'If anythin', like I said, he didn't do us a favour, he saved too much. You can't move out there for stuff'

So says Karl Pilkington referring to Noah filling up the Ark with any old species that was hanging around.

Collecting my eBay bargains has required me to drive north of the river twice over this weekend, yesterday to the Seven Sisters Road in N7, to a very posh housing development to pick up a Degas for my bedroom wall (Degas as produced by Ikea you understand), from a very camp fellow, and this morning to Blackhorse Lane in Walthamstow to collect a Habitat 'occasional table' from a barefooted rock guitarist. Actually these places are only about a 30 minute drive from where I live but when, in response to camp fellow and rock guitarist's question 'have you come far?' I replied 'South London' a look of shocked, slightly appalled, awe came over their faces. I imagine these guys own a car and drive (OK, well maybe not the rock guitarist - I mean where would you park a car on Blackhorse Lane? But certainly Mr Camp Fellow. The posh apartments where he lives have secure underground parking. I would put money on both these guys being well travelled but they are reluctant to explore the city in which they live. Although to be fair I think I was like that in another life.
This made me think about if there are places in and around London I would be reluctant to travel to and I can honestly say that I'd be willing to venture anywhere. Sadly I have become Sat Nav reliant and I am now slightly reluctant to travel anywhere with a 'A', 'B' or a '1' in the address as the left hand screen of my Sat Nav is cracked and I can't input that information anymore. This made it tricky today as Blackhorse Lane is in E17 so I had to ingeniously think of a way round this and settled on finding a point nearby, in this case St James Station, which by the time I arrived there I realised I actually knew where I was and so was able to find the address. Last weekend I had to find somewhere in Dartford (DA1) and had to arrange to meet the seller outside Dartford Grammar School. Oh the lengths I will go to for a pouffe.
One of my recent bargains is a breadmaking machine. These are expensive pieces of kitchen equipment that people quickly tire off and put on eBay so I was able to get a beautiful clever machine for a tenner. And yesterday, three hours after bunging in all the ingredients (who knew that bread contained so much sugar?), we were rewarded with a golden tasty loaf that must have cost a fiver to bake. 
One observation about eBay that I heard recently is that, as home computers and the Internet have become more readily available to the masses the 'quality' of buyers and sellers on the site has deteriorated. They argued that the niche markets of days gone by, where buyers and sellers built up a trading relationship based on mutual respect and trust has disappeared and as more and more people began to use it certain 'scams' developed that resulted in eBay introducing strict rules and making sellers more accountable for how they perform, thus giving certain unscrupulous buyers a stick to beat honest sellers with which, they argued, has resulted in a general feeling of mistrust. I don't really know about this, never having been a user of the site in those early days (which, I suppose, by default makes me one of the 'masses') but I sort of understood the point they were trying to make as it is something I have noticed on other social sites. Standards are slipping.
Talking of fear of travelling outside our comfort zones I discovered today that my son has a real fear of flying. I did wonder why he had refused to go to Mexico with his girlfriend (she ended up going with a friend) and why he doesn't join his friends for boys holidays in Ayia Napa and the such like. This evening we were watching Ricky Gervais' Science DVD - some great added clips of him and Karl Pilkington - and Gervais was talking about flying in the days immediately following 9/11. All of a sudden J says 'Thats why I don't fly'. He had flown as a child but not since 9/11 and he says the fear has been getting worse as demands are now being made of him. The trouble with J, I have noticed, is that he will just dig his heels in when he feels pressurised into doing something he doesn't want to do and he will never tell you the real reason behind his reluctance. Until you least expect it and then feel guilty for not having noticed earlier. Reasons given in the past include, flight is too long, dog needs me, I can't afford it, cat needs me,  I don't fancy it. The truth 'I'm terrified of flying' was just too difficult for him to admit. I need to be more observant.

J and I had an interesting conversation the other day about religion. He is of the opinion it should be banned. Totally. No argument. Just ban it. Causes all sorts of trouble. Watching Gervais do a routine about Noah's Ark was very funny and I was surprised when J said 'Yep, sometimes I think religion is just a load of nonsence' (I am paraphrasing here you understand? his 'nonsence' started with a 'b' and ended with an 's'). 'Just sometimes? The other day you wanted it outlawed!' I said. 'Well, yes. On the whole it should be. Just sometimes it seems to be useful, you know - the power of prayer and all that.' 'Oh yeah? When's that?' I asked, thinking maybe he meant if his mother was hovering at deaths door after falling out of a plane he would be down on his knees praying to something just in case, and getting ready to give him a big reassuring hug. He squirmed a bit. 'You know. Like when theres a penalty shoot out. Praying is useful then'. The worse part is he was then able to give me an example that involved  Manchester United, Chelsea, penalties and the anniversary of the Munich air disaster.  I think J and Karl would get along like a house on fire.