Binding Boundaries

A true example of 'hidden cost striking hard' was when my supervisor asked me to hard bind my dissertation and make three copies of it...one for the sponsor company, one for the university and one for myself...so that I could show it to my grandchildren in future...The shop near the university quoted 45£ for a 3-day hard binding service...I was alarmed to calculate that in order to hard bind three copies of my dissertation would cost me around 200£...including the printing costs...I was so shocked and unprepared financially for this sudden expense that I was determined not to let this happen...so I finally gave a spiral-bound version (9£) of my dissertation to the sponsor company..and found that they were pretty happy with it...on a test basis I decided to go ahead with one copy from that 'next-to-uni' shop...and saw my 45£ go there...adamant not to let this happen in the case of the last copy...I seeked help of the Googlegod...and came to know of a company in central London who do the same job for just 25£!I was at my wit's end...and realised that had I waited longer and done a bit of research...I would have found more affordable options...however I then opened London journey planner website and found out the easiest way to go to that place by bus...next morning it took me around 40 minutes to reach that binding shop in Ludgate Hill...happy I was and I told them I would recommend them to my friends as well..as they are providing such affordable thesis binding...happily I returned home and happily I collected it from them after a few days...all went well when a friend of mine informed me that day itself that there is another binding shop close to university and guess what...just next to where I live..sharing the same emergency exits....they offer the same job with special discount for students at a price of only 22£ !!! This was the latest when I felt like a complete fool...the cheapest binding shop at my nose-tip and I travelled across central London to look for one...I was shell-shocked and couldn't look at the mirror for the next few hours...moral of the story...'its always a good idea to know your neighbourhood first and know it well'.