A slow boat from China

[Mike]

In these days of instant gratification it's amazing how long it takes to get a new MacBook.

My existing MacBook went to sleep a couple of weeks ago and refused to wake up whatever I did to it - including taking a screwdriver to it and spreading its innards over the workbench, so I ordered a new one. I guess the mistake I made was in wanting one with an anti-glare screen. This, apparently, constitutes a build-to-order option that has to be specially made in China. The Apple Store website does say that bto machines take 3 days to ship which doesn't sound too bad.

What I didn't realise was that after the 3 days they are obviously put onto a very slow boat that presumably drifts on some trade wind till it reaches Europe. I ordered the new MacBook on November 14th and it seems it left Shanghai on November 18th. So far so good, but the estimated delivery date (originally November 30th) is now December 1st.

It's so frustrating having to wait such a long time - and such a disruption to work as the old PowerBook G4 that I'm now using won't run much of the software I now use - which includes Bento that I use for time recording and job costing.