First of all, my Internet sucks! I assume you wonder whether I thought this piece of information to be important enough to share with you, but it delayed my keeping up with my posts on this very blog (the question now is only what was my excuse before that...) and this has been going on now for some weeks and it is making me increasingly furious. I am sure many of you have already experienced this specific kind of rage when you watch this stupid loop turn and turn and turn, loading something, and fantasize what horrible things you're going to do with your laptop as soon as you've got a new one (I kind of always feel sorry when that day arrives, it's a classic prime example of "I hate something but as soon as I am over with it, I couldn't care less"). After two minutes of circling, I usually throw my hands on my laptop in deep frustration whereas my laptop lets out an ominous PEEEEEP and shuts down. When I then switch it on again, it decides that it NOW has to do like a million updates. Circling. Circling. Circling...
Anyway, enough of my stupid computer and internet to something that makes me even more furious: Photo shoots where you have to pay for each picture. But let me start at the beginning. As already mentioned (at least I think I have), N and I went to a photo shoot on Saturday. We had been cornered by a young, dynamic man on the street weeks previously who talked us into buying such a voucher thing for GK in South Kensington (30 Pounds instead of 500 or something...sounded like a good deal). In general, I never sign up for things on the street and usually have a healthy, suspicious attitude towards other people; however, N seemed really keen on going (yeah, blame it on the friend, always comes good) and so I agreed, too. After we had signed up, it happened what was bound to happen. These people called me in a ten-minute-rhythm to remind me that I should make an appointment for this thingy and mechanically recited all the things which we could do if we did it (I kind of got the feeling they REALLY wanted us to do it...somehow). After they had terrorized me for the last weeks, we finally agreed on an appointment. Only for them to call me henceforth every five minutes to remind me when my appointment was, what we needed to bring and that we could pay by either credit/debit/etc. I was really on the heel to tell them to bloody fuck off, but I just did what I always do: nod politely and listen to his shit to not offend his feelings. Last Saturday, the day had come to drive up to South Kensington and prove my suspicious attitude towards people wrong and enter the pamper day. We arrived there early (German and Austrian that we are) and had to wait quite a while before we were whisked in by two nice stylists. Everything started out really promising: we were offered drinks, they asked kindly whether we had been looking forward to this, etc.etc. etc. Then we were seated in front of the mirror for our special makeup. Alright, I hate it when you get offered something in a leaflet and almost EVERY TIME you don't get what it says in there. Why would they do that? Rather keep the expectations low and then blow your customers' minds instead of promising something which never happens. Anyway, the leaflet we had got had stated we would get a manicure, mini-facial, in-depth talk about our skin, hand massage and, finally, makeup. Weeelll, the manicure was getting your nails painted with nail varnish that chipped off after half an hour. There was no hand treatment or anything fancy, just a bit of filing and varnish. Then we sat down and got makeup on - the mini-facial and hand massage were skipped - and after about twenty minutes the makeup was finished and of the two hours pampering we had had been promised, we needed not even an hour before we were hurried down to the photo shoot. The photo studio was nice but nothing extraordinary. There were some random pieces of furniture on which you could pose and I must say the photographer was really nice, though I would have preferred much more freedom. He always put us in the pose we should be in, where to point our face - which as such is not bad, but it left little room for own ideas, creativity and trying out. N and I had brought four outfits which we shot one after the other (don't worry, they are alright) and it was really fun shooting with N. The part I felt trapped with (and which, to be honest, I had seen coming anyway), came afterwards. The leaflet and people on the phone had promised a big screen on which you could watch your photos and it turned out to be just a big computer screen - slight difference there. The pictures were OK, but not completely freakishly out-of-the-world-super but they nevertheless charged 70 pounds per picture! And I am talking picture on a CD, not even a printout included or anything like it. Just the shitty picture. Here I enter the rant. First of all, I think it is generally outrageous to pay for a photo shoot and then have to pay additionally for the pics. I think it is OK to charge for pictures you want to have bigger, printed, photoshopped, etc, but you should be able to bring a flash drive on which you can put the plain pictures, after all, you're on them and they should be yours. I once did a photo shoot in Innsbruck and it was the same there. My Mum gave the voucher to me and it had cost her 200 Euros and still I had to pay 15€ for every fucking picture, but at least the price for each picture was not as outrageous as in GK. As I said, I suspected something like this would happen - I am naive, but not that naive. They netted us with their nice price-off voucher and assumed to get much more money in for the pictures. I hate when I realise that I am being made a dumb-ass; however, I must say I was pretty proud of myself in between for staying firm. The woman came in and told us she could make us an amazing price for just 1300 pounds for all pictures and N and I just gaped at her, not believing our ears. Who would ever pay such a shitload of money for some average pictures? Seriously. We immediately declared her mad and she backed off a bit, trying to lure us in with her packages (only 500 pounds, that is only 250 for each of you. Yeah, you still got to be kidding me, right?), but I stayed firm and told her the prices were horrendous and I would only take my free picture and one additional. I think she nearly had a heart attack, but in the end she gave in and even gave us one for free (probably that was the winning prize if only you stayed firm and fended off her attacks skilfully). In the end, we payed 200 pounds together for six pictures and although they are really cool, they're not worth the money and I am still a little outraged that I didn't follow the whim to just stomp off and declare them all money-greedy amateurs. Well, I have the pictures which will remind me of my time in England and my dear friend I found here, so I decided to regret nothing because regretting means forsaking all the experiences you've made. However, next time, I will bring my flash drive and secretly load the pictures all on them while I am alone. As for the pics, judge on your own whether you like them and whether you would have spent such an amount of money on it...and I cannot recommend the GK pampering day, to be honest. They were nice, but horrendously over-priced.
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AuthorIn September 2015 I started a new chapter of my life by moving (temporarily or permanently, not yet decided) to England where I work and socialise now. Archives
December 2017
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