Guess where and when.   © PJ Croft 2017

Sigh! What a frustrating day. Not serious problems in comparison to other people, hence the title, but it had me hissing and spitting.

Mainly, I’ve had a new phone on order from Kogan. The tracking advice showed it at Clarkson Post Office, 5km from here, at 0753 yesterday (Monday). So I stayed home all day waiting for the delivery. Nothing. No delivery. A day wasted, almost. Not wasted, but I had things to do.

So this morning I had to go out for a doctor’s appointment and a couple of other things. I got home at 2pm to find a card under my mat that a delivery had been attempted and I wasn’t home. My parcel could be collected at Clarkson Post Office. I’d just come from there!

I had a short rest, made a list of prescriptions to be filled, then went back to Clarkson PO. There was no parcel there! Where is it? It’s in the delivery van, but the van won’t be back until after 5pm and they close at 5. Grrrrrr.

Then I headed home again but realised I’d left my new prescriptions from this morning at home. Duh. So I was too tired by then and went home again.

I’m finding that this home delivery of goods by transport companies (or Australia Post) is a dud deal. I hate it. So many times this same situation has happened – I wait all day and it doesn’t come, then I have to go out and it comes, but they don’t leave it.

They have my details, my phone numbers, my email address – why can’t they contact me to tell me they’re coming???? Send me an SMS!! Don’t waste my time.

Speaking of which, what a waste of their time and fuel. They don’t seem to care that they’re making wasted journeys. I think a written complaint will have to be made. This is crazy.

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This morning I went to Woolies (mistake!) looking for salt water soap and shampoo for a friend. Waste of time, Woolies couldn’t help. Didn’t even know what I meant.

So while I was there I bought a few things (you can see what’s coming, can’t you?). I went through the checkout and as always, I immediately checked my docket. Six items, and a glaring error. A roast pork dinner, directly above a yellow $7.50 Special sticker, charged at $9.99! Woolies struck again. I went back and complained. She went away and checked it and came back with another yellow Special sticker for Shredded Pork at $9.99.

Well, I swear the one I picked was marked at $7.50. I wouldn’t have chosen it at $9.99. There was a $2.50 price difference between roast pork and shredded pork. So I said, No, I don’t want it, and got a refund. But Woolies strikes again! They are out to rob you. DON’T SHOP AT WOOLIES!

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Drove home and saw two cars, one behind the other, both with only one brake light out of three working. Then two more at intervals with one brake light failed. It is chronic. People don’t check their brake lights, but what can we do?

Similarly, I’m thinking of going to the police and asking, “Do we just have to accept the incredible noise produced by motorbikes, usually, with chopper-style exhausts, that is non-existent mufflers?” It is chronic around here. This an area where that kind of thing is considered macho.

In fact, I’ve often thought I don’t fit in around here:

• I don’t wear high-viz work gear
• I don’t wear a checked shirt hanging out
• I don’t have tattoos
• I don’t have piercings
• I don’t drive a 4WD
• I don’t have a loud exhaust.

Gee, makes me feel kinda inadequate.

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I’ve just finished my latest Robert Goddard novel, The Ends of the Earth. Terrific. It’s the last of a trilogy, one of those big, thick books. This guy is prolific. He seems to publish at least a book a year and the list is about 25-30 so far. I’ve read nearly all of them, but I pass them on to a friend. Highly recommended. I nearly always learn at least one new word, and best of all, because many of them are set in parts of the UK that I’ve visited, I can often visualise the settings. Of course, with Google Earth, we can see it all now, down to the street view. Fantastic. Recommended.

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In fact, I had a dream last night where I was fighting a Russian woman in my bed, and I was yelling Help! Police! (I hope it wasn’t too loud.) Then I reached over (in my dream) and punched her a couple of times – it was a desperate dream. But I woke sharpish – I’d punched my CPAP machine on my bedside cabinet. Ouch! I hurt my hand.

I think it was because there was a Russian woman in the novel, Nadia Bukeyeva, who was a nasty piece of work. It was all a dream, but gee it was real.

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Off to Bali again soon. Yum. I don’t know why but Tuesdays and Wednesdays are no longer the low fare days to fly. At prices of $600 or more, one way going up, they obviously don’t want us to fly on those days. So it’s the weekend. It’s much cheaper coming back, of course. I wanted to use Garuda full fare, but they’ve raised their fares so high ($800 return) as to be uncompetitive. Who do they think they’ll get when you can get a return ticket for around $500 with extra baggage with Air Asia and the others? Similarly, I wanted to use Jetstar, but their pricing is so tricky (leading you on with a seemingly low fare, then loading it up as you proceed) that I give up on them. Fools.

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I need to get to the airport and though I have friends who can sometimes drive me, I don’t like asking. One is very willing, but will be working until a bit too late in the afternoon, and the other’s car is very small and loaded up with tools.

So I’m doing my trick again of renting a car for one day. A Corolla, pick up at 4pm Friday, drive to airport Saturday and drop off before 4pm, $50.33. I reckon that’s half the cost of a taxi. It works quite well. It costs me in time, of course, but I’m rich in time.

Edit: my good friend Keith insisted that he could drive me, saying it gives him an excuse to take the afternoon off working. What about the car full of tools? Needs a good cleanout, he says. Good mate. I try always to repay him in other ways.

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I’ve just heard a news item about the British Airways computer failure that grounded them for three days world wide. I read somwhere that BA outsources their IT to India. That failure, assuming it was in India, cost them more than $100 million, at minimum. That’s an expensive cost for outsourcing to cheap labour.