maps (1960s or older, this was in the 70s onwards),  Then chests of drawers full of clothes in various permutations until said chair.

(there, wasn't that fascinating!)

I can just picture it

[ian]

Cash in various currencies. Norwegian Kroner, Euros, Swiss Francs, US dollars, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Indian Rupee , South African Rand amongst them. A travel wallet. Order of service cards from the funerals of a number of friends and family over the years. Cuff links.  Various other stuff that could probably be chucked if I went through it.

Currencies live in the kitchen, we have a little set of drawers filled with things we think we might need but probably should just get rid of. Spare shoelaces (for some reason, when I chuck out a pair of boots, I keep the laces just in case, despite having never needed a spare lace ever). Random screws. A battery or six (charged, who knows?). And a pile of surplus currencies, like we might suddenly dash out of the house at short notice to Brazil, Serbia, Ghana, Malawi, or erm, pre-Euro France (and probably lots of others, in recent years I've started stuffing it in the charity envelopes). Dig back far enough, we've probably got coinage for Carthage. No South African Rand for some reason, but there's a giant adaptor plug somewhere.

I've never owned cufflinks ever.

[T42]

I don't have a bedside table, I have a chair next to my bed pretending to be a table (pile of books, sucky cup aka water bottle, random stuff).  Underneath are some fluff bunnies and maybe the current knitting.
I have a stool to put my clothes on, it's square and rush seated so they don't slide off.

I don't think I've ever had a bed side table per se, or not since I was about 4.  And that really was just a table.  Oh yes, followed by another table with a lamp.  then a chest full of maps (1960s or older, this was in the 70s onwards),  Then chests of drawers full of clothes in various permutations until said chair.

(there, wasn't that fascinating!)

I can just picture it

How the hell did he close the windows?

[Ham]

My bedside drawer is a combination of final resting place of STUFF that has filtered down through all the layers of storage that exist, along with everyday baseball caps and belts. The former has the most interesting profile, typically things that remain undisturbed for years. In this category are: My darts, probably last used in anger 30+ years ago. My 8" bowie knife with rosewood handle, bought nearly 50 years ago for camping. Sundry crowns and £5 coins. A personalised chinese rubber stamp bought in 2007 that will create an impression of my adopted* Chinese name (Li Han, in Pinyin, seeing as how you asked). One of my most treasured possessions, a blank page book by Gavin Rookledge used as an occasional diary up to about 30 years ago, I dare not open it now. I can't think what else might be there, but that's the nature of the thing.

*It's customary to adopt a Chinese name that is understandable to the Chinese, much as they adopt European names. Mine is family name Li, which is a common name and is the Mandarin equivalent of my actual Dutch surname (eq "plum") and Han as a first name, again a common name and obviously connected.

[Ham]

I don't have a bedside table, I have a chair next to my bed pretending to be a table (pile of books, sucky cup aka water bottle, random stuff).  Underneath are some fluff bunnies and maybe the current knitting.
I have a stool to put my clothes on, it's square and rush seated so they don't slide off.

I don't think I've ever had a bed side table per se, or not since I was about 4.  And that really was just a table.  Oh yes, followed by another table with a lamp.  then a chest full of maps (1960s or older, this was in the 70s onwards),  Then chests of drawers full of clothes in various permutations until said chair.

(there, wasn't that fascinating!)

I can just picture it

How the hell did he close the windows?

Maybe it was the draft that gave him earache?

[phantasmagoriana]

Mine is three-drawer, and is pretty much all devoted to toiletries, along with some scissors (nail and hair). Frequently-used stuff lives in the top drawer (which I can open lying in bed) and less-used/spare things are in the bottom two.

I have another, taller version (five drawers instead of three) next to it (otherwise there would be an awkward gap which would inevitably become a dumping ground). That one is devoted to cycling accessories: gloves, arm/leg warmers, hats/buffs, packable jackets/gilets and overshoes, in descending order.

[citoyen]

Also, nobody has suggested a Small Gideons' Bible.

For my spiritual support needs, I keep a copy of Will Happiness Find Me? by Fischli & Weiss by the bed instead.
https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/17028/

[ian]

I've already bored you all with my story of being snowbound in a hotel with the Book of Mormon to read and a fair amount of booze to drink.

Honestly, it's a lot better than the dull old bible and, one might say, bonkers. It should be on everyone's bedside table.

[T42]

I don't have a bedside table, I have a chair next to my bed pretending to be a table (pile of books, sucky cup aka water bottle, random stuff).  Underneath are some fluff bunnies and maybe the current knitting.
I have a stool to put my clothes on, it's square and rush seated so they don't slide off.

I don't think I've ever had a bed side table per se, or not since I was about 4.  And that really was just a table.  Oh yes, followed by another table with a lamp.  then a chest full of maps (1960s or older, this was in the 70s onwards),  Then chests of drawers full of clothes in various permutations until said chair.

(there, wasn't that fascinating!)

I can just picture it

How the hell did he close the windows?

Maybe it was the draft that gave him earache?

Maybe he cut it off to dodge it.

[slope]

Antique stripped pine thing full of emptiness, apart from a cobweb and some dead moths. Sad

[Jurek]

Antique stripped pine thing full of emptiness, apart from a cobweb and some dead moths. Sad

Clearly, you are in need of stuff.
Other than dead moths.

[slope]

Antique stripped pine thing full of emptiness, apart from a cobweb and some dead moths. Sad

Clearly, you are in need of stuff.
Other than dead moths.

Some Zopiclone would be top of the wish list

[Mr Larrington]

I don't have a bedside table, I have a chair next to my bed pretending to be a table (pile of books, sucky cup aka water bottle, random stuff).  Underneath are some fluff bunnies and maybe the current knitting.
I have a stool to put my clothes on, it's square and rush seated so they don't slide off.

I don't think I've ever had a bed side table per se, or not since I was about 4.  And that really was just a table.  Oh yes, followed by another table with a lamp.  then a chest full of maps (1960s or older, this was in the 70s onwards),  Then chests of drawers full of clothes in various permutations until said chair.

(there, wasn't that fascinating!)

I can just picture it

How the hell did he close the windows?

Maybe it was the draft that gave him earache?

Maybe he cut it off to dodge it.

van Gogh by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

[spesh]

It's just as well I'd finished my coffee before seeing that. 

[rogerzilla]

I've already bored you all with my story of being snowbound in a hotel with the Book of Mormon to read and a fair amount of booze to drink.

Honestly, it's a lot better than the dull old bible and, one might say, bonkers. It should be on everyone's bedside table.

There is a subgenre of pr0n devoted to Mormons, apparently.  Maybe they're quite fun.

[ian]

I think there's a subgenre of p0rn for everything, the creativity of the human sexual drive has no limits.

Mormon do have magic underpants, so it's possible, though I don't know many Mormons, and none well enough to have seen them undressed. I don't think you can just ask for a show and tell. I think a colleague of mine is a Mormon, she's from and lives in Utah, and is very nice though she's a slow-talker*. HR will be pleased to know that I've never asked what she's wearing under her dress.

*I actually like this, she just talks so slow, every sentence is like the passing of one of those long US freight trains, the words keep passing by and she never gets any faster, and once she's launched a sentence, you can't stop her, she will finish that sentence, even if – and it probably will – take until next Wednesday.

[Tim Hall]

So the things that impresses me the most are:

- number of people who use the bedside table as a random junk location for things that have no other home
- number of people who said what they had on their bedside table, not in it...

Also, nobody has suggested a Small Gideons' Bible.

My parents, when on holibobs in USAnia, stayed at an hotel, the bedroom table of which was devoid of Gideons' Bibles. There was, however, a Waiter's Friend type corkscrew, which they nicked. I have inherited it.
It is referred to as the Gideons' Cork Screw.
It is not in my bedside table though.

[TheLurker]

Alarm clock.
Torch.  Well it's actually an old CatEye lamp, but the, made of cheese, bracket broke years and years ago.
Lamp.
Ear plugs, but only when I'm awake.
Spectacles, but only when I'm asleep.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I don't have a bedside table, I have a chair next to my bed pretending to be a table (pile of books, sucky cup aka water bottle, random stuff).  Underneath are some fluff bunnies and maybe the current knitting.
I have a stool to put my clothes on, it's square and rush seated so they don't slide off.

I don't think I've ever had a bed side table per se, or not since I was about 4.  And that really was just a table.  Oh yes, followed by another table with a lamp.  then a chest full of maps (1960s or older, this was in the 70s onwards),  Then chests of drawers full of clothes in various permutations until said chair.

(there, wasn't that fascinating!)

I can just picture it

How the hell did he close the windows?

It’s that lack of attention to detail that explains why he never managed to sell his paintings.