Tales of the unexpected

My life seems to currently be filled with unexpected expenses. Also with expected expenses, but its those pesky unexpected ones that cause all the trouble.

This week I took my bike in for a service. Should have been nice and easy. But it turns out that its not that simple. I had my steering lock replaced early this year after someone attempted to steal my bike. It never worked properly afterwards, and I called they guys who fixed it and they said to bring it in when I got the chance and they'd check it out again. Well, I got a bit busy and the bike was usually in the garage at home so I forgot about it, but it turns out that the whole thing is completely wrecked. Again. Probably because it wasn't fixed properly the first time. Its now too late to make them fix it for free.

I'm getting seriously cranky though. This is the second serious screw up by these guys. They managed to loose a complete set of keys to the bike and it's locks some time ago and stopped taking my calls when I demanded that they replace all the locks. I'm going to get stroppy with them this time. I'll be back every week if they dont get it right.

Madness

This place is completely bonkers. It should be nice and quiet for the next week at least while our illustrious leaders squabble amongst themselves for power. But instead of settling in for a nice little rest period, it seems that the minions must be kept occupied and so work has been invented for us. Today was spent trawling the internet for any chance passing statements by the key 'crossbenchers' relating to our work. For the record, that is neither an interesting nor especially enjoyable task. Even Google gets annoying after the first 40 or so nearly identical but no quite searches.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'm not counting on it though.

Follow up

I decided not to have pancakes. I had bacon and eggs instead.

The boy seems nice enough. Was a bit nervous, but I dont hold that against him. We'll see what the future holds.

In the balance and pancakes

It should be an entertaining couple of weeks. It seems that the Australian people are not all of the same mind when it comes to the running of the country. It will be an interesting lesson in the representative government process if it is nothing else.

In lighter news, I'm off for brunch today with someone new. I firmly believe that it is good to arrange first face to face meetings over food. It provides something to do with your hands, and hands are usually the first thing that start displaying evidence of nervousness. A coffee cup is ok, but wielding a knife and fork is much more involved and hence more effective.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Election day

This is NOT the place for political discussion, but I have to express my disappointment with the candidates this year. This state is renowned for its political kooks. Every election you get a few odd sorts, independent's and small parties throwing their hats in the ring. Its usually pretty entertaining to see how much of the vote they get.

This time however, its like they have all given up and gone home. My ballot had just three names and the senate bill just 7 - and only one independent.

I'm disappointed.

Hint taken

Ignoring people sometimes works. In this instance it has now been 4 days with no more texts or emails. Its nice that it's over cleanly.

Take the hint!

As previously mentioned, I blew off a date last week because I had a migraine. I wasn't that keen on the guy anyway, and he wasn't thrilled that I blew him off so I wasn't too fussed. But he seems to have gotten over his sulk and has texted, called and emailed 5 times since saturday lunchtime. I have tried to fob him off gently without saying outright that he just isn't that interesting (or more accurately is quite annoying and slightly offensive with his constant derogatory jokes).

I am now resorting to ignorance. If polite refusals to catch up aren't going to cut it, then I am just not going to respond any more. Seriously, how many times do you have to say 'no thanks' before they get the hint?

I hate dating. I really do. I'm not really a people person, I like my own space and I'm not big on 'going out' all the time (apparently this is why I am classed as an introvert on the Myers-Briggs scale) but I dont want to invite random boys home. I also dont like hurting people, so I try for a soft landing. But this is one time I may have to get blunt and tell him to back off. I hope not. It makes me feel sick just to think about it.