Please work for my sale!

The silly season that has descended upon us once again, and with that we join the throng of hundreds of frantic shoppers to get that perfect gift for our family and friends.

Yesterday M34tb4LL and i went to a shop to buy a present for ... someone. Well if i tell you what the item is, where it was bought from or who it is for then that person might read this and think to themselves, where there goes the surprise!

So we were in a shop and were not sure where they had the item we wanted on display. Rather than mill around and add to the already packed shopping area i decided to ask a little shop person as to the where about of the item. I looked around the shop and spotted two rather bored shop people, leaning on some boxes of stock, chatting away to each other.

I went over and interrupted their conversation with my Paddington Bear style stare and asked about the where abouts of the item. Rather than point me in the direct (which wasn't far at all) i was escorted to the shelf that housed the item. The sales person then took the item off the shelf, wrote a number on the price ticket and passed it to me.

When i asked M34tb4LL what the number sales person wrote on the ticket meant, he told me that it was the sales persons ID number, so that when we bought the item he would be credited for the sale and get a commission for it.

WHAT????

What assistance did he give us that means he deserves that commission?

Did he approach us and offer his assist?NO, i had to find him and interrupt his conversation with his co-worker to get his help.

Did he assist us in selecting the item? NO, we went to that particular shop knowing full well what we were after.

Did he give help in choosing one brand of the item over another? NO, the item we were after does not have a few makes over a few different brands - it is kind of like "I am after this thing" "Then to get one of these things, this is the only option - one option - here - if you want it this the one you have to get"

Did he help us pick out a second or a third item? NO, we had come in for the one item - found it bought it left the shop.

So what did he do to deserve that commission? He did not have to walk the floor, checking with customer if his assistance was needed, nor did he need to display any product knowledge. He did not even have to employ any of his sales training to sway us to buy the item!!! All he had to do was walk three steps and write a number on a price ticket.

I'm not sure why this bothers me, it is not like we had to more for the item because of this. However if he had not done this where would the commision have gone? Would it have defaulted back to the manager of the store? Would have split up at the end of the day with the girls as the checkout? Or would it have just been lost in the ether?

Call me petty, but i think i would rather any other option than the one that transpired. And in the future when i shop at that store and a sales person offers to write his ID number on the price ticket - i think i decline the offer! Unless of course he HAS worked for my sale.

(: G

And now let me sing some praises

One year ago today (or by the time i get to publish this post, one year ago yesterday) M34tb4LL and i got married. And as far as days go, this has been a good one (:

The parentals had offered to look after Peanut within our birthday season and we thought that tonight would be the goodies.

For those that i have confused with talk of anniversaries and birthday seasons - it was M34tb4LL's birthday on Thursday and mine is on Monday, our wedding anniversary is right in the middle, today.

Now those of you who are regular readers of my posts will know that i am not much of one to name names. I don't tend to use the real names of the the places/shops/people i talk about. And this tends to be mostly because i am either having a bit of rant about an experience or just because i fee the place i am talking about gets enough publicity as it is.

But tonight the rules will be changed!!!

MISTY'S DINER is the place that we chose to spend the evening. Being grand finale night we were unsure about how busy our venue of choice would be, so i called a couple days ago to make sure that it was alright to book a table. The lass i spoke to said that she had no idea how busy they might be getting and booking was a good idea. So seeing as we had Decay and Droidy in tow i booked for four for 7.30, booked in with the parentals and proceeded to play the waiting game.

So we picked up Decay and Droidy and went to drop off the boy with the parentals. After a quick bait and switch with his bottle between me and his Granny we were heading out the door. We drove to the eatery - it was not hard to find at 103 - 105 High Street, Prahran, Victoria, Australia. We got a premo parking spot just across the road and we walked inside.

It was a tad quiet in the diner, ok tad may be an understatement seeing as we were the only people there but...

Misty was there to great us at the door, with a big smile and a warm welcome, and she seemed to have a good sense of humor about the fact that restaurant was completely empty.

Grand Final day is a funny one. My birthday is on 1st October and seeing as grand final day is always the last Saturday in September, the Saturday before my birthday is always shared event. Not being a football person, this is fine by me because it means that if i want to do birthday type things during the day - there is no-one around. Problem is if i want to do birthday type things at night i have to pick my venue well unless i want to swamped by celebrating/commiserating footy type peoples.

This choice was a goodon' because there was not a single footy type in sight, tee hee, there was no-one in sight other than ourselves.

Misty came to take our drink order, and gave some advise on some of the can of American soft drink that she had there. She then came to take our food order.

For starters we got a serve of potato skins and a serve of deep fried cheese things to share. We opted to get the potato skins 'mild' so Misty brought us some of her home made chili sauce to help that flavour along. And might i say it was the best chili sauce i have had in... well ever!!!

Choosing what we wanted for our main course was NOT east - not because the menu was huge (and full of crap like some places we have been to) but because there was a good variety and it ALL looked soooooo good.

Droidy ordered a bowl of chili, Decay picked a meatball sub, and M34tb4LL and i decided to get a philly steak roll and a chili dog and split it. We also got a couple side serves of cheesy chili fries. I also got a 'turtle' thick shake (chocolate and caramel with a hard chocolate shell) - go for the whole experience.

The food, for want of a better way of saying it, EXCELLENT! The serving size were perfect, big enough that we were nicely full, but not so big that we could not move. And because we were there within the week of my birthday i got the thick shake FREE!!!

The price was pretty good as well, better than the prices we had experienced at another American style restaurant (that shall remain nameless) who don't know what good service is about and think that if it is not oily it is not American.

After our meal we picked up a few of our favourite American lollies and chocolate bars that Misty had at the counter, settled our bill and left, feeling quite happy with our choice of eatery and confident that we would return.

We then went back to the parentals to collect the boy and went home for some well needed sleep.

So i finish this post today (or as it happens to be tomorrow) with three pieces of advise for my dear readers -

If you have an event that need celebrating, try Misty's Diner
If you want to catch-up with some friends for a meal, try Misty's Diner
If you are hungry and just want to grab a bite to eat, try Misty's Diner

(: G

To Pay or Not To Pay

I have a dilemma! And this time it does not involve ice cream!!!

My flickr page is once again getting near to full and i am thinking that if i have to perform a cull on the photos every couple of months that is going to be a bit of a drag!!! Plus there are soooooo many drop-dead cute photos of our boy - how do i choose the ones to get rid of?

So not even two months since my last cull i am at the point again that i either need to do ANOTHER cull or start paying for the privilege of sharing photos.

Though i must admit the whole happy snapping has decreased since our boy has past the six month, it has not stopped, and i hope it never will!!!

So if i continue to use the site free of charge i can only have a maximum of 200 photos up at any time and the size and quality of the photos are that of the sites choice, and i can only upload a maximum of 100 MB a month. If i pay, i can have an unlimited amount of photos, the size and quality is that of the original, and i would get unlimited uploads.

Plus there is the whole 'off-site' storage thing to consider. Living in the digital age that we do, if we were to have a major computer melt down in this house (or even worse thing to think a house fire - not that is that is being planned!!!), we would loose a great deal of our pictorial memories!!! We do our best to always have a back-up (or three) of all our photos at any given time, but a disaster is something that you can not really plan for or prevent. So the flickr account could also act as that 'worst case scenario' back-up for us.

Of course there is not every photo ever taken of the boy on flickr, seeing as there are literally over a thousand photos on my computer hard drive - and M34tb4LL would easily have four times that amount on his. So if the best and cutes are also somewhere else if the unforeseeable were to happen, not all would be lost.

So... have i just talked myself into upgrading the flickr account? If so i need to do it soon or i will have to cull the photos that are currently there again!!

WOW, all that thinking has done my head right in, i think i need to get some ice cream.

(: G

OMG - it's mid September!!!

I have been looking at the good old social calendar, have been trying to arrange a time to catch up with some friends, and it has dawned on me that we are approaching the birthday season! Well i kind of know that the birthday season was coming - but now i am like "Oh yerrr, it is getting close!!!"

And how is the social calendar looking? Pretty impressive i must say!!! I have had to put the catch up with before mentioned friends till October!!!!!!!!

Of course this year there is another celebration on top of the birthday circus, M34tb4LL and i will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary that falls smack inbetween our birthdays (: We have made plans with some friends - wittnesses at our weddding - to go out to dinner, nothing fancy.

But it does raise the question of what to get M34tb4LL for a present! I think i have his birthday present all wrapped up (tee hee), the normal bag of random crap. I have to put the ole thinking cap on...

It is the 13th today, so i have 16 days to get my brain into gear and think of something. THAT IS NOT ENOUGH TIME!!!

The traditional gift for a first anniversay is paper, so what does that mean as a present? a paper hat? an origami crane? a note book?

Wait i just got an idea! not going to say what it is here, M34tb4LL reads this (: I'll fill you in after the event (if it works out that is)

(: G

Choices choices...

So here is the dilemma, it is not a life changing one, but it is one that might be faced by a few of you from time to time so i feel it should be discussed.

Ice cream is a little luxury that i sometime like to indulge in. Wait a minute - is every other day considered once in a while?

Anyway, with the convenience of drive thrus getting the daily ice cream fix is easier than ever! and that only really leaves the choice of going for an icecream from the "Some Old Man Who Had a Farm Family Resturant" or "Famished Johns" (think about the names for a minute, you'll get it). But this is also where the dilemma comes into it.

SOMWHAFFR's ice cream tends to be nicer, creamier and betting tasting. But Famished Johns icecream has the advantage of a choc dip option.

So what does one do? Get one of each of course!

(: G

*** Warning *** Cull Imminent

I give this warning to the people who have been enjoying the photos on 'Flickr'.

Unfortunately, at any given time, only a maximum 200 photos will be displayed on an individuals flickr page - unless of course one wants to ungrade for a annual fee to their "pro package", which i don't want to do if i can help it.

Seeing as i there are currently 199 photos on the page this cap is near reaching.

In one week from today i will be randomly culling some of the older photos to make room for newer one. So if there are any phots that you have a particular fondness to on the first few of pages i would suggest you either grab yourself a copy or take one last look.

(: G

Internet-less

Question - how does one that spends many hours a day on the internet, uses it as the first place to get any information, and uses email and online chatting more than the phone or much more that snail mail; cope when there is no internet in the house for two weeks?

Answer - not well!

Lately the ISP that M34tb4LL and myself use decided to increase their prices, they did offer us a plan at the same price that we had been paying but at a decrease to the monthly cap.

We use the internet a fair bit, it is fair to say that we use it more than most of our friends and family (DK and Droidy excluded of course). So rather than taking a drop in monthly limit or paying more we chose to look elsewhere for our internet needs.

We found a provider that, for the same price as before, we could get a higher monthly cap and VoIP thrown in for good measure (so cheaper phone costs).

But before we could think about switching we first had to make sure that there was no unfulfilled on-line commitments, we waited till all the eBay dealings we had dealing were finalised and we signed up with the new ISP. The next step was to do the all important swap - a scary thought to two such internet dependent peoples like us.

We then canceled with the (then) current ISP and waited to be cut off. The cut off actually happened right as i had typed out a 'farewell for now' message in the favourite forum, just before i had time to publish it - of course - and we just had to wait to be reconnected.

We were told that the wait would be three to five working days, a doable time frame, at a pinch. Well at the five day mark i gave the new ISP a call to get an ETA.

The funny thing was, as far as they knew we were still connected to our previous provider!!! So i called them and after three phone calls and about two hours on hold i found out that when they cut us off they 'forgot' to send the request to telstra to have the codes removed!!! Which means that though they had stopped providing us with the internet, it was not possible for anyone else to.

After I brought this to their attention they said they would get the request through within 24 hours (and four days late).

About two days after my phone call to the previous (and evil) ISP, M34tb4LL got an email from the new (and shiney) ISP saying that we would connected with them in about five days. I would like to point out the whole "DDEEERRRRR" factor about sending an email about connecting internet, if we needed internet connected we obviously didn't have it, and if we don't have internet how can we get emails! M34tb4LL could check his email at work, but still...

Now with two blogs, a tumblr log, a flickr and a youtube account to maintain being without internet was a rather difficult thing. I did suffer a bit of cyber withdrawal. And i must confess there were a few minutes one Thursday, while i was at the public library the eyed one of their computers that internet access with envious eyes.

But the internet is back, the balance has been restored, and my insane random ramblings can continue.

(: G

LOL speak

I h8 LOL speak!!!

This is going to more rant than post - cope.

First of all I will explain what I refer to as LOL speak. It is the kind of thing that you can use while sending an SMS and want to save on characters, seeing as you get a limit of how much you can have. In this use i find it acceptable, don't do it myself but I can understand the reason for using it. However when it is (ab)used in emails I just feel that the person is being lazy.

There is a person that i have to deal with at the moment who insists on sending me emails typed in LOL speak. Here is an example of what i am getting -

'hi how r ya? just touching base 2 c how u r doing. hope all is well with ******. any problems please dont hesitate 2 call me. l know l never made ur last appointment date so if u feel u need it let me no.'

And it goes on... I mean come on!!!

The first email this person sent me, I opened and saw that it was written in this fashion and promptly deleted it without reading it. She then asked me what I thought of the idea in the email and I told her that I had received it but did not read it as it was gibberish. She has not gotten the hint as she has continued to send them to me like that...

Now for my disclaimer:

I myself have been known to use the phrase LOL, as well as WTF, RTFM, ROFL, LMAO, NSFW, one of my personal favourites - PEBKAC, regular readers on this blog might be aware of MFL, and regular readers of the Peanut blog will be aware of BTD.

I feel that these in context (and used sporadically) are fine!!! It is when the sentence has more abbreviations and shortcuts than actual words I get a bit ** groan**

And I have just thought of another that I use on occasion -

TTFN G

My "Lord of the Rings"

As some of you might remember a few years ago there was a movie released called "Lord of the Rings".

For anyone who has not seen the movie and intends to i suppose you could call this a spoiler alert, but if you have not seen the movie by now it is your own fault if i am about to spoil it for you.

Now i must go back in time even more and explain my previous knowledge of the whole "Lord of the Rings" thing - NOTHING. I had never read the books or seem any of the previously made TV shows, cartoon or whatever had been produced under that Lord of the Rings banner.

So when i went to see the movie i was aware of only a few things -

1. This was the first of a trilogy of films
2. The title was Lord of the Rings (rings plural)
3. The first movie was called "Fellowship of the Rings"
   
4. and that was pretty much it (:

With the knowledge i had - three movies, multiple rings - i made the assumption that each movie was about one of the rings. I also made the assumption that the first ring was a fellowship ring (?). The funny thing is that no-one in my circle had made the assumption of what little knowledge i had.

M34tb4LL and i sat down in the cinema and started watching the movie, some good special effects, storyline not at all what i expected though. Walk walk walk, fight fight fight, walk walk walk, hello uncle - my what big teeth you have, walk walk walk, fight fight fight, a couple of bare footed hobbits hop into a boat and float along a river and then...

Well that was it!!! i was waiting for them to drop the ring into the volcano or where ever they were headed, but the movie just finished!!!

And the sad fact is when the movie finished i did verbalise my disapproval right there in the cinema.

You see, i was expecting this story to be finalised so the next two movies could be about the nextcoming from? what kind of a fool am i?!?!? DON'T ANSWER THAT.

Now you might ask why i am telling this story only now, well i have just been watching the Antiques Road Show (love that show) and there was a gentleman on it who wanted to get an idea of how much a letter from Tolkien was worth. A letter that he received from the writer very many years ago after he wrote to him expressing his disapproval that he had bought the first book and read it and did not have closure on the story.

I should also add that i have not seen the second or the third movie (yet)

(: G

We live in a golden age

Time for a little bit of a feel good post.

There are so many great things around that make life easy and pleasurable, for example -

• Toasters with crumpet settings
• Cameras that fit into ones handbag or pocket
• Internet shopping
• Chocolate pudding cups
• Mum's and bub's movie sessions
• Spell check
  
• Cheese
• "Degrassi"
• Home delivery
• Lime juice in a bottle
• Calendar reminders
• Game consoles (and hand helds)
  
• Cupcakes
• LCD monitors
• PS2 Singstar
• Mobile phones
• Sudoku
• Polar fleece jackets
• Photo editing
  
• "The Amazing Race"
• Podcasts
• Midnight snacks
• Fluffy slippers
• Milk chocolate
  
• Youtube
• Arm warmers
• Hair straighteners
• Ice cream
  
• Apple laptops
• Comfy couches
• Skype
  
• Central heating
• Starbucks coffee
• iSketch (and Wacom tablets)
• Doonas
• Long range weather forecasts
• Remote controls
• McDonald's cheese burgers
• Internet blogging
• and of course friends, family, loved ones and pizza

Just thought i would share

(: G

A brave new world.

In all my years of being an internet shopper, i have never tried to be an internet seller. That is till now!!!

I have just listed my first few items to sell on eBay!!! a big day, a proud day even.

It was a lot easier than i thought it would be, straight forward, explained the whole way through the listing process and it did not cost as much to list items than i thought it would.

So over the last week and a bit i have listed 7 items for sale in total. The fist thing i listed was a pillow that i bought to use while feeding Peanut, but because of the position we use and firmness of the pillow it was not working for us. I would have returned to the shop as "not fit for purpose" but to get it out of the (resealable) bag it comes it i ripped the cardboard insert. I have had a few question about it and there are about a dozen people watching it, but only one person bidding on it so far - there is still 22 hours to go in the auction so anything can happen.

I am also selling some DVDs that we have twice (long story) or that we have been given and do not want!

It is pretty exciting watching the price of things go up (or not). gives the same feeling as internet shopping does but instead of spending money and i am making money!!!

Hmmmm, what else can i see?

(: G

Postage??? or more!!!

As any of you who know me i love my shopping, whether it be at the local shopping centre or in the comfort of my own home - via the Internet - eBay is my friend :)

Lately i have been cruising eBay for a couple copies of an infants picture book that was originally published in 1951 by Rand McNally called "Captain Kitty". The book has a very special place in the hearts of members of M34tb4LL's family. His Nana read it to all him and his two brothers as babies to the point that they all had the story memories.

I found a number of copies of the book on eBay, all in America of course, and priced everything from $2.00 to $75.00 - seriously!!!

But i manage to find a few copies of the book that did not have too much wear and tear or age stains and were a reasonable price!!! the next step of course was to get a quote on the postage. Now people sending from eBay can really ship by any means they like and therefore charge for the postage accordingly. They can also add charges for "packaging" and some people opening admit to adding costs to cover the eBay charges.

However for the same item (the book) I received four very different postage quotes -

1/ Airmail Letter Post = $2.75 USD
2/ Global Priority Small Flat Rate Envelope = $6.00 USD
3/ Ship by Air = $7.50 USD
4/ Airmail Express = $15.00 USD

I ended up buying two of the books, the ones with postage quote 1 & 3. The reason i did not get postage quote 2 is because the price of the book was a lot more than 1 & 3.

Now here is my point - the exact same thing has such different prices for postage? How is this? And if i don't agree with the postage my only choice is not to get the item, can't really bargain the price.

But also, still in the postage train of thought, I have found that things i get from eBay tend to delivered within a day or two (as long as the item is not coming from overseas that is). However things that i may order from online stores, and tend to pay a higher postage price for, will take on average a week or maybe even two to arrive.

Now here is my second point - the more professional the seller is, the longer it takes to get the goods (on average, there is of course exceptions to the rule).

(: G

Excuses excuses

So it has been nearly two months since i have done a post, and i know i have said in the past that i do at least one post a month - but lets face it the last two months have been kind of full on!!

If you don't know what i am talking about see the other blog that i have, click on "peanut's blog" and have a good read.

(: G

p.s. - and there is a post coming here within minutes and if it doesn't make sense, it would be because my brain is very mushy at the moment.

The real reason for the current drought (me)

I drink a lot of water, now i know they say you should drink water every day, but is 4 litres too much? Tough!!! I am one of those people that when they go out to restaurant always asks for water, while every one is enjoying their ice cold glass of coke i am sipping my plain boring water!

But i am bit of water snob, given the choice i will go for tap water over spring water over spring water and filtered water over tap water - filtered water is defiantly my preferred taste.

At home we have gone through a few water filters, there was the one that attached to the tap via a rubber hose and you had to have the tap only just on to avoid the hose popping off or the water leaking out. This needed constant supervision and soon became just something that sat on the bathroom bench and collected dust.

The next filter we tried was a jug filter, it sat in the kitchen cupboard and we filled the jug and let it filter down in its own time. The main problem with this one was that it could not keep up with our water consumption needs, we kept emptying it and having to wait for it to filter through more water. Plus the fact that the water was only at room temperature and we could not keep up with the ice making to compensate for this.

We then took a shine to the idea of an electric filter that had a bigger reservoir for water that the jug and was able to chill the water for our instant enjoyment. We could also switch it deliver room temp water if need be.

So armed with a $100 gift voucher (that could be used at a few different stores under the same ownership) and some extra cash thanks to Christmas we went to the local shopping centre to buy the filter. At one of the stores that the gift voucher was usable at we found the filter we wanted - last one on the shelf! Plus thanks to the post Christmas sales it had 20% off the normal price, score!!!

We got the filter home and i started running water through to prep the filter while M34tb4LL looked at the current kitchen cupboard configuration to accommodate our new purchase. I run water three lots of water through as pre the instructions and then when i pulled the filter forward to move it to its new spot i noticed that it was sitting in a rather large body of water.

The filter was leaking water - through the motor - and on to the bench.

We hurriedly packed it back into the box and the next day went back to the original store of purchase with our faulty appliance.

Handing the box over the counter we explained the situation to the shop wench, and being the last filter they had in stock they were not able to offer us a replacement for the filter so we opted for a refund. Having paid some of the asking price via a gift voucher and some with cash, this is how the refund had top be given to us.

Only problem was that the store in questions computer / cash register was not "setup" to refund something purchased with generic gift card on another generic gift card, and they wanted to give us a store specific gift card instead! not good enough. If the product purchased is faulty and they are not able to supply a replacement we should be able to obtain a refund via the method in which we paid.

Well, because we were adamant that they give us the refund in the method that we dictated to, there had to be multiple calls to their office and shop wench eventually had to get an office manager to come to the register to do the refund for her. But we did get our generic gift voucher and cash - as we should have.

This is the funny bit though, we then went down a few levels to the men's clothing section (same store) and bought M34tb4LL five new shirts that cost the amount of the disputed gift voucher and then some!!! so if we had have taken the refund in the method that they wanted to give it to us and not gone to the mile of trouble we had put them through the money would have been spent in the same store the same day, but we bought the shirts with another method to keep the voucher for the filter purchase.

But we still did not have a the filter, so we went to the other stores under the same ownership but none of them had the filter in stock. In fact most of them looked like they did not stock that filter at all.

We then went to a store that had no affiliation with the other stores and found the filter we were after!!! and the best bit? it was 30% off the normal price! cheaper than the other store. And it works perfectly!

But if you have figured out by now - we still have the $100 gift voucher with no target purchase. I think we will be able to find something to spend it on though.

(: G