bunn

No one knows who they were or what they were doin'

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 23:34:59 GMT

The Shop on the Borderlands sells many things to many countries. Up till this year, our position on import duties and tariffs has been, more or less: 'if you want to buy it, we'll post it: you are best placed to look up exactly what the country you live in charges for importing the things you've chosen to buy, and the postal service or courier will sort that out for you for a small fee'. I'm sure this put some people off buying from us, but it was fairly clear to customers (we gave them warnings about it) and very easily manageable for us.

Then Mr Trump decided he was going to Tariff All the Things at extremely short notice (like less than a month!)

In an attempt to make the filthy Foreigner (ie, us) pay rather than the US citizen, he insisted that not only would there be no exceptions for small parcels, but anyone who bought stuff from outside the USA and had it posted to them, would be billed at least $80 unless the seller prepaid the tariff.

So suddenly we had to try to work out what the US tariff was going to be for everything we sold so we could charge and post appropriately. This was complicated by the fact that tariffs are not based on where the Shop is based, or where the company that designed and commissioned the product is based, but where the physical object was made. So, for example, some D&D books are printed in the USA, but some are printed in China, and some in Belgium.

And there's no way to predict where a specific book was printed, without taking it off the shelf and rummaging through it in the hope that it will have 'printed in Lithuania' written on it somewhere (Lithuania is a bit of a hotbed of RPG printing...) Some books have no indication where they were printed at all, so you have to guess. Some of our stock is 50 years old. Doesn't matter. We still have to declare where it was made.

Anyway, we did that for all the 12000ish Things in the Shop. And we gave them all international product classification codes (which is how you declare you're selling dice and not books for tax purposes, for example)

And we did it twice, because the first solution we had didn't work. (It was a quicker job the second time since the data was in and just had to be moved, but still. )

So, I tested ordering various products and they seemed to be getting what we thought was the right amount of tariff/customs fee appearing on them. Then we got a pleading email from a hopeful American, unable to find the thing they specially wanted in the USA, so we let them order - a book printed in the UK. They got charged the amount we expected by Royal Mail, 10% tariff plus 50p admin, and a week later, their book had reached them! Hurray!

So it all works now, right? IF ONLY. We got another pleading American email, so we let that guy order too, and in a surge of confidence, turned off our message saying 'sorry no orders to the USA for now.'

But. We put US Order #2 through the Royal Mail system, for three books made in Italy, and... RM charged us 50p admin fee for doing the duty for us, and nothing more. But they were printed in Italy! Italy has a 15% tariff!

So we rang Royal Mail, and said: why no tariff? And they said: Oh it's fine. Tariffs don't apply to books.

So we rang off and reinspected US Order #1, which was definitely a book, and definitely printed in the UK, and for which we were definitely billed 10% of the value for the tariff a week and a half ago. And boggled.

(I might not have got all the terminology 100% right, but I'm increasingly dubious that anyone has got this 100% right)

Update:Parcel #1 had got tangled up in the massive update project and went out with the HS code saying it was a boxed board game by accident. So I think we're OK sending books without billing tariffs for them. Or, I hope so...

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Rings of Power

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 00:00:50 GMT

I just watched the last episode of the Amazon Rings of Power series, and am left overall with a feeling that the whole thing was very pretty, but somehow oddly small-scale, and full of missed opportunity.

I'm not entirely sure how I would have felt about it if I'd just watched it on its own, rather than seeing it heavily trailered, discussed, dissected and panned for weeks and weeks, which inevitably has an effect. I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed some of the weak points, such as the infamous printed-on scale armour.

It also didn't help that I'd been part of a long Second-Age roleplaying campaign that made a lot more effort to fit itself around the maps and events recorded in the various books, and have also written a few things set in that long empty time period, which again, I feel, fitted themselves reasonably convincingly around the dates and locations. Amazon was never going to tell the story the way I had told it to myself, and having made the timeline work for myself, I was never going to be happy with the idea of clumsily smooshing together the story in the interest of attempting to create a not-very-surprising surprise.

But I'm fairly sure that the painfully awkward dialogue would have seemed painful all on its own. And their Finrod. Argh. There are no words for how awkward his scenes felt, though I think Gil-galad was actually worse. Also the weird anti-halfelven prejudice against Elrond, which is nowhere in the text. Anything involving Valinor is complicated and difficult to do at the best of time, and I don't think they carried it off.

There were good things. Robert Aramayo made a surprisingly convincing Elrond, and I liked his friendship with Durin and his wife. The Numenorean ships were impressively weird, though oddly few in number. I liked the social darkness to the pre-hobbit Harfoot backstory. I thought Arondir and Adar, two of the original characters from the storyline set in pre-Mordor, were both compelling characters.

But apart from that... I don't know if I want to go on watching. I might wait till the end and then dip in and out, I suppose.

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Still not moved!

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 23:11:59 GMT

And frankly I am starting to think it's not going to happen before Christmas now, but hey. Our solicitor vanished on us. A new solicitor respawned, but we get the impression that the new solicitor is doing the work of two (or maybe six, who knows) and though we keep getting emails saying things will be done by.... they are not.

Today some people came to see our Cornwall house, and made an offer but the offer was very small, so no. The previous people who made a nicer offer that we couldn't accept because they hadn't sold their previous house have now sold it, but changed their mind about which house to buy. (the people before that who made an offer also changed their minds...) This house-moving lark is rather wearing, and we haven't even got to the actual moving bit yet.

However! I did make bread with my sourdough starter and it was FABULOUS so I'm making some more. I also like the fact that instead of spooning out half the starter and throwing it away when I feed it, I can spoon it into a frying pan and make crumpets. I had sourdough crumpets this evening with a sauce made by chucking some frozen berries, a spoonful of sugar and a knob of butter into the pan with the cooking crumpets, and will definitely do that again.

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Moving House

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 12:26:07 GMT

You must declutter! Why do you have so much stuff! How will buyers see the rooms in your house if they are full of Things????

Also moving house:

Was your double glazing installed in 2001, or in 2003? Please provide details of the last boiler service, and the boiler installation certificate! We will also need a copy of the certificate for the negative radon test from 2008, so I hope you kept that!

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The Rain, some Arty Stuffs, Volvo woe, a fuzzy brain and strawberries.

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:08:57 GMT

The hot weather has gone away. Now we have Rain and Fog. A couple of days ago I foolishly risked going out for a longer walk with Rosie Roo, but without her coat: we all got caught in a major downpour so wet that you could see Rosie's under-fur spots showing through her soaked fur, AND there was thunder. Fortunately, one of the few things that dogs are usually afraid of that Rosie isn't is Thunder, and since Rosie ignored it, so did Theo.

And THEN, driving home, I stopped at the roadside veg stand to buy YET MORE strawberries, and when I got back in the car, it wouldn't start. With the rain pouring down, and I had left my phone at home... So, then I had to go bang on the door of the house that belonged to the veg stand, in the middle of a pandemic, and ask to borrow their phone. Fortunately for me, they were in, and kind enough to lend it to me. Then I had to talk to Green Flag rescue through the sound of a torrent pouring on top of my umbrella, which was not easy.
( Read more... )

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Terrible Hound!

Sat, 02 May 2020 18:21:25 GMT

Arrrggh, Theo keeps getting out of the garden to visit the pair of little terrier ladies who are staying with their owner's Mum at the top of it. And he won't do it when I'm looking at him!

( Read more... )
In other news, walking back down into the village after my dog walk this morning, I saw a fluttering in the tree-shadows in the middle of the the road.

( Read more... )

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A walrus-post in the Time of Plague.

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:29:59 GMT

Either DW import or LJ export seems to have hiccups, so I'm copying and pasting this.

Goodness. I haven't updated since February! I don't know why. I have been reading here, but not managing to comment or post so much. I'm probably only doing it now because I have a fic to write for a Friday deadline and I apparently have no energy for it. I should have written it when I first got the assignment. I did start it, but then I told myself I wanted to finish my Rexque Futurus chapter first, and that has not been flowing, and has apparently caused a word blockage. Bah.

Had a birthday last Saturday, and although Plague was looming, it didn't seem so close then, so we went to the beach with my Mum and Pp's Dad. And the hounds, of course. It was a bit chilly, but Theo had an excellent time, and I did too, almost as much. There's something very calming about the Sea. We ate chips and drank hot chocolate outside. Rather too cold for that really, but allowed for rather more Distancing than sitting in the warm inside the cafe.

( couple photos )

I've painted a few more things. Here's a dragon in a chair, ink /watercolour, painted very quickly because I felt it would be cheerful.

( Read more... )

In other Art News, I picked up an art commission, painting a D&D party at the pub. Because I am nothing if not ambitious, I'm basing it on Caravaggio's 'The Calling of St Matthew' with a strong directional light and the characters all talking together. So far I've drafted it in pencil, sent the draft over for approval, and blocked out the figures and light. It's going well!

I don't know what will happen out in the Wide World about the coronavirus and all the consequent panic and turmoil - well, I suppose nobody does. We are living in interesting times. I hope the panic buying will recede soon. I get the distinct impression that a lot of it is social media fuelled. The more people see photos of empty shelves and posts about not being able to buy bread, the more panicked they get. But of course people want to talk about inconvenience and worries, and can't blame them for that, and nor can I blame people who can see their only source of income vanishing for maxing out their credit card while they still have one. Ack.

My asthma is playing up slightly and giving me a tightness in the chest, but I am sure that is psychosomatic / stress related (it would not be the first time!). My lifestyle is a fairly reclusive one at the best of times, so no matter how many undiagnosed people are about, would have be particularly unlucky to pick up the virus so soon. I may just have to limit my intake of news a bit. Which might help with the writing!

I hope everyone reading this is keeping well.

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OOF

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:24:50 GMT

33 degrees C today in Cornwall, and that is WAY too hot. We are not accustomed!

I refused to walk Rosie this morning, because it was already baking when I woke up. I'll take her for a late evening walk instead. By a stream, probably.

Did try doing a bit of outdoor painting on walk on Sunday, but had to give up because Rosie got bored and also there was a horsefly. I do hate horseflies!

Tried to finish it off later, but I didn't have a camera with me and so had to work from memory: I don't think I got the light quite right. Still, it's all practice.

( Read more... )

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State of the cats update

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 22:52:36 GMT

All our three cats are now getting along well. Gothmog the Black and Nenya the White spend a lot of time playing together.

Fankil is still shyer, and panics if there's a loud noise, but he seems to be becoming the most snuggly of the three. Gothmog and Nenya like playing exciting games (though Gothmog likes to snooze on PP's desk of an evening) but Fankil likes quiet moments and having his tummy tickled. We can pick him up now, and he purrs and snuggles.

However, last night Some Cat jumped on the bed at ten to 6 in the morning, landing on Pp's face and causing him to splutter in alarm. Said cat then panicked and fled across Pp's face and then mine, leaving Pp with an impressive set of facial scratches, and me with a couple of small punctures to the cheek. Neither of us was awake enough to really register which cat did this, but the MO definitely suggests it was Fankil.

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'It isn't busy' I said...

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 19:33:45 GMT

In my last post with the dragon where I mentioned I had been Left in Charge. This happy state of affairs persisted until Friday, when suddenly the orders began pouring in, and they continued pouring in until Sunday. I think there were probably about... 40 of them? Most were for several items each!

I went to the post-office twice on Monday and Pp went once too! Fortunately though, because of the sheer VOLUME of orders, there was no point stressing about them: I found and packed as many as I could, but it was obvious they weren't all going to be able to be done and some would have to wait till Pp got back from UK Games Expo, where he bought a truly monstrous amount of Stuff. Still, the orders are all done now, and as Pp says, they cleared some space for all the things now sitting all over the house in boxes...

( Read more... )

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A shambling snotmonster writes

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 21:44:16 GMT

We did have some snow today, though it was very much just slush. I've been slowly coming down with the cold that Pp already had and today I gave into it and just went to sleep on the sofa with small Gothmog curled up on my feet. Fankil came to inspect me: I didn't move but merely observed, and apparently that passed the inspection.

Am annoyed with myself : I took the car in to the garage because the dashboard dials had stopped working. It was booked in and I told them what the problem was when I phoned to book it in, but when it came to actually handing the keys over, the guy who does the work was busy with something and the garage's Dad was there and said 'does he know what it's in for' and I, overcome with cold and without a voice nodded and pushed the keys gormlessly at him.

Anyway, I tried phoning a couple of times later to double check they actually knew what it was in for and make sure they had my number, but only got voicemail. So tomorrow I shall have to try to extract car from garage, and I hope they will actually have done something about the problem, since a speedometer and a petrol gauge are pretty essential though the car itself is running nicely.

Here are some photos of New Cat Nenya.
( Read more... )

uuuurgh. Snf.

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This week in art class : a Random Mine. Also: Shelf

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 21:08:31 GMT

Pp and I just put up a floating shelf. It was hard. The prong things fitted perfectly until they were screwed to the wall, then, mysteriously, they would not engage with the holes in the shelf. I hit them with a rubber mallet in the end to make them fit.

Now my arms feel like two bendy straws. Floating shelves : not worth the hassle. Stick to brackets.

The painting below was for an exercise where we had to paint something for the words 'zeitgeist', 'ephemeral' or 'subliminal'. I thought of approximately 999 very depressing things I could paint for those words, but I wanted to paint something more cheering, so in the end I went for 'Ephemeral' and painted one of our old copper & arsenic mines which were once both deadly and blighting, but now are overrun with plants and beautiful in their own way.

Then I decided to push my luck and added a pair of balmaidens for 'zeitgeist' - either literally as time-ghosts, or in the sense of 'well, things may not be perfect now, but at least girls are not routinely expected to take jobs working in arsenic mines at the age of 7 or 8 years old'. I used some of the photos on http://balmaiden.co.uk/ for clothing/ tools reference.

I'm quite pleased with how this came out, and may paint some more mine-ghost pictures. The girl is holding her bonnet in her hand, i'm not sure if that's clear.

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