Wednesday 12 December 2012

How much time do I have?

Every autumn I need a new diary.  I still prefer the old-style book-shaped ones, made of paper and cardboard, because – well, I just do.  My life isn’t complicated enough to warrant electronic management.

So sometime in November, on my various excursions to that increasingly alien world called SHOPS (Slim Hope Of Purchasing Something), I started to check out what was available.  I knew exactly what I wanted: the same that has served me well for at least fifteen years.  A5, Week to View, preferably in black; and if Saturday and Sunday get the same amount of space as the other five days, that’s a bonus.  (They rarely do – why do diary designers assume that we’re less busy at weekends?)

Zero.  Ziltch.  The nearest match was in WhS, who have a ‘week to view’ format with the seven days scrunched up on the lefthand page and an empty opposite page headed ‘Notes’.  Eh?

So last Thursday, irritated, I woke up the computer and visited Azamon.  (Yes, I know.  But I really don’t have time to do all that tax research.)  A quick search and sure enough, there it was: as far as I can tell (it hasn’t arrived yet) a pretty close match.  So I swallowed and held my nose and ordered it.

The fact that they haven’t actually managed to deliver my humble request doesn’t in the least demoralise those nice computers at Amonza, because this morning they scratched their heads then emailed me with a list of stuff that, based on my previous purchases, they were pretty sure I needed.
 
Here are just three*:

An A4 Week to View Desk Diary for 2013, in black;

An A5 Day to a Page Diary for 2013, in black;

And the best one:

An A5 Week to View Diary for 2012.  In black.

To be fair, the last was quite cheap.

 

*(There was also a Jerry Lee Lewis CD, identical to the one I bought from them six years ago, which they presumably thought I must have lost by now.)

11 comments:

  1. Slim Hope Of Purchasing Something - that is exactly my recent experience of shops.

    I too get daily emails from everybody's favourite online retailer 'recommending' items for me to purchase. They seem particularly keen for me to purchase paper-back versions of books that I have just downloaded to my Kindle.

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  2. I admire diarists. Whilst working, I just about managed to keep on top of my desk diary. Then it all went pear-shaped when everyone moved to the Outlook calendar.

    Since leaving the workplace, diaries and wristwatches are conspicuous by their absence.

    SHOPS is now my new favourite acronym.

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  3. I bought an XBox from Amazon last year. Just after I bought it they suggested I might be interested in buying another one.

    Hmmm...

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  4. Amazon keep telling me I might like certain books. And I do. I wrote them!

    I did get just the kind of diary you want from them this year. It was cheap, and just what I wanted.

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  5. I find their idiocy quite comforting, because it means their business model will eventually fail.

    Frances, I presume you bought shedloads of the books!

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  6. about 6 hours and 4 minutes I estimate

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  7. SHOPS is brilliant.
    I abandoned paper diaries the minute I understood how outlook worked - partly because my writing is nearly illegible.

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  8. Zig, still scratching head. Was it to do with gin, or what? Pls clrfy.

    Mig, I abandoned Outlook the minute I left work. I guarantee I can look up my appointments quicker than you can (only for the next fortnight, mind you, because the fukken thing still hasn't turned up. Bleedin computers, pfwah!)

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  9. Love that acronym!
    I only use a diary when I'm travelling.The current one is full of collection codes for plane and rail tickets. And Ziggi's landline number!

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  10. I never found exactly the diary I wanted. I'm much happier with an electronic one. Sorry, darling, I'm pinching the topic - again - because I'm surprisingly passionate on the subject of diaries.

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  11. 'I am surprisingly passionate on the subject of diaries' has to be the first line of an unwritten Jane Austen novel. Innit?

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