ok, here is the continuing saga of my visit from the riders....
1. as you know, on the way to the airport, at about 05:45 i was tempted by a parked up taxi with its light on, as i had to wait 12 mins for the bus, and went to get money at the atm at tesco, which malfunctioned, and swallowed my card. some might wonder why i was flying to australia without any money...and let me tells ya, i do now...but at the time, apparently i wasnt really thinking straight. so has it been easy to sort out...HAHAHAHA!...NO FUCKING DANGER! that was the 30th january, its now the 18th march, and i still dont have a card for my main account!!! when i was in australia, i called to ask why the atm had stolen my card, and to ask for a replacemnent, which i asked bill to send over to me. it came, and bill asked the man in the post office which was the quickest way...it was supposed to arrive in 5 to 8 days. 3 weeks later, the day before i left, it still hadnt arrived, so i called the bank again...and this time, as one of the security questions was my address, they told me that they had it recorded wrongly, and would correct it, and send a card in 3 to 5 days. i thought i would be here when i returned home! wrong!
this is such a long story, ive started a whole new paragraph!!!! when i hadnt arrived after 10 days, i called again, only to be told that i hadnt asked for a new card to be sent out, and that my address had been changed to flat 3 chalmers buildings...of which there are 4 in my building!!! i was also told that i couldnt change my address again over the phone, and would have to go into a branch to reset it..happy happy joy joy! pissed off...moi! shurley shome mishtake. although, given the address they had its probably just as well they didnt send a card out.....however...i went in to the only nationwide in my close proximity, and did all the schtik, so hopefully, on monday, i will actually be able to access my major account!
in the meantime....
2. i asked qatar to change my flight, and they sent me a quote for a flight going out on the 14th feb and returning on the 30th january...i kid you not. for these changes(!) the charge was £969!!! strangely, i declined, but when i called again to report the impossibility of this, i was told that they had no other flights available, so i just booked another flight on ethiad via abu dhabi. stupidly i just thought that i would be able to use my booked return...but, thanks to binni, i called to check, and, of course, i couldnt use the return if i hadnt used the outward. fuck! so i had to book another return, and since i had to put the deposit for rose's funeral onto my credit card, i had a bill due, but no card to pay it with, and had to pay the bill before i could put on another charge.... poor old binni and kim..they had to not only give me spending money in the absence of my card, but pay my credit card bill as well! i actually had a panic attack at that moment. however, bill paid, flight home booked, seemed all fine and dandy. but now...2 weeks later, i still dont have a card! so they say that charity starts at home, how true...not only did my friends have to support me for a month and pay my bills, when i returned home, i met eli at the airport (i knew she was going to be there, dont mean i just bumped into her by chance), and then she gave me dosh as well. how fucking lucky am i. when i went to the back to give the schtik, the teller said to me 'god, how have you managed without a card for 2 months'....apparently she doesnt have as good friends and family as i do!!!!! but then, who does? no one!!!!
in the meantime....
3. when i arrived off the 13 hour flight from abu dhabi to brisbane, i was already informed on the plane that anyone connecting to canberra, adelaide or new zealand had 30 mins max to make the connection. and i had to do that thing im not very good at...runrunrun through the airport, missing out picking up my booked duty free, and get my bag at the carousel and book in again to get to the domestic terminal. round the carousel there were staff shouting, 'those of you on these flights...get your bag and run to the check in'.....gogogog....and i said to them...im sorry, i cant get my bag any quicker than it appears here....but i made it, just. last person to check in 2 mins before deadline! hoorah. and you might think that was all...but no...
4. on the way back, on the flight that i could only book because binni and kim paid my credit card bill, my flight from canberra landed in sydney 10 mins after my onward one to doha was boarding. ten people on the flight had flights which departed in less than 30 mins...and we all had to change from the domestic to international terminal. i have never seen this before...but we were allowed to get up while the plane was still taxi-ing to the gate, get all our stuff, and queue at the door so we got off right away. after running through the domestic terminal, there was a special bus to collect about 20 people with short connections...swinging us to the international terminal with 15 minutes to spare. there were two people going on a flight to hawaii leaving 10 mins before mine...you have never seen anyone run so fast in flip-flops, and to be honest, for me, the only reason i made it was the woman, lindsay, sitting next to me on the canberra flight was also on my doha flight, and was a nurse flying to iraq. she wouldnt leave me, but just also punched her way through any queue we were in. im guessing she is a fantastic nurse, and a real boon to the people of iraq. had it not been for her, i might still be in sydney airport, like tom hanks in terminal, picking food out of the bin at macdonalds, and sleeping in a toilet with the light on. but....hallelulah, we made it...with 3 minutes to spare...HA!
5. however..guess what....my bag didnt!
had to wait for it for 4 days....in the mean time, was staying at bills with no clothes, no toiletries, and, strangely, no money! something of a theme there!
6. luckily i just happened to bump into eli at the airport...and she paid not only for the taxi home, but also for the copious amounts of wine we consumed while still working out the lawyer shit, inland revenue who had sent a bill for £100 fine and £10 a day because rose hadnt filled in her tax return by the end of january. when i called them, they grudgingly acknowleged that a person who had died on the 10th perhaps couldnt fill in a return by the 31st, and that they would drop the fine. how nice!
7. my assistant manager, for 2 of the weeks i was off, didnt enter me on the rota...she just left me blank. i called liz about it, and she said that she had told her to put it through as authorised leave...but mel says that she didnt know what to enter, so she just didnt put in anything.....dont even know what to say. then she told me that after her mother died, she 'took a depression', and had to be written of by the doctor. she told me it was worse than a sister dying....i just couldnt reply to that one....so i havent been paid! i cant imagine a scenario, ever, that i dont enter something on the rota for everyone of my staff, even if it is 'unauthorised leave'. mel told me that payroll had called her to find out where i was, but she didnt know what to tell them, so just said nothing...they said, 'well, im guessing she will be back when she realises that she isnt getting paid anymore!'. i cant even tell you how mad that makes me feel....
but on the plus side.....MY CARD ARRIVED TODAY!!!!!!
thank the fucking lord!