Now public transport is something of a hellish tangle of badly connected systems that don't go where you want and charge you twice as much as they should, and while Taxis are even more expensive, I couldn't bear to go through the soul draining experience of walking to the opposite end of the suburb to catch a bus that goes to the next suburb where i have to wait anything up to an hour for the next train (that would only charge me 3 times as much as they should) to where I was going.
So I got all my stuff together and got a taxi, which after a hellishly slow (he stuck to every single speed limit, on empty roads, including the 30mph/50kph limit, which is hellishly low as it is), I began wondering early on whether he was out to charge me as much for the journey as possible by delaying getting me there.
I got there in the end though, paid the guy (he wasn't ripping me off), and walked into the store, where I proudly announced that I'd come to pick up my D200, my camera, my baby, my new pride and joy, my...
Ahem, sorry, getting carried away there.
So I spoke to the dude about the "buy now pay nothing till 2009" agreement that they had going, at which point he tells me that "they withdrew the agreement without warning", and that I could no longer apply for that type of finance. I'd have to go for the 48 monthly option instead.
With a sinking heart, I decided that as much as I wanted the camera, I sure as hell was not going to spend four years paying for something I could pay for in four months.
"Sorry mate, I'll have to leave it" says I as I decide sadly, that I can't have my camera afterall. Oh well, some things aren't meant to be.
He stops me before I can leave however, by hurriedly explaining some of the terms and conditions behind this four year agreement. Not the least of which is the fact that I can finish the agreement early by paying it off in full, I barely get charged anything for doing so, and as long as I meet my agreed minimum instalments, I can pay as much as I like towards the plan.
So If I take out a 48 month agreement, I'm still within my rights to give them 12 month's money at a time, and I can finish the entire agreement in four months without being subjected to horrific charges for the privilege. Okay then, let's talk business.
But I explan that I don't like owing money to anyone, and I want to get the agreement out of the way as soon as possible. With this in mind, I agree to put down a £200 deposit on the camera, and split the other £600 up.
So we're there for the best part of the next hour with me scrutinizing the small print through a microscope, looking for any telltale signs like "these terms are changable at any time without notice" etc etc, and after an hour of "what does this bit mean? What does that mean?" I decide that I can meet and am willing to meet, the terms of the agreement.
However as I'm going through the terms, I realise that I'm not wearing either my watch or my ring. Erm. I don't remember taking my ring off... I need to deal with that later, ut I still look nervously at the dotted line, as yet ungraced by my signature.
A simple innocent row of dots never looked so threatening.
I signed the agreement, and as everything was in triplicate, I had to sign a lot more, about 9 pieces of paper in the end. With each signature I heard a church bell tolling in my mind...
...okay that's a lie, but if it was one of those movies where everything goes bad and the hero gets forced into drug trafficking or has to resort to violence to get the money or whatever, I would have.
So the long and short of it that after signing away my life, I walked out of that store with the weight of the D200 in my backpack I go to buy a drink or something and reflect on what a terrible morning I've had. I now "own" one of Nikon's flagship cameras, a very capable camera that will do anything I want it to, but the fact is I've signed up to my first ever credit agreement, and have agreed to give them money that I don't actually have yet. Yeah, I know, that's the whole idea of Credit, but the idea just doesn't strike a chord with me.
I get ready to go home, and phone work to see if I've left my ring there. I have a habit of taking it off and dropping it in one of the cups of water I occasionally leave, just to clear the dirt and fingerprints off. In the worst case, that cup, and the ring, have gone into the plastic cup recycling bin.
No one's seen it. Just my luck.
I get another taxi home and the first thing I do when I get in is to go straight back out to the local park, where ducks and waterbirds are known to make their homes. After checking whether I was disturbing a guy who was fishing (i wasn't) I set up the tripod and start shooting (with the camera!!) the local waterbirds.
Okay so they weren't the most cooperative of subjects, and having just got the camera (which comes with a 204 page manual!) I had a couple of teething problems, but the camera made it so easy to just rattle off shot after shot after shot. I came home, downloaded the photos, and picked the best ones out. Some came out pretty good, considering it was my first time out with the camera.
But I was still worried about my ring and having failed to find it over the course of the night, I became really upset (not teary or anything just upset) about losing something that was a gift from my parents.
Determined not to get too upset about it, I decided to concentrate on my camera. I absolutely love it, it's worth every penny of the £800 that I agreed to pay for it. It's a rock solid tank of a camera. Incredibly versatile, extremely powerful, it's just a bloody good camera to be behind.
The following morning, I woke up, pain free, ready to go to work. Feeling somewhat under-dressed without my ring, I went to work and settled into the tedious mediocrity of the job. And that's all I did for several hours.
Unfortunatley at lunch, a sandwich worked its way to the sore side of my mouth and without noticing, I bit down on it, putting loads of pressure on my already sore jaw.
Well that was it for me, I spent the next 5 minutes in so much pain I literally felt like I was going to throw up. Over time of course it subsided, but was still somewhere between "substantially" and "very painful" on the fűckenstein meter (for further info, buy this, and watch it!), and it kinda faded over time, turning into something slightly worse thana dull ache...
However, I did eventually espy (it is a word) my ring on the manager's desk, and after a few conversations it turned out that someone had fished it out of the recycle bin and handed it in :).
Fantaaaaaaaaaastic!! I've got my ring back! NOTE TO SELF: Take better care of it next time.
But unfortunatley, my jawache got worse, exacerbated by the cold air outside. By the time I was at the bus stop I was holding my hand to my jaw and swearing every time a vehicle went past that wasn't my bus.
Of course on the bus it got worse. Not only did we get stuck in rush hour traffic, not only did the driver let every damn vehicle in front of him pull out first, not only did the cold air inside the bus set my jaw off even more, not only did the vibrations from the bus put my jaw in considerable pain, but driving over Sheffield's bomb-cratered, funding-free roads made my pain all the much worse.
Eventually I got home, explained that I'd found my ring, sank a couple of anadin extra (painkillers) and snuggled into bed to try and escape the now severe pain in my jaw.
I woke up bout 3 hours ago, pain free, and have been sitting chilling about taking photos and stuff.
But anyway, I'm off now because I want to eat the mozzerella and tomato slice I bought at work. I would have eaten it earlier. My jaw has the merest twinge of tenderness, so it's on the mend.
Again.
But anyway here are the photos, you can see what an awesome piece of kit my camera is :). (the photos of the 2 cameras are taken with my 3rd camera, a samsung 200 point and click thingie - the flash is a bit severe...)
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