The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Part Deux.

Well we covered ugly. Now I guess I have to present the other two. Working on the same premise, hardest up.

The Bad:
*Sigh*... Where to begin, oh where to begin.

Today started with a bad night. I will not elaborate too much other than to say I woke at 1 am, cold and sore, on the floor of the lounge near my boys' bedroom. And it went downhill from there.

Thus the sun rose this morning to shine its feeble rays onto a grumpy, sore, sleep-deprived Madmother. Opened yesterday's mail. To find a lovely little missive from Telstra (Australian telecomunications company), explaining how they were doing all Telstra customers the honour of rolling ourt a free home message service. Great. Except you get no choice and have to elect to turn it off if you don't want it. Fine. Really fine. THEN you get to the fine print - the bit where it mentions those with medical alert systems may have an issue with them NOT working. Ah, okay. So the already not happy Jan Madmother rings the number Helstra kindly put on missive. To get CARMEN in MELBOURNE. Now Carmen in Melbourne firstly had no idea what I was talking about in relation to the hooly dooly new whizz-bang offer, and then secondly, after finding out more from supervisor, tells me YOU cannot opt out until it is added. Oh, and sorry, but NO specific time frames on the roll out, but sometime between NOW and the next six weeks. 

Tough titty if we do not realise (you only know WHEN you have a message and you go to ring out and the dial tone is different...), and alert system is affected then Wise Woman has a fall! Too bad if my gorgeous mother dies as a result of this, nothing we can do.

And when I get frustrated with this and vent my concerns (mind you, saying to CARMEN in MELBOURNE I knew it was not her fault and that I wasn't upset with her rather venting my anger at the imbeciles who made this choice - yes, I did use that term), her words were: "Well, stop saying it. I can't do anything." Then she hung up. No warning, no comments prior to the final one to let me know I was repeating myself (I think I kept saying something along the lines of "Why would they do this? How on earth could they not at least eliminate the medical priority customers and check for approval?"), just CLICK.

Next call - TIO. Telecommunications Industry Ombudsmen. Far more satisfactory, and now we shall wait to see the pieces fall where they will.

The second event of the morning: that was the Ugly.

Third issue: employee sick. again. For third day THIS week. Not his fault, but as a small business, difficult. Means Big Boy has to rush off to open shop, an hour away.

Slide continued. Wise Woman had an appointment with nurse in GP's office. Really, it was me who had the appointment, as I was sick of the *ahem* community nurses who kept stuffing her around, doing things that risked her health, and were just basically incompetent. So, after THEY decided the ulcer on her leg no longer needed them dressing it, and that a 90 year old could manage, well, I needed training to make sure it was not a problem. And her GP was SO impressed with what I told her I think some heads may have problems remaining attached to their necks...

Now appointment was fine, but upon our return we found a blackout. No power. No electricity up here means no heating, no water, and no hot lunch. Yeeha.

Oh, and as I get my mobile phone to ring Energex (power company) I find a missed call from Big Boy. Not at work. Car died. Lunch time and shop is closed still. Tow truck needed for some weird computer issue with car. Fan-bloody-tastic!

Ah but wait, there's more. 

Finally arriving home just before school pickup, I get another call from Big Boy. To top off his day the police had arrived at our business. Apparently some old codger who had dropped off a repair had been unable to get anyone to answer the phone that morning and then decided that BB had STOLEN his item and called in the cops. And they wonder why these poor law-enforcers are snowed under with the stupid and unable to get to the serious offenses? Huuuuh?

And later we had to drive down to get Big Boy, boys missed guitar lesson, homework not done, tea late, bed later and we are all over it! What a day... And no, I do not mean good.