I was heading home from a blissful holiday in Byron Bay, when, alas, my plane had to detour via Sydney due to bad weather. Being that the flight to Melbourne was only two hours, I had geared myself up for that length of time sans cigarettes, so when a detour to Sydney imposed a further delay to the inhalation of nicotine, I was not a happy camper (nor the other women in my row on the plane who also happened to be smokers). Luckily, I was so high from my holiday, that not even being grounded in Sydney whilst the plane refueled could dampen my spirits for too long.

After a week long perpetual post holiday shag high, I officially now have a serious case of the post holiday blues. The only thing to diminish my doldrums is to plan another holiday to a sunny tropical location – stat! Currently contemplating between Thailand, Bali or northern Queensland.

Running out of cigarettes whilst waiting for your money to transfer from one bank account to the other over the weekend.

What is annoying you this month?

When my stockings keep falling down and I have to spend all day tugging at them to hitch them back up – second in annoyance only to the wayward bra strap.

Running for the train and watching it pull away just as you get to the door (even better when all the passengers on the train have watched you frantically pushing the button on the door, but the train still decides to pull away). Only surpassable by actually walking to the station and discovering that you’ve left your purse at home and have to turn around, walk back home and then walk back to the station again (my fate last night as I headed to a new product launch – my super straight hair did not appreciate the quickened pace as I half ran half walked in my wedged heels to get there and back in time).

People who are positive ALL of the time. Please don’t get me wrong, because I am a super positive person MOST of the time and I avoid overly negative people and situations. However, it’s not real to pretend to be positive all of the time, when in fact things are crap. It’s as though it has become a crime to admit you’re having a bad day, and there is a pressure to pretend things are otherwise, which can be quite an exhausting facade to keep up. Life isn’t always sunshine and lollipops. When you give yourself permission to be in a bad mood or feel down for a day, you will find that your natural optimism returns a whole lot quicker.

My mobile phone will continually vibrate and make a noise every 15 minutes until I check my messages – actually it is taunting me right now from the living room. If I wanted to get up and check my messages I would god damn it! I swear I am ready to throw it out the window!

Air kissing, shallow and self absorbed people who are successful but lacking in real talent. Especially when most do not see through the facade. Gggggrrr.

People who place unrealistic expectations on you and then go all passive aggressive on you when you say no.

What’s annoying you right now?

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Aggressive People

I have always gravitated towards calm, peaceful and gentle, which also tends to go hand in hand with my ardent adoration of beauty, refinement and all things pretty. Overly aggressive people who yell, scream and say nasty things, really do upset my equilibrium. I don’t understand it, I don’t like it and I don’t want any part of it.

Lack of Support and Medical Research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Ignorant people who don’t recognise Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as a legitimate illness, nor take the time to research the facts before judging someone with it as lazy. This illness needs a whole lot more support and recognition, to stop so many people suffering in silence and losing years, even decades of their lives. It is only now, as an ex sufferer, that I have found my voice because of Theda Myint.

I will continue to speak and do my part in raising awareness, so that no one has to suffer like she is now. It is heartbreaking that she has had to deteriorate this much, but what is even more heartbreaking, are the ten years leading up to this point. I hope that by people voicing her story, we can somehow bring meaning to the quiet suffering she has endured for so long.

Click here to read about Theda Myint’s desperate plight to stay alive, after suffering with the worst reported case of CFS witnessed by a Perth GP, who treated 10,000 cases during his career.

Please click here for details on how to donate to the Help Theda fund. I also know that her dedicated friend Jane Ann who is fronting the media campaign and fundraising efforts could do with some help. If you would like to help Jane Ann with media releases or coordinating fundraising, please contact me here, and I will pass on your details to Jane Ann.

If you have CFS, are supporting someone with CFS or would like to know more about this syndrome, you can visit the ME/CFS Society of WA.

You might also like Kirrily Anderson’s book called “Creative For A Second”.

“Creative For A Second was born when artist and CFS/ME sufferer Kirrily Anderson began to notice the large amount of creativity amongst the CFS/ME community. Seeing an opportunity to highlight this creativity and spread awareness, Kirrily began to contact fellow creative sufferers and after much interest decided to collate people’s artwork and experiences and put it all together in a book.”

Other People’s Crap

There are times in your life when you start to draw a line in the sand with certain things. Things you will not tolerate. Things you won’t put up with anymore. Things you are no longer interested in. I recently drew such a line (and it was a hard line at that) to signify the end of taking on other people’s crap, and when I say crap, I’m talking about people projecting THEIR issues onto me.

As someone who is pretty intuitive (I really should get myself a crystal ball and set up shop one day), I often pickup on what people are feeling, which also includes when they might be annoyed, pissed off or shitty. Being the lover of harmony that I am, I would always seek to fix it. Make it better. Make sure everything is okay. But, I don’t do that anymore. Because, I’ve learnt to stop feeling nervous when I think other people might be shitty with me (because let’s face it, why would they be – nudge, nudge, wink, wink). If I haven’t done anything wrong, then it’s not my stuff, and I’m not going to drain myself workshopping it, just so I know they’re not shitty with me. Quite frankly, I don’t have the time, energy or the inclination, and nor should I have to. Other people’s bad moods, short tempers and plain selfishness are not my responsibility.

I have too many lovely friends who understand and respect who I am, who know that they only have to tell me if I have upset them (and that I would want them to), and I will immediately make it right – because I am understanding and genuinely care. They also know that I don’t enjoy when people get uptight over little things, create dramas out of nothing or crack it at me for no good reason. I have been hurt and exhausted too many times in the past by other people’s crap. Not anymore.

I Love My Macbook But …

… why the hell does it only have 1GB of RAM? For the non IT savvy, this translates to = painfully f*%king slow! If I have more than 2 applications open, it is pinwheel city. e.g. every time I click on something, it takes two minutes to happen. As much as it pains me to blasphemous to thy mac (I love her so much I have even named her Millie), why did they make a laptop without enough RAM to be functional? I have since discovered that the new version of  my laptop has 2MB of RAM. The solution is to have an additional GB of RAM added to my laptop, but the thought of going without it, whilst it goes into surgery is too much too bare. So, until such time I go on holiday (where one is not meant to check their emails), I will have to endure the tediousness of a painfully slow laptop. *sigh*

]]> http://gaynoralder.com/2010/03/15/things-that-shit-me-march/feed/ 5 http://gaynoralder.com/2010/02/13/things-that-shit-me-not-happy-jan/ http://gaynoralder.com/2010/02/13/things-that-shit-me-not-happy-jan/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:31:57 +0000 Gaynor Alder http://gaynoralder.com/?p=1297 To say that I am not happy with Optus, is a f*%king understatement. Pissed off, annoyed, angry and upset doesn’t begin to cover it either.

THE PEOPLE VERSUS OPTUS

1. It took them 2 weeks to send a technician to reconnect my service at my new address. To add insult to injury, I have been charged during this time whilst I had no service.

2. My phone and internet was suspended. When I rang up they told me I had used 100 GB for the month. Ummm, unless my split personality has a nasty addiction for watching porn on the net all day every day, I think there may be an error. When I rang back, the technician told me that whoever told me that was wrong. It was in fact 22GB, which was only 2GB over my allowance. Phew, I thought. How much could a measly couple of gigs over my allowance cost me?

3. They charged me $300 for 2GB of excess usage!! Looking at the fine print in my contract, I am charged 15c per MB when I go over. That doesn’t sound like much does it? Exactly what they want you to think, which is why they don’t actually tell you how much that is per GB – $150!! I have no issue paying for excess usage, but WHY is it charged at such an exorbitant rate?!? I can buy 1 GB for $20 on a prepaid internet service, and for $99 a month on my plan, I not only get 2oGB of internet, but also unlimited local, mobile and interstate calls. So how the f%*K can they justify charging me a $150 for 1 GB?!!

Oh, I know, it’s so they can put me between a rock and a hard place, and then offer to “help me”, by offering a 50% discount on my excess usage if I go up to the $130 plan a month. Considering Optus never even used to charge excess usage fees, but just slow down your service, I think this is a massive wrought. It sucks. Oh, yes, they sent me emails to say I was approaching my limit, but to my Optus address which I had to create to set up my account with them, but never use. Funny, how they checked with me what email address I wanted my bill sent to!

4. Because I have no service at home, I have had to spend $60 this month on pre paid internet and then another $80 on prepaid mobile, on top of the $130 I am paying for my suspended service. I feel like I am hemorrhaging money out of my bank account to Optus. Here Optus, here’s my pay, go on take it, take it all.

5. When I tried to write them a letter, there was no address, only a contact form. When I filled that in with my complaint, I was told that I had to call. Ummm, I’ve just got off the phone with someone who just keeps reciting Optus’ policies and procedures. Needless to say, I’m not keen to call up again from my mobile which I am now paying a gazillion dollars per minute for (because you cut off my home service), to be placed on hold in your automated telephone queue, to then be told I can set up a payment plan. I don’t want to freaking pay it back, I want this ludicrous charge taken off my bill!

6. The pre paid mobile internet service I have had to use in the interim (which by the way cost $99 for the key alone) continually cuts out. When I asked what was wrong with it, I was told because it operates off a mobile tower, that it can cut out just like a mobile does. Hang on a minute. Why didn’t you tell me that before I bought it, and secondly, how come I have crystal clear mobile reception in my home, yet your mobile internet service doesn’t?! I live inner city, not at Ayers Rock. It is also so slow, that I want to chuck my laptop through the window.

Needless to say I won’t be renewing my contract with Optus. It shits me that these large companies rip off consumers, and we are left feeling powerless to do anything about it. I can’t take them to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, because the excess usage fees were in the contract I agreed to. How about not disguising it as 15c per MB, which doesn’t sound like much even to the tech savvy person.

What are you “not happy jan” about this month?

I’ve spent most of this week moving house. As a free spirited minimalist, I am adverse to accumulating large items of furniture, which has meant moving has been relatively easy for me in the past. However, this time there were two of us moving in. If pushing fridges, couches and widescreen TVs up a set of stairs to the second floor wasn’t enough to tip me over the edge, the fact that it was 44 degrees sure was. It was a relentless, hot and sweaty 3 days of packing, unpacking, transporting and cleaning. I never want to see another Budget removal van or the inside of Fort Knox as long as I live!

Being Stranded Without a Phone and Internet Connection

Once I moved in, I thought I would be able to relax. But no. There were keys to return, mail to redirect and phone and internet connections to be reconnected. Thinking it would be a matter of a phone call and a few days wait at most, I contacted Optus to discover it would be a 2 week wait. Take my left leg if you like, but don’t take my internet. After a few days of twiddling my thumbs, walking round the house in circles, trekking to the internet cafe and not being able to contact people short of sending a smoke signal, I’d had enough. I charged into Optus today and bought myself a prepaid wireless connection and a new mobile phone.

Trying to Sleep on a 44 Degree Day Without Air Conditioning

Connecting To a New Internet Plan

Just buy this wireless key and plug it in. So I was told. In reality, I spent the afternoon entering my information to activate my plan, and the computer continually rejecting my name “against their records”. Umm, yes, that is my name, and I have had it since 1976. So I then go to the “easy installation” brochure, to search for a number to call. Alas, there is no number! On the other hand, when I want to query my bill and ask for an email address for their Senior Manager, I am told I must call. For f%@k’s sake!

People Who Think You Are a Snob Just Because You Like Nice Things

I have high standards. When I shop for clothes, I like quality fabrics (I can spot spandex and ployester impostering as more expensive fabrics a mile away). When I shop for groceries, I like to go to a nice supermarket (in particular the ones that sell gourmet produce) or have it delivered straight to my door step. I like living in nice areas, where I can walk to cafes and shops. Does all this make me a snob? I don’t need to justify it to myself, because I know who I am, but just for the record, just because you like nice things, doesn’t mean you are a snob.

Image Sources

http://sacredlotus.typepad.com/.a/6a010535c401e2970b0120a5442595970c-500wi

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3687190826_36af6627d8_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeon7/2615071041/

Washing Dishes in the Sink

Yes, the unthinkable happened – my dishwasher broke down. I hit the on button and swanned to my bed to lay down, but instead of the usual hum, there was silence. I opened and shut the door a few times and still, nothing. Frantically, I pushed previously unused buttons in the vain hope I could get it working. When I realised, that yes it was true, my dishwasher was no more, I fell to the floor in a fit of uncontrollable sobbing – well, maybe not quite so dramatic, but life as I knew it has come to an end.

The dishwasher repairman has had it for 3 weeks, and the dishes are piling up all around me as a I procrastinate on the hideous task that is immersing one’s hands in hot dirty water and wiping the grime off plates. It’s a task that once I finally muster up the motivation for, I do with a complete lack of commitment. I just want to get those dishes in and out the water and onto the side of the sink in the quickest time possible, and if that means that the odd knife and fork still has remnants of my meal on it, well, so be it.

I hold washing pots and pans in such contempt, that I would rather have root canal than scrub them, and they inevitably sit in my sink for 3 days “soaking”. Not only am I currently considering buying plastic plates and cutlery until the return of my beloved kitchen appliance, I would conduct highly immoral acts if the repairman would push my job to the head of the queue.

Anal Retentive Bed Partners

I’m currently sharing a bed with someone whose always fighting me for the sheets. Yes, I concede I may have bad bed sharing etiquette and sometimes suck up the doona during the night, and wake in the morning to discover I’ve taken up the whole bed (and left them shivering on the edge of it), BUT, enough with the not being able to get into bed unless every sheet corner is tucked in per hospital standards. “Look, here’s your own doona, use that, and no I don’t know where your sleeping mask is. Now shut up and let me get to sleep.”

Living in a Studio the Size of a Shoebox

Don’t get me wrong, my studio may be small, but it’s lovely and only a hop, skip and a jump away from Chapel St (literally). It’s been ever so fabulous to me, taking me in and looking after me when I needed it the most and allowed me to live by myself in an inner city location, but now after nearly 2 years the walls feel like they’re caving in on me.

I need a desk that I can spread my work out on, without having my elbows jammed up against the printer which takes up half of the small desk I can fit next to my bed and in between my kitchen. I’d like a dinner table to eat my food on, so I don’t have to balance my meal on my lap in bed, and cursing every time something spills onto my freshly washed doona. I’d love a couch to sit on to watch TV and I’d like to be able to cook a meal in my kitchen without it messing up my whole house.

I’m hoping that this becomes a tale I’ll retell when I’m being interviewed by Vogue about my latest best seller, reminiscient of the latest Oscar winner, who after they’ve thanked God and their parents, go on to tell how they nearly gave it all up a few years back, because they couldn’t pay their rent and were living out of their car.

Well it’s not exactly that bad, afterall I do live in South Yarra and my studio does have marble bench tops and stainless steel fittings, but I’d still really like a living room and a wall between my bed and my kitchen, so that I don’t have to wake up next to my sink! *sigh*

Having a Doorbell Nobody Can *%*$*!! Find

My studio is hidden down a laneway and is so difficult for delivery drivers to find, that I may as well tell them I live in Narnia. I give long winded detailed instructions, knowing full well they’ll never find it and I will get one of those red cards (“we tried to deliver ….) in the letterbox and have to go to Australia Post to collect it my *%*$*!! self.

LATE NIGHT INFOMERCIALS

I’m a night owl, and this means I’m often up into the early hours writing on my mac and spending far too much time on Facebook for my own good. I’ve always liked the TV on in the background (you see, when I was a little girl, my Dad was a night owl too, which meant he was often up watching TV into the early hours and the sound of it meant I knew I was safe and the boogey man wasn’t going to get me whilst I was sleeping) but around 1am is when I want to run screaming from my bedroom in a state of manic hysteria.

Why, you ask? It’s Zumba time! If the sound of Mike Goldberg’s voice isn’t enough to provoke a boredom induced seizure, then watching Principal’s Secret, Cindy Crawford’s Meaningful Beauty, Mr T’s Flavour Waver, Wen, Sheer Cover, Cardio Twister, Ab King Pro or the H2O Steam Mop informercials for the hundredth time certainly are! The only thing worse than watching Victoria Principal take her bus out again, is it playing simultaneously on 2 different channels. For fuck’s sake!

Let’s not forget the Snuggie, which makes wearers look like they are part of a cult. My personal favourite is “you can even wear it to your favourite sporting game” – yeah like that is going to happen anytime soon without some sort of social assassination.

Seriously, who are the people picking up the phone and ordering this crap?!?!

Copyright 2009 | Gaynor Alder

Image Source

Nosy people who ask things they have no business asking – enough with the questions please!
People who make a joke out of something to inadvertently have a go at you about something.
Anal retentive people who get uptight over menial things – get some perspective about what is really important.
People who talk back at the TV – it can’t hear you!
Having my shoes re-heeled, only to have the heels fall off again in just 3 weeks time
Ego maniac power trippers who need to disempower others to make themselves feel important – please, this is so boring.
People who don’t use deodorant and catch the train in peak hour – $4.95 from Coles
Snooty women in Toorak who expect me to make room for them on the tiny desk in Australia Post – just because you have bigger hair than me, doesn’t give you the right to push in front of me.
Standing in long lines in Australia Post – do you not know who I am?!?
The fruit and vegetables at Coles Prahran – actually Coles Prahran full stop – let me introduce you to a mop – you put it in a bucket of hot soapy water and use it to clean the floor.
Bank fees – $35 fee when you overdraw your cheque account by $20.
Internet connections that drop out.
Sales assistants who stalk me and try to engage me in meaningless conversation by asking me about the weather – fuck off and leave me alone whilst I’m shopping!