Inconvenient Annoyances

Wow, what a stressful week!

I was supposed to be detaching overseas to Ascension Island this week, but getting there is tricky at the moment because their runway is broken and the plane that normally flies direct from the UK (the same flight that then goes on to the Falklands) is too heavy to land there... which means that instead of 2 direct flights from the UK per week, now they only have 1 flight every 4-5 weeks via Cape Verde, plus a couple of flights per month via South Africa and via Florida.

Back at the end of October, I was told I would be flying out via Cape Verde on 9th Jan. I hadn't heard anything more about it so I assumed this was still the case, and I planned my shifts and annual leave accordingly (taking Mon and Tues off this week ready to travel to the airport Wednesday evening).

I was on leave for much of December, but I had my work laptop with me so when it got to Christmas week (2 weeks before I was due to travel) and I hadn't received my flight confirmation yet, I emailed HR to check on it.

I received an email back on the 31st, where I was CC'd in on an email to the flight booking team asking to confirm my flight on the 6th (which had been requested on December 10th). Since I had been told I was leaving on the 9th, I queried this, and the HR lady apologised and sent a correction to confirm the flight booking for the 9th instead of the 6th.

I was then back at work on New Year's Day, and I emailed the team at Ascension to ask some general questions, where I mentioned the lack of confirmation about my flights. They then told me that the flight on the 9th was no longer happening and had been moved to the 6th, which was why the flight booking request had been made for the 6th... except no one had told me this! They had known for weeks that there was no flight on the 9th, yet no one thought to inform me of the change! As a result, I was still scheduled to work night shifts on the roster until the morning of the 5th (and would have needed to check in for the flight on the other side of the country at 9pm that evening).

As it happened, the flight on the 6th (today) was completely full and had been for weeks, so there was no chance of me getting on it anyway.

So, now, I have no idea when I will be travelling or which route I will be taking to get there!

There's a flight that leaves the UK this Thursday night via South Africa and St. Helena, which arrives in Ascension on Saturday afternoon.. It's currently full, but there's a chance that 1 ticket may be cancelled in the next 24 hours and that they can get me on it... but I won't find out until tomorrow morning..

If I can't get on that flight, then my only other option is to wait until January 30th for the next UK flight via Cape Verde.

So, at the moment, I'm in limbo, unsure whether I will need to pack to fly out in 2 days, or whether I won't be flying until the end of the month, in which case, I'll need to pick up 3 extra weeks of shifts at work (which may mean travelling across the country to work at different stations).

This whole thing is BONKERS!!!!  I hope you get an answer soon.  This would drive me mad!

This whole thing is BONKERS!!!!  I hope you get an answer soon.  This would drive me mad!

Thanks, I hope so too!

I knew it could be like this because of the runway issues, and that I would have to be flexible with my travel dates, but what frustrates me is the lack of communication leading up to this week. If I had known about the issues with the flight on the 6th earlier, I could have been prepared with possible contingency plans.

Instead, I was panic-shopping on Thursday morning last week, and debating whether to ask someone to cover my Saturday night on-call shift, because I thought I would be flying out Sunday night, only to get back home to an email from HR saying that was I never gonna be on the flight anyway.

Ok, so my washer stopped draining, with clothing in it. I phoned in the repair on Monday. They sent a guy out on Tuesday to look at it. He said it was so old that it'd be best to just replace it. So since that's the landlord's problem, it was ok with me. Tuesday evening I got a phone call that they'd be out today to replace it, as they happened to have one in stock in their warehouse.

So there is a shiny new washing machine in my kitchen. It's actually quite a nice one.  Unfortunately, it is a washer. Not a washer/dryer, which is what it should be. And the cabinet behind which it sits now sticks out oddly because they couldn't get the door flush with the rest of the cabinets because the machine was a little too big. It looks like hell. I've reported both issues to my letting agent, and they are expediting this as much as they can. But it's an entirely new level of incompetence. I'm used to a lot of incompetence with repair people here. This is a whole 'nuther level of d'oh.

I do not see things well without my glasses, and all appeared as it should (except for the door problem). It wasn't until I had a load of towels going and was checking the new user manual for how to set the drying cycle. To find there wasn't a drying cycle.

I am sitting at home tomorrow waiting for the annual boiler inspection, which was scheduled arbitrarily for me (was notified on Monday). So hopefully they'll be able to replace the washer/dryer as well tomorrow. But I'd bet there's a snowball's chance in hell of that.
So I'm going to end up sitting at home some other day for them to come to tear up my kitchen to replace the washer with the washer/dryer. What. Ever. 

Oh. And I finally got the "results" letter from the cardiologist. About the problem I started having last April and saw my GP for last May. And saw the cardiologist for in August, and had tests done later.  It's all fine. Glad I wasn't snake-bit.

It's good to see you back Nan! 

Did you have a washer / dryer before?  Did it work OK?  We rarely use the dryer bit on ours because it takes 5 hours and the stuff is not even that dry.  Too bad about the fit, I can see that as something that's going to get ignored and you will have to live with. 

Forgot to remind everyone to check that your washer / dryer is not on a recall list.  They've recently announced that tons of washers were made with a door lock mechanism that heats up and catches fire.  Many brands are impacted but you should be able to find out on the manufacturer's web site. 

Hi.  Yeah, it was an old Lamona washer/dryer. It worked well enough - the dryer took care of most things, although I had to be careful or it would over-dry things when on the highest setting. And leave like creases in blue jeans, stuff like that. Towels it got almost all dry, but I couldn't put more than one or two in or it would be more than the washer could manage. So, while we really missed our old top-loading Sears' Kenmore washer and front loader dryer, the Lamona was working well enough for us. Other than it took for-ev-er to get laundry done. It did have a 30 minute wash cycle for lightly-soiled items, and I used that quite a bit, but the dryer we're talking a few hours....

I emailed the letting agent to let them know about everything, and so I wouldn't get dinged for that door being as it is when we finally do move out, and got caught up in a "reply all" avalanche that eventually involved the president of the repair company. They were trying to blame the problem on the letting agent's office for telling them it was "just a washing machine" so I chimed in that their guy was out here looking at it, etc., to shut that down. Seriously, the guy checked it thoroughly. And the installers didn't notice that what they were bringing wasn't what they were replacing. Amazing.

I got an email from the pres of the company last night saying I'd get a call this morning to sort it out. So at 8:00am my phone rang, and by the time I could get to it they'd hanged up and left no message. So I dropped a line to the pres of that company saying I was home and had missed the call, and if they phoned again and didn't get me (it takes me some time to get to the other end of the house - I can't do it in four rings - to please leave a message and I'll phone them back.

So I got an apology email and another phone call. They're coming Monday now.

Update on my overseas detachment travel situation this week:

I found out on Tuesday that there was 1 seat available on the flight into Ascension on Saturday, so I have now been booked on it. I fly from London to Johannesburg tonight!

It's kind of ironic actually, because after my big dilemma about whether or not to go to South Africa for Christmas, turns out I'll be there tomorrow for 1 night instead! Unfortunately, my brother lives 650 miles from Johannesburg, so I won't be able to see him.

Update on my overseas detachment travel situation this week:

I found out on Tuesday that there was 1 seat available on the flight into Ascension on Saturday, so I have now been booked on it. I fly from London to Johannesburg tonight!

Safe journey! 

Update on my overseas detachment travel situation this week:

I found out on Tuesday that there was 1 seat available on the flight into Ascension on Saturday, so I have now been booked on it. I fly from London to Johannesburg tonight!

It's kind of ironic actually, because after my big dilemma about whether or not to go to South Africa for Christmas, turns out I'll be there tomorrow for 1 night instead! Unfortunately, my brother lives 650 miles from Johannesburg, so I won't be able to see him.

Hope that worked out ok!  Talk about short notice to travel... wow!

Safe journey! 

Hope that worked out ok!  Talk about short notice to travel... wow!

Thanks, guys .

I landed in Johannesburg a couple of hours ago and am chilling in my hotel room now. Next flight is at 9am tomorrow morning. Not much I can do here though, since it's not really safe for me to venture outside the airport on my own (the hotel is connected to it), though there are some shops in the airport, I believe.

Thanks, guys .

I landed in Johannesburg a couple of hours ago and am chilling in my hotel room now. Next flight is at 9am tomorrow morning. Not much I can do here though, since it's not really safe for me to venture outside the airport on my own (the hotel is connected to it), though there are some shops in the airport, I believe.

Obviously don't need to say this since you will know....but the next week will be between 22-24C every day (highs and lows included).....boring, but oh so very comfortable.

Obviously don't need to say this since you will know....but the next week will be between 22-24C every day (highs and lows included).....boring, but oh so very comfortable.

You know what, I actually don’t know - I’m only in South Africa for 22 hours total, so I didn’t bother to look at the weather here.

I’ll be heading to Ascension Island tomorrow morning, where pretty much every day for the next 3 months will be highs of 30-32C and lows of 22-24C... I’ve been looking forward to it for 8 months


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Ewww, that sounds like hell! Drink plenty of fluids....

Ewww, that sounds like hell! Drink plenty of fluids....

Oh, no - I can't wait! I spent 3 months there 6 years ago, and have been wanting to go back ever since . Give me 25-30 degrees over 5-10 degrees any time.

Uh... Enjoy!(?)