Tag Archives: life
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it’s all in the numbers

18 Jan

numbersThere is no doubt it’s hot… in fact one could say REALLY bloody hot. But what is it with the need to know the actual ‘number’ that tells us how hot it is?

I admit that I am not a ‘numbers girl’ … I hate sudoko but love crosswords, hated maths but loved english. There is no way I could tell you the price per kilo of any meat or vegetable… (if I need it, then it’s the right price). Nor could I tell you exactly how much I weigh; if (like now) the muffin top begins to appear, then it’s time to stop eating. I prefer to not think about the number of years I have been around, and I struggle with having way too many numbers to choose from in order to find the right TV station.

On the other hand, Mr ‘50 Something’ is like The Rainman…give him a measurement or phone number and he can retain and recall it forever..In some ways I’m envious, but the thought of cluttering my brain with all those meaningless digits (then maybe needing to find them again) just freaks me.

With this numbers skill comes a fascination with all kinds of measurement…the speed of sound, the speed of light….the speed of speed !!! But then there is the temperature, ‘how hot is it going to be?’… ‘how hot is it now?’… ‘how cold was it?’.  For him it’s all about the numbers, whereas for me it’s simple…. ‘do I feel hot?’, will I get cold?’, ‘do I think I’ll need to take a jacket, and if so, what colour?P1120574’.

It wouldn’t do for us all to be the same … (as he says, between us we can count AND write) but watching the outside temperature gauge in the car flick up or down by a degree is not really enough to capture my imagination (on the other hand, if there was a scrabble board built into the dashboard …. I’d be there in a heartbeat).

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when is a bargain not a bargain?

2 Jan

Today I’m wondering about the things that we are good at …..and the things that we are not so good at.  In fact there are many many things that I am really shit at,  but today I want to  admit to a failing that many of you will find ridiculous.  I am just useless at internet shopping !!!

Sure I have clicked ‘buy now’ on a number of Catch of the Day or similar promos that fall in your lap and you don’t need to think about (and more likely, don’t actually ‘need’ at all)… but when it comes to deliberate purchases …I suck.

I have never been a great bargain hunter. You know the type,  comparing prices and value for money, blah blah blah  …. so the idea of comparing a “WORLD’s worth’ of products to get the best price really just annoys me. I would much rather walk into a shop to touch, feel, smell, try on …. a product, than to click ‘buy’ and then wonder if it really is what I think it is.

I have had several disaster purchases, but today’s case in point goes like this: I was needing a new smart phone …don’t really care too much other than it MUST be dual sim card. I let Michael do lots of the background reviews and then present me with a shortlist, which was then easily narrowed to one specific phone.

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This phone was available in-store at a reasonable price last Monday (walk in walk out with it) BUT, was advertised $50 cheaper online, with the option to ‘pick-up’. That  that sounded completely reasonable to me (even though it meant a trip to Parramatta), so taking the opportunity for a girly day of shopping with a friend and  lunch, I collected it on Tuesday . BUT after driving all the way home, I soon discovered it was NOT the dual sim model of the phone at all !!  Aarrgh.

Of course the store was closed by the time I realised and we tried to call, …then the following day (yesterday) was a public holiday… So today I headed back to Parra to exchange it, only to be told that the advertisement  was wrong BUT I could have the dual sim phone for …. the SAME price that I could have bought it in the first place last Monday, but ‘by the way …we don’t have the colour you want’.

So my potential $50 savings cost me 4 x 55km trips,  a parking fee, a heap of time, and a whole lot of opportunistic shopping en route… only to get a full refund and then buy (the right colour)  at the original price… go figure !!

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