What's happening in your world?

[Nuytsia]

Well that's the free market for you ........ not that we truly have such a thing.

I don't think the GST makes such a difference ..... I wouldn't be swayed by a 10% price difference, it's the fact that it's more like 50% in most cases!!!!!!!!
I would prefer the convenience of going into the store and getting the book immediately if it were only 10% more expensive.

I don't know if I've ranted about this before, but if retailers in Australia don't want to lose customers to things like online overseas sales they should lift their game. Customer service is in general pretty poor, and things like warranties are absolute shockers.
It doesn't relate so much to books, but for instance I was looking at a camera and it was not only cheaper online from the US but had a FAR FAR superior warranty! (which applied equally to overseas purchasers).
By contrast my dishwasher (ok not a camera!!!!) purchased in a store here is absolute RUBBISH (and turned out to be one of those great situations where a cheap bit of junk is rebranded and sold for twice the price) yet it would cost me money for someone to come out and look at it ('under warranty') and cost me even more money if it had to be transported away for repair or for a new one to be substituted.
Not really worth my while when I don't know that it's necessarily 'faulty' just 'crap' and so presumably wouldn't be covered anyway.

RANT OVER!!

There's not a lot of point to this post (if anything, it contradicts what we're trying to do here on this forum!) BUT I just wanted to stop and acknowledge the guilt I feel after hearing the news last week of Angus and Robertson bookstores being shut down (as they are owned by Borders which is also shutting up shop). Seeing as I usually shopped in one particular A&R store previously, but now buy the majority of my books off-shore from The Book Depository, I am feeling a little .

I may not buy as much from there as before but I visit it each time I am able, and I will miss not being able to choose to shop in my favourite A&R store in Townsville, as well as miss the people in-store who have come to know me by name. While I have enjoyed the cheaper books and the convenience of not having to drive 1200kms to buy copies, I can see the reason behind the arguement from local storeholders that our government doesn't apply GST to off-shore purchases.

Anyhow, I'm sure I'll get over my guilt trip (like when my far cheaper copy of 'The Inheritance' turns up from TBD! ) but I am still taking to myself my portion of responsibility for this turn of events...particularly as I all-too-often advocate buying locally! The only way I can justify it is in knowing that A&R are ultimately owned by off-shore investors anyway...

---

Oh and, going to be happening in my world:
My mum's coming over to stay with us for a week or two around my birthday next week. She is in for a rude shock as the weather here has been so cold for summer.....
The forecast is for top temps about 15C (it will be colder at our place) when she arrives, and she lives in Perth where it's been high 30's C EVERY DAY lately.....!

[Farseer]

Good points Nuytsia (and made me feel better I must say!).

A couple of years ago I had to attend an educational conference in Brisbane which outlined the importance of teaching technology to our children and keeping them (and us, as parents who teach) abreast of the many technological changes to come.

Where once an architect may have been employed by someone from only his local area, he may now be employed from the other side of the world to do the same job but at a cheaper rate and possibly at a higher standard (leaving the local person out of work unless he could match or better what else was on offer). Where once only the local doctor could be consulted on a medical problem, webcam and email now means that a doctor, or doctors, from a totally different country can diagnose and even help treat a condition.

This, for our children, means that they are no longer only competing on a local level, or even an intra-state, interstate or national level, but that they are now facing competition for employment on a global level. It's not good enough to just be better than the bloke down the road...

I guess we have reached and been at that stage with some goods and services for a while now. As you say, it's a matter of lifting one's game. If you are competitive in all things such as pricing, quality and customer service, you have a far better chance of gaining the business than if you're not, no matter where you are in the world.

I wouldn't be swayed by a 10% price difference, it's the fact that it's more like 50% in most cases!!!!!!!!

Too true eg my Lemony Snickett purchases come to mind!!

My mum's coming over to stay with us for a week or two around my birthday next week.

Sounds perfect! I hope you both have a fun time catching up as I imagine, with your mum living in Perth, you don't get to see each other too often!

[Nuytsia]

Yes it's interesting to think of the ways the world is changing!
I think it presents as many opportunities as it closes off, but I suppose change is always hard for a lot of people/businesses/countries!

No I must admit I haven't been back to Perth to visit since I left (4 years ago!!! how did that happen?) but my mum has been over here a couple of times.

Happening in my world: close encounters of the arachnid kind.

Gees I went into the bathroom last night and as I opened the door and turned on the light and walked to the sink I somehow managed, at the very edge of my peripheral vision, to catch sight of a LEG moving on my left shoulderblade (ie on my back) which my brain immediately categorised as of the HUNTSMAN variety......!
After a short burst of screaming and wriggling I went in the other room to ask my partner if he could see a spider on my back...... which he answered in the negative..... which made ask a little anxiously ARE YOU SURE?????????????
But it turns out for some reason he just said that so I wouldn't freak out (errr too late) and it of course WAS still on my back and he was trying to get it off ........which he did (cunningly using one of his dirty socks, which I am sure anaesthetised it).

I am guessing it was lurking above the bathroom door in the dark and dropped down onto me as I opened the door and walked through.......

['thul]

He probably answered the best way... telling someone "yes" in such a case is a bad idea...

Not a deadly kind... and not one that usually bites humans... At least wikipedia says so...
These beings had to look it up to figure out what sort it was...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider

The only venomous spiders these beings know the names of by heart are black widows and brown recluses... And unless imported, there are no venomous spiders here.

Be thankful it was not a funnel-web spider...

[Nuytsia]

Yes thankfully they aren't dangerous.Just big, hairy and fast moving.
Here it is! piccie

Wow it's hard for me to imagine a place with no venomous spiders.... but then again it's not something we think about a lot anyway. Even though they are about, it's very unlikely that I'd be bitten by one.

We have fewer venomous spiders (and snakes!) down here than in the rest of Australia. I'm pretty sure we don't have funnel webs (they are most common around the vicinity of Sydney).

It seems venomous things like warm climates!

['thul]

Venomous things do not particularly like snow. Or rather, in snowy climes, venom is less effective, and thus creatures have not developed such traits.

[Farseer]

All this talk of spiders makes me think of the Clean Up Australia Day ad on the telly at the moment. The husband is so tired from helping out on CUAD that he's asleep in bed with a huntsman crawling all over his face...meanwhile, his wife is bashing the heck out of his face with a rolled-up newspaper, trying to hit the spider but can't stand to look! I know I'd be exactly the same!! I doubt there's something with it in on the web but I'll have to see if I can find it.

[Nuytsia]

I KNOW FARSEER! I hate that ad!!!!! I think it has magically caused all this huntsman activity in my vicinity (a day or two after my close encounter above I had ANOTHER one where I put my HAND on a huntsman)

Happening in my world: It is 3.30pm and 7.9 C outside!!! (and windy and raining)
WHA?
I was going to say 'THIS is summer?' but technically it's the first day of autumn so I can't.......

[redchild]

I'm so glad there aren't any humongous spiders where I live

['thul]

These beings are fairly happy about not having any venomous spiders here. There is that odd 50m spider stomping around shaking the ground, but it ain't venomous... (or maybe thats just overly active imaginations?)