Catch up Part 1

It's been a few days. So heres a run down :

Friday - Had a meeting with a new potential client - which by the end became a confirmed client. Yay! Had a visit to the doc about my wrist. A new doctor, and she is great, really nice and made me feel comfortable - definitely going to be my permanent doc, me thinks. Turns out she agrees that it had been handled badly by my previous doc (I chose a new doc for this very reason. I wanted a second opinion.)
So she booked me in for an UltraSound and CT scan for first thing Monday morning. Finally someone actually doing something to find out why my wrist is still crusty and swollen.

After that I went and picked up my little sister Kim's 21st birthday pressie - a sterling silver necklace with a 'k'on it - from Tiffany & Co. at Martin Place. Such a nice store, I felt special being in there. . . ha, ha, ha. She better bloody appreciate the fact it is Tiffany's. . . I have been assured that every girl dreams of getting jewellery from Tiffany's. Actually, after seeing the things in there, Tiffany's is now on my wish list too. . . . Take Note, People!. . .

So anyway, I was supposed to go out for Hamish' birthday later that night, but since I was driving up to Inverell early Saturday morning for Kims birthday bash, I sent my apologies, and settled in to a quiet night in front of the TV (again). I really wanted to go, since I havent really been out for a trashy night with the boys for ages. I miss them all. :o(

Saturday morning, 6am. Woke up after only 5 hours sleep. . . so tired. . . I had to pick up my rental car from Star City at 8, thank God I fully packed the night before. . . booked a Toyota Corolla. . . nice little comfy Japanese car that would be frugal with the fuel, but comfy enough for the horrid 8 hour drive. . . .

Get to the Avis car rental place and complete all the crap to collect my car. Suddenly the Avis dude pulls up and gets out of a 3 door 1.3l Hyundai Getz. Walks over to me and hands me the keys. This is how the conversation went :

Me: (With a seriously quizzical look on my face)"Ummm, what's that?"
Avis Dude: (With an equally quizzical look on his face) "Your car sir?"
Me: (Now with a total look of digust) "Aaah, Yeah, I don't think so."
AD: "I'm sorry?"
Me: "I ordered a Toyota Corolla - this is not a Toyota Corolla. This a a cheap nasty Korean piece of crap."
AD: "I'm sorry Sir, but you booked the Group A car, and this is the Group A car."
Me: "No, I don't think so. Do I look like I would book and then be happy driving this shit? Yeah, I definitely ordered the Corolla."
AD: "Ok Sir, let me see what we have. . . "

So we went back inside, and he gets all excited and says "Ooh, I can upgrade you to our Group C car!" At this time he points at the chart, and it is a Holden Astra. OK, think I can manage that. . . they're cute, I used to have a Vectra, so just a mini Vectra. "OK, thats fine, I will take that one."

So he goes out to get my replacement car. Suddenly this baby poo greenish Hyundai Elantra pulls up, and fuck me dead, the Avis dude gets out all beaming cos he has another satisfied customer. Well, he wasn't smiling for long. . . .

Me: "Another Korean car? What's the deal here, man? Your chart shows Corolla's, Astra's and Commodores. . . . You substitute quality cars for these, and charge the same rental? How does that work?"
Avis Dude: "Im sorry sir, I can only offer you this or a 4WD"
Me: "Fine, this will have to do. But I'm not impressed."

So there I was, settling into a crappy Elantra for an 8 hour drive up to Inverell. . . oh joy. . . .

Heading up the freeway, absolutely pissing down with rain. Bumper to bumper. It's a 110KPH zone, and in 10m visibility everyone is going 40KPH. . . at this rate, the 90 minute leg to the New England Highway was gonna take 3 hours. . .

I had had enough, time to turn around. Fuck this. It was going to end up taking 12 hours to get to Inverell, I was going to miss dinner and the whole trip would have been wasted. So I turned around and went back to Sydney. . .