Yeah, That's The One Order They Really Didn't Want To Screw Up.

https://twitterwithbraincells.blogspot.com/2024/10/hmm-this-feels-like-reportable-purchase.html

https://news.sky.com/story/new-orleans-attacker-used-meta-glasses-to-record-video-of-citys-french-quarter-on-bike-weeks-before-truck-atrocity-says-fbi-13284253

I'll never be legally allowed to drive in Britain. I don't own a car. I've absolutely no use for a Dashcam.

It was something my Father wanted. I was trying to use it to introduce him to Amazon. Show him how you can use it to buy exactly what you want, at a reasonable price. Then have it delivered to you without any fuss. The sort of thing that would encourage him to pay for more months of Amazon Prime membership.

My Father had actually been going on about getting a Dashcam for about six months. If he was familiar with Amazon then he could have used that time researching the exact Dashcam which best fitted his needs. Rather than waiting for me to remember that he wanted a Dashcam. Then trying to guess at what his needs are.

You may remember that in March of last year, exactly the day after the Oscars, I had a broken tooth. So needed to go through the trial of finding a Dentist and getting it fixed. 

Although it turned out to be relatively easy in the end at that point it had the potential of becoming a major chore. With me have to wait to pay a private Dentist to refer me to the National Health Service (NHS). Then wait around for months with a broken tooth for the NHS to admit me to hospital to remove the broken tooth under general anaesthetic.

As I was doing that my Father discovered the cold weather had stripped the charge from the Lead-Acid battery in his car. Meaning that it wouldn't start. Forcing me to go on Amazon to buy a jump-starter kit.

If my Father was familiar with Amazon then he could have done that. Leaving me free to get my broken tooth sorted out. 

That jump-starter kit arrived the very next day. However by that point we'd managed to borrow someone else's jump-starter kit to start the car and recharge the battery. It actually took until January of this year for the car battery to go flat again. Finally giving us the opportunity to test out this jump-starter kit.

It turns out it works and it works really well. It's basically just a Lithium-ion battery pack with a cable assembly to link it to a car battery. The cable assembly plugs straight into the battery pack and once you've connected the cables to the car battery and turned it on you just turn the ignition key as normal.

Unlike some on the market it doesn't require you to press a button on the battery pack as you turn the ignition. Meaning it's something someone can use of their own. It also holds a lot of charge. Jump-starting the car once used up just 1% of its stored power.

The vast TV and Movie streaming library on Amazon Prime is also likely to improve my Father's life. There's even a possibility that regular exposure to English Premier League (EPL) and European Champions League football might remind him that there's no need to try and pretend the Women's football they insist on showing on the BBC is to be taken seriously.

Amazon Prime airs the busy schedule of EPL football which takes place in that week between Christmas and New Year. As is becoming a bit of a tradition we paid for another month of Amazon Prime so my Father could watch that football and we could use the, essentially, free delivery to buy various bits and pieces.

This actually ended up giving me another of example of how familiarising himself with Amazon would improve my Father's life.

My Father has got it into his head that the house needs to be heated to the temperature of a pleasant Summer's day, even in the midst of Winter. While I just wear appropriate clothing and move about a bit.

To achieve this goal my Father decided he wanted to order a 1,200W Halogen Space-Heater he's seen advertised in a newspaper. So a brand you've never heard being sold by a retailer you've also never heard of.

When it comes to electrical items, particularly ones designed to cause fire, I'm prepared to pay a little bit more for a brand I recognise and trust. This is something which is becoming more of an issue as more and more items with Lithium-ion batteries become part of our everyday lives.

In order to be legally sold in the UK all electrical items must carry what's known as a; "Kitemark." This is something provided by the British Standards Institution (BSI) certifying that it has been tested and is safe to use.

However the BSI don't check every product before it is sold. Instead they check a small sample of the products being sold by a manufacturer. They actually allow trusted manufacturers to self-certify their own products, issuing a Kitemark without any of the goods actually being tested by the BSI at all.

Particularly with Chinese goods there is a growing concern about products containing Lithium-ion batteries being sold without a Kitemark or by manufacturers who are self-certifying unsafe goods. Chinese consumers have even gone so far as to create a Social Media App to allow the community to raise Red Flags about faulty goods and manufacturers.

Really all I'm looking for though is a name I can Copy & Paste into Google. To see how often it appears alongside the words; "Catastrophic Fire."

Through Amazon I was able to help my Father buy a Halogen Space-Heater from the trusted brand South Korean brand Daewoo. For less money than he was going to spend on the one with unknown origins.

I ordered this Space-Heater late on Monday (6/1) evening. It was delivered on Wednesday (8/1) afternoon. While the Pacific Palisades Fire broke out on Tuesday (7/1). We're still waiting for the US to explain the cause of the December 9th (9/12/24) Franklin Fire. I'm guessing it wasn't an accumulation of dust around a Halogen Space-Heater of unknown origin.

Speaking of appropriate clothing. For the last couple of years I've been searching for an incredibly specific pair of trousers.

What I wanted was cotton cargo pants. However I wanted them fleece-lined so I could wear them in Winter. The obvious answer would be Ski-wear. The type of thing Skiers and Snowboarders wear. However I'm talking about taking short walks through city streets rather than standing around on a snow covered mountain all day. So I didn't want something which would work that well.

I also struggle with cargo pants generally. Often known as; "Combat Trousers" they were invented by the US military as part of their combat uniform during the Vietnam War. Due to the large number of people being conscripted into the military and being issued with these trousers they sort of crossed into mainstream fashion.

So when I wear cargo pants I feel I have to soften the look. Particularly when I'm doing Military Intelligence things. Otherwise it just looks like I'm in uniform.

That means that anything with a camouflage pattern is immediately out. As is anything olive green. Even grey is a little bit dodgy. As that's the camouflage colour you want in an urban environment.

There are some examples of fleece-line cargo pants on the market. However they all seem to have drawstring waistbands, they're more sweatpants than true cargo pants. As a fair few pickpockets have discovered over the years. My wallet is attached to a chain. The other end of that chain is attached to my belt. A very simple system which rather falls apart without a belt.

It turns out though that if you can imagine something. Then the chances are someone in China is already making it. 

So I finally found the incredibly specific trousers I was looking for and brought them from China. I don't mean I brought them from a Chinese manufacturer who has a UK retailer. I mean that, after Amazon introduced us, I brought them directly from a factory in China.

I think most of us know that when you buy something online these days you can track the progress of your package on its way to delivery. The package tracking for these trousers was a sight to behold.

They left Zhengzhou on New Year's Eve (31/12/24). They then arrived in Dongguan on January 3rd (3/1/25). On the same day they travelled to Guangzhou and boarded a flight to the UK.

On January 4th (4/1) they arrived in the UK and cleared UK customs the same day. They then sat in a Royal Mail warehouse until they were delivered to me on the 8th. After the Space-Heater.

All of which pours cold water on the US/UK's continued p'ssing about in the Red Sea. Underlining that neither of them know anything about global supply-chains.

Luckily Britain's Royal Mail/Post Office isn't as fashionable as it was this time last year. Ahead of its sale in December 2024 to Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group.

Obviously I wish him luck with that venture. However doesn't everyone's heart sink a bit when they're shopping online only to discover the seller is going to use the Royal Mail for delivery?

I barely buy things online, let alone sell them. So haven't really looked into the practicalities. However I would be sorely tempted to offer my customers the chance to pay a little bit more, just to avoid the Royal Mail entirely.