Buggrit.......

I just knew that things were going too well.  Having given the go-ahead on my book to the print company I turned my attention to the next most pressing item on my burgeoning to-do list.... getting the website shop up and running.

I spent all weekend setting up items in the shop (they're not visible yet though!) and working on what I still have to do for the London Dollshouse Showcase.  I have to get all new photos and write up done for my exhibitor's page and the deadline of Nov 18th is looming on the near horizon.

Anyway, everything was going tickety boo, which is always an ominous sign and I should have realised that things were due to go skew whiff... which they duly did.

Our office printer, which I had used yesterday morning to print out address labels for orders, suddenly decided that life was no longer worth living and gave up the ghost.  It's done this a few times before, being a temperamental little sh*t, but we've always been able to get it up and running again by a combination of threats, menaces and doing a hard reset.

It was having none of it.

You Tube videos suggested lots of different fixes, all of which we tried several times, including removing the print head unit and cleaning it, resulting in ink all over the show.

This is the second time a Canon printer has died on us and despite spending ALL DAY YESTERDAY giving trying to administer life support, we have accepted that it will have to be consigned to the great printer scrapyard.

Having washed our hands of it... literally, with bleach, in an attempt to remove the indelible ink, we set about finding a new one, which we thought would be a doddle.

Ha!

Have you tried to buy a printer recently?  They're like hen's teeth!!

Presumably, due to the pandemic, and record numbers of people working from home, the demand for printers has gone through the roof.  Plus, due to the lockdown, stores which sell them are currently closed, so we couldn't just pop along the road to PC World to pick one up.

I have a few criteria which are essential.... separate ink cartridges so that I can replace individual  colours as needed.                                                                                                                      It must be multifunction as I often have to scan/copy.                                                                          It must have an automatic duplex function for double sided printing, which is a nightmare to do manually.                                                                                                                                                    It must have WiFi connectivity as I often have to print from the workroom and the printer resides in the office.

Not a big ask really, but every one I found which was suitable was out of stock... everywhere.

The shelves have been stripped of printers and there is nary one to be found.

Eventually, after spending 6 frustrating hours going round in circles, I found a retailer who had a printer which had all my asks.  It wasn't first on my list.  It's wasn't even in the first ten, but it was in stock and ready to despatch so I had no option but to order it.  To add insult to injury it cost almost twice what I was intending to spend, but, as the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers.  Who would have thought that printers would prove as elusive to source as PPE? 

Anyway, due to the all the stress, the new printer and I are already getting off on the wrong foot.  It should hopefully arrive tomorrow and if it's not quick and easy to set up the air will be blue as I have A LOT of printing to do... all of it double sided. 

I have only one nerve left and it had better not get on it.