PigPog

We’ve made a new tradition. Shopping for the Christmas food shall be done on Christmas Eve, and we will try to buy as much of it as possible when it’s reduced to clear.

After a very quiet half-day at work, I tried to call in at Tesco, but the queue was too much. I tried to call in to the town centre, to see what Somerfield/Co-op had to offer, but the queue was all the way through the town. I succeeded better at Morrisons, getting quite a few reduced bits, but no meat.

I managed to get parked surprisingly easily in M&S, and got more extras, but still no meat. After Sam finished work, we tried again at M&S, but they still weren’t reducing their very expensive prepared joints. We found a friendly member of staff (most of them are), and were told that it didn’t look likely that they’d be reducing any of the things we wanted.

We decided to brave Tesco. They weren’t reducing the meat either, but we got a few other bargains, and their full price prepared joints were still a fraction of the price of the ones at M&S. They probably aren’t as fancy, but we’re not fussy. A lump of meat, some potato products, and lots of little sausages wrapped in bacon – the important things.

The biggest problem was arriving home with everything – it was a lot of shopping to carry all the way up to our flat!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a merry Christmas, or enjoys whatever else you like to celebrate around this time. If that’s nothing, have a fun Friday.

Yesterday, it was cold, so we hid in the flat. Today, we decided to face it. The car window was frosted into some pretty patterns, so I amused myself by photographing them while waiting for the car to warm up a bit.

We filled up Bob (our Honda CR-V) with petrol first, then shopped at Tesco, then parked up in the multi-storey car-park in Tiverton. We soon found that we had trouble finding any grip on the same road Bob had managed fine on, but we both stayed upright. Lunch at SubWay warmed us up, followed by a brief wander around town. Superdrug provided me with new stock of Paul Smith Extreme » [ | : UK, US], so I can continue to smell pleasant. Well, not too bad, anyway.

We then called in to Homebase, to pick up a replacement light fitting for the living room, and a couple of cheap table lamps to keep us going until I come round to the idea of doing electrical work whilst balancing on a chair. It doesn’t hold much appeal at the moment, but maybe the idea will grow on me. We also bought a second ceramic heater » [ | : UK, US] there. We bought a ceramic heater some time ago, and it seems better than other fan heaters we’ve had. This new one was much cheaper, not as well featured, but still works very well. It can keep the living room a bit warmer in this cold weather, and maybe help out in the bedroom too if it gets any colder.

We still don’t have any food in ready for Christmas, but we’ll just take whatever’s knocked down cheap on Christmas Eve – it doesn’t matter to us what we end up with.

I was pleased to find that Heinnie Haynes had started stocking Fenix torches. I liked my last Fenix torch, but I’ve always loved the range of tempting and disturbing toys HH carry, and the amount of useful information they give you about the products they sell.

I placed my order on Sunday evening, and got a shipment notification on Monday. My torch and accessories arrived safely boxed on Tuesday. The box was taped all around with ‘FRAGILE’, which seemed a little odd – not sure anything HH sell would be classed as fragile!

Heinnie Haynes have a wide range of the sort of gadgets you’re torn between wanting to order, and never wanting to meet the sort of person who actually would order.

Before I tell you about the experience of buying a Buff online, from the manufacturer’s own site, I should probably explain what a Buff actually is, for those who haven’t already spent time in ‘outdoors’ shops, staring at the looping video demo.

It’s a tube of microfibre polyester, that can be worn as a scarf, hat, headband, wristband, etc. For more info, Wikipedia have summary of it, and their own site will give you videos showing you what it can do:

• Buff on Wikipedia
• BuffWear

I decided last Sunday evening that it was time to get another Buff – my old black one is a little worn now, and I was in the mood for a change to something more colourful. I browsed the pics on their site, and found the one I wanted, with a nice leafy pattern.

Ordering was easy enough, and i paid with PayPal.

The Buff arrived on Tuesday – impressively quick – must have been sent out the day after I ordered, which is always nice, especially when delivery is free. I know from my own experience that online retailers can be a bit on the busy side on a Monday, catching up from the weekend’s orders.

There was a nice surprise to come, though. The package contained the Buff I’d ordered, and a neat little 09/10 catalogue. Also, though, were a couple of Buff stickers, a DVD of the demo videos, and a little branded mobile phone screen cleaning pad, along with promo stickers and a postcard for another venture they have, SueMe.

The whole experience was made good by being simple and efficient, and the extra little freebies made it even better.

Well, that was easy. Crucial made finding and ordering the right memory easy, and much cheaper than getting it from Apple. Fitting it was quite painless, too, though the original sticks take a firm pull to remove. After starting up again, my Mac now shows 4Gb RAM – should make things a bit nippier when running lots of stuff. Aperture seems happier.

I ordered memory from Crucial, and I’m impressed. They give you a neat little download for the Mac, that detects what type of memory your Mac uses, and tells you the options you have for extending it – at prices much lower than Apple.

They offer Special Delivery for an extra £3.50, which is less than cost. I didn’t take it, and my memory still arrived the day after the next working day.

It’s safely packaged, but small enough to fit through a letterbox. As long as it works, I’d call it a pretty excellent service from the start.

Our car, Bob, was booked in for a service today. Sam was working from 11:00, but the car was booked in at 09:00 in Exeter. That meant I had to leave far too early for a Saturday morning, to get the car serviced, and won’t see Sam until she finishes her shift at M&S at 18:00.

Whilst waiting, I had a walk around the industrial estate/business park at Marsh Barton, and around the attached retail park. I picked up an external drive for Sam, so she can back up her Mac with Time Machine, and a spare USB hub, as we need an extra.

I was hungry, and there was a McDonalds right there, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. There are a couple of cafes on the industrial estate, but both had quite a few people in them, and I hate eating alone in a cafe. I ended up with a sausage and bacon baguette and a pastie from a garage, which were a lot better than they sound. I found a nice quiet area with a conveniently seat-height wall, and a fence behind, which was quite comfortable.

I returned to Hendy Honda, took advantage of the free coffee, and settled in to watch some rallying, followed by Top Gear.

Soon, the car was done, and I left – a fair bit poorer, but at least Bob is all checked out and maintained.

This post is part of a series of posts about switching to a Mac – here are links to all the posts:

• Switching to Mac Part 1: The Decision
• Switching to Mac Part 2: The Retail Experience
• Switching to Mac Part 3: The Unboxing
• Switching to Mac Part 4: In Use
• Switching to Mac Part 5: Finding a Photo Editor

I recently bought a Mac after years of using Windows PCs.  If you want to know how I came to the decision, see part 1.  The act of buying a Mac from an Apple store is kind of unusual in itself.

Getting In

The Apple store in Exeter is welcoming.  Very welcoming.  Maybe a little too much so, with staff on both sides of the doorway waiting to pounce, and numerous staff around waiting to speak to you as you look around.  They’re not pushy, though, just chatty.  I felt a bit uneasy going in – I’m nowhere near hip enough to enter an Apple store, and wasn’t sure if I’d be allowed in without becoming much cooler somehow.  It turned out not to be a problem.  I suspect I got away with it because I had a Lowepro bag – there are probably special rules to let photographers in even if they’re a bit unhip.

On the second visit, I was there to buy.  I bypassed the door guards swiftly, and headed straight for the 24″ iMacs.  A friendly assistant called Hannah turned to ask if she could help, so I just said “Yeah, er, 24-inch iMac, wireless mouse, and a copy of Aperture”.

There was a short pause, and she said “Oh.  You want that?  That was easy!”

Choosing

She explained that upgrading to wireless keyboard as well as mouse was almost no difference in cost compared to buying the extra wireless mouse, so I went for that option.  She then explained a special offer they had on printers, that would give me a fairly decent HP inkjet for free through a cashback offer.  Since our only printer at that point was a Windows GDI printer, which wouldn’t work with a Mac, I took that too.  She offered me Apple Care, which I turned down, but may consider later anyway.

Ringing up the Sale

This part was the first real surprise.  There are no tills.  Hannah just opened a browser on the display machine we were looking at, and logged into Apple’s retail system from there.  The sale is rung up through a web browser on the display machines, and set for delivery to one of the two desks in the middle of the sales floor.  The browser then showed the progress of the order being picked and brought to us while we just chatted about cameras.  Sam wandered off to fondle the iPod Touch.

After a while, the stuff was all brought down the glass stairs.  Hannah pulled a card machine off a holster on her belt, and took the payment.  She took my email address, and the receipt was emailed to me there and then.  No paper needed.

…and Out

All done.  She made sure I had the details of their training courses and demos, and where to do the rebate for the printer.  The iMac box turned out to be surprisingly heavy, but I turned down the offer of help taking everything back to the car, and made away with my new toys.