Earlier in the week, I’d ordered something from a different shop in Auckland (for a project I’ll talk about in due course), and a couple days later they emailed me with a projected delivery “date”: Mid-November. While that’s unusually long, it didn’t surprise me, either. But the long shipping time for that order is part of what inspired my sarcastic post.
The truth is, though, that these are the only two orders I’ve placed in quite awhile: Most of the time I just close the tab in my browser without ordering anything. I haven’t even been able to get motivated to order anything by click and collect from the home centres, even though if I did I could get a bit done on my projects outside. It’s the shipping delays that cause me to not order for delivery, and the overwhelming boredom of Lockdown makes me feel like I just can’t be bothered doing click and collect. Different reasons, same result.
This is all related to widespread shipping and delivery problems, like the ones I faced last month. The problems aren’t just about getting stuff from overseas, but even about getting stuff from one part of New Zealand—especially Auckland—to another part of New Zealand. It’s bad enough that yesterday “NZ Post [asked] customers to change how they shop” for Christmas. Against that backdrop, I didn’t expect such delivery, and certainly not overnight!
Now, about the order that arrived today: I ordered a pair of softbox lights with 2 metre (max height) stands. They’re used for soft, diffused lighting for photography and videos. I’ll definitely use them for photos (no more “make do” lights!), and if I ever do re-start making YouTube videos they’ll be very handy.
The other thing was a collapsible cube used for photographing objects (like products, still lifes, bowls of chicken soup…). It folds into its own carrying case (which is way cooler than it sounds). The cube has its own light diffusing panels so any white light can be used, including natural daylight, without it being too bright/glaring. It came with four pieces of fabric that attach at the front and curve up the back so there’s no back visible in the shot (it remains a true background). I’d looked at this sort of thing elsewhere, but they were always too small (this one is 60cm square by 60cm high). I’d planned on trying to repurpose bits and pieces that I have to kind of fake it, but I knew it wouldn’t be right, so I was putting off working on it. The thing I bought will be perfect for what I want, and it’s first job will be to help me take photos of some stuff I’m going to put on TradeMe to (try to) sell.
So, today I had a huge and very welcome surprise that will help me with several different things, including both stuff I want to do in the years ahead and also to advance the decluttering project here in the house. It turned out to be a very good day.
This is a revised and expanded version of something I posted to my personal Facebook this evening.
2 comments:
Packages are coming pretty regularly here in ALB, at least packages. Sometimes sooner than I was told. I can handle that.
Some are fast here, others not. I have a few packages in transit, so there will be plenty to talk about in the weeks ahead.
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