The excitement of a printer which prints.......

I decided to do a couple of things this year in the interest of recording a year in my life -  the 366 Photo challenge, and the Line a Day diary. The last one is easy to do. In fact, I always struggle to limit myself to a line. The photos.....well, they are another story. Days can be very similar, and there are only so many photos of washing flapping in the breeze or my aqua stuff in a pile or the ripple or the computer that I can add before I nod off. I mean -  really. Monotony springs to mind.

Not that I am bored in the slightest, but my days follow a very similar pattern now that I have slowed to a crawl, and I can mange maybe one big thing a day. That would be the aqua or the washing, or, Hallelujah! A trip to the supermarket. And one does not want photos of exciting supermarkets on a regular basis. There must be something more captivating. Ah. Today I will take a photo of the book I am reading. One page a night in the bath before I drown it.

Speaking of supermarkets, today I decided, (after Aqua) to get all the pile of quotes sorted for the lawyers and post them. A mission which I was determined to complete today. It has been looming in the background long enough. So, I finished the letter I started writing to the lawyer on 7 February (what can I say - I hated every minute of the quote acquisition) and hit the print button. And my printer sprang into life and printed the first page and then ran out of ink.

Never fear, I had a spare cartridge, so I popped it in. Beep Beep. A big red cross appeared and "Cartridge Error" appeared on the screen. So I tried again. Beep Beep Beep. I checked the cartridge and it was identical to the one I had removed. Same number, same tabs. Same everything. Beep Beep. More red crosses.

So both cartridges and I leapt into the car and tootled off to Tesco to ask for a replacement, with receipt in hand and packaging. Oh, said the customer service lady....you have to call that number and if they give you a reference number you can have a replacement. I don't want them to give me a replacement next week, I said - I need the ink NOW. So I stuffed the offending cartridges in my bag and the stick and I ventured forth to the computer aisles. (Past the iPads....drool)

And I took down a compatible cartridge from the rack, checked the price, nearly had a heart attack, and then spied the new HP printers, and so help me, the black cartridge cost £22.95. The colour one was much more expensive. And the new printer??????? £24.95. That is a printer/copier/scanner, complete with 2 FULL ink cartridges. Cheaper than a colour cartridge. So I popped the cartridge back on the shelf and grabbed the printer. So did another couple who were also eyeing the price of replacement ink. (I am getting tired of the word cartridge.)

So I have a shiny new printer. Which printed the letter happily at speed. I suspect that it would be cheaper each time you run out of ink to just buy a new printer, and that is RIDICULOUS. My old HP printer had been printing away merrily since David was doing his GCSEs. That would be 2004 or 5. And there is nothing wrong with it apart from the fact that it needs VERY EXPENSIVE INK. And yes, I have had the cartridges refilled in the past - that was an unmitigated disaster -  and I have also bought the generic ones but that was where the Red Cross appeared.

I cannot believe I have written an entire post about printer ink. The mind boggles.

I told you I was struggling to find excitement to photograph. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!! I can take a photo of the printer!

Groan. This album is not going to be at all interesting, is it............