29 - May

I was moody for the entire weekdays this week.

The cause of my bad mood was a tradie I had to deal with recently, who was inexplicably unpunctual, unreliable and did an absolute amateur job.

Don't get me wrong. I like this country.
There are many nice, genuine people with sympathetic ears who even listen to my whinges...oh I don't know what to do without them!

Well, it wasn't bad enough to call 'a complete disaster' (well, it was when compared to Japanese standard), but the thing is, he had a real attitude - disrespectful and dishonest.
It's not just the quality of his job I was upset about, but for him being so bloody unreliable.

It's not uncommon - to even hear stories of misdiagnosis by doctors, which means it's not just tradies who do unprofessional jobs.

When you go through this kind of nightmares several times in a row, you'd get so fed up and pissed off that you'd feel like smashing something against the wall but that wouldn't help you achieve anything.

When I furiously explained about it at work, everyone knew exactly what I was talking about - because many of them had the same or similar experiences.

Even other people who we talked to said that all tradies are the same and that they are just a bunch of scammers.

Are they telling me that I shoudn't trust ANY tradesmen? - then what can I do?

I know - just because some of them do shitty jobs and charge top bucks doesn't mean there aren't any good ones.

Unfortunately, everything is hit-and-miss and, when it comes to tradies there are more misses than hits, and what makes matters worse is that you can never tell if the guy is just a smooth-talking scammer until the damage is already done - especially when you're an average person with no knowledge on the trade whatsoever.

It was a pricey lesson for me - but I have no idea if I can deal with them any better than this time in the future.
I can only hope the next time will be a hit.

Well - at least I have a good thing to write today.

I caught up with my friend yesterday and enjoyed talking about old times.
We met in Australia 5 years ago, and became good friends because we are about the same age and, as it turned out that we grew up in the neighbouring towns in the same city.

You know how it's like - we have so many stories to share.
I was so pleased and excited to see her again and I ended up staying far longer than I should've - but it perked me up, helped me moving on from the grudge I had against that guy and I am so grateful for her being my friend.

I promiss that I will do something more productive tomorrow.