2 Gifts

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did receive two other gifts that deserve a mention. They meant a lot to me yet materialistically cost next to nothing.

On Christmas Eve morning, I left all the kids at home so I could get a few last minute errands done including the stocking stuffers. This was especially crucial because I had to work that night and so had to make sure it was all done before I left at 7pm. I was gone about 2-3 hours. When I got back Miss Thing, Sparky and (with direction) Her Majesty had cleaned the house without me asking. Lounge room, rumpus room, kitchen, even the bathroom and main toilet was clean. I was really touched by their efforts and told them it was the best gift they could have given me, and they did it without it being their intention to make it a present.

The second was a card given to me by a friend of Miss Thing and Sparky whom I will call Zeppy. Zeppy is a year younger than Miss Thing and is mainly her friend, although he has no problems hanging out with Sparky in a big brother type of way. Her Majesty adores him. He is a very nice boy who has a really shitty family life. He came over the other day bearing gifts for everyone and to my complete surprise handed me a box of chocolates (I told you he was a bright boy) and a card in which he had written the following:

You and your whole family have brought me such joy over the past 2 years. I can not even begin to express my graditude (sic) towards the lovely family you are. Thank you very much for being there for me when no one else could! Merry Christmas and best wishes.

I nearly cried, or worse nearly embarrassed the boy by wanting to hug him in front of his mates (Miss Thing and Sparky). I refrained and instead only slightly embarrassed him by telling him how "sweet" it was and thanking him.

So forget about expensive gifts -this Christmas I was reminded that the best ones really do come from the heart.

Christmas Post-Mortem

I have never been so glad that Christmas is over.

That sounds pretty crappy, doesn't it? I found myself in a bit of a funk this Christmas, and it was only on Christmas Day why I realized why I was so "meh". I was really missing my family back in the States, particularly my late father (who passed away back in 1995). I was very envious of Miss Thing, who was visiting all the people I was missing so much. Knowing it's still going to be a few years until we can save up the plane fare didn't help. I was just feeling lonely, missing that unconditional love you can get from your family.

But once I was able to pinpoint why I was in such a mood I was able to shake it off and get back to feeling more myself. So don't worry, family - me better now!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Holiday Homes Tour post. Christmas Day turned out to be tolerable in terms of the heat - it was overcast and so the house didn't get truly hot until later in the day when I had the oven on to cook the ham. As a matter of fact, today is a "suumer sweatbox" type of day and I'll be retiring to the pool once this post is complete.

This Christmas was the first one that Her Majesty understood exactly what was going on and so was super excited. She was awake at 5:30am, although I did manage to get her to stay in bed with me until 6am. We then woke up Miss Thing and Clive so the kids could go open their presents. I'll post the pictures soon up on Webshots - watch this space! Clive was completely overwhelmed and so needed lots of help opening his presents. Sparky was particularly pleased with his presents, although I know he still suffers a little "quantity envy" - whereby his younger siblings have far more presents to open than he does because of the cost difference. But he did very well in finally grasping that "cost difference" thing and so only an astute observer would pick up on the envy. Miss Thing only had a few gifts to open owing to her getting gobs of cold hard cash when she went to the States, not to mention gifts from the grandparents while she was there. The Hermit got very practical gifts this year - dubbed "socks and jocks" by a co-worker - along with season 4 of House.

Me? Sparky got me a couple of loose leaf teas from T2, which is sweet as I love tea. I told the Hermit not to get me anything from my usual spa as I'd rather the money go to paying off the bills. And of course Momma Mooselet spoils me rotten by giving me money for my birthday and Christmas and demanding I go and spend it on myself. Since the Aussie dollar has tanked I had quite a bit to spend on myself so I took some time to think about what I really wanted. Not needed, but wanted. I had several ideas but I finally decided on this:

That's the box... I'm so not good at pictures of myself.

An Acer Aspire One netbook - in essense a mini-notebook. I got the white one. You can go read more about it via the link or Google it yourself, but in short it's got 1GB of RAM, 120GB harddrive, a built in webcam and a bunch of other stuff. I'm technical like that. :-) Nor was it anywhere near the price that's listed on that webpage, plus there was a $69 cashback offer. Throw in a discount cos the Large Grocery Store That Employees Me offers its 5% discount to the place where I bought it and it was a bargin! It's very sturdy and the screen res is excellent. Earlier models ran off Linux, as did a few other brands I looked at, which was fine but they only had half the RAM. This runs Windows XP, which wasn't a selling point but at least it's not Vista. It does come with a free trial of this...

...but whose icon went into the trash bin as soon as I downloaded Open Office. This was preceded by the IE icon that went as soon as Firefox was installed. So no more having to fight with children for computer time in order to blog or surf - this puppy is all mine!!!!!

Bwahahahahahahahaha!!! Sorry, that was my evil laugh.

Does this qualify and getting something for myself, MM?

I did get two more gifts that merit a mention, but now that I've lost a kilo in body weight due to sweat, I'm off to go for a swim. Later 'gaters!

Holiday Homes Tour 2008

In conjunction with Jen over at Jen on the Edge I agreed to take part in the Holiday Homes Tour. Go visit Jen's blog and you can visit other bloggers who have thrown open their doors to show off their Christmas decorations.

Rather than take a bunch of photos and try to decide what to show, I'm giving you a video tour of my Christmas decor Down Under:

I hope you enjoyed that - it took me 4 freakin' takes and hours to upload to YouTube (thanks slower than dirt Aussie broadband), so I'm sorry if I'm late Jen! Thank chocolate for the time difference.

Saturday Skinfest

The All Beefcake Edition.

Sorry guys. It's my birthday so I get to indulge myself and leave out the cheesecake this week. It'll be back next week, I promise.

Even though they absolutely blew the Rugby League World Cup final game by loosing to the Kiwis in spectacular fashion, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, these Aussie players just look too hot hanging around in their board shorts in the days before the game for me to ignore.

Anyone have any coins left over from last week for me to use on Robbie Farrah's backside.

David Williams models undies for Calvin Klein. Just keep going with that hand, m'kay?

Thanks for sending me this, Miss WTF. All games should be played by men who have had their jersey's torn to shreds by other players.

Photo Friday

If you haven't heard by now, Miss Thing is back. She returned on Wednesday morning, tired but happy to be back. She has been keeping me entertained with stories from her trip. See, don't I look entertained:

Ok, this picture is actually from my rescue trip down to Sydney and we were at the airport the next morning waiting to check her in for her flight. But I am glad to have her home, and thanks to the family for taking care of her while she was there!

Catching Up

I have just sat down to play catch up with the blog when Her Majesty came in to ask me she could have another sandwich. Because one sandwich, which was preceded by an apple and some cheese crackers, just isn't enough. She's like a moose with 4 stomachs... just without that disgusting regurgitation thing.

So I will be here backdating Photo Friday and Saturday Skinfest for you, and making an attempt at some original fodder. For this I skipped shaving my legs after my shower - I love you that much. So scroll down to see if I've done anything new...

United Airlines Saved from Epic Failure

If you are not familiar with my outrage at United Airlines, please read this post first. It will save me rehashing the whole thing for everyone else. I'll be here when you get back.

Last week Momma Mooselet rang me and had decided that she would take Miss Thing's tickets and get them changed to the earlier flight. We discussed what United had told me to date - that they would not waive the fee and that Miss Thing would have to go to the United Airlines counter to change them as they were paper tickets. Momma Mooselet rang United Airlines herself and was told the same thing. They asked her to go to Logan International Airport, which is a nightmare on the best of days (and I'm sorry Miss Thing is flying out of there), but Momma Mooselet suggested T.F. Green down in Rhode Island, and United agreed. Hey, thanks! Bastards.

When Momma Mooselet arrived, the ticket agent asked why they were changing the flight. MM explained what had happened to Miss Thing in Sydney and that we were trying to prevent the same happening in San Francisco. The agent asked MM why she hadn't made the changes over the phone; MM explained the airline told us we couldn't. And this is where one airline employee saved United from being labelled as an Epic Fail and stays at merely Full of Fail. The woman apologized to MM, said what we had been told was nonsense and changed the flight WHILE WAIVING THE FEES - something I'd been told was "impossible".

So United, this one employee did what half a dozen faceless drones on the phone would not and what your counter staff in Sydney did not do - treat a customer with respect and work to make the customer happy. We were not asking for stupid things, like upgrades to first class for life or a full refund of the fare - merely to waive a fee to make a change to minimize the chances a 17 year old from being stuck in a place where she knew no one. My endless thanks to this one employee at T.F. Green - she's full of win.

Thanks to everyone, especially Tors and Gabe, for your comments on my last post about this. I reserve final judgement on United for when Miss Thing completes her journey. She leaves Boston tomorrow, landing in Brisbane Wednesday morning. When I have her and her belongings home I will see whether United merely failed, remains full of fail, or goes for gold and makes epic fail status.

Saturday Skinfest

Late again. Sorry. If someone can invent a time machine, or hire me a nanny/housekeeper, please let me know.

Oh, and at least 3 of these pics have been Photoshopped to within a centimetre of their lives. Not an inch, because that's too big of a measurement. Not that I'm complainin', just pointing out the bleeding obvious. Equal opportunity snarker and all.

Luke O'Donnell is Naked For A Cause. Yum.

Jonathan Thurston has an ass you could bounce coins off of. Wonder if he'd let me try that...

Craig Wing likes to surf. This is for Anissa, who has been having some difficulties lately. Don't say I don't care about you, darl!

Jennifer Aniston is all naked with a bunch of (presumably) equally naked men. Discuss...

More skin next week.

Photo Friday

If you're looking, you can find a smile just about anywhere... like on your husband's lawn tractor:

Happy Birthday

Guess who turned 2 today:

My very own Clive, who helped decorate the Christmas tree yesterday before taking a very brief swim with the Hermit in the pool that you can see in the background. Clive is the antithesis of his sister Her Majesty when it comes to swimming.

Happy Birthday Clive! Tonight, we eat cake!

Saturday Skinfest

I did this last night and then it got eaten by cyberspace. Grrrr.... So now I get to mess with it again, which is a pain given I still can't figure out what's wrong with my mouse (the computer kind, not the real kind). Where's the chocolate.... ahhh, that's better. And I'm backdating it, so bear with me. Want some chocolate?

I wish Cooper Cronk played for a Queensland team so he could do this up in my neck of the woods. Her Majesty has fins just like that.

Daniel Conn is pretty in pink, even with all the body ink.

The stud on the left is definitely checking on what the stud on right is packing, if you know what I mean!

Marisa Miller again. I'm lazy and this was in my files, so who she is escapes me. Like you care. :-) Her bra looks like some weird cat eyeball that's looking at me... make it stop!!!

More skin, same computer problems, next week!

United Airlines - Full of Fail

I'm having an ongoing dispute with United Airlines that I hope to have resolved tonight. In fact, I'm not going to post this until tonight when I have to stay up late and call them back in the US to get this sorted out, hopefully. But I'll start it now.

And hey, United? Feel free to use this blog post as documentation since you claim I don't have any!

Miss Thing flew out of Brisbane on Qantas back on 24 November to begin her 3 week stay in the States. She called me frantically from Sydney to say she wasn't being allowed onto her connecting United Airlines flight to San Francisco, that she had arrived "too late". I asked her to go back up to the United counter so I could speak to someone there to sort it out, and she got back into the queue. As she waited, she filled me in. Her flight landed from Brisbane about 10 minutes late and she and the other passengers (about 6) got over to the International Terminal as quickly as the transfer bus and their little legs would carry them. She estimates they arrived at the counter by 3:15 where they were told they were too late and would not be allowed to check in for the flight that was leaving in an hour (and, I later found out, didn't even start boarding til 3:30). They were rebooked for the next day and told to find some accommodation and come back tomorrow. I wanted an explanation as to why they weren't being allowed to check-in. When Miss Thing got up to the counter, the agent refused to speak with me, told Miss Thing her travel agent had made an "illegal booking" and to come back tomorrow. No word about where her bags were or how she was supposed to find accommodation, just a very rude "go away kid, you're bothering me."

I was fuming. I rang the Hermit who was pretty mellow about it until I told him United wasn't going to help Miss Thing get accommodation or even help her track her bags. I rang United (who apparently doesn't have any record of me calling, or my travel agent who also called on my behalf when I rang them to ask about the "illegal booking") and was told they didn't know why she wasn't allowed on the flight as the booking was perfectly valid. What about some help for my stranded 17 year old? That was at the discretion of the counter staff, who I guess decided she would be fine on her own. I quickly booked a flight down to Sydney, threw things into a bag as the Hermit booked us a hotel room and left for the airport. I arrived at the International Termial just before 10pm, and found Miss Thing at the now-closed Starbucks. She had found a sign for Qantas baggage service and asked about her bags, which they had. Hey, thanks for the help United!

We got some sleep and were the 4th persons in line when they started rechecking people the next afternoon. I saw her down to the immigration check-in gate and got myself back to the Domestic Terminal for my flight to Brisbane. All up it cost me $500 that I could have spent on things like Christmas. Or bills. Or anything other than that.

My problem now is her return flights. Her connection in San Francisco cuts it very close, less than an hour, and I have absolutely NO faith that United Airlines will look after her should something be delayed and she miss the flight. The travel agency whom I booked the flights through gave me an earlier flight out of Boston I can put her on, but United wants $200-$250 USD to change the tickets. I have put it to United that after what happened to Miss Thing in Sydney that they waive the fee - after all I'm not changing the flights for fun, I'm changing it because of their stuff-up in Sydney! Here are a few of the excuses I've gotten so far:

"We just can't waive it." Why not? It's your airline, you can waive the fee.

"You should have followed it up on the day it happened." Sorry? I did. "We have no record of that." How convenient.

"All the connections are valid so you shouldn't have any problems now." That one made me laugh out loud. The original connection was valid and my kid still ended up in Sydney airport with no offers of help from your airline!

"There are rules we have to follow." Yes, and by your rules you should have let her on that flight. That didn't happen, did it?

Am I asking for too much? Is it wrong to ask for a little extra help for a 17 year old stranded at an international airport? Should I have forked out the money so she could have had a minder from the airline as she is, technically, a minor who turns 18 in less than 6 months? What if it had been a 70 year old frail woman - would it be out of bounds to expect the airline to look after her when she did nothing wrong but was told she still couldn't get on the plane? Is it wrong to be worried that it might happen again?

I was disconnected after 30 minutes on the phone today as the person I spoke with went back and forth to some mysterious other person as I insisted United waive the fee. When I phoned back, got someone else and explained it all over AGAIN and got the same answers AGAIN I finally got a US number for Customer Service for "past issues". I guess this is because customers in other countries don't need such services and so don't need them in their countries. But guess what United - I am a Yank and as such I can be a royal PIA when it comes to this kind of shit. I get how your system works because I was born and bred in it. Telling me I "have to call the United States" in a tone of voice meant to intimidate and frighten me won't work.

The bottom line is this - if I get no joy from your airline tonight this post goes out unaltered. It may not be much, but I do get over 100 hits a day. If it stops just one from flying your airline I will be happy. I will never fly your airline again - I will spend the extra cash and fly another airline who I know will look after me because they have in the past. And when you fly as large a family as mine halfway around the world that's a fair chunk of change that you miss out on. I will contact the travel agent and let them know the outcome - perhaps they'll stop using you. I doubt it, but I can plant the seed. I may even contact certain media outlets here in Australia who just love the "Aussie done wrong by the Evil American Corporation" story. Is a $250 fee worth that? Waive the fee and put my kid on the earlier flight; it's the least you can do.

UPDATE: Well I guess this post goes up as is. United Airlines - you suck donkey balls. I was offered $50 off a future flight, which I declined as I pointed out that United doesn't fly domestically in Australia, and 10% off a future international flight within the next year, which I also declined as I have no plans to travel in the next year (barring winning the lottery). Nor does it address my concern. While my complaints and concerns were recognized as "valid" and they "completely understood" my point they still refused to waive the fee if I change the flight. "There's nothing we can do".

Balls on a duck! You could have done a lot to restore my faith in your airline by waiving this fee. Instead you've set me on the course that I laid out above. I have to decide whether or not to gamble that my daughter will make the connection with no drama and if a hotel room in San Francisco is cheaper than your fee if she doesn't. Thanks for that United Airlines. You FAIL.

Photo Friday

Sparky had his school's end-of-year awards ceremony last night. We knew he getting an award - the medal around his neck - for making it to the districts level for athletics (aka track) but didn't know about the other award - the one in his hand - until we got there.

The award is the Craig Little Memorial Award, which means absolutely nothing to me as they really didn't explain who Craig Little was. When they presented him with the award they said it was for "outstanding participation in sport especially in athletics and rugby league". Which is pretty cool. Well done, Sparky!

Missing - My Mojo

If anyone has seen it, can you bring it back?

Not the "Austin Powers" type of sex-appeal mojo, but it seems I've lost my blogger mojo. Every time I sit down to update the blog, I can't do it. I got nuthin'. It's very frustrating and I'm not happy about it. I don't know if it's the heat, my malfunctioning computer mouse making copying and pasting so excruciatingly painful that I don't even want to bother, the fact Clive is so time-intensive that the little time I have left for everyone/everything else runs out before I get to the blog or I've got a plain old case of writers block. What I'm pretty sure it's NOT is Winston, my black dog. It doesn't feel the same as that, so I'm at a loss. I'm trying to get over myself, but even now Clive is next to me grunting about something that I need to investigate.

Meanwhile, entertain yourself with these random pictures and I'll try to be back this afternoon with something more substantial:

If you say this in hockey-announcer voice it's even better.

This may explain the Melbourne Storm. I don't know what, exactly, it explains, but... yeah, I don't know. I want to know who not only talked them into this - whatever it is, exactly - but then convinced them it was okay to allow a press photographer to take a picture of it!

It's like this some days...

But then how can I stay grumpy when the freakin' universe smiles at me? Photo from The Courier Mail, view is of Brisbane on Monday night.