"...Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."

Yesterday had to be the worst day on record for me - okay at least for a really long day. I should have known it was going to be a bad day when Cooper woke me up at about 2:00am to sleep by me because he had a bad dream, and then proceeded to kick me, hit me, and roll into me hundreds of times for the next hour before Kev took him back to his room.


It was a hard morning to get the kids out of bed, but we got off to school in time with a few minute to spare!!! Until I got the van parked, Rylee unbuckled, the kids out of the van, and then realized that Madi didn't grab her backpack (which has her lunch and morning tea) or her hat (can't go out to recess and play without that in Australia). Needless to say we had to drive all the way back home and Madi was late for school.


I then went straight from school to the shops to do a few things. Mostly to get my mobile phone (cell phone) working. I have to back up for this story. When we went on our trip to South Australia last month some of my stuff fell out of the diaper bag upon arriving at the Sydney airport. I thought I got it all off of the ground, but apparently didn't because when we got on the airplane and I went to turn off my phone it was nowhere to be found. Therefore, upon our arrival home I bought a new one. Kev had stopped my minutes on my old phone (we do pre-paid here because it is cheaper for us) and they said that it could be transfered to another phone when it was purchased. So we went to the store and bought the phone and everything seemed fine until a couple of days later when I went to use it and I couldn't call out. Kev said he had tried to call me and nothing happened either. So we had to call the customer service line and spent three days getting the run around with no one finding a solution to the problem. Finally, we were told the the SIM card wasn't working and I just needed to go to any Optus store and they would replace it for free.



So on Friday morning I went to the Optus store and told them this. The guy was not happy and had me sit in a chair and call customer service again. I was on hold for at least 30 minutes trying to entertain Cooper and Rylee, yet make them sit quietly in the store. Finally the lady comes on the line and starts asking me all the questions I have already been asked for three days before. I was so frustrated that when she asked what my mobile number was and I drew a blank. By this time Cooper is climbing all over me and asking me questions and Rylee is fussy and starting to whimper. Basically, the lady could do nothing for me because I couldn't remember my number. The other problem being that when we bought the phones in the first place they put both of them in Kevin's name so I can't do much anyway because I have a different name, and they can't seem to fix that either. After hanging up the phone and the frustration level reaching it's max. The guy at the store, who is on the phone setting up someone's account, looks at me as if to say "what do I need to do for you." I had had it and I yelled at him and said that she could do nothing for me and that the customer service of the company was terrible. I told him that because I did what someone told me to do he should honor that, to which he said a bit condenscending "I am sorry, but you were given bad information." So I said, "basically you are telling me that there is nothing you can do!" He told me no and I just left the store.

Upon arriving home I called Kev, at work, who then called Optus and told them he wanted to speak to a manager. The manager took 20 minutes to figure out the problem and fix it over the phone. Why couldn't someone have done that in the first place? He was very nice and called me later to make sure the phone was working and gave me a $30 credit because of the bad service I had received. He was very kind and made me feel much better about the company.

The customer service in Australia is just not up to par with the States. I can't believe how rude they are sometimes and how nothing gets done. I don't think I will take the "customer is always right" slogan for granted anymore. Even Wal-mart is spectacular compared to some of the customer service I have seen here. Anyway, that is another subject for another day.

So there was a little bit of a sun shining moment there in my bleak day - the manager fixing the problem and doing a great job at apologizing. However, then Madi came home from school a few hours later and had the worst attitude ever. She was ornery (whingy) and complaining about not getting a sucker (lollie) that Cooper had gotten when we went to the shops. Finally I yelled at her and told her to go to her room. Apparently this was my day for yelling (I am not usually this bad I promise).

Due to this little exchange we were late to get on the train to meet Kev in the city. This isn't too bad because the next train was only 15 minutes behind so we made that one. However, when we got to the train station the elevator wasn't working. I had to haul the stroller up the stairs - luckily for me a nice lady offered her assistance!!

When we got to the city I went out a different gate than I normally do (I am usually with Kev who knows all) and couldn't figure out how to get out of the train station. Finally upon finding my way around to the Woolworths (which has the only elevator to street level and is where we used to shop when we lived in the city), and remembering how small the store was and how many people were there (anxiety levels went up here a bit). I went to take the elevator, and this one was out of order too. Talk about everything happening in one day. We just went up the escalator - stroller and all.


The day then did get much, much brighter after that (despite the gray and bleak sky). We met Kev in the city to have dinner and walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens and see the Opera House again. We haven't walked through the Gardens since our first day in Sydney and I wanted to go back and see them again. We also had to take Flat Stanley to see places in Sydney - more on him later this week.

Madi, Rylee, and I stayed in Hyde Park while Kevin and Cooper headed to Macca's (McDonalds) to get dinner. We had to relive the old dinner routine while we were living in the city. While waiting the missionaries came by and started talking to me. I let them sweat it out a bit and try to give me their spill before telling them that I was a member of the Church.


This is where I forgot all the bad things and had a great time with my family. I love the Gardens the green open space is so nice, and I can never get enough of seeing the Opera House. Here are a few pics that we took. I wish that it would have been a nice day with blue sky.

We had to find the bats again of course. The first picture is of them sleeping in the tops of the trees. The second picture was the best part of the night for me. We were there long enough that they woke up and began to fly around. It was a little eerie and spooky to have huge bats flying overhead, but it was cool at the same time.

We also had to find the drinking fountain that Cooper had such a fun time playing in the first time we visited the Gardens. He was so excited to see it again and went running to spray the water. The first picture is from the first visit and the second was from last night.

And of course the Opera House!!! From a distance.....

...and up close!!

After walking on the steps of the Opera House we told the kids we would see if the icecream shop was opened (Baskin Robbins here we come!!!) and started our way through Circular Quay. While walking we ran into the Rowberry's again - they were leaving for Utah the next day (today actually). What are the odds - in a city so big! It was fun to say goodbye to them again!

At least the last part of the day was a good one, and to think I almost called Kev and said forget it we will do it another time. Actually, now that I type it all up it doesn't seem so bad. However, in the moment it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.