Insert swear word here

Dear government agency,

When I complained last year about the decision to no longer offer opening hours outside 8:30-4:30 weekdays ( the time many taxpayers such as myself are working) you told me that this was because your digital was superior.  It’s not.  It can’t cope with the complex claims I used to take in to the office. I don’t care about the simple claims, those are easy.

Gah

And after a conversation about this with the feedback hotline, it’s because your phone app (only available to those in the population with smartphones)does. Nowhere on the website is this indicated. Possibly because your Comms people are smart enough to know this is not a good indicator of how you view your clientele- either they are free enough during the week to go in in person (not adequately employed) or they have enough money to have a smart phone.

Still a cranky customer.

Travel

Things I like about traveling

  • On an airplane, once it has taken off, looking down at the land.
  • On an airplane, just sitting in my chair and chilling out, it’s a chance to just relax
  • Travelling by train
  • The chance to walk around a neighbourhood, looking at the supermarket and the daily living things. Seeing how universal some things are, and how many meetings other universal needs can differ.  Last year in the USA we had the opportunity to do this in New York and Chicago (a point for air BnB) and also in Northampton. This year we did the same in Tokyo, and to some degree in Kyoto and Osaka. Supermarkets in other countries are always different in surprising ways.
  • Spending time in a cafe, reading a book
  • Sharing something new with my husband
  • Being able to show whoever I am travelling with (usually my husband) something I liked/thought was good
  • Trying new food
  • Going to art museums
  • Going to history museums/social history museums
  • Going to outdoor building museums
  • Walking outside, especially in environments that don’t exist in Australia!
  • Shopping for crafty stuff
  • Food/drink I can’t get at home
  • Onsens
  • Riding on trains, looking at the city
  • Participating in local events
  • Watching baseball
  • Disney!
  • Overseas home stores/electronics shops. Furniture and white goods vary by country.
  • Planning the trip
  • Unplanned moments of serendipity
  • Getting to the airport early enough to have a coffee and relax, starting the trip in a mellow frame of mind
  • Leaving home
  • Coming home

Things I don’t like about traveling

  • Going through security and passport control at the airport
  • Checking in for the flight
  • Waiting for luggage to arrive
  • Wearing the same clothes I wore on the plane
  • Take off and landing
  • Airplane bathrooms
  • Tourist/backpacker bars
  • Trying to catch specific train links
  • Travelling by bus.
  • Travelling a long time on overcrowded trains (20 minutes max)
  • Bad food where there is no other option
  • Going over the weight limit 
  • More than a limited period of time in Akihabara/electronic stores.  I don’t have a specific known time limit, but I know it isn’t as long as my husband’s. 
  • Places with no public seating (looking at you Japan)
  • Not eating lunch/breakfast on time.  This means cranky.
  • Booking hotels on the phone. 
  • Almost missing a flight through no fault of your own but because traffic/trains/buses broke down
  • Running through an airport
  • Lost luggage
  • Long and slow check-in queues

I would like to add pictures for these…

Cafe, new food (ice cream in those macaroons), time with my husband
Cafe, new food (ice cream in those macaroons), time with my husband
Disney
Disney
Fireworks in Japan
Fireworks in Japan
River festival in rocky
River festival in rocky
New food in a cafe in Ueno
New food in a cafe in Ueno
Asakusa Temple forecourt
Asakusa Temple forecourt
The street crowds watching fireworks in Tokyo.
The street crowds watching fireworks in Tokyo.
At the handmade festival
At the handmade festival
Art museum in Hakone
Art museum in Hakone
More Hakone art
More Hakone art

Microblog Monday…

I have these thoughts, but when I sit to write my blog posts they are gone.

So random statuses.

I went back to work mid-last week. Very tiring the first few days, but movement helped.  I did discover walking around the block at work was too far for me.

G has been sick since I was in the hospital- a double whammy of pneumonia and the flu.  Plus a newly discovered allergy to dust mites.  So it’s been interesting- I can’t do much and he can’t do much either.

Lots and lots of sleeping happening.

I did watch the first half of friends the first season.  Was the original actress playing Ross’s ex-wife replaced?  I think I see the appeal now- young single adults in the city- in a way I didn’t quite get my first years of Uni.

I also finished a small cross stitch project and worked on one of my rag rugs.

Things I wish I had done before my surgery

Some thoughts

1. Taken a belly selfie.  One of the side effects is some swelling/ bloating.  I can’t tell what is last few years weight gain and what is surgery puffery.  Plus I could have done a whole series of belly selfies on FB!

2. Done a temporary tattoo of a dashed line and a little pair of scissors on my lower belly.  There’s a business opportunity there.

3. Dyed my map of tassie* a spectacular colour, or cut it in an amusing shape.  Given the number of people who saw it over the days at the hospital, it would have been entertaining.

Anything else I should have done?

* Australian slang for the patch of hair found in one’s nether regions.  I am trying to thwart certain search terms.

Update

Was discharged from hospital on Saturday. Spent the weekend doing little.  But my husband, who needs to be the one doing the heavy work, is sick. So not awesome. I feel guilty for having to ask him to do things I could normally do.

And J still has the attitude.  I don’t know what to do there except point out that if he is really unhappy he does have the option (somewhat) of leaving. He is legally an adult. An unemployed one with the survival skills of a baby chick, but the law doesn’t care about that.  At the end of the day, he can choose to leave, and if continues to be rude to us, then there are things were do not have to do for him (allow him to drive is at the top of that list).

So today, I worked from home, G was sick at home and J stayed home and looked for work(?). It turns out that four hours of sitting isn’t good for me, even when it is comfortable. Then we went grocery shopping.  So I am in bed at 7:30. I hate working from home, it just doesn’t work for me.  Which my boss knows.  So, when I say I have to do it again, she’ll know I am still struggling.

bright side, I have been reading and I watched the first 10 episodes of season one of friends.  

Observations from a hospital bed

Firstly, I wasn’t expecting to still be here.  The original plan (as I understood) was that I have the surgery Thursday morning, stay overnight and be discharged Friday morning.  

So, the surgery happened earlyish Thursday morning, a laparotomy, so I will have a larger scar.  I spent most of the day dozing and medicated. One of those pain med on-demand things plus a fair amount of pain when I moved.  A lovely diet of clear fluids.

Then this morning my catheter came out and I failed to need to wee for some time ( I had to wee twice and have a scan before I could leave). It hurt to move much. I struggled to eat breakfast and was sad. G came in and sat in my room.  We did not see my surgeon.

Physio came and made me walk. Ow.  I sat in a chair. Ow. I agreed to shower and managed a wee.  Yay.  I felt sick, so on the oxygen, but no more painkiller on demand. Then the surgeon showed up- the fibroid is gone. It was a big one.  Yay. But staying the night again. 

I napped, managed a wee and the scan and all good.  Amazing what a couple of hours will do.

Thoughts- especially early- this really hurts, and if I do get pregnant I will require a c section, which I imagine is similarly painful.  Not sure about that. Being allergic to orange juice is odd, and yet doesn’t prevent me from being served at breakfast.

Still Around

Stressed at work- a project due date got moved from end of September to September 4. With a week to,complete it.  Done now, or at least that part but brain fried.

Stressed at home.  J is 19 and has attitude to match. I lack the patience on this. He seems to be angry all the time.  No dude, being asked to empty and fill the dishwasher once a day is not onerous, especially when you create half of the dirty dishes.  Being required to put your shoes on the shoe rack is not a ridiculous requirement. 

Health stress.  Booked in for a fibroid removal next week.  It’s not cheap.  I am not sure of the recovery time, but I am stressed if I am looking forward to the enforced bed rest.

Money. Not too terrible, but the op will not help. Plus there are a couple of exhibitions in Melbourne G and I want to see.  They end in November. A weekend there, flights and hotel is probably at least $1500. That’s about the same cost of moving j’s stuff up from tassie.  I am pretty much nope on the moving of stuff ( my life experience of having to move and live somewhere with just a suitcase more than once makes me less sympathetic to someone who didn’t plan very well). But how can I justify spending that much on a weekend away then!  And also, don’t really want to bring J along.  I am still not very happy about his behaviour when we went to Rocky.  I am not inclined to provide an all expenses paid trip somewhere nice to someone who acts like I am a problem in their life and that I can be treated rudely.