The Goblins and the Preciousss
25/02/2005 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie slinks into the nasty netcafe after an unsuccessful evening of moon watching. Can't really complain because the creature was on its bestest behaviour last night so it was entitled to hide behind some clouds away from the snooping serpent.
About forty minutes after official moonrise at 19.43, it decided to finally make an appearance.
But we cannot be greedy. Got to see it this morning on the way to the Friday morning meeting. Most pretty it was indeed too. Today Iz was rostered on to do a book review and yet again made the whole thing up as she went along. Well - some folks go to a lot of bother writing out their speeches and often print them out and read from them which can be rather boring. The more serious sort learn them off by heart. Izzie basically decides on a general outline and then makes up the details as she goes along.
The book Izzie chose was "The Piano Player" by Elfriede Jelinek (which won last year's Nobel Prize for literature) and the Iz decided that instead of just talking about the book - she would place it in the genre of "Bitch Lit" - the search for the nastiest meanest old bat in a book starting with the ice queen in Narnia and ending with the Mother from Hell who is the real star of this book.
Well, whatever the Izzie did, it went down well because we managed to snatch not just the Frameable Phrase of the Day award but also the Stirrer's Spoon too.
After that, we pottered off to a local park to continue reading the exciting adventures of Erika Kohut and Mommy Dearest. Next stop after that was another public library to get yet another McBook and 30 minutes of free internet to catch up with the goings on in Secret Diary Land and the Dungeons of Azkaban.
Then the Iz had the sudden desire to go home for snoozies. The late nights of going to bed at 4 in the morning and 1am last night (and then being up at 5.30 this morning to get ready for the usual 7am meeting)were finally catching up with the Izzie.
And besides - we had big plans for the day and did not want to be cranky or irritable for such a special occasion.
Since the default setting for ATM or other electronic bank transactions is $$1,000, Izzie was an organized goblin and went the bank yesterday morning to get her limit increased. Did not go to the bother of getting the cash out over the counter because there was still uncertainty as to whether or not the Precious would arrive before 4.30pm today at the book shop. Did not want to be having that sort of money lying around all over the weekend and Monday.
So, after a couple of hours snoozing and a coffee at Kirribili Cafe, the Iz slinks upstairs to the book shop. There's a bit of a queue. The sales assistant ask who is next and the Izzie says that she has come "To pick up her Preciousss" Yesss. He did look at us rather strange. Izzzie said that her iBook was due in from Sydney today. He said one had come in but did not know if it was ours or some one else's and anyway the paperwork had not been properly processed. Turned out it did belong to the Izzie and he went and got the big box and a small one to go with it (the outrageously expensive Apple Protection Plan)
Izzie was simply drooling over this box of gorgeousness. Even the packaging is a work of art. It's Mine. All mine. My most Precious.
Iz then says - well the only obstacle left is this and produces her little plastic debit card. Oh no. That won't do at all. He says. Debit cards have a credit limit of only $$1,000. "I know" says Izzie "and therefore got the limit extended to $$2,500 yesterday"
Due to the business with the paperwork, he was unable to deduct the $$260 deposit that the Izzie paid last Friday so it would be set off against the iPod whenever that would arrive.
That was not a problem. Iz was more than happy to pay $$2,214 today and have the Preciousss all weekend rather than have to wait until Monday and get it for $$1,954. After all, we had transferred over the whole $$2,600 for the unlikely event of the iPod being also ready too.
Yessss. So near and yet so far. The nasty stinking goblins were not playing the game. Transaction declined due to exceeding withdrawal limit! Either processing yesterday's Izzie request was taking more than the usual 24 hours or the silly goblin at the bank counter yesterday had somehow stuffed it up.
So after all that anticipation, the Izzie slinked away empty handed. And since we have that stinking nine hour shift on Monday, will have to remain iMacless until Tuesday. Most mightily miffed indeed. It's like Christmas had just been cancelled.
It was so so funny. They are already like a bunch of snails with their ordering in that place. After the big "Cram and Jam" promotion on Wednesday, it's going to get even worse. There's gonna be a lot of pissed off wannabee podniks out there. Seems so silly to put on a promotion adding pressure to the already 'constrained' supplies of iPods and iBooks when they cannot even keep up with demand without such promotions.
So Iz then pottered off to the shops and got various nibblies and stuff for her garden as well as a new green book for her offline squiggles before returning home and preparing the moonshine party picnic for this evening.
Got the bus to downtown Dursleyville and en route to the bottle shop, dropped by the Digilife store where the Iz first got to see the Preciousss and the price list. The place is full of bright young things. A most chirpy and cheery helpful lot, not like the glum goblins at the university book store. Iz noticed that the couple one of these guys was talking to had a price list in their hands and on the top right corner was written in big red letters "Education" The Izzie must be seeing things. Izzie knew for a fact that the major department stores did not do student discounts and was sure that the only way to get them was at the university computer stores. Izzie had been into this Digilife store rather often and never once was there any mention of student discounts.
So when the guy has finished talking to the couple, the Izzie asks "If I was to order an iBook from you folks, how long would it take for you to get it?" The guy thinks for a split second and replies "Oh about two minutes. We have a whole stack of them behind the wall here." Not only that - they also had the students only $$200 rebate on the iPod if you bought both together. Iz knew for a fact that the store is positively dripping with pods of all shapes and sizes plus the most ridiculous accessories. Sock for pods! Add a teacosy or too and we can pretend that they are liberated house elves.
Bugger. Silly Izzie. Instead of the world wide wait and nasty cybercafes, she could have been in possession of the Precious way back last Wednesday if she only had the brains to ask these folks. And it would have been nice to be leaving one's hard earned sickles with genuinely enthusiastic helpful folks rather than the grumble bums over at the uni for whom everything is way too much bother.
Well. It won't matter too much at all after Tuesday. The Iz will have to go to the university ATM to try take out the whole amount. Hopefully by then, the bank will have gotten its act together or otherwise Iz will have to waste preciouss time searching out a branch and getting the loot over the counter.
Yessss. It's getting harder and harder and increasingly inconvenient not to have a credit card these days. Iz could have got her Preciousss last week with free shipping and no need to send back silly rebate forms and deal with cheques and stuff if she had been able to get her "Cram and Jam" special offer online.
PS One pissed off python. Izzie was wondering why LJ was taking all day to update - got most suspicious indeed and did a quick copy. Turned out the net cafe server went down. Was gone for about ten minutes (Iz should demand those ten minutes back) Iz could log out and piss off and lose whatever she had on the clip board or wait for heaven knows how long. Lucky it was only ten minutes.
Also lucky that after so many bad experiences with the blue screen of death and other windoze nasties, the Iz is used to saving after just about every PARAGRAPH! So we would have lost the last nine lines of the LJ cut bit instead of this whole entry.
Yessss. It will be nice to finally be able to have HDD copies of Izzie entries. Maybe the Iz will be cheap and nasty and just write everything off line and then go cutting and pasting once a week whenever we find cheapie wifi hotspots.
About forty minutes after official moonrise at 19.43, it decided to finally make an appearance.
But we cannot be greedy. Got to see it this morning on the way to the Friday morning meeting. Most pretty it was indeed too. Today Iz was rostered on to do a book review and yet again made the whole thing up as she went along. Well - some folks go to a lot of bother writing out their speeches and often print them out and read from them which can be rather boring. The more serious sort learn them off by heart. Izzie basically decides on a general outline and then makes up the details as she goes along.
The book Izzie chose was "The Piano Player" by Elfriede Jelinek (which won last year's Nobel Prize for literature) and the Iz decided that instead of just talking about the book - she would place it in the genre of "Bitch Lit" - the search for the nastiest meanest old bat in a book starting with the ice queen in Narnia and ending with the Mother from Hell who is the real star of this book.
Well, whatever the Izzie did, it went down well because we managed to snatch not just the Frameable Phrase of the Day award but also the Stirrer's Spoon too.
After that, we pottered off to a local park to continue reading the exciting adventures of Erika Kohut and Mommy Dearest. Next stop after that was another public library to get yet another McBook and 30 minutes of free internet to catch up with the goings on in Secret Diary Land and the Dungeons of Azkaban.
Then the Iz had the sudden desire to go home for snoozies. The late nights of going to bed at 4 in the morning and 1am last night (and then being up at 5.30 this morning to get ready for the usual 7am meeting)were finally catching up with the Izzie.
And besides - we had big plans for the day and did not want to be cranky or irritable for such a special occasion.
Since the default setting for ATM or other electronic bank transactions is $$1,000, Izzie was an organized goblin and went the bank yesterday morning to get her limit increased. Did not go to the bother of getting the cash out over the counter because there was still uncertainty as to whether or not the Precious would arrive before 4.30pm today at the book shop. Did not want to be having that sort of money lying around all over the weekend and Monday.
So, after a couple of hours snoozing and a coffee at Kirribili Cafe, the Iz slinks upstairs to the book shop. There's a bit of a queue. The sales assistant ask who is next and the Izzie says that she has come "To pick up her Preciousss" Yesss. He did look at us rather strange. Izzzie said that her iBook was due in from Sydney today. He said one had come in but did not know if it was ours or some one else's and anyway the paperwork had not been properly processed. Turned out it did belong to the Izzie and he went and got the big box and a small one to go with it (the outrageously expensive Apple Protection Plan)
Izzie was simply drooling over this box of gorgeousness. Even the packaging is a work of art. It's Mine. All mine. My most Precious.
Iz then says - well the only obstacle left is this and produces her little plastic debit card. Oh no. That won't do at all. He says. Debit cards have a credit limit of only $$1,000. "I know" says Izzie "and therefore got the limit extended to $$2,500 yesterday"
Due to the business with the paperwork, he was unable to deduct the $$260 deposit that the Izzie paid last Friday so it would be set off against the iPod whenever that would arrive.
That was not a problem. Iz was more than happy to pay $$2,214 today and have the Preciousss all weekend rather than have to wait until Monday and get it for $$1,954. After all, we had transferred over the whole $$2,600 for the unlikely event of the iPod being also ready too.
Yessss. So near and yet so far. The nasty stinking goblins were not playing the game. Transaction declined due to exceeding withdrawal limit! Either processing yesterday's Izzie request was taking more than the usual 24 hours or the silly goblin at the bank counter yesterday had somehow stuffed it up.
So after all that anticipation, the Izzie slinked away empty handed. And since we have that stinking nine hour shift on Monday, will have to remain iMacless until Tuesday. Most mightily miffed indeed. It's like Christmas had just been cancelled.
It was so so funny. They are already like a bunch of snails with their ordering in that place. After the big "Cram and Jam" promotion on Wednesday, it's going to get even worse. There's gonna be a lot of pissed off wannabee podniks out there. Seems so silly to put on a promotion adding pressure to the already 'constrained' supplies of iPods and iBooks when they cannot even keep up with demand without such promotions.
So Iz then pottered off to the shops and got various nibblies and stuff for her garden as well as a new green book for her offline squiggles before returning home and preparing the moonshine party picnic for this evening.
Got the bus to downtown Dursleyville and en route to the bottle shop, dropped by the Digilife store where the Iz first got to see the Preciousss and the price list. The place is full of bright young things. A most chirpy and cheery helpful lot, not like the glum goblins at the university book store. Iz noticed that the couple one of these guys was talking to had a price list in their hands and on the top right corner was written in big red letters "Education" The Izzie must be seeing things. Izzie knew for a fact that the major department stores did not do student discounts and was sure that the only way to get them was at the university computer stores. Izzie had been into this Digilife store rather often and never once was there any mention of student discounts.
So when the guy has finished talking to the couple, the Izzie asks "If I was to order an iBook from you folks, how long would it take for you to get it?" The guy thinks for a split second and replies "Oh about two minutes. We have a whole stack of them behind the wall here." Not only that - they also had the students only $$200 rebate on the iPod if you bought both together. Iz knew for a fact that the store is positively dripping with pods of all shapes and sizes plus the most ridiculous accessories. Sock for pods! Add a teacosy or too and we can pretend that they are liberated house elves.
Bugger. Silly Izzie. Instead of the world wide wait and nasty cybercafes, she could have been in possession of the Precious way back last Wednesday if she only had the brains to ask these folks. And it would have been nice to be leaving one's hard earned sickles with genuinely enthusiastic helpful folks rather than the grumble bums over at the uni for whom everything is way too much bother.
Well. It won't matter too much at all after Tuesday. The Iz will have to go to the university ATM to try take out the whole amount. Hopefully by then, the bank will have gotten its act together or otherwise Iz will have to waste preciouss time searching out a branch and getting the loot over the counter.
Yessss. It's getting harder and harder and increasingly inconvenient not to have a credit card these days. Iz could have got her Preciousss last week with free shipping and no need to send back silly rebate forms and deal with cheques and stuff if she had been able to get her "Cram and Jam" special offer online.
PS One pissed off python. Izzie was wondering why LJ was taking all day to update - got most suspicious indeed and did a quick copy. Turned out the net cafe server went down. Was gone for about ten minutes (Iz should demand those ten minutes back) Iz could log out and piss off and lose whatever she had on the clip board or wait for heaven knows how long. Lucky it was only ten minutes.
Also lucky that after so many bad experiences with the blue screen of death and other windoze nasties, the Iz is used to saving after just about every PARAGRAPH! So we would have lost the last nine lines of the LJ cut bit instead of this whole entry.
Yessss. It will be nice to finally be able to have HDD copies of Izzie entries. Maybe the Iz will be cheap and nasty and just write everything off line and then go cutting and pasting once a week whenever we find cheapie wifi hotspots.
