today was fun. oh wait, scratch that. today was a big fucking headache that never should have happened because some asshole at the electricity company fucking lied to me.

last thursday i called the electricity company and as usual waited on hold for 20 minutes to talk to someone, was transfered around multiple times and after explaining my situation multiple times to multiple people was told that i had been told the wrong thing in october when my account was set up. 4 months ago i made a huge fuss about how when i took my name off as primary account holder the new name was not to be charged a reconnection fee. in october it was all, oh yeah, no worries, we can do that. last thursday it was all, nope that cant happen accounts dont work that way. if you are persistent and dont mind 45 minutes conversations and wanting to jump out of your window, they do. fucking hell. of course one has to call any customer oriented 'service' during business hours. i was calling mid afternoon and i was the only one home since my flatmates were at work. it would be too easy for me to change the account into M's name and get on with it. the rep i was talking to, joe, all of a sudden starts on about how he is going to have to talk to M and arrange with her. but doing me a huge favour, he can phone her. i tell him she is at work, just like everyone else in the fucking city. its between the hours of 9 and 5 where are you? he gives me his extension number so we can reach him again and fix the whole changing the name of the account ordeal.

the important bit of the conversation went something like this:

joe: M has to call to give me her details
me: she can call tomorrow or monday
joe: YES.

friday: M is on hold for 40 minutes from 4:15 to 4:55pm. this joe character leaves at 5 and clearly M has better things to do than wait on hold when no one is picking up.

today: C and i are in the living room he is watching tv and im sitting working at the dining table. at 1:14pm the power goes off. i didnt even notice because i was reading a harcopy of a paper. C goes out into the hallway and realizes it is only our apartment. hmm. i call the electricty company. speak with clueless woman who finally transfers me to 'movers' when she realizes she cannot help. i ask to be transferred to this joe guy. he is busy. fucking retard rep then has me tell him the same thing 4 times and says the that my account was listed to be disconnect on feb 25th. well, to my knowledge a final reading was to be taken today for a final bill under my name and then switched into another name. from everything that i tell him 4 times, the bit he picks out is 'so only one of you tried calling one times since thursday'. yes asshole, and was on hold for 40 minutes. lets count the business days since thursday. 1. friday 2. oh thats today and its not even 2pm yet, making it over 3 hours left before the close of business. fucking retard then says i can talk to his supervisor, what he meant i say was i am going to put you on hold for 10 minutes and i will talk to my supervisor. i finally get through to the supervisor who is nice enough and retell her my issue because the fucking retard i know didnt do it. she gives me her direct line and says she will work on fixing it. this phone call was 1h12m on C's credit since conveniently my phone battery was less than one bar.

50 mins later i call her back and get voicemail. 8 mins later she calls me back and says she did find a voice recording on my call from last thursday and i was told the electricity would be disconnected if we didnt call and provide details. i prompted stated that i was not told it would be disconnected on monday and that i was told i could call ON MONDAY and make the necessary arrangements. she did agree with me there because it was on the recording. i was then told that the earliest the power could go back on was tuesday morning and that it could be anytime between 7am and 9pm. no fucking good. what am i supposed to do tonight i repeated. the 3rd party responsible couldnt come out a flick a switch tonight before 9pm. again persistence and blatantly stating that we are all foreigners and its not like we can go to mum and dads for the night. on hold again while supervisor called 3rd party flick switchers. oh now, they could come tonight but we would have to jump through hoops to let them in the building because they needed access to some room on the 27th floor. (how did they manage to turn OFF the electricity without our help?) such a joke. they came we never saw them, at all, they somehow had access to wherever they needed to be and only randomly by M turning the main power switch did we know it was back on. when C went to talk to building management earlier he was told this happens 'all the time.' all the time. what is wrong with this situation?

my conversation on thursday should have been something like this:

joe: M has to call to give me her details
me: she can call tomorrow or monday
joe: ABSOLUTELY NOT. she must call by close of business on friday or we will arbitrarily turn off your electricity on monday and laugh at you because we can.

not impressed at all with customer service in this country.



on a nicer note, i got two birthday cards today from my aunties. after the 2 month transit period of one of their christmas cards (from the uk). these cards took 5 and 7 days respectively to arrive. thanks for that!

im back from newcastle. guess who once again was randomly searched at the airport while going through security? every fucking time i go anywhere. serously, what the fuck?. this time took me to new heights. i went through with two other people from the lab. i was last. i was slow picking up my lap top and getting a book inside my laptop bag and struggling to zip the thing closed. yep, by that time no one else in line for go through.

they swiped my clothes and my bag and it comes up that i have traces of explosives on me. *rolls eyes* fucking perfect. no worries it could just be washing powder. cue comments and conversation i dont want to have with security man. they swipe again. negative. but, they have to it one more time for procedure sake. positive. have i been on a farm? where was a staying? how did i get to the airport? was i on a bus? blah blah blah.

i had to sign a whole bunch of stuff saying that i was happy to have them go through all my stuff, because otherwise i would not be able to board my flight. oh, then they pulled my bag off the plane, and i had to go into the little room. they were fast and getting my bag off the plane, funny how when it might have explosives in it airport staff can hustle. this lady went through all my stuff and pulled everything out my purse and laptop bag. thankfully she didnt empty my checked luggage because it would have been a bitch to get it all back in. i travel with everything in compartments. she had to open every one of those small bags to see what was inside.. travel adapters, toiletries. real harmful stuff. oddly she didnt do the body pat down like i signed away my rights i was willing to get.

what happened wasnt that different from every time i have flown into or out of the united states. except there, they do it to everyone. at least on international flights, they go through everyones bag and everyone gets that pat down getting on the plane. hence why one as to be at the gate fucking hours before the flight.

i hate small town airports. world wide. they suck. we had this issue crossing canada in 2005. yah, i really want to be harassed in winnepeg at 6am because you have nothing better to do that go through my stuff. i think that adelaide is the only airport in australia where i have not been randomly searched. it could have happened and i just dont remember. i was in a good mood getting on that flight, so either i forgot or it didnt happen.

fucking airports.

anyways, pics from newy:

omg. another incident with the spoiled brat rotten bitch former flatmate. this morning i get a phone call from her telling me that she has put in for a final bill from the electricity company and i need to call them and put my name on the account. the bill will be up to tomorrow, but she cannot put someone's else name on the account. she graciously gives me the details of the account and the phone number. i am under the impression her name is still on the lease and she is currently planning to sublet her room for the summer.

10 minutes later i get this message: "hey Sarah because I am no longer a resident the elec is out of my name, you must get it into your name by 12:30 2mo, or they will disconnect. it has nothing to do with the landlord."

followed by this message: "I am no longer on the lease. I will not be leaving my name on your electricity bills. As you are the only person living there it will have to be under your name. Landlords dont pay your electricity. I have called and msg'd you to make it as easy as possible to put your it in your name."

i try to call her mom, one of the land lords. leave a message to call me back ASAP. then i call my parents. they think the same as me, that this is very irresponsible and catty and something a spoiled child only concerned about themselves does.

i try calling the mom back. the receptionist has emailed her to call me but she is now out of the office, on site for the next 3 hours. nice. i find my lease and get the step-dad's work phone number. i get him on the line and explain the situation. 1. he agrees that she was not responsibly to leave a bill like this. seriously who the fuck gives you 24 hours notice to do something like this. and youhave to pay to have the name changed over. i find out for the first time that her lease is over, and that she is not subletting the room. again, the spoiled brat saying "not my problem". so im supposed to have whoever is subletting should pay me the bill? wtf? i signed up to rent half the apartment, not be the fucking accountant in charge of bills.

in the last week she has shown me how self centered she really is and that it really doesnt matter how much i get fucked over. seriously. i am so glad she is gone and i dont have to look at her fucking mess and clutter everywhere, she had the audacity to ask me how things are going living by myself. they are awesome you idiot!!! i dont have to put up with your noise, mess, and drunk loud guests! you dont own the place, your name is not on my lease.

i cant wait to hear that her and the boyfriend break up. that would just be too funny. she was using him to start with, clearly he didnt get it. having someone do everything for you is always nice. especially when you can take advantage of them and screw other people in the process.

warning: do not live with a spoiled brat who happens to be the child of your land lord. not a good idea.

ive wasted so much time on the phone today its not even funny. i get fucked because i cant do work to take care of problems that should not have been created in the first place. go fuck yourself, bitch.