Drumroll

So I sent the venerable, but still trusty, 10D in for servicing on Thursday... normal stuff: cleaning the sensor (spelled 'censor' on the service request form - go figure) and repairing the rubber terminal cover that'd broken off right after I got back from Pakistan. Really normal stuff.

Right?

Most of the time anyway. It usually takes the Canon Service Centre one working day to do that (if they have the spare parts in stock), but as it turns out, because I was sending in both my most-used lenses as well (the 16-35mm and 28-135mm), it was now going to take them seven working days to complete my request. And I'm wondering if it's because of the number of people who were waiting to be served by the time I got there: the first few times I brought the camera in (most notably for the replacement of both motherboards because the camera got drenched by a watering truck - all within two weeks of purchasing the thing), the place was emptier. Back then, there wasn't enough people in there to justify the coffee machine someone at Canon thought would be a good idea (delighting us always, those Canon people are). Now, there was a wait of about 17 numbers - it was 080 when I got there, I had number 097.

I settled in to do what I did best: people-watch. Most of the people before me in the queue had compact cameras. Compact. Cameras. And most of the people before me in the queue left after the staff at the Service Centre turned/ pressed some button/ knob and voila! The cameras were working again. It was all I could do not to execute a facepalm once every five minutes:

You know, people, it's called a manual. Use it.

The one that took the cake was when I was finally served, the dude next to me asks the poor service staff, "Would I be right to say that the image that appears on the TV screen will be the image that will be taken if I press the button?"

Facepalm.

Then: "What is this aperture thing? How do I use that?"

Facepalm much.

The missus told me I'm a snob.

Shrug.

So, anyway, back to the whole seven working days thing to service my camera and my lenses: not good. Quite the bummer actually. Was supposed to shoot for Chestnuts before its run ends this weekend and then, there was the other shoot for this Saturday for the Tattoo project (yes, that's still going on), but without the camera, that's obviously not going to happen.

Was going to call everyone concerned to tell them I'd have to cancel, but...

But. Boko just returned from Japan tonight. He left with two items on a shopping list I'd passed to him. And about twenty minutes ago, he messages me: "Just got back. With your camera too."

This one:



So as of tomorrow, I have a new toy to play with.

Yummy.