Oh Cruel, Cruel World

I may not be Miranda, of Shakepeare's The Tempest, but I feel inclined to paraphrase her:

Oh harsh, cruel world that hath such

shipping restrictions in it!

Now that I've absolutely changed the tone of that particular speech, it brings me to my complaint. There is a set of Christmas ornaments I really want to have. Basically, I'm idealising the Christmas decorations of my youth. A cheap set of 48 ornaments made of wood: bells, Santas, snowmen, angels...the set below, actually. Apparently made by a company called Kurt Adler.

Anyway, in an attempt to find a suitable alternative to blowing lots of money on a few very pretty, but prohibitively expensive Gisela Graham ornaments, I tried searching for this old set of Yuletide decorations. After some resourceful Googling, I found the set I was looking for, and looked it up on Amazon. The problem? It's on Amazon.com...I am now in the auspicious dominion of Amazon.co.uk, and this particular vendor most emphatically does not ship trans-Atlantic.

My fit of petulance will not be quelled! They're cheap, they're cute...that satisfies all criteria I had for buying ornaments. Perhaps Ms. Graham and her workshop of Hobbit-sized artisans are more deserving of my money after all, if Mr. Adler and his diminutive minions can't be bothered to find distributors who ship to the UK. Okay, so neither of these companies probably employs either Santa's elves, little people, or the tiny humans (a.k.a.: children), but it makes it all so much more pleasant to imagine.

In the meantime, Gisela and I will have to renew our acquaintance over some of the finer points of this year's collection...