The future

I've installed the betas of Office 2007 and Windows Vista, so I'm seeing the future but I'm not impressed.

It's just the same as the development UI and paradigm (.Net) - everything is being done to increase discoverability for new and novice users, but what's out there for us old hands? Yet another way to to do the same old thing?

Sunscreen Pharmacy Rock

I can get sunscreen prescribed as I have vitiligo - I have less than 30% of the pigment on my face left, look forward to a future post on self-fulfilling prophecies - but I don't bother as it's cheaper to buy. On prescription I would get ROC factor 25 (25 is a total block, don't believe anything claiming higher ratings) but it costs £10 or whatever it is now for a prescription so I buy it ad hoc every year.

I went to Boots before going on holiday and asked for "ROC sunscreen" at the prescription counter. The helpful assistant tried to go and look at the suncream sector until I said it was "like what you get on prescription" at which point she looked strangely at me, had a word with her pharmacist, went off to the store at the back, and came back with a tube of ROC 25. £1.78. Bargain of the year! I asked her, if she didn't mind, to go and get another tube for me, now I have one upstairs and one downstairs for £3.50.

These are 50 ml tubes but bear two things in mind:
* This is the top-notch sunscreen, and as you can imagine I've used a few: it's hypoallergenic, unperfumed, recommended for children and sensitive skins, goes on and comes off clean.

* I recently spent £9+ buying a bottle (150 ml?) of sunscreen for my daughter to take to nursery, and it was a much inferior substance.

* Sunscreen doesn't last forever, especially if it's exposed to the sun - and a big bottle is much likelier to get spilt or stood on or go off in your bag. Have you noticed how the sunscreen companies don't provide small bottles of good-quality sunscreen at a reasonable price? This is the answer.

See you under the sun-umbrella!