Heathrow Airport has suffered a lot in the press this summer (see Heathrow hell: Britain's Awful Airports). It's been criticised for its inefficiency in processing travellers, resulting in long delays and missing luggage. Given that it was built to handle 45 million passengers annually but now processes 67 million each year, it's not surprising that it sometimes has problems.

However I've always been impressed with Heathrow, particularly the speed with which it processes arriving passengers. The last thing a tired traveller wants is a delay getting home from the airport, and Britain's immigration and customs procedures have always been excellent in my experience (unlike the equivalent authorities in some other countries e.g. USA).

This summer's criticism has focussed on departures, but I have bad news for the critics. We passed through Heathrow in record time this month at the start of our holiday to France. We left home by taxi at 6:35 am and were sitting at the departure gate at 7:07, having travelled to the airport, checked our bags and gone through security in only 32 minutes! It's a 20 minute drive from our house to Heathrow at the best of times, so that means it only required 12 minutes to get through the Heathrow check-in palaver.

Of course it helped that we had checked-in online the previous day and only had to drop off our bags, which we did by blagging our way through the business class fast bag drop (the check-in attendant was sitting there idle). Nevertheless, the security procedures were working well and so we had almost two hours to wait for our flight. To top it off, our bags were among the first off the plane upon arrival in Nice. Travelling from the UK really can't get much better than that!

El Born, Barcelona 1962

Ten years ago I purchased an original photographic print titled El Born, Barcelona 1962 by Xavier Miserachs. I did so simply because I loved the image. At the time I attempted to find out more about the photographer, but the only fact that I could establish was that he was Spanish.

Last month I once again tried to find out more, and this time my search was more productive. Here is what I found at Photolounge.eu (which has additional images taken by Miserachs):

Xavier Miserachs belongs to a generation of photographers who modernised Catalan photography at the beginning of the sixties. Maspons, Colita and Pomés, in Barcelona, or Ontañón and Masats in Madrid are some of his most important contemporaries. He studied medicine which he gave up to pursue a photographic career. He was a multifaceted person with interests in many fields, e.g. worked as a disk-jockey, was a member of the "gauche divine" in Barcelona, an advertising photographer, a teacher and a columnist. Miserachs was all of this and more as we can see in his memories, "Contact sheet" which he wrote just before leaving us, still young, in his sixties. His photography is direct, fresh, full of irony and a sense of humour; definitively without any complexes, which reflected his attitude to life. The archive of this unique artist fortunately is well taken care of by his two daugthers Arena and Mar, who even have the initiative to come up with new book projects (Memories de la Costa Brava, 2005, Miserachs / Català-Roca), and sign all modern prints.

I also found an interview given by Miserachs just before his death in 1998, which you can read online (if your Spanish is up to it), and last but not least, I discovered that the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya has its own print of this image and included it in one of its recent promotional leaflets (available as a PDF file 836Kb).

So it seems that I'm in good company, and I now know a lot more about the photograph that hangs on my wall.

PS — My print is dated 1988 and is signed by the photographer.

Daddy, can I have an ice cream?
I don't think we have time. We've got to go soon.
There is always a way, Daddy.
What?
Stephanie says, there is always a way!
Who says?
STEPHANIE!

The British weather doesn't often get me down, but I'm beginning to wonder if the sun still exists. It's been raining for days and days and days at this point. Wimbledon is way behind, and yesterday evening we even had ten minutes of continuous hail in west London.

The UK's Met Office has produced the usual monthly statistics (see chart), and the numbers confirm what everyone here has been thinking: it's wet.

Although yesterday's hail was extraordinary, we can't complain too much in the south. We only received twice as much rain as normal last month. By comparison, parts of northern England received 4 times their average monthly rainfall. Of course, we're all hoping August will be a scorcher.

So if you have ever wondered why some Mac fans rave about Apple's superior design and if you're curious to see how they view the web, download Safari 3.0 and start Surfin' Safari today!

"Musicians and night-club proprietors live complicated lives; it’s advisable to call ahead to confirm engagements."

I think I'll use the same excuse when I next can't make it into work.

We're on holiday in the Var once again, and it's proving unbelievably lovely. Getting here was a different story, but having reached our destination we're clearly going to benefit from the transition of late spring into early summer. This photograph was taken yesterday just outside the village in which we're staying. It was less than a 10 minute walk. Here, the inspiration is all around you — particularly at this time of year.

The biggest undergraduate major by far in the United States today is business. Twenty-two per cent of bachelor’s degrees are awarded in that field. Eight per cent are awarded in education, five per cent in the health professions. By contrast, fewer than four per cent of college graduates major in English, and only two per cent major in history. There are more bachelor’s degrees awarded every year in Parks, Recreation, Leisure, and Fitness Studies than in all foreign languages and literatures combined.

See The Graduates by Louis Menand.

ARMED AMERICA Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes

In the 48 hours since the Virginia Tech massacre I have heard several radio reports in which different witnesses described their experiences. Not a single journalist or interviewer has felt it necessary to define the word "clip", which strikes me as significant.

I don't think I have ever seen a "clip", and yet I too know what it is. Clearly, America's gun culture has had a significant influence on everyone. Thanks are due to Hollywood, I suppose.

To get a sense of how wide-spread guns have become in American culture, visit ARMED AMERICA Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes. It's a promotional web site for a forthcoming book of photographs by Kyle Cassidy. I personally found it terrifying.

This weekend also happens to be the best time to find a bargain on the UK version of the popular online auction web site eBay. The reason is quite simple. Fewer people are at their computers on the longest non-familial holiday of the year, particularly if the weather is nice, which means fewer bids get placed and prices are correspondingly lower. So this weekend I purchased a new digital camera, and I'm pleased to report that it was indeed a bargain.

I purchased a black Canon EOS 400D digital SLR (single lens reflex) with an 18-55mm zoom lens for £396.51 from the Canon Outlet shop on eBay.co.uk, which was 5.6% less than the cheapest version of this model sold by Canon in the preceeding 16 days (there were 15 such cameras sold during the period).

Of course, it's often difficult to know if price comparisons are valid on eBay because you can't be certain that the purchased items are all equivalent. Are they all in the same condition, for example? In this case, however, the cameras are all sold by a single vendor, the manufacturer Canon, and they all come with a one-year manufacturer's warranty. They are described as "refurbished" which Canon defines as follows:

Refurbished products are 100% OK and therefore we can offer them with a 1 year manufacturer's warranty. There is nothing wrong with these products! All refurbished products are sealed with an authentic Canon seal!

We just can't sell a refurbished item as new because:

- it was used as demo product (at trade fairs etc.), or
- the outside carton box was slightly damaged during transportation (and then replaced by a neutral brown packaging), or
- it was sold and the box was opened. Then the item got returned to Canon.

Upon return to our facility, a product of this type is put through a full set of functional test procedures, cleaned, repaired (if needed), and refreshed with a set of in-box materials (manuals, accessories, cables...) and sealed. The packaging of the product may either be the original Canon packaging or a neutral (brown) packaging. The core product itself may (exceptionally) contain minor cosmetic blemishes.

Given the single vendor and the one-year warranty, I think it's fair to assume that we are comparing as close to "like for like" as it's possible to get on eBay.

In recent weeks, Canon has sold two versions of the EOS 400D, one in black and one in silver, at least six days a week (black-bodied cameras currently demand a premium, see Black vs. Silver for some possible explanations). In the precceding 16 days before I purchased my camera, there was an average of 11 bids placed on each black 400D for an average price of £452.34. The range went from a low of £420 to a high of £500. In my case, there were only 5 bids and my winning bid was £396.51.

So how did I achieve my new minimum price for a black EOS 400D? Here are my tips for buying successfully on eBay:

1. Research the market on eBay by searching for historical prices. Identify the maximum and minimum prices achieved and calculate the average.
2. Establish a budget and stick to it.
3. If you really want a bargain, never bid more than the average price that you calculated in step 1.
4. Don't forget to consider the shipping charges. Many vendors offer items with a lower reserve/starting price in order to encourage you to bid, and then charge you a premium for shipping. They are making money on the shipping, so beware.
5. If possible, bid on items where the auction ends at an unpopular time (in my case it was 7:15 PM on a Sunday night in the middle of a glorious bank holiday long-weekend).
6. Know your competing bidders by viewing their bidding history. Some may be professional retailers using eBay to stock their business inventory. Others may be buying strictly for personal use. It's easier to predict how the professionals will behave. They have fixed costs and margins that will force them to drop out of the bidding sooner rather than later. Avoid bidding against the rogue personal users if possible (pick that unpopular time). They are unpredictable.
7. Bid the maximum amount you are prepared to pay in the last 10 to 5 minutes of the auction. Don't be tempted to make incremental bids repeatedly. If you do, you may not reach your maximum before the auction ends. The professional buyers will all be bidding at the last minute too, and you or your computer may not be able to respond quickly enough.
8. Don't be tempted to increase your maximum bid while you are currently the highest bidder. If you do, eBay will execute another bid at the next bidding increment on your behalf, which effectively means you will be bidding against yourself — a very stupid thing to do.

Hmmm... I guess working for a real, bricks-and-mortar auction house for six years had some benefits after all.

Prior to launching this latest advertising vehicle, he wrote (among other things) a weekly column for the Financial Times titled Fast Lane. For reasons that are unclear, he left the FT at the end of 2006, and moved his column to the International Herald Tribune, but the content remains the same. In fact, the following comment placed by Philip Rowell of Bangkok, Thailand, on the online version of Brûlé's latest IHT column (see Tyler Brûlé on the unthinkable: A seamless flight) sums up the Manitoban's stock in trade rather well:

I have nothing but the utmost respect for Brule. Anyone who can convince two major global newspapers (first the FT, now the IHT) to pay him for writing exactly the same article week in week out for years on end has to be a genius.

Airports, Heathrow terrible, Japan good, three countries in four days, first class, my beloved assistant, a couple of glasses of champagne then sleep until landing, list of suitable luggage suppliers… Brule, please, we get it already. We know you spend your life on airplanes, and we’re really very impressed - honestly. But how about trying to write about something you experience after you land, rather than regaling us with mind-numbingly tedious tales of security clearances and check-ins. We have all flown before, you know.

Stop it. Please.

The problem for Brûlé is that he evolved from a young, striving journalist into an ambitious, successful editor, but is now rapidly becoming a middle-aged business man. Consequently, his personal routine has become just that — a routine that's unfit for public consumption more than once.

PS — You can read Robert Fulford's comments on the new magazine in All style, with just a dash of substance.