Why can no one do their job?

So, we don't have broadband at the new place because it ALWAYS takes 5 working days from the time you get your new phone number… Why they couldn't have just transferred the service, I can't say… But SKY told us it would take 20 business days, so we decided to go with BT. I called a couple of days ago and was told the broadband order was pending. OK- Cool – that's what I expected. But, I called today, paranoid, just wanting to confirm everything was ok (and so I could find out when we would get our extra special BT Hub thing), and I discovered that THERE IS NO RECORD OF MY ORDER!!! WTF?!?! Ok, fine – do the order again. But, they can't speed it up, either. So, it's going to be next Tuesday before it's available. Hmmm – Next Tuesday. When we are back in the States!!! Bastards! And the thing is.... There is nothing we can do about it. It will just be that way. Trying to go through someone else would just make it take longer.

So, the next thing – gotta find out from Sky why they are trying to charge me £99 for another Sky+ box when we already have one. I call, someone named Deborah answers rudely, after spending 5 minutes navigating through the VRU. I explain the situation. She hangs up on me. That's bad enough as it is… But then!! I try to dial back in, spend another 5 minutes navigating through the VRU and, guess what! "We expect to handle your call within 26 minutes." That was 62 minutes ago. And right about now, I am going to have to hang up so we can go back to the old place long enough for Ray to mow the lawn and get the last load of crap into the car. (And so I can upload this plus send Dad an email)

ARGGGG!!!! Can't people just do their job!?!?!?!?!?!

Note: After I finished writing this, I gave Ray the phone to hold on while I packed up to come over here to the old place.... Someone FINALLY answered to tell us that it was a form letter, they weren't really charging us £99 and that they STILL haven't turned off Sky Broadband or Sky Talk. And it took about an hour and twenty minutes to get that answer...

So… Here I wait.

The confirmation said (this is copied and pasted from the email sent):
"Thank you for mail and taking decision to use Euro Removal for your forth coming move. We are pleased to confirm that our team will be at CR5 2NP on Sunday 28th September between 8 to 9am "

And yet. Here it is. 10:20. Where are they?!?!

And of course, when things go wrong, they really go wrong…

I had to have Dad transfer money here for us. Coastal Federal can't do it, so I have to transfer money to Dad, and Dad has to go to his bank and transfer money to us. (Yeah, I know – we could use Western Union or any of a dozen other wire transfer services, but those are REALLY expensive, and it's a lot cheaper going through Dad's bank.) So – he tells her to transfer over $4000. DOLLARS. USD. The form even said $4000 EQUIVALENT into GBP Sterling. What did the idiot there do? She "miskeyed" it and sent £4000. GBP. Pounds Sterling. Which meant that she nearly drained Dad's checking account. AND it took 2 extra days to transfer because she sent it in the wrong currency. AND it meant that I had to turn around and send a bunch of money back. It's really ridiculous. So – we got the money on Friday just in time so that I could get the Bankers Draft for the Estate Agent. Grrrr.

And, on top of that. Poor Abbie is not well. Her eye is swollen and red. The doc says its conjunctivitis, but luckily the other dogs haven't gotten it. The problem is that it's not getting better with the drops that we are putting in and it's spread to the other eye now. She felt warm to me this morning, as if she might be running a fever. Poor pup.

Oh well – I need to go call the moving company… It's now 10:30!!

I was doing really good for a while as far as updating my blog. And now…

So – I am watching TV, and there is this new Citreon C4 commercial. It's just a bit odd because we can't buy Citreons in the US. Though, it isn't as bad as this one for the Renault Clio. We don't sell crap cars like that.

In trying to get our broadband moved from here to our new place, I was told by the lady at Sky that I would have to be without broadband for 20 days!!! TWENTY DAYS?!?!?! Ok- I work from home at least 2 days a week, sometimes 3 or 4. Ray has no where else to work from. We CANNOT be without broadband for 20 days.

Anyway – Need to run before my laptop battery dies… I am getting REALLY excited now! We move in 1 week, and we go back home in 2 weeks! Yay!

So I once again had to get sick… This time it was a really awful stomach bug. It started last Thursday. Today is the first day since then that food has stayed where it should. That makes me happy.

So, everything else is going well. Ray and I are moving to a new place with a TON of room, and a real back yard and it's fully detached and has a garage and a workshop. It's in a real neighborhood, with fields near by for Dingo to run in. Ray and I will each have our own offices, instead of being jammed into one small room. Plus! It's close to a REAL, American-style shopping mall. We were concerned at first about whether or not we've been approved for it, because despite the fact that we make far more than enough to rent this place, we had not been in the country for 3 years. It turns out that I alone make enough to make the creditors happy! Yay! These poor folks were trying to sell their house for 6 months because they are moving to France. The market here is really that bad. But, it is good for us, because we are getting the perfect place. It's kinda funny because the ad says no dogs allowed, but they have a Chocolate Lab and a Irish Wolfhound. We met the owner, and brought the fat Corgi with us. Compared to her large dogs, she wasn't too concerned about our small, medium and large set of animals. So, YAY! We move on 27^th of September. A bit close to our October 4^th flight back home, but that's ok. We will need a vacation then!

Well, my FP install is done, so I am going to try to continue working for a bit more…

So there was something on TV the other night about polyamourous couples. All I can say is: At least they are honest about it. You see all these folks lying, cheating, going behind their boyfriend's or girlfriend's or husband's or wife's back to do whatever they want. (I can't count how many people I know that can fall under that description.) So you don't believe that monogamy is the natural for humans. As long as you are HONEST about it, and everyone agrees, why is it a problem? Why did they need to make such a big deal out of it and make a show about it on ITV? It was a British show with British producers, following 2 American polyamorous families. It was kinda stupid and overly dramatic. And yet, here I am talking about it. :-)

Another show that we watched the other night – this one really kind of scary... Supposedly, it is fashionable for women here to have plastic surgery on their feminine bits. It's called vaginoplasty. I am not very believing of random statistics thrown at me from sensationalist TV shows... 300% as many women last year as the previous 2 years, or something like that, is really meaningless when we have no idea how many had the surgery in previous years. Anyway – they showed a girl that like 17 or 18 who felt bad about herself – and had her labia “trimmed”. That was bad enough – It really doesn't make sense for any person that young who isn't terribly deformed to have surgery like that... What was worse was a woman that was rather obese that wanted to have vaginal surgery because she thought her twat was too big. There are other problems that she may want to address if she is THAT concerned with aesthetics. I feel pretty strongly that you should be happy with who you are, and that you should do what makes YOU happy. That is, if you feel better about yourself when you wear certain clothes, or make up, then you should do it. You should be the size that is right for you, not what society thinks is right. You should listen to music you like, read what you find interesting, watch stuff you like. If you do things because you think you have a better chance of attracting someone, or impressing someone or for another person other than yourself, then, there is something wrong with this. Just be who you are and be comfortable with who you are. Or maybe I am over simplifying...

I got into it with someone previously because she couldn't understand this point of view. “Oh, you want to be unique, like everyone else.” In her overeagerness to spout forth regurgitated wisdom, she'd missed the point that, unlike everyone else, I don't actually care what anyone else is doing. I don't like - or dislike, for that matter - something because popular opinion says it's wonderful. I make my own decisions. You should too! Just because I think your Uggs are horrendously, offensively stupid, useless, a waste of money and, well, ugly, doesn't mean my opinion should matter to you. Who am I that my opinion should have any effect on your wardrobe? As long as YOU like your Uggs and aren't wearing them JUST because some celebrity does.

Anyway, that's it for now. Gotta logon to work while I am still in a good mood, smiling at Dingo chasing squirrels in her sleep while snoring loudly.