Some bouquets and a large brickbat
I will start with a couple of bouquets, mainly because that will allow my wrath over the brickbat to stew a little further.
The first bouquet goes to Country Energy for the effective and courteous way they undertok the inspection of poles on our property. They really are a great organisation and I hope that if the sale goes through the new owners of the utility keep the staff and keep up the good work. (It is interesting that I normally have a lot of time for Premier Kenneally but think she has dropped the ball on this one. Equally, the mere fact that Fred Nile opposes something would lead me to support it but not this time.)
My second bouquet gets shared around a bit because lots of companies get involved but they all more or less done good. The remote control for our DVD player went belly up and I needed a new one. On visiting the Good Guys (our electrical retailer of choice) they didn't sell them, but were kind enough to tell me who did and where to find them. The vendor was a mob called WOW and they promptly recommended a Logitech Harmony 300 Universal Remote. This does everything the old Samsung one did and is a little more logical. So floral tributes all round.
OK. No more Mr Nice Guy. Frances wanted to go to a gym class today and as I had finished blackberrying in time I said I'd go in with her to schlep the recycling stuff into the collection bins. I thought I'd take the small dog and go for a walk as well. Frances asked if I could drop by the Kingston ACT Library and pick up some books she had reserved. All done nicely and no hods get emptied thus far.
At this point my luck ran out. I decided that I would like to get my teeth around a burger while walking the dog, but to go to the Yass Rd Takeaway in Queanbeyan would mean leaving a yowling dog outside. Then I thought of the red van in Bowen Park which always has a bunch of people on deck ordering grub. (The place has had a lot of trouble with ACT Government Planners and National Capital Authority bureaucrats saying they hadn't planned to have a restaurant there. This is in itself a great reason for me to support the burger bar.) As it's outside there would be no difficulty about the dog. So I get there and join quite a long and slow moving queue. After about 15 minutes ((!!!) mainly spent trying to keep Tammy and a Samoyed looking thing a little further up the queue away from each other I place my order and get a docket #43.
I couldn't quite work out how one picked up the nutrients until the serving person yells out "#31 and 32 your food is here". So there are 11 more groups - some involving 6 or 7 people - in front of me and I take the small dog to look at some swans. Both parties to this inspection look a bit worried about the other. On getting back to the van it seems that all the people who had placed orders in front of me are still there. Nothing happens except more people keep ordering food: no nosh is being distributed. So by 30 minutes after I have placed my order I asked the serving idiot how much longer: 5 minutes he says. After 10 minutes have passed he calls orders 33 and 34 to pick up their kit. I then go and say "I have to leave now: give me my money back please." Notice the politeness. The response was I have yours here waiting to wrap." "I have waited an hour and have to go. Give me my money back." "Fred: this guy has no patience. Give him his money back."
There are two things that astonish me about this performance:
The first bouquet goes to Country Energy for the effective and courteous way they undertok the inspection of poles on our property. They really are a great organisation and I hope that if the sale goes through the new owners of the utility keep the staff and keep up the good work. (It is interesting that I normally have a lot of time for Premier Kenneally but think she has dropped the ball on this one. Equally, the mere fact that Fred Nile opposes something would lead me to support it but not this time.)
My second bouquet gets shared around a bit because lots of companies get involved but they all more or less done good. The remote control for our DVD player went belly up and I needed a new one. On visiting the Good Guys (our electrical retailer of choice) they didn't sell them, but were kind enough to tell me who did and where to find them. The vendor was a mob called WOW and they promptly recommended a Logitech Harmony 300 Universal Remote. This does everything the old Samsung one did and is a little more logical. So floral tributes all round.
OK. No more Mr Nice Guy. Frances wanted to go to a gym class today and as I had finished blackberrying in time I said I'd go in with her to schlep the recycling stuff into the collection bins. I thought I'd take the small dog and go for a walk as well. Frances asked if I could drop by the Kingston ACT Library and pick up some books she had reserved. All done nicely and no hods get emptied thus far.
At this point my luck ran out. I decided that I would like to get my teeth around a burger while walking the dog, but to go to the Yass Rd Takeaway in Queanbeyan would mean leaving a yowling dog outside. Then I thought of the red van in Bowen Park which always has a bunch of people on deck ordering grub. (The place has had a lot of trouble with ACT Government Planners and National Capital Authority bureaucrats saying they hadn't planned to have a restaurant there. This is in itself a great reason for me to support the burger bar.) As it's outside there would be no difficulty about the dog. So I get there and join quite a long and slow moving queue. After about 15 minutes ((!!!) mainly spent trying to keep Tammy and a Samoyed looking thing a little further up the queue away from each other I place my order and get a docket #43.
I couldn't quite work out how one picked up the nutrients until the serving person yells out "#31 and 32 your food is here". So there are 11 more groups - some involving 6 or 7 people - in front of me and I take the small dog to look at some swans. Both parties to this inspection look a bit worried about the other. On getting back to the van it seems that all the people who had placed orders in front of me are still there. Nothing happens except more people keep ordering food: no nosh is being distributed. So by 30 minutes after I have placed my order I asked the serving idiot how much longer: 5 minutes he says. After 10 minutes have passed he calls orders 33 and 34 to pick up their kit. I then go and say "I have to leave now: give me my money back please." Notice the politeness. The response was I have yours here waiting to wrap." "I have waited an hour and have to go. Give me my money back." "Fred: this guy has no patience. Give him his money back."
There are two things that astonish me about this performance:
- That a burger bar can take more than an hour to provide a burger; and
- That punters are willing to wait all that time to get a meal that will take them 5 minutes to eat. They are I think mainly public servants so it is their lunch hours that are expanding. (The area is full of policy Departments such as Treasury and PM&C so probably no-one notices that 20 staff are taking multi-hour lunch breaks.)
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