[Cyclefrance]

That singing bowl thing sounds (no pun intended) a bit like the old wet-finger-round-the-top-of-the-wine-glass (on second thoughts, maybe it was...) - remember seeing on a TV talent show some old guy who fingered 'the bells of St Mary's' on a collection of wine glasses each containing water at a different level - by the time he'd finished he was dripping with perspiration having run back-and-forth God knows how many times along the line of wine glasses - I think he came 10th out of 12 acts... guess he should have chosen a less-demanding tune.

As to shipping, amazingly, my e-bay purchases this Christmas all arrived without any hitches - a bit different from last year when five items either never arrived or did so damaged. If you're in the UK then you'll most likely use an outfit called ParcelForce for shifting goods around - quite an interesting operation. I'm sure they check everything first to see if it's made of rubber (the bounce test) and clearly use a bespoke algorithm for calculating the date that should apply to the term 'next day delivery'

Having said that, Pixmania remains my 2006 award winner for totally cocking-up in every conceivable way. Bought a camera from them, they shipped it, shipper lost it, shipper confirmed that they had lost it, but Pixipants insisted on waiting 14 days to see if it turned up, then when it didn't and I was permitted to cancel my order (by then I'd bought another camera from someone else), they managed to ship me out another camera again instead, so the whole fiasco started again, Eventually got my money back with a little bit of compensation (not enough but by then I'd had enough of something else - them - not to argue further!) - I was suitably amazed to find that it actually reached my bank account!