Swearing

So the good news is that the visa will be finalised on Monday and Darren can start work and get paid for it. The bad news is that I swore at the man in the Telstra shop this morning, a bit disproportionate in the circumstances, but someone was going to cop it for the inefficiency and the rudeness and the fact that nothing works properly round here.

The day had started okay, Ella was having an extra day at nursery on account that they're having a visitor come in with a puppet show and the kids have spent all week making characters out of wooden spoons, which seems a bit rough for the ones who don't attend on Fridays. Of course, this is a ruse because the extra day at nursery is actually about the fact that Darren is working all weekend and under normal circumstances my Mum would offer to help me out with Ella rather than leave me to go round the twist. The nursery (and the staff) are an absolute lifeline to us; they've even invited me to go on a night out with them to see a band playing in Balmain, which is unbelievably kind and restores my faith in the Sydneysiders because most of the ones we've met just couldn't give a stuff.

Anyway, I had a plan after I dropped her off; I'd head back to the gym and pay the phone bill in the Telstra shop and take Ella's library books back (you know, high-minded stuff like "The New Puppy" and "Fluffy Kitten"). And after that I'd pop into the pedicure salon to ask about extending the date on the voucher that Ella gave me for mothers' day, after all, who wants a pedicure when you're wearing boots all day long.

So I parked up in the underground car park, the one with the piped music, and as I was passing the pedicure place I dropped in there first.

"I have this voucher" I said. "It was valid for three months from April 30th, which means it runs out next week. I haven't used the two pedicures because it's been winter, so can I extend it for a bit longer please?"

The lady in the salon in Chinese. All of the staff are chinese, just like in the bakery where I bought the wrong cake. She peered at the voucher and gave it back to me.

"No, sorry"

"What, you mean you won't extend it?"

"No"

"But why not?"

"It's not our problem. It's the problem of whoever bought you the voucher"

Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'd expected a bit more flexibility. I mean, if you're running a business, you extend a certain amount of goodwill to your customers or face losing them, right?

"I don't see why you can't extend this for a few weeks"

A second woman came to join her to see what the problem was. They started discussing it in Mandarin and counting on their fingers and then they started disputing the date and trying to tell me the voucher had already expired"

"No" I said "Three months from April 30th. That's May, June, July 30th"

They continued to speak in Mandarin and continued to shake their heads and count on their fingers. I've no idea how they manage to paint all ten toes if they can't count to three.

"Okay, so you can come in next week in sandals and we will do your toes"

"I don't want a pedicure right now. I don't want to wear sandals. It's cold"

"Then I can't help you"

"So if I want my toes painted every week through the spring and summer, you'd prefer I took my business elsewhere because you aren't prepared to show me any goodwill or flexibility"

"Sorry"

"Right, then I'll come back next week and you can paint my toes all lovely and I'll put my trainers back on and I'm never coming back here again"

I stormed out, absolutely fuming. And that was how I came to be in the Telstra shop, only I'd brought the wrong bill so I thought I could tell the man our phone number and he could call up the account.

"No, sorry, I need to see the bill"

"You can't just do it by the phone number or account name?"

"No"

"Okay"

I slung my gym kit back over my shoulder and walked to the door chunnering and then I couldn't hold it in any more.

"This fucking place. Fucking Australia"

Fluffy Kitten made it back to the library but after that I never did make it to the gym, I've got a cold and I didn't have the energy left.