Pictures from last night
Rather than working, I've been uploading pictures from my phone (which is a pain, because they're not dated in any way, so I have to manually name them all!). Here are some delicious snaps from Tom's birthday party, which was at Bella Italia and the Fez in Reading.
Tom at play.
Chris, solemn.
Chris, posing.
Lisa.
Dolly in a customary pose.
Benson.
Tom was overjoyed with his slinky.
…and his hair clips.
Tom's drink of doom.
Inside the Fez.
Posted at 2004-03-16 05:34:02 by Richard • Link to Pictures from last…
The failing of online shopping
I love Amazon: they're cheap, they deliver, and they have a good selection and great advice. However, there is one flaw inherent in the concept, with one annoying result.
Because it is impossible to actually see and hold the item
until it is delivered, you don't actually know what you're getting. It's all very well
seeing inside the book
, or seeing cover art, or reading a description, but these are not actually linked to the product that will arrive.
Never mind the inevitable difficulties this causes in shopping (no one would buy wallpaper or clothing this way) — the problem is that you don't always get the right thing. Amazon put the wrong/old cover art up for my book, and had no way of actually getting the right product out of the warehouse to my door. This would be a non-problem in a bookshop.
Anthony just ordered some guitar strings — I don't know if it was his error, a misprint on the site, or whatever, but he's got the wrong ones. Again, if he asked an assistant, or picked them himself, it wouldn't have happened.
No advice, just an observation!
I dreamed of a nuclear explosion. I saw it through my window as a growing hemisphere of fire. Very strange. Perhaps I had too many vodkas and Coke.
Happy birthday to Tom, 22 today!
Posted at 2004-03-16 01:48:25 by Richard • Link to The failing of onl…
