Finally got to the bottom of this depression. The departure of daughter to warmer climes. It's enough to drive you to drink. She's gone off for an adventure to Thailand and left Mrs G and I here to man the fort. It's really not fair. And not having her around is going to be a sad couple of weeks.
Still, at least we know she arrived safe and sound. She was able to send an email and from the sound of it, she's having a great time already. Off to floating markets and the infamous River Kwai to name but two things this week alone. At the weekend they're off to Chang-Mai and later next week down to Phuket.
What's really depressing though is that when she gets back we wont be here to share in her excitement. Mrs G & I are off to a Spanish island for a week, which to be honest is something we really need to do (and was organised long before Daughter had arranged her trip) but in a way I'd much rather we weren't. Still, that's what the Internet was invented for - staying in touch. I'm sure it'll all work out fine.
This all assumes that I'm going to survive long enough to actually get a holiday. The Starfleet situation is frustrating at best right now. I'm at the peak opposite one of my roles troughs - hence the posting being a bit weak lately. In fact I'm making a special effort to write this post just to keep myself sane.
Typically we have a cyclic process in my role, where we spend large portions of time planning and organising and waiting for other members of the team to deliver something for us to act upon. This is all well and good until you have two or three things delivered at once with matching delivery dates. Then all hell breaks lose often for weeks at a time that leave you dazed, confused, tired and unsatisfied by the time they're complete.
But this is the world we live in. Clearly it's not a Universe made for us (see previous post).
In point of fact, it's a universe made BY us that causes all the problems. "Beaurocracy gone mad" as they say. Here's a good example of the nanny state casing more trouble than it's worth.... Contact Lenses.
I understand it's important to have regular check ups for the health of your eyesight, thats fine. But what really winds me up is the process involved. I have my contact lenses delivered by post and paid for by direct debit. Every other month 30 disposable pairs (I don't wear them every day) arrive through the letterbox and all is well with the world. Until that is, the validity of my prescription runs out and the optician wishes to carry out a check up. What's supposed to happen, is the opticians are supposed to notify me of a forthcoming checkup requirement so that I can make an appointment. But if they don't (and they didn't) it all falls apart.
I was due new lenses in the post at the beginning of last month, and to my surprise none arrived. It wasn't really a problem at the time because as I said, I don't wear them every day, or even every other day. A couple of times a week probably - which means I usually have more than enough to see me through the two months between deliveries.
Anyway, last week I called the opticians to find out what was going on with my delivery (which incidentally I've already paid for by Direct Debit), only to be told I'm three months overdue a checkup and so they've stopped sending me lenses until I have one. Clearly the reminder had not been sent and I've now run out of lenses (which I'm paying for).
What's required is an appointment for a checkup. This is how that works out...
Opticians: "The first available appointment is on Friday sir" (tomorrow).
Me: "That's fine, thankyou. Please book me in."
Opticians: "No problem sir, just wear your lenses to the checkup so that we can see they're fitting correctly"....
Me: "Um..." (Thinks: What did she just say?? What lenses would that be then ??)
"I don't have any lenses.... you stopped sending them almost two months ago!!"
Opticians: "Oh... oh, I see... umm, well yes. That's right. Silly isn't it?"
Me: Struck Dumb
Opticians: "We can give you a pair to wear"
Me: (Thinks: Good grief, I hope I don't go blind or die from wearing them without a checkup!!! FFS!!!) "Thankyou"
Opticians: "See you on Friday"
Me: "Thankyou." (Thinks: Assuming I'm not blind)
It's a legal requirement and a ridiculous system, made worse by the fact, that once it's all sorted out, I won't get a refund on the money they've taken. Instead, they send me extra lenses!!! Which puts us right back where we started, with enough lenses to last well beyond my next checkup and at this rate into my early 70's by which time the onset of glaucoma will have rendered the damn things useless anyway!!!!
God give me strength!!!
This post originally appeared here: Posterous
I can see where you are coming from! Well at least I can see
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