I don’t think I’ve ever managed to be in my home electorate for polling day. I’m always overseas, or in a different part of the country, or something. This year is no exception, although it was a bit easier to cast a special vote this time, by going in to the main electoral office. It was just like voting on polling day really, but without the crowds. Perhaps that’s why one third of Americans vote early. I didn’t even need to make up an excuse, I just ticked the box on the form. Easy. And now I can go and vote a few more times if the last leaders’ debate changes my mind, right?
Other happenings: You may have heard of the “Dangerous Book for Boys” – well my parents have got me a dangerous book of sorts. The “Insight Deluxe World Atlas” – that’s right, an atlas weighing 5kg. 1:4.5M maps of the world, along with details on the great touring routes of the world. Dangerous indeed. I have to restrict my reading of it though, I might get too many ideas for spending the next decade on the road.
I think I do need to go overseas again too, just so that I can get my bike services. When I was in Iran, and my bike needed some work, I found a place that sorted it out right there, while I waited. In China, going into a bike shop got me invited to a Christmas party. In Alice Springs, the helpful staff went out of their way to help me out, reshuffling other jobs around, to ensure I could get back on the road in a reasonable timeframe. So surely it can’t be that hard to get my mountain bike serviced here in NZ, given that there are 4 bike shops within one kilometre of my house, with another due to open next week. Alas.
My preferred shop, that I walk past every day, had just had their mechanic leave, and so couldn’t do any major work required. OK, it happens. So I find another place, and get told that it will be a minimum of two weeks before they can look at it. Hmmm. Oh well, let’s book it in then. So I go through a list of what I want done, and they write it down on the job card, and tell me to bring the bike back in a fortnight. Righto. Just under two weeks later I turn up to drop the bike off. Wait, we don’t seem to have any record of your booking. Ah finally we find the job card, but we don’t seem to have actually scheduled your bike in. The schedule’s pretty well chocka, but it looks like we can squeeze it across a few slots. Well that’s fine, as long as I get it back before the weekend. Of course sir, we’ll call you on Thursday to confirm it.
There was quite a bit of work to be done, so I was expecting a confirmation call if it was going to be an expensive job. No phone call on Thursday, so on Friday I rung them up to confirm it was ready. Yes, we tried contacting you, and left messages. Er, no, no you didn’t, as I don’t have any missed calls or voicemail messages. Well, the bike is ready anyway.
So I turn up early on Saturday morning, planning on picking up the bike early, so I could go out for a club ride in the afternoon. Wait a second, my bike looks exactly the same…they hadn’t even started the job. No note, nothing. Just hadn’t done it, even though it was clearly marked as being on the day schedule. WTF?
Not happy. Not happy at all. Especially since there’s a reasonable chance that they’ll tell me it’s going to cost more than $500, and I’ll be better off getting a new bike anyway…