Monday, October 08, 2007

Held ransom by technology


Imagine the scene...having spent a lovely evening last night with Ruby and Florrie's mum, I headed off early because I'm currently under attack from the lurgy and I have a habit of falling asleep at 9.o'clock.

I said my goodbyes...got into the car...my car beeped and beeped at me, reminding me that I needed petrol...I stopped at the nearest petrol station and filled her up....

Then...

...joined the queue!

Then...a bigger queue joined me!

The woman behind the counter was fiddling with the receipt printer.

We waited, and waited and waited.

She fiddled and fiddled, then phoned someone who instructed her, but no matter how much fiddling she did, even under instruction, there was no fix in sight! The till wouldn't work without the printer...

So we waited, and waited and waited.

One poor guy couldn't wait, as he had to be in Cambridge within 30 minutes to pick up his 18yr daughter from the train station. He was worried about her, but was told that it would be sorted soon. Kind old me offered to pay his petrol...we swapped details... he promised to reimburse me today and then left. I felt better, knowing his daughter wasn't going to be waiting around on her own, late at night in a big city... ...and his bill was only £8.

So we waited, and waited and waited...

...for half an hour until...

...all hope was lost for the printer...

...and we were asked to fill out forms!

FORMS!

YES FORMS!

Forms that would release us from the queue and allow us to get off to our beds, or go to work etc.
That might have helped some of us about 30 minutes earlier!

So with a signature here and an address there, I left feeling more worse off but with three chocolate donuts as compensation!

5 Comments:

Christina S said...

Poor you! Especially after you left early to get an early night :-(

I think the garage should've given you all a freebie since it's tills had packed up!

Anonymous said...

Hope you are feeling better to-day. The wonders of technology-you might as well have stayed longer-we hit the choccies after you left-yummy.

Anonymous said...

Oh bless you! Good karma owes you one after helping out that poor man - you're a gem 21st C Mummy!!! Chocolate donuts!!! What about a basket of fruit.....?!

Jo Beaufoix said...

Oooo how annoying, poor you.
And that was so lovely of you to pay that man's bill.
Now tell me more about Bonnie and Cyde as I still haven't forgotten about that poem you now.
:D

Her indoors said...

Hi Ruby - yes it wasn't the end to the evening I was hoping for...and I only ended up with the donuts because 21st C Dad phoned when I was filling out the form and said "I hope you've got a free coffee or something". When I repeated that, I was offered the donuts...by then though everyone else had gone.

Hi Florries mum - oooooooh I wish I'd stayed. Thank you so much for having me. I had a lovely time chatting with you and Ruby. Hopefully my cold will be gone by the next time I see you! It better had be gone!

Hi Baba - the man was really nice. He came around yesterday to reimburse me and brought me some flowers from him and and his wife. I think the world should be full of really nice people and all the nasty ones sent off into space. ooh does that make me nasty...oops!

Hi Jo - Thank you and thanks for not forgetting about B&C. I'll send you a photo! ;-D