Dark Thoughts

Yesterday was ANZAC day here in Australia, where we pause to remember those that put their lives on the line to defend this country, and her allies, and to give thanks to those who never returned. It's an emotional day for most Aussies, and it's resurgence in popularity, I think, is a reflection for growing respect in our community for those people who put themselves out for the greater good. Jodie and I attended the dawn service at Blackboy Hill, where the original Western Australian training camp was located. It was moving, and I'm glad we went.

I wish that the good attitudes of the people I saw on the brisk morning was carried over to our office environment today.

This morning started off badly. The garage door wouldn't go up in the garage, here at work. So I parked up, went through the building and opened it manually, by throwing the bypass lever. I let the boss in first, so he could park easily, and followed him, taking up another parking bay, before being asked to move by the receptionist, because apparently she can't drive her car into a parking bay on the far side, and she might have to wait for someone if she wants to leave. This despite the fact that when I drive my Hilux ute in, her friggin Honda is usually parked in the most easily accessible parking bay, and I need to manouvre around the pokey carpark for 20 minutes with my truck, to get it into the same car bay she was so keen to avoid this morning. Yep, the same one that I get stuck in, when I have to leave before most other people, so that I can pick up Jode's from in town.

When she gets the most accessible bay, it's first in, bessed dressed, but when she's not first, it's a "Ooooo, poor me..."

Next up, I spend 10 minutes trying to get the doors working. I deduce it's probably the breaker gone down with all the recent rain. I ask the said receptionist for the key to the upstairs meterbox. She gives me a key marked "meterbox" but it doesn't fit, so I go downstairs and open up that meter box (which the key fits) and quickly confirm my suspicion that this just has a main switch to the upstairs distribution board, where the breaker in question is located. I inform her that the key doesn't fit, and I get a curt response, that "that's the only key there is".

Well sorry for trying to get the friggin doors working again. Politely I tell her - "well, in the upstairs distribution board is the breaker for the garage door, and unless someone finds a key, the garage doors will never go again." Next time, I'll just leave the door closed, and she can stay parked out on the friggin street.

Now to add insult to injury, I'm trying to get a trip to China organized, and to try to co-ordinate my travel to return to Adelaide rather than Perth I ask if she can get me my return flight to Adelaide.

"Can you email that to me" she curtly retorts
"Well, sure. Can you get me an itinerary so that I can tell you which flight I want changed"
"Nope, because you can't have an itinerary until I book the flights"

I mean - what the....

I want to return to Adelaide, not Perth, and you need that in writing?

And you can't tell me the dates that I am travelling?

Fine, I'll spell it out for you in an email...

Dear xxx,

In the upcoming trip to China, can you please book my return flight to Adelaide, rather than Perth. If there aren't any flights available prior to Saturday noon, can you please let me know.

Well, that worked, so my question - why is my written word so much more intelligable than my spoken word? Is your attention span so short, that you can't remember that I want to go back to Adelaide for 5 mins while you ring your travel agent?

Now maybe I'm being unreasonable here, but the thing is, this whole series of events really pissed me off.

I don't think I was unreasonable in my requests, and was trying to help people out. So why does doing this have to be such a hard fought task.

Like I said, a bit of respect for people that go out of their way to help, is a good thing, and something that this particular person seems to stuggle with.

To add to my unpleasantness for the day, my office has been vibrating and rattling all day, as a rock breaker two doors down is demolishing re-inforced concrete. The vibrations are so bad, that I've been struggling to read the screen of my laptop as it wobbles and jiggles all over the place. The window behind me has been constantly rattling and I can feel the whole floor moving. It's disconcerting and annoying, but at least the new building that will be built, should improve the area greatly.

OK - that's my whinge over for today...

... well except for the fact that it took the local Dome Cafe an hour and a half to make me a club sandwich, and I still had to sit and listen to the rockbreaker for the entire time.

Blah...

Wednesday the 26th of April 2006 officially sucks....

Here's hoping for a better one tomorrow.