The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

The day before yesterday, in Frankfurt airport, I knocked my heavy suitcase onto my briefcase and damaged the screen of my trusty laptop, a MacBook Pro. Struggling with the one corner of the screen which worked, I emailed my secretary to find an Apple dealer in Moscow who could fix it. She came up with quotes ranging from 18,000 to 20,000 roubles ($800 or thereabouts) and with time estimates varying from 4 weeks to 1 working day. Obviously Mr One Working-Day got the job. The machine was delivered to him at 1100 today. It’s 1830 now and I am blogging again from the repaired machine. I am not sure I could have achieved that in London, still less in the small Northern town which is home when I am in England. But in cities of 10 million+ people, anything is (or should be) possible. I can’t imagine living anywhere smaller now. No retirement to the countryside for me.

I would praise the efficient Apple dealer by name, but I am not sure any of my readers are in Moscow. Should you want his name and number, click the email link in the sidebar. He’s my hero at present and I will be happy to send business his way.