Holiday whinge number umpteen

Ooh – the perils of trying to sleep in whilst on holiday. You’ve got to love the child having a temper tantrum directly outside your window at 7.30am on the first morning of your holiday!

Musings on Flying – Part 2

What sort of parent thinks that the appropriate toy to keep a young child amused on a flight is a plastic mobile phone toy that makes an array of beeping noises when each key is pressed; each more earsplittingly irritating than the last? And then allows them to play with it for the entire trip?

Musings on Flying – Part 1

I’ve never yet missed an airline flight. Amongst my siblings that’s something of a rarity and I’m touching wood as I type this.

I do, however, think it’s a huge hypocrisy by airlines, that if you are even a couple of minutes late checking in for a flight you can be refused admission onto the flight. On the other hand, airlines fell free to delay or even cancel flights or leave customers waiting in flight lounges indefinitely with impunity.

P.S. I actually wrote this one at the very start of my trip. You have no idea how ironic this post is but will do if you keep reading.

J.

Democracy

So, let's put it to a vote...

If anyone requests it, by the time I get back from holidays (Tuesday next week, thanks for asking) I'll post up the ongoing saga of my dramas with my internet provider.

I know this sounds kind of dull, but since it seems to be a conversation between me and a clueless automatic email response system, and I happen to be a bit of a smart-arse who intends to find out just how cheeky you can be to one of these things before someone steps in and actually reads one of your emails, I actually think it's kind of funny.

So what do you think?

J.

p.s. I'll think of you all whilst I'm relaxing in Byron Bay....;)

Britney Spears Hair

I have an issue with Britney Spears' hair.

If you remember back to March this year, Britney shaved her head. I think it was some sort of breakdown thing. High celebrity drama and all that.

You may also remember, 2 weeks later, that I also shaved my head. I did it for charity. The wonderful people at World's Greatest Shave will attest to the fact that I actually gave them money...it wasn't my euphemism for a breakdown.

So what bugs me is the fact that Britney Spears is appearing in public no, doing more somewhat mentally-challenged things, but with a shoulder-length bob.

I, on the other hand, am still sporting the latest in pixie cuts (on a good day).

So are we talking a really good wig? Hair extensions? How does that work?

I think I might start a rumour - do you think she's using hair plugs? A la Warnie?

Mmmm...Tasty

So I was at the supermarket the other day. I spotted a pack o f"low carb" pasta.

Given that I love pasta, but find the fact that it's pretty high in kilojoules and fat, so try to only eat it occasionally, I thought I'd check it out.

I read the label, and true to the headlines, it was substantially healthier than my usual brand, I bought a pack.

Tonight I decided to cook it up. MMMM...Tasty!

But I bet I could replicate the recipe, without shelling out the $5.40 for the pack of pasta. Check the recipe below:

1. Buy normal pack of pasta
2. Cook pasta according to instructions
3. Discard pasta. Retain cardboard box pasta was packaged in.
4. Rip cardboard into pasta-shaped pieces
5. Pour source over.
6. Eat.

So now I have half a pack of foul-tasting pasta. If anyone's interested in trying it out, I'll sell the remainder of it to you for $2.50...bargain.

Kidding. I'll let you have it free.

OK, you drive a hard bargain...I'll give you $2.50 to take it off my hands.

Ahh, bugger it, it's going in the bin.

Telstra Sucks

That's it.

Telstra Sucks.

Hey there

Hi everyone, I'm still alive, but very, very, very tired.



I've been to Canberra, been to a fancy dress party, had a random school-reunion moment, and enjoyed my favourite holiday - the Bank Holiday. I won't bore you by repeating last year's post.

And I had a very busy week last week and I'm very very tired.

And I have a new bed (yay! thanks to the ATO) and I'm far too eager to be in it to think straight enough for a decent post.

I'll try soon, I promise.

J.

Note to users of the office kitchen

1. Don't dump your dirty dishes / glasses / mugs / cutlery in the sink. We have 2 double dish drawers that are regularly packed and started and then emptied a couple of times a day. You have it pretty good, all you have to do is put stuff in it.
2. Those nifty little velcro signs tell you which drawers are clean and which are dirty. These, however are not entirely infallible. Have a look at the contents before you stick your dirty stuff in. There are several drawers.
3. If the dirty drawers are full and there's no more room for what you want to add, maybe you could consider emptying a clean drawer? I'm pretty sure hell is unlikely to freeze over.
4. If all else fails, there are sponges and there's washing up detergent under the sink. You could always (gasp!) wash up by hand.
5. There is no number 5. It's a four-step plan. Got it?

Fun & Games

I'm trying to stay positive. You'd think I would be excited. After all my dramas with trying to get my internet working at home, faulty mobile cards that had to be replaced, issues with getting my connection to work on my new laptop and various other issues that make my blood boil, it seems I'm finally sorted.

You could say that the excitement was kind of tarnished by having to spend pretty close to 2 hours over the last couple of days on hold to my provider. The exciting new thing that they promised would work, really didn't. Finally, after the first long wait, an entirely humourless service rep, and getting cut off mid-conversation, I managed to get online.

Even at this point I was pretty excited.

Well that lasted a whole day until it stopped working. I tried calling a few more times at various stages over the weekend and spent a lot of time on hold before having a bit of a tanty and giving up (following the advice of the nice lady who suggested I "call back at a more convenient time").

Tonight I got pig-headed, knowing that I only had one more day until my cooling off period ran out and I was potentially stuck with a dud that would never work.

Finally everything seems to be working, even my email (woo-hoo, no more webmail!). It only took 40 minutes on hold and 15 minutes on the phone to the charming (yep, sarcasm) fellow who finally ended up helping me out. I'm not sure it wasn't by accident.

My phone download connection still doesn't work with the USB cable, but I seems to have configured to bluetooth to work properly so that's that bit sorted.

The last thing to worry about is my MP3 player software. As one of the problems with my old laptop is that the CD/DVD player doesn't work properly, it's been great fun for the last couple of months having to download music on one laptop, transfer via USB thumb drive, then convert and upload to my MP3 on my old laptop. (Yes, that's me being sarcastic again).

After quite a bit of research, and no results, I finally decided to go directly to the source and email the company that makes them. Maybe something I should have done a long time ago, as they responded promptly with a link to a (secret, I'm sure) part of their website and details of the software upgrade that should be compatible with Vista. I've downloaded it, but after recent disappointments, I don't want to get too excited.

Wish me luck.

I've also been sick.

And I've been doing my tax.

I could be a little cranky. Maybe.

Public Transport pet peeve number 1

Remember this post about public transport? It was my top ten (or more) things I hate about public transport.

Well, I've recently come to realise that there was one that I missed. A BIG one that I missed. It's gazumping the rest and heading straight to number one.

PEOPLE WHO SNIFF ON TRAINS!

I hate you all. Take a bloody tissue with you on the train if you have a cold. I hate you. Don't sniff every two bloody seconds and sneeze and spread your germs around.

I particularly hate you all because now I have a cold and I'm sniffling myself.

Note to self: remember tissues for train journey tomorrow morning.

Act Your Age and Not Your Shoe Size

I read this article in the paper on the weekend. It was about how some celebrities dress too old or young for their ages.

I'm not so sure that I'm prepared to go on the record with my high-fashion advice to the beautiful people (I'm a card-carrying dag, after all), but I do think the concept holds in certain other circumstances. Like the workplace, for example.

Obviously I'm getting at a point here (trust me, I'll make it there eventually).

There's this woman who sits kind of nearby. I don't actually work with her, but I sit near enough to overhear a lot of what goes on.

So this woman seems generally pretty good at her job, and sounds as though she knows what she's talking about. The problem is that she doesn't seem to have gotten past her teenage giggling stage.

I'm really not one for going in for stereotypes of ageism, but you should hear this woman. If I was one of her stakeholders, I'd be left seriously questioning how whether this woman was actually listening to my serious concerns. Or listening at all to what I was saying, as she kind of sounds as though she has headphones in tuned to the Qantas comedy channel.

So what do you think, readers? Am I being too judgemental? Or is there a time and a place for the giggle that does not involve a middle-aged woman who is supposed to be a professional?

An update

In case you're interested, today was a far less frustrating day. I only had one visit from the computer guy - and the was earlier in the day than yesterday and therefore somewhat less smelly.

Whilst I am still homeless (office-wise, not actually homeless) apparently I should be back working at my own desk by Friday. Just in time to move floors to a new desk.

Hello again

Hope you're not expecting a big brain-dump like yesterday's plethora of posts. I'm afraid you've just got little old me whingeing about bloody computers again.

On Thursday my work PC died. I couldn't even get it to start up when I came in in the morning.

This, in itself, is not particularly unusual. The stupid things has died and been rebuilt at least once in the last couple of weeks prior.

Currently, one of my colleagues who sits in front of me is off on her honeymoon. Given that it's really close to my desk, and therefore all my stuff, it seemed like a good idea to use her computer until mine was fixed.

Unfortunately that was a naive hope and her computer wouldn't start up either. So 2 computers down at 10am. Not a bad start.

Since then I've been playing musical computers - setting myself up wherever someone is away.

Technical support did try come to see me on Friday. Unfortunately they got the right floor in the wrong building.

Several calls to the help desk to try to get some traction on fixing something were fruitless prior to this morning due to a 3 day service level. Yep. You read correctly. 3 days to even come have a look.

At 9.15 this morning service level had officially been exceeded. I actually had a meeting until 10.30 so I even gave a bit of grace time.

To say I was a little cranky on the phone at 10.30 might be a bit of an understatement.

Finally this afternoon a man came to look at the machine. I'm not going to even start on his body odour issues because they're not really that important to the story. Suffice it to say, people 4 seats away commented after he had left.

Anyway, in the way of tech support people everywhere, he suggested doing the same thing they did last time (remember, that rebuild thing that clearly didn't work?). Then he tried to blame the external hard drive I use. The same type of hard drive that everyone in my area has plugged into their same type of computers.

In the end, he did a few things and managed to get the thing to boot up. He then left me to restart the machine 3-4 times to see if the fix would hold. Given that every time we do this in our organisation, all software updates, patches and things upload and synchronise, a full reboot can take some time. It took me about an hour to do 3 reboots.

After finishing what I was doing, I decided it might be time to move back to my regular desk (for the next 3 days, anyway). I packed up all the gear I've been carting from desk to desk and headed over.

I managed to log in successfully. Good sign so far. Then went to do the first thing I always do when logging in, I went to start my email.

At this point I noticed that there were some shortcuts missing from my start menu. Then I noticed the missing applications. Like email. And anything from the Office suite (except Publisher, oddly enough).

So back on the phone to Mr Smelly. He came to visit again - about half an hour later. He did a few more magic things and then told me to try logging on again in about 10 minutes, muttering something unintelligible about profiles.

I'm a generous person, so I left it 20 minutes. I went over and fired up the PC.

I'm still waiting for it to finish booting up. I feel like I've basically wasted most of my day running between desks to check progress and restart that stupid thing.

Do you think I'm a little frustrated by now?

SALE, SALE Up to 50% OFF!!!!!!

(Another one from the archives)

There's this little arcade that I go to to buy breakfast or lunch a couple of times a week. On my way there, I pass a jewellery store.

It's one of those kind of hole-in-the-wall places with an open front and a roll-a-door that shuts down when the place closes rather than walls and a door.

Every day when I pass there, I see people checking out the bargains. Yes, the bargains for the big SALE, SALE Up to 50% OFF!!!!!!

I thought a sale was supposed to be an event. Something out of the ordinary, that offers better than usual bargains.

But no, this shop apparently discounts all their stock 365 days per year.

Shouldn't that just make it a discount shop? Lowest prices guaranteed? Surely this is fraud??

And then there was today

Sorry if you're reading these posts through. I know I may have jumped around a bit, chronologically speaking, but I kind of got caught up with publishing a few draft posts and threw in some stuff from today as I thought of it. You don't have to get the order, just accept that's the way it is and we'll all be happy.

As for today, it's been a strange one. Firstly, I've been a little disoriented with PC issues at work for 3 days now have meant that I'm playing musical desks. It's been good in a way - I'm making lots of new friends!

Then this morning our wider business group was called into one of those meetings that all corporate workers know and hate - the RESTRUCTURE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

This was followed by oodles of rumour and speculation. Another teary meeting as my manager advised us she no longer has a role and a shock to me as I discovered that after only 2 months in the role I've been working towards for the last 18 months, my team is being dissolved and I'm being transferred as a permanent analyst to a product team.

The transfer in itself isn't such a bad thing. I know the team that I'm joining and know and like the new manager I'll be reporting into. It is a little bit limiting, however, in terms of development and advancement (the two key reasons I applied for this job).

So the team and I are all in a bit of shock this evening. I'm generally pretty positive about hings working themselves out, and they probably will, but I'm just going to need a bit of time to process.

Still Alive

Hi everybody. Sorry, for the involuntary absence, I am experiencing ongoing technical difficulties at the moment. I'm afraid to say you'll have to put up with me posting only from home for a little while.

The good news is that I've still been writing a few posts. Bear with me if they seem a little out of context; I've been saving them up especially for you!

So enjoy...and bear with me....please?

What do you really, really not want to break down when you're away for the weekend?

Apologies for the absence. I’m blaming ongoing work PC issues, combined with being a bit of a social butterfly at the moment, so I’ve not been home much in the evenings.

As compensation, I have a great “Jacki’s an idiot” story for you all.

So, as you may have read, I was away all weekend in Canberra getting up to lots of fun girly family shenanigans. I arrived home Sunday evening and headed out again pretty much straight away to go see not-the-boy. This was followed by arriving back home later, totally exhausted, and heading pretty much straight to bed.

Yesterday morning I got up to get ready for work, and started making a cup of tea. After going through the usual motions of boiling the kettle, emptying the teapot and making the tea, I returned once it had had a chance to steep for a few minutes to do the pouring.

At this point I noticed that the milk wasn’t cold. A quick sniff confirmed that “yoghurt” would be a far more accurate description of the contents of the carton.

With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I warily checked the fridge. It was as warm in there as the rest of the apartment, and the state of my vegetables confirmed that it probably hadn’t been cold in there for a couple of days. Aargh! The fridge is definitely the one appliance in the house that you don’t want to have break on you and left for a couple of days.

So, being the organiser that I am, I did the following:
I looked up the number of my appliance repair guy (it was on a magnet on the fridge, so it wasn’t too tricky to find) and gave him a call. He agreed to come out mid-morning.
I called my boss to organise coming in a couple of hours late. She suggested that if the fridge was completely dead it would probably be covered by my contents insurance.
I called my insurance company to check that it was covered and received instructions on what I would need to do and what I would need from the repairman if the fridge was fried.
I dashed to my local supermarket. Picked up milk (I did finally manage that cup of tea) a couple of things to eat, and a bag of ice.
Went back home and filled the esky with ice and then the contents of my shopping.
Completed the stomach-churning job of cleaning out my fridge. I think the less said about that particular task the better.

Finally the repair guy arrived. He briefly admired my new dishwasher (advising me on giving up on the old one and giving me excellent advice on the choice and maintenance of the new one was his last job for me) and then set to the task of having a look at my fridge.

He opened the door, and noted that it wasn’t working at all, even the light. Apparently it’s unusual for the light and the engine to fail at the same time. Time to check the power point. I grabbed a hairdryer (it’s not like it’s been used for anything else much lately) and gave it a try.

Nothing.

OK, apparently the next thing to do was to check the fuse box.

As I’m in an apartment, my fuse box is in my hall storage cupboard. I opened the door and it was immediately clear what the problem was – two of the fuse switches were flicked to the “off” position.

I scratched my head and puzzled for a minute and then looked upwards. On the shelf above the fuse box was the travel bag I had just replaced that morning after using it as my luggage from my weekend away.

Best I can figure, when I started packing last Thursday night, I caught the switches with one of the straps on my bag as I took it down off the shelf.

So the good news is that my fridge is fine.

The bad news is that I’m an idiot.

Top 10 things I hate about public transport

I haven't had a whinge about public transport on here for a while. I'm sure you've all missed it, so here goes...

The top 10 things I have about public transport.

1. Trains running late
2. Trains running early
3. Missing the train
4. Accidentally getting on the wrong train (especially when it's an express and I end up whizzing by my stop then have to backtrack)
5. Trains that are too full
6. People that won't get out of the way of the doors or stairwells to let other people passed them. Or even better...move further inside themselves so that everyone can get on and off in an orderly fashion.
7. People who try to get into the carriage before those who are disembarking finish getting off.
8. People who take public transport when they have bad BO. I'm the last one to deny that I ever get a little perspiration happening, especially in mid-summer or if I've done a bit of a sprint to make the train, but I'm talking about full on eye-watering days and days worth of smelliness. Take a shower.
9. People who put all their bags on the seat beside them when there are people with no seats.
10. Tourists at the station with their huge suitcases during peak hour who stand and block the whole walkway whilst looking vaguely around at the different signs. Stand to the side, people!
11. People who leave their rubbish - especially tissues and food wrappers - on the train after they leave.
12. People who won't get up and offer their seat to those more in need of it than themselves. No, I don't mean me. I mean heavily pregnant women, the elderly, the frail, the disabled or the injured. Selfish prats. What's wrong with you?

I know that's more than 10. Sorry, I can count, just couldn't keep the list down to 10.

Tuesday Blues

I'm having a cranky day. No particular reason. Just am. Well, maybe it's more like a stack of small reasons - the emotional equivalent of the death of a thousand paper cuts.

It must have been one hell of a storm last night. Half my pot-plants were overturned when I looked this morning.

It was still pouring when I left for work.

The entrance to the station was flooded and I had to walk all the way around to the alternative entrance and missed my train.

The train was damp and soggy and stuffy and humid.

The cuffs of my trousers are still wet.

It's still raining and grey, just like it was yesterday and just like it's forecast to be tomorrow.

I'm experiencing a few network problems at work. Everything's technically working, it's just taking twice as long as usual.

On a brighter note this made me smile for a minute.

Plus the thought that tomorrow's a public holiday....