So Frustrated I Could...

Are you, like me, totally frustrated when a new piece of kit arrives - without any description or instructions?

You see in the photo the interior of a new, rectangular soft box, with what appears to be a fixing for use as an umbrella as well as an opening for a circular bracket for studio light or speed light.

I found the bit of kit I bought a few years ago that fixes an umbrella to the light stand but for the life of me could not work out how to set it all up. I'd wanted to try using it tomorrow and of course had left it until today to practise putting everything together. Bad mistake.

Besides, the umbrella fixing doesn't seem robust enough to me to support the weight of the softbox. Back to the drawing board.

Instructions, even if of a general nature, would have been a great help.

I'd woken with cramp in my feet and legs several times during the night so hauled down the winter duvet to put back on the bed. We'd only put the summer duvet on less than a month ago. Keeping warm does seem to help to stave off cramp.

Len must be recovering slowly from his pulled muscle. He's been fairly quiet. He can't understand why he's falling asleep during the day. I can. He's been given powerful painkillers.

Basil and I went to Loughborough to buy prawns and a beautiful Cornish sole which I cooked for tea. Lovely flavour. The fishmongers had bonito too. Perhaps next time, I shall buy one, get them to gut it then flavour the cavity with lemon and garlic and cook in the oven. Yummy.

Popped in to see AbdulRahim, who is looking after the Berber Shop while Aziz is away. He always likes looking at my holiday photos. I bought him a coffee and he used the opportunity of my being there to nip upstairs to the loo.

Then home on the bus to spend well over an hour watching YouTube videos hoping to glean information on using flash triggers. You have to waste a lot of time watching these well-intended, but overlong videos to get to the nugget of information that you need.

No videos of how to set up my particular brand of softbox.