Murphy's Law?

 Warning! This is a rant. I'll forgive you if you don't read the rest of this post. 

Stress out mama by biting the smallest? Me?

I think this phase began in early January.

The car lets me down in an underground car park at the shopping centre, spilling diesel.

It's an inconvenience, but it's quickly towed  and fixed.

Headaches during the long Carnival weekend put paid to any outings or gardening.

The car lets me down on the way to lunch with a friend.

It's towed and fixed, taking more than a month's salary! Yikes! My insurance gets me a replacement car.

The builder finally finishes the new roof on the back patio. Took him 2 months! He might have to wait another 2 until I have enough money to pay him...

I discover my blood pressure is high. I feel exhausted and headachy all the time.

The car lets me down, again. That doesn't help my blood pressure, plus I get a bad cough from standing in the sun waiting for the tow truck.

I miss 2 lessons and go home to take a sedative. 

An hour later they tell me the car is "fixed".

I drive out for the last lesson of the same day and guess what? When I try to drive home, it won't start! I call the mechanic, he comes out, fiddles around a bit, takes me home and then gets the car to the garage. Next day he tells me the car is fixed. I don't really believe him. I'm scared to drive it away. I tell him to test it for another day while I go on strike.

At the weekend, I don't take the dogs to dog school because I'm scared the car will break down in the sticks.

I can't get enough sleep because my coughing keeps me awake.

My big dog bites my small dog, again! I also get a tiny hole in my arm separating them. Both bites seem to be heeling.

It's time to do my Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post, I take some pictures of my neglected garden, but cannot write the post.

I have tons of work to do and the boss (Ministry of Education) decides I need 2 days of training plus a placement test (Yes, I have to do a placement test!) to give the students the PET test. I feel insulted! Along with all my colleagues who have to do this.

I will have to give up my free day (free to keep up with school paperwork, that is) plus a day of lessons in which I had important things to do with the students to go to this training session. Oh, and I need to take earphones for my listening test! But I'm allergic to earphones!

April and May will be great fun, running around to other schools when the kids have to do the oral part of the exam and then correcting their written tests. What fun! I'll get to meet so many different colleagues and students! I wonder if my car will get me around the Algarve. All this while teaching my own classes and keeping up with my paperwork. Oh, and we don't get paid for the extra hours we'll be putting in.

I sure hope this phase ends soon!

The car has worked OK for 3 days now. I don't know if this will continue.

Are you blowing your whistle at me?!

There I was, calmly driving to school on Friday morning. 

I was in good time so when I saw police cars at the roundabout I wasn't particularly worried. I've had to stop dozens of times to show my documents and have the car inspected. I usually have everything in order.

There were two police cars on the left and two on the right. One poor driver had been pulled over on the right and was out of his car (never a good sign), probably paying a fine for something. The policeman with him was busy, so I thought I was safe. I turned my attention to getting the new way of navigating a roundabout done properly and was half way through that when I heard police whistles blowing furiously and the policemen on the left pointing menacingly ... at me? I couldn't believe my eyes!

I managed to pull over already out of the roundabout, my nerves shattered. When a policeman reached me, I kept repeating "What did I do wrong?" He said I didn't stop promptly enough. Heck! I wasn't expecting the ones on the left to even think of pulling me over. They were on the other side. To be safe, they should have been only stopping cars going in the opposite direction, for heaven's sake!

So I showed my documents, saying I was going to miss my first class of the day. The policeman smiled. He thought I was pretending to be a teacher!  Then he inspected the car and looked over at his whistle-mad colleagues. I wondered what exactly they were going to fine me for. I had pulled over safely albeit too slowly for them, they weren't complaining about my navigation of a roundabout (even though I don't think I've quite got the hang of it), so what was it going to be?

Oops! My windshield had a crack - a very small crack - a crack that is almost as old as the car - a crack that has never been a problem before! 

I was let off with a warning: they were going to be at that roundabout for several days and if I was stopped again, a fine it would be. I drove off in a daze, still unsure if a fine wouldn't find its way into my mailbox. 

My car has now got a new windscreen but I can't get that treated-almost-like-a-criminal scene out of my head. Is it any surprise that people don't like the traffic police here?

Mind you, I have seen worse - an adult student of mine once overtook me and the road-hogging police car in front of me only to be treated to a siren-screaming car chase into a sleepy Algarve town!

Who's playing silly buggers?

Warning: this is a rant. I'll forgive you if you don't read it.

If, however, you live in Portugal, you may find some of the information useful.

As if I didn't have enough to do, it being end-of-year madness at school, I have to deal with cable TV/mobile phone/Internet providers playing silly buggers.

Complaints against companies providing these services are very frequent.  I have complained twice before - once I eventually won, once I eventually gave up.

This week I got a weird message on my mobile phone (not MEO). The message was from MEO, though (MEO is one of the main cable TV, mobile phone and Internet providers).

It thanked me for signing up to one of its services  -  called M4O. That was weird because I hadn't signed up to anything, as it happens.

 But the message went on to say that the "mobiles would be activated in a few days".

So I went on to the client support site (my broadband is MEO) to find how to ask for an explanation.

Couldn't find a way to complain without making a phone call - at my expense - and we all know how long and expensive those calls can be. 

There was a client satisfaction questionnaire, so I tried to use that.

Got a message thanking me for my feedback - very helpful!

The next day I got an automated call from MEO!

"Had my service been successfully activated, press 0 for yes, press 1 for no" (or something like that) - I pressed the number for NO! 

"Would I recommend MEO to other people?" You can guess what I pressed! 

At the third question, I hung up.

Silly buggers weren't going to go away and I would have to deal with them before they turned into expensive silly buggers.

I went back to the client support site and eventually found a contact form where I outlined the problem.

But today I had to drive to one of their shops because I got yet another message from MEO which informed me that the signing up process was complete and the service was activated for the stand minimum period of 24 months!

I showed the nice girl behind the counter the messages and outlined the problem again. 

She agreed it was weird. She checked and said my mobile phone number wasn't on their register associated with any M4O service. 

So why was I receiving the messages? "Probably a wrong number," she said, hoping that I would leave it at that. 

No, I wasn't leaving without the problem being registered officially in writing. If it's not in writing, it doesn't count, as another couple with a complaint were finding out at the counter beside me.

I could feel the people behind me in the line fuming, but my problem got written down officially and I have a copy!

So, what do I find in my email inbox? A swift reply to the contact form I had sent in the day before.

What did it say?

"Please phone 16200 to inform what kind of service you are referring to and who signed up for it so that we can process your complaint!"

All I can say is they can't read/didn't read my text or love playing silly buggers!

No wonder they get so many complaints!