Monday 5 September 2011

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Well, this whole getting money from Ebay whizz is on the backburner now. Y'may recall that on the 26th of last month I sent a Bombard to Germany as a replacement for a Bombard that I'd sent the 25th (or thereabouts) of the previous month, but which hadn't arrived. Now the second bloody package hasn't arrived either! Royal Mail's doodah says they aim to deliver the second kind of package (International Signed For) in 2-3 days. This is, of course, driving me and my buyer bonkers. The Good that I can wring from this is that I can with the parcel's number trace what's happened to the second package. The lady in the Post Office said I couldn't, but Royal Mail's website says otherwise.

The Bad here is that I can't find the bloody bit of paper. I've still got the piece from the first parcel, which I had to dig through binbags to find. See previous blog entry. After that fiasco, Mum gave me a file to keep these bits in, and promised not to throw out bags of paper without asking me. It isn't in the box-file. It doesn't seem to be in my room. So I can track down the package with the number . . . but I don't have the number, because the piece of paper has gone walkies.

The Ugly is that, quite reasonably, the fella in Germany, having received neither of the packages, has now put this into an Ebay administration thing. A knock-on effect of this is that all my Paypal payments are delayed 21 days. I put stuff on Ebay because I have no money. So I need the money from Ebay to post stuff. So I'm now stuffed, and am going to completely run dry of cash and into the red until the stuff's re-liquidated in a month.

Looking on the bright side, there's something funny in selling things becoming impossible because it's too expensive for the seller. I suppose this is how HMV and Waterstones feel. ;-) But it's a comic interlude I could really do without. I've heard nothing from my employment agency since I contacted 'em, and now have no money coming in, money going out on postage (which apparently can't be relied on), two packages to chase up, no way to sell more stuff on Ebay, and argh, argh, argh!

A stronger expostulation than "bloody" is called for at this juncture, but I'll just mutter it to myself and not sully your eyes. But life is not all bad. On Friday I had a nice evening out in town and a lovely meal at the local Thai with some friends (this was before finding out that I'd blown a mass of my seriously finite cash). I'd seen two of my friends on the Wednesday, and we'd had a chat about writing. I'm considering penning some dreadful Dan Brown-style trash. I mean, I'll soon be writing a thrilling, hair-raising, gripping page-turner, that's - what's that neologism? - unputdownable. Yeah, I'll be avoiding terms such as neologism in it, plainly. Well, maybe not: if Dan Brown can get away with symbololololololology, then I think I can probably throw in another tortured-sounding word.

Anyway, B mentioned a writing course she's been on and sent me the details of a related one. Although I doubt I can really go to it now, given that petrol costs money. Hurry up, Star Trek, and fetch me my post-scarcity economy! We had a bit of a natter about synecdoche (which this spellcheck doesn't believe exists - o tempora! o mores!) and chiasmus, and I lamented that my knowledge of these literary tricks and stylings is paltry. I remember bits and bobs from Latin and Greek texts, but it's been a few years!

I'd link to my Ebay stuff, but I don't know if I want it to sell, really. If it sells, yes, I'll have money in a month. But even if it doesn't, I'm still going to be stuck paying for the listing fees and so on. Yeah, let's go with despair as a great adjective to describe my feelings about Ebay right now. Auf wiedersehen, readers!

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