Pains of domestic, professional and commercial life
Housemate T. is rather losing it at the moment: This morning, I spoke shortly with him in the kitchen, and everything was quite normal. Not much later, he left the house, making a point of slamming the door three times, and calling us on his mobile a minute later, yelling about how he has to move out immediately as he can’t even take a shower in the morning. Er… You can set the clock after my time in the bathroom (6:00-6:10); as for F., he had no idea T. was waiting, as T. didn’t communicate - F. is rarely in any kind of hurry, so T. could have just kindly asked F. to vacate the premises. *shakes head in disbelief* One should think that having found a new girlfriend in Switzerland, a Nestlé employee who drowns him with chocolate hearts, should cheer T. up, but no… *thanks fate, or whoever, from keeping T. away from our red-nosed princess*
As for commercial life, I feel like I’m fighting against windmills. After waiting for three months, going to the T-point about 10 times, making dozens of phone calls, many of them to 12 cents a minute hotlines, only to talk with utterly incompetent people, we still haven’t got DSL. We are paying for it, yes, but haven’t got the right code to use it, as the T-com is so bloody incompetent. Now they sent us a letter asking whether we really want yet another DSL connection - and to pay double - because we already have DSL. This is after an employee has gone up a couple of levels to enable us to get DSL. This company is a joke. Arguing with them has probably cost me ten years of my life. Anger leads to the dark side and to heart attacks etc. Housemate A. is going stir-crazy: He has been for months, as he is the one who wants DSL most badly to talk to his family in Iraq via voice over IP. Now he is getting engaged to a cousin of his whom he hasn’t seen for ten years. He’s sure this is what he wants. *tries to be tolerant but still shakes head in disbelief*
I tried to get my guitar amplifier fixed at Bremen’s most incompetent music shop, Hoins. (I don’t care any more about anonymity in this respect - people, stay away from Hoins!) They failed to call me last week, so I didn’t get my amplifier in time for band practise; also, they neglected my instruction to call me if the cost of repairing exceeded 70 Euros. Naturally, they want 80 Euros now. When I asked them what had been wrong with the amplifier, they said the circuit board had been soldered badly. I complained, as they were the ones who soldered it in there, charging me 70 Euros for it. Okay, that was two years ago; still… Anyway, the technician swore he had never touched the amplifier before (even though his colleague had recognized the old Hoins repair sticker on the amp when I brought it to the shop this time), and the shop owner blabbed to me on the phone for ages, telling me I was such a bad person to complain about such behaviour. Well, I got the old receipt, and I’m going to give them a copy - not to pay less, I know they won’t have that, but to tell them why I’m going to tell everybody in town never to do business with them again.
Then there is my attempt to go to the opening night of an Asia exhibition on Friday with F., T., suyetsumu and zombieplatypus - an event that includes Japanese and Gamelan music. I got a ticket for the date from a colleague who plays in the Gamelan group and said that sure, I should bring my friends and only tell the museum how many people were coming. So I emailed the museum, but they mailed back rather unkindly that I could only take one person per invitation. I asked again very nicely if they could send me more invitations and offer to pay for shipping and handling (as the invitations are for free), but got another unfriendly ‘no’. I hope my colleague will be able to get me more invitations.
Last of all, my class is giving me hell again. They are just too loud to be taught in any way, period. Today, they embarrassed me in front of two observers by saying they are quiet with any other teacher, which is simply an untruth. I like them a lot, but could roast them over a small flame today.
Lastly, my back and bum are giving me problems again, and I don’t know how to avoid them. I don’t even know whether working out is doing more good than harm.
No wonder I’m not getting any kind of writing done with so much to complain about.