There'll be no use in sighing

I'd gotten a call from Olympus yesterday about the camera being ready, and when I called back told them I'd be by Thursday afternoon. They also called twice today without leaving a message (I was lecturing), and once with leaving a message that the camera was ready. I called back to see why they were calling me again and they told me once more the camera was ready. I took this to mean my camera was ready, and that perhaps they were eager to see me again and didn't know how to ask me out.

After work I set out, remembered I needed my batteries and memory card, went back to the apartment and set out again, and -- as I arrived right in time for the bus -- remembered I needed my camera case. At the service centre, again I was the only customer; I had to take a number (58), be called, and they spindled my queue ticket. Happily they had a plastic bag for the camera, so I could carry it home without risking the LCD screen; and they'd replaced the zoom lever and had the old part for me, I presumed, to keep.

The trouble was, when I set the date and time and LCD/viewfinder preference and changed the battery, it again lost all my settings. This was the original complaint. They suggested the internal battery maybe needed a half-hour or so to soak up charge from the main batteries, and I went to dinner at a fast-food sandwich place with a cashier apparently on training, because she was very afraid of every step of my ordering and paying, particularly when I gave S$50.40 for an S$8.35 check.

But when I got back -- they didn't want me to get a number this time -- they said there'd been a bit of bad news. The person working on my camera was so interested in the zoom problem -- which I didn't complain about -- that he overlooked the internal-battery-or-motherboard issue. They'll try again and try to keep the cost to within the original quote. I pointed out I'd never gotten an original quote. They meant to say around S$120. And they'll call with the estimate on fixing the problem. Meanwhile I have the vague feeling that I'm going to need to read something about consumer affairs law.

Trivia: William Shakespeare's Henry V appears not to have been performed on-stage between January 1605 and November 1735. Source: Shakespeare's Kings, John Julius Norwich.

Currently Reading: The Wreck of the Penn Central: The Real Story Behind the Largest Bankruptcy in American History, Joseph R Daughen, Peter Binzen.