The Internet, the great price leveler.
A friend has asked me to shoot her wedding, which is a little daunting as previously I have only done this sort of thing as a guest. So, belt and braces, I'll take two bodies. I'll dust off the old Minolta 600Si Classic, put some new batteries in and break out a couple of fresh rolls of Ilford XP2. I love this film for it's convenience, speed, velvety texture and huge latitude. I'll also be taking my wonderful Canon EOS 20D digital SLR. The problem though is the lenses that I'd have liked to have been using on the Canon were stolen in Cuba together with the flash. I also need a little more memory, you can't go running out at a wedding! So it's off to e-bay. I have scored a new 1GB Compact Flash card for about ÂŁ25 and a new 2GB card for ÂŁ15. If the 2GB card arrives I'll be amazed, but it's worth a go. Prices for stuff from e-bay can be good, but generally not as good as if you just went to B&H Photo in New York and bought them off of their website, even with shipping it's still about half the UK price. There's import duty if you are in mainland Europe but it's still a lot cheaper. So I think unless there are some terrific used bargains in the next week or so then B&H get the lens business.

The tachometer bracket on my Harley rusted through and broke the day before yesterday, my tacho was hanging on by the wires, so it was hastily bodged up with gaffer tape. Gaffer tape is probably what Lex Luthor should have used to defeat Superman instead of messing around with that Kryptonite nonsense.

I am now bidding on the replacement part on e-bay, even if I can't get it there, it will be cheaper buying it in the US, than buying it in the UK.

Why is Britain such a rip-off?