Bother No More - A Weblog By Mattias Gunneras

I might be a bit of a cynical but I do have my doubts about buying expensive things from around the world over the internet. I always think that I will get ripped off and there's no way to get my money back if it happens. Having been recommended by my friend Oli and the knowing of saving lots of British pounds, I set out to buy a new camera lens for my canon 400d on ebay from a company called Digital Rev in Hong Kong. I picked out my lens and paid for the item and shipping using Paypal.

Yesterday the UPS guy came to my office and asked to see me. This was good news and bad news, the good news was that the lens actually arrived, the bad new was that he had a pink VAT invoice in his other hand. I kindly had to pay £44.12 before the man would let go of my parcel. Having remembered reading something about a 'no VAT guarantee' I went back to ebay and look it up, and there it was:

“This is a special 'We pay the import fee if there is any' auction.”

I contacted the ebay shop about this and only hours later they had reimbursed me the £44.12 to my Paypal account. Nicely done by Digital Rev! And thanks for helping me overcome my fears for future purchases from far flung corners of the world!

I haven't really thought much about photography as an hobby before. I've used the built in 5MP camera in my Nokia N95 mobile phone, I thought it was alright.

Santa was nice to me in 2007. Last christmas I got a Canon EOS 400d, a prosumer (I hate that word) model DSLR. And I can't tell you what a great difference this has made. Now, of course I knew this would be a huge boost in image size and quality, but what I couldn't predict was this whole new world of possibilities and creativity that I found in using it! I've been slightly obsessed with always bringing the camera with me and my Amazon wish list is growing long with camera equipment and new lenses. I love it!

Finding a new hobby is great fun and people should do it more often. I know it's not easy to just go out there and get one. I was lucky, mine came to me. But this has made me start thinking about the refreshing and wonderful feeling it brings when you find a new hobby. You dream about it, you bore you're co-workers under you lunch break with it, you spend all your money and time on it. I guess it's bit like falling in love. So go find a new hobby now! I recommend it!

foto by xdjio

At my office there is a rule that we can not sit in the same spot for  more then 6 months. Today was shuffle day, and yay I got a spot with a great view over london!

Last week me and my girlfriend went for a trip to New York. I had never been before and I loved it! I really liked Cildo Meireles' Zero Dollar bill on exhibition in Moma.

Another funny (disgusting) thing we saw was these bacon flavoured chocolate bars. yuk!

And finally to round things of, a piece of nostalgia, Zoltar the fortune teller from movie Big. The AI in this one is out of this world!