Tantrum

So today I had the mother of all tantrums. Guessing I’ve hit the ‘angry’ stage of grief then. To be fair, stuff has been building for a while. I rarely lose my temper. It tends to be apocalyptic when I do. So I work really hard on keeping things level.

What caused this outburst? Hanging a picture on the wall of course. It was a birthday present from a wonderful friend. Hanging it has been on my list for some time.

Now I love my house, but the walls are made of concrete so normal picture hooks don’t work. So I had to buy special ones. Which I did months ago, then promptly lost them in the pile of ‘filing’ that sits on my kitchen counter. Said pile annoyed me today so while I was waiting for not one, but two laptops to do updates, I cleared the pile.

Finding the special picture hooks, I thought I’d hang the picture. After several bashes to the thumb, bent pins and a chunk out of my wall, I lost my shit and threw the hammer down. So now I have a dent in my carpet and my concrete floor!! I was incredibly lucky as the hammer rebounded and hit to doorframe of a plate glass door! That could have been very messy.

More tears, expletives and stamping of feet – months of frustration, angst and annoyance came tumbling out. When I calmed down, I remembered I’d bought some of those sticky Velcro things for hanging pictures. The picture looks great and makes me smile.

My behaviour today also makes me laugh. I’m 54 and can still have a tantrum like the best toddler. Is it something we fully outgrow?!

Q

After waiting 21 days, I am now the proud owner of a new shiny Sky Q box. Actually I’m the owner of two! Though Hugo has claimed the second box.

It’s been a very frustrating day though. I was told some time between 8 & 1. So cleared my diary so I could be here. At 11:50 I got a message from a bot telling me there was a delay and they might not get to me today. Argh! Then I got a text saying 12:15 & 2:15. Closely followed by another message to say engineer was on his way. But not from where?!

Finally he arrived and confirmed my Sky box was deceased. So new box it is!

For some reason, they ‘upgraded’ me to Ultra HD and multi room. I felt rather sorry for the poor engineer when he asked where the other TV was. Ummm I only have one. And it doesn’t do Ultra HD.

After a number of live chats and phone calls, I finally found someone who could help. Apparently I’m not the Account Holder. Only been with Sky for 23 years! I had the wrong password. Even though it was OK before. Oh and I couldn’t have had an engineer today as my account is closed. At one point I was transferred to technical support. Why?! Lord help me, I was tearing my hair out.

It turns out that while I’ve been with Sky such a long time, the account is still in my ex-husband’s name. After a decade, they finally allowed me to change this over to my name. So fingers crossed I won’t have so many challenges next time.

They’ve removed the bits I didn’t want or ask for. And they gave me money back for not being able to use my dead box, a discount, Sky Cinema free for 2 months and Netflix for free. Hurrah!

So what have I missed?!

Reset button

Today has been one of ‘those days’. You know the one. The one where you feel like you’ve moved stuff around but not really gotten anywhere. The one where you feel like you’ve spent most of it on the phone to various customer services people. And still not gotten anywhere.

Yes it was one of those days. Things I have learned today….

Some systems are just flawed. Once you’re in them, it’s ridiculously hard to get out. 🤬
Energy prices are insanely expensive. 😱
Airlines can cancel your flight and leave you stranded. But it’s OK cause you can get a refund. 🤦🏻‍♀️
Customer Services is a bloody hard job.

So after several fruitless conversations, I headed out for a hack to clear my head. It was a glorious day with lots of autumn sunshine.

Fluidity

I’ve had a frustrating day. Was meant to hack with a friend, but the weather put pay to that. We took a rain check till tomorrow instead.

Arrived for my 5:30 blood donation appointment to be told they’d sent me a text to say they were cancelling it due to staff shortages. I checked my phone. Text arrived at 5:07 while I was driving there.

They said they’d made the decision at 10:30 to prioritise other blood groups. Phoned to complain. Again. Second time this has happened now. Last time I didn’t get a text at all.

Never mind, thought I’d go and lunge Buddy. Then remembered I had a webex at 7pm. Dialled in and it had been moved to 8pm. Doh!

So my day was been a fluid as the weather.