(continued from part 1)
A note to the vendor brought me a weird, and not very logical reply: The HDD frame was not missing by accident (as I had assumed), but was not part of the computer - I would have needed to order a second HDD for it to be included. That, people, makes no sense. A part that is a regular part of the regular (new) computer? The frame (actually a sort of sleeve) is available as replacement part only, and not as an add-on when ordering the computer as a new one. It's also sort of not fitting in with the refurbished-instead-of-new philosophy if I have to order a new HDD to put it into the shelf, along with all the others that were unavoidable cast-offs during the years, to replace the new one with my old one. Anyway, I was not happy at all with the reply, but it was quite clear there would be nothing forthcoming from that place. Needless to say, I will not order from there again. (Greenpanda, in case you're wondering.)
A replacement frame/sleeve was available on Ebay, either directly from China and for a very cheap price, but possibly taking a long time to get here, or from the UK. So the latter it was - fortunately Brexit only prevents me from selling to the UK and not from buying there. The sleeve came, I payed the toll/tax (a full Euro and sixtyfour) and the "Auslagepauschale" - the "lending fee" that DHL charges (which is, hooray, 6 €) and got the sleeve out of the packet... to find that it had been damaged during transit, and one of the metal frame parts was bent out of shape, far enough to not fit properly anymore.
Customer service of that vendor was an entirely different experience - I got a part refund even though I managed to bend the frame back into shape and it became useable again. If that would not have been possible, there was the promise of instant re-sending of a caddy as replacement. Needless to say, I will happily recommend that vendor - Rapid Spares Ltd.
Installing the disk drive had to wait until after the Forum, though. No big changes before big events, if it's avoidable! I did take the new machine along, though, just in case - its camera and speakers are much better than those of the old one, and let's not even consider briefly the "microphone" the old computer had. It clearly was built before the advent of video conferencing.
That all happened at the very start of the summer break, as did the wedding of two friends that we went to - and it was wonderful, if a little weird to be around so many other people again. And then, next on the Things Happening: The European Textile Forum.
With the flooding just before the Forum, it was extra-interesting, too. I had a little niggling doubt whether everything would be happening as planned until, basically, the moment I hopped into the car to drive off...