Ten days later...

Thank you dear Friends, who leave supportive and caring comments on my humdrum hiccups. Things are never as bad as they seem at first, when it is all happening around you. J. (the bike shop owner) calmed down and so did I, after I explained why I had been so angry. Ken called him a few days later and they talked for about an hour, and the upshot was that J. said to Ken "what would you like me to do?" So Ken now has a quote for the cost of rebuilding his bike's engine, which will have to be done if he ever wants to ride it again, and he accepts that fact now. His bike is over 20 years old and obviously by then major things do start to go wrong. A message for Ms Robyn and Nicole - tell your hubbies to trade in their bikes after 10 years!!

I retrieved our energy bills over the past year (I keep things like that for about 2 years before shredding them), and found that we were actually undercharged last year, so the company has adjusted that by increasing the monthly charge to make up for the shortfall. In case anyone reading this is wondering how that can happen, Ken and I are on a plan called Dual Fuel, which means that our gas and electricity bills are combined, and a monthly charge is reached by averaging the previous year's actual readings. We are charged the same amount every month for a year, and at the end of that year, the company works out the actual energy used to see if we are under or over the year's cost.

The Telstra bill is a different ball game altogether, and I am still fighting this battle. About six months ago, I saw an advert. online for a free trial mobile phone ringtone, which you would pay for if you wanted to keep it after the month's free trial. So I signed up for it - silly me. I never got the ring tone on my mobile, but our Telstra bill has been charged about $20 a month ever since. After fruitlessly trying to get through to someone on the phone to discuss this, I ended up taking the bills to our local Telstra sales office and asking them to do something. The people there were very patient with me, and they made heaps of calls themselves, both to Telstra head office and to this ringtone company - to try and get a credit for me, and to stop any further charges. No luck - I'm still being charged and I'm getting madder and madder!! I have deducted the amounts off the bill before paying them, so eventually I guess someone will write/fax/email/phone to ask why I am not paying the bills in full. I'll be waiting for 'em! I do intend to write a letter to Telstra, and send a copy to the Consumer Affairs bureau, and possibly one of the TV shows that love this kind of thing. Watch this space!


As for the air conditioner...Ken came home last night all hot and bothered after battling heavy traffic all day on the Monash Car Park (read freeway), to find our cable network Foxtel had been 'off the air' all day, and our old air conditioner had finally given up and was pumping out warm air. I didn't know about Foxtel, but he'd heard about it on the radio, and he was concerned for his Mum, as she wouldn't be able to reset the control box. Ken fixed ours in a matter of minutes, and we went over to his Mum's straight away and fixed hers. But before that, Ken was so cheesed off about coming home to a hot house, he rang our aircon. bloke and asked if he could possibly come around and re-gas our unit, if he was unable to fit the new one. The man said he would be here as soon as he could. Well, that can mean anything. Next year might be as soon as he can. BLEAH!!!