Oops!

Found some extraneous text below the pics of my evil cat, in my "Obscenity" post, which I'd forgotten to delete. All done now. Still trying to decide where to spend my day out for my birthday. It's looking like it will be Shrewsbury, although according to the Shrewsbury Forum, the place is overrun with pickpockets, winos, aggressive beggars, Roma gypsies and chavs. Give me the pickpockets, winos, beggars and gypsies before the chavs any day.

Going by my experience of Swansea, although the rough sleepers and the winos look scary, they've rarely given me any hassle, and none of them has ever threatened me. Wish I could say the same for the chavs. When I was struggling to get around a couple of years ago, and had to use a walking stick, I was frequently verbally abused, sometimes spat at by chavs. One Burberry-clad little darling even hurled a full can of Coke at me from a moving bus. Had that hit my head, I'd have been hospitalised. But chavs and winos are everywhere these days, even sleepy country towns, so I think I'll take my chances, and just take evasive action if I see any undesirables.

I quite fancy a wander around Shrewsbury, even though it apparently boasts some killer hills in the town centre. It has a lot of old buildings, hundreds of them listed, so that should be interesting. It also has a series of narrow, often cobbled alleyways, known as shuts, and many of them are meant to be worth exploring. I also want to visit some of the town's craft shops, as well as the castle and the abbey. I've found a circular walk of the town online, so I'll print that off before I go.

Not sure which day I'll go yet. Not on my birthday, as it's on a Sunday, which means the already infrequent trains are even less frequent, and a lot of the smaller shops will be shut. I'm also waiting for some new rechargeable batteries for my camera to arrive - I ordered them on eBay this morning. I'm not going anywhere until these batteries are in my possession.

I've had my rechargeables a few years now and they've let me down a lot lately, so it's time for some new ones. I was going to get some 2700 mAh Uniross ones from Argos, until I saw they wanted £16.99 for a pack of four. Stuff that. I found some 2500 mAh Uniross batteries on eBay for just £6.49 delivered, supplied by an established trader with a 100% positive feedback record. The difference in capacity is so small, it's negligible in terms of extra shooting time. And they're not old stock either, apparently. So how Argos can justify such a hefty price for an almost identical item, beats me. They want £11.00 for four 2100 mAh batteries and £10.99 for four 1100 mAh ones. I could have got some 2500 mAh Energizer batteries from Argos for £9.99, but Uniross batteries seem to last several hundred charges longer than the cheaper brands.

Anyway, why am I wittering on about battery prices? I'm so sad! I think I'm just sick of the way large companies rip consumers off. It's always wise to shop around, and although I don't recommend it for major purchases, eBay is a fabulous place to pick up a bargain when it comes to things like batteries, cables and other handy things. Right, time to shut up and stop being boring ...