Bad Karma?

No sex, but yet more electrical dysfunction. Things are kind of getting ridiculous now. Of the last four electrical items I’ve bought, I’ve had some sort of problem with three of them. Here’s an account of today’s misfortune. After getting fed up with having to keep taking my iPod Touch out of my pocket every time I wanted to operate it, I finally splashed out £3.99 on a remote control from eBay. Perhaps, given the price, I should have expected it, but the remote control didn’t work. Actually, I suspect that the idiocy of the eBay seller had something to do with why it didn’t work. The genius had decided that the ideal packaging for a delicate electrical item would be a single letter envelope. No padding, no jiffy bag, just an envelope. There really are a lot of morons out there. This is actually the second time someone on eBay has tried to send me something in an envelope. The first time all I got was an envelope with an invoice inside. The large tear up the side of the envelope had taken care of the mp3 player battery I’d ordered. At least the guy sent me another one. Of course, that one came in an envelope too, but at least he’d reinforced the sides with sellotape. Seriously, what is wrong with people? Has there been a worldwide shortage of common sense? Maybe I should just stop ordering stuff from eBay? That would definitely be the sensible thing to do. Of course I won’t. My misplaced optimism will make sure of that.

Anyway, I contacted the seller and, because he doesn’t have a replacement, he’s asked me to send it back to him. Obviously that's a bit of a pain in the arse. I’ve ordered an identical one from another eBay seller, so hopefully that’ll work out better. I’m actually also on the lookout for a funky laptop messenger bag. I’m going to try to get a smallish one (for day to day travel with my mini-laptop) and a largish one that I can use both for my bigger laptop and as hand luggage for when I go travelling. Actually, it’s looking more and more likely that I’ll be going travelling to America next year. One of the major things that stopped me from doing it this year was money. Next year, I’ll hopefully have a job. Hopefully. You really can’t guarantee anything with me. Anyway, I have some friends who have, for various reasons, expressed an interest in heading out there next year. I did kind of want to do the trip on my own, but the one thing that held me back was the expense. A single traveller pretty much pays twice as much whenever he lays his head down on a hotel pillow. With two people per room, the cost is essentially halved. I’ll go in to more detail about this some other time, but only if it looks like it’s going to work out. Basically one of my friends wants to do the New York Marathon next November. A few others might want to give it a go too. Obviously I wound never do something so crazy. I’d probably die if I tried. No, instead, I’ll just avail myself of the opportunity to board with someone. After that, another friend has suggested travelling to Boston and Niagara Falls. That would more or less mean that I’d be covering much the same ground as I would have done on this years abortive trip.

Anyway, a pretty short post today. Then again, there’s only so much you can write about when the only time you’ve left the house is to get your weekly shopping. For anybody who’s interested, I bought some milk, A large packet of Hot Chilli Doritos, 2x 2litre bottles of Pepsi Max, Orange Juice, bread (Hovis, medium sliced), 2x fresh Tescos Italian Margarita pizzas, Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce and some shower gel.

I really do have to come up with something better to write tomorrow, because this post seemed kind of desperate.