Dark Thoughts

I'm having a difficult day today. Not only have I spent most of the morning trying to ascertain exactly why it is that Telstra (or any other company for that matter) can't supply us with broadband access despite the fact that our neighbour 4m away can get it, but my dearly beloved is causing grief as I try to organize her birthday present.

It's something that I've been planning and trying to organize for the last few months, having put many hours or research into it, in order to try to give her an absolutely unforgettable and fantastic birthday. My efforts have been frustrated somewhat by a) My work deciding that I won't get back to Australia until the morning of Jodie's birthday (which meant that I need to reschedule the surprise) and b) Jodie's absolute resistance to helping me get this thing happening. I needed some information so that the company providing the present can ensure that it is done correctly and safely, and while I understand Jodie's reluctance to share such information, I can't understand her anger or flat out refusal to give me her height. She is angry at me and has threatened to not even be here for her birthday!

I'm short tempered today after having being lied to by Telstra salesmen, having being forwarded to 5 different departments before being cutoff and then to discover that we are on a completely different line to our neighbour in the first place and that short of spending $1500 to get our cable rerouted (and having no guarantee of success anyway) that we won't be able to get broadband until Telstra decide how they are going to market their new upgraded service sometime in the next 6 months. After finally having found a decent Telstra rep by the name of Richard, who really did do his best to find an alternative solution and find out exactly why our line had excessive signal loss, I then had to move on to finding out why the electrician who has promised to re-imburse me for a faulty installation has not yet paid us. He has the flu and is waiting for the building company (who referred us to him in the first place) to get back to him with the payment details. If he was planning on forwarding this to them to sort out with, then why the hell did he quibble about the amount so much. The fact is it has cost me $1100 to get electricity restored to my place, and he's only going to pay $758 of it, meaning that I've got to get angry with yet another electrician who is openly flouting the trade practices act of Australia, and point out to him why I shouldn't have to pay $350 to them because it's more than they quoted, and they didn't actually do anything anyway.

What is it with customer service now days. All I want to do is get basic services provided to my house in the suburbs of Perth. I think that this house was built on the edge of somesort of Bemuda Triangle anomoly thing, where nothing works, people can't find the house and when they do, they manage to stuff up the simplest possible jobs such that I spend months and months on the phone to incompetent salesmen, tradesmen and complaints lines. It's like trying to wade through thick jungle thicket when you are chest deep in mud. You exert an enourmous amount of effort while leaches suck your blood and the briars tear at your skin, only to find out that you have got absolutely no-where except now you feel a whole lot more exhausted and covered in mud.

Needless to say, these two events left me in a less than pleasant mood, when I got on to trying to do the "simple" task of paying for the present for my dearly beloved. I'm pretty miffed at the moment, as such a simple task as paying for a present has turned into such a difficult and drawn out affair. And I've just discovered that the flights have now been changed so my original plans can still be executed, so now I have to go back and rechange my original changes and sound like a complete idiot.

Aaaaarrrrgggghhh!!!!!!

I wish I was home in bed, but knowing how my day is going, the ceiling would probably collapse on me and pin me to my bed for a week. It seems to be one of those days where the world seems hell bent on placing obstacles in my path to see what extraodinary lengths I will go to in order to get to my destination.

I've given up trying to organize this all at the moment, lest I make Jodie even angrier by my impatience and general grumpiness. I'm going to go and have a quiet lunch and calm down some, before getting back to the task at hand, and diffusing the tension that I have caused this morning. I do love Jodie dearly, and I know that this present is something that she is going to love, but getting short tempered isn't going to get it organized for me. I know that I can do this, and work my way through everything, but it all just seems so hard today.

Anyway, lunch is beckoning and I need a calming atmosphere or a short bout of Yoga to re-align my spirit into the normally positive and forward moving thing that I like.