Buying from China

is fraught with difficulty.
I needed something recently. It is something unavailable where I live - a Japanese book. It was not available from the only shop which stocks Japanese books and has an on-line service in another state. The person whose knitting problem I was trying to solve told me she was "prepared to pay" for the book she had seen in Japan but she had no idea how to get it.
So, I did the obvious thing. I searched the internet. I looked at "images". I clicked on "images". Eventually I came upon a site that apparently sold the book I needed.
Oh. It was in Chinese. 
Did I go next door and bother my neighbours - who come from Taiwan - or did I do it myself? That problem was solved by discovering they were away. Their son was home but he had no clue. 
      "It's a rotten language Cat. I never did get the hang of reading it."  (As his mother used to teach Classical Chinese Literature I wonder what she thinks of that.)
So, I search further. Ah, another site. It was another Chinese site. This was one was in English - of a sort.  I managed to make sense of it. The only way to pay was by credit card. I don't own a credit card but I solved the problem by getting something similar from the Post Office. 
Then I made the transaction with extreme care. It didn't want to take my money at first but I tried twice more and succeeded. According to the website the book should arrive on or about a certain date. Yes, it would take time. I was prepared to wait. They sent me a message saying it had been posted.
I waited. I waited. I waited some more. They sent a message. Would I please confirm I had it? No, I didn't have it. I could not "track" it either. They tracked it. It was still in China.They apologised. I waited again.
It finally arrived yesterday. The friendly person who sometimes delivers parcels on a Saturday "because I just like to get out and get things done" came to the door and said,
    "I think this might be what you have been looking for."
I had told her what it was. 
She actually waited until I had opened the outsize envelope it was in and we both looked at it.
     "Can you read that?" she asked me.
     "No, " I told her, "but Japanese knitting books are strictly controlled in the way they can present things. I can read the charts and the diagrams."
I showed her. She was impressed. I am impressed by the book. Now I know what I need to know. Japanese knitters are fortunate indeed. All their written materials seem to be designed in a wonderfully uniform way.
Yesterday I spent an hour showing the knitter how to read the charts and the diagrams and helping her understand how to start the pattern she had chosen. She won't wear it this winter but she might wear it next winter.
But I do wish she had bought the wretched book when she was in Japan. And why didn't the Japanese have it on the Japanese version of Amazon? Life would have been so much simpler.