COMPOOGLING?

Could I have invented a new buzzword here - or has someone else stolen my thunder and beaten me to it with this magnificent addition to the internet lexicon? It is a term for the behaviour of someone like me who, when once started on a search for a particular item on the web, carries on with the search for hours on end until either the search has come to its end, the phone or doorbell has rung, or nature has intervened, his compulsion/obsession having taken the whole exercise over.

The other week, I compoogled "Filing Cabinets", a singularly unsuccessful exercise. I spent a whole afternoon, which would have been better spent doing something more useful, discovering that the kind of cabinet I need doesn't exist, and anything approaching it is way beyond my means. This morning, it was "Small Display Units Suitable for Postcards". I found many items which would have been ideal for my purpose, but there was always a snag - a blip in the ointment (sic!), as I once heard a well-known female weather presenter (and metaphor-mixer!) describing it on a renowned television breakfast news programme. On that occasion, a strange image presented itself to me, of a fly appearing, mysteriously and unaccountably, on a radar screen in a parallel universe somewhere!

Anyway, to return to my own universe, which, far from being parallel, consists mainly of ever-decreasing circles, I came across the usual pitfalls in my search for small display units. One firm doesn't deliver to destinations outwith mainland UK (because they can't be bothered to find out how to do it - I'd be quite willing to pay an extra charge for this service). Another had a fault on its online registration/catalogue request form. Every time I pressed "Submit", it came up with the message "You have selected an 'Other' - please specify", despite the fact that I had done no such thing. There's probably someone at "Display Units 'R Us" who's wondering why they haven't had any requests or registrations lately. Come to think of it, how many businesses are going down the tubes because of such flies in their online ointment? Is mine one of them? The sooner I get my website upgraded the better!

Strange how many issues can arise out of a Google search which, in this case, stemmed from an inadequate postcard display at my stall at the Toll Clock Centre in Lerwick yesterday. I did OK, by the way, but not spectacularly well. I sold a few prints and postcards (out of a cardboard box!), met some old friends and made some interesting new ones, and had some good repartee with my fellow stall-holders. The day passed quite quickly. My next set-up will probably be in the run-up to Christmas, and I'd like to have a better presentation unit for my postcards (and maybe Christmas cards!) by then........