Wow, yesterday (3 August 2011) I had a day like no other… I seriously can’t remember the last time I had such a bad day. (Possibly after a break-up?) It was an emotional sky-diving plummet without a shoot… I still can’t believe how crazy it was.
Firstly, getting the kids up and ready to leave for school was a mission. More than normal… For some reason they were all just moving in slow motion and I was trying to be sure that they had everything they needed. So the start of the day was quite crazy alone. I decided to get to the shops early because I needed to sort my bank card out. The previous day, I’d been to an ATM and it wouldn’t accept my pin. After 3 unsuccessful tries, my card was disabled. I know I’d put the right pin in because I tried the credit card and it also said I’d entered the wrong pin. So to save from having a blocked credit card too, I just went to a different shopping centre and it worked there (which confirmed that the problem was with the first machine). So I went to the Hyper first (thinking I could just use the credit card) and got a whole lot of stuff. I got to the till and unpacked everything, they put it all through and had to get a price for the 3kg bag of carrots, which was marked at R16 at the veggie section. When the supervisor got back, they wanted to charge me R30 for the carrots and I queried why my total had gone up by that much. The supervisor (who went to get the price) was mumbling under her breath about ‘3kg and R30…’. Since I was already in a not-so-great mood, I told them to just take it off the total – I didn’t want to fight about it. They couldn’t void it for some reason so they said they’d give me a refund if I just paid the full amount. I had since forgotten about the pin code problem and when I tried to pay, my card was declined. I took out the credit card and (lucky me!) the lady checked the name – which they never do and actually don't need to because it has a pin! – and said that I couldn’t use it because it has Paul’s name printed on it. So I promptly took everything out of the trolley and literally dumped it back on the till counter and told them I didn’t want any of the stuff. The packing lady was saying, “It’s ok Ma’am, I’ll do it…” but by this time, I was having so much fun throwing it all onto the counter and didn’t stop until it was all done! I was determined to prove a point so I was on a mission of note. I went back to the veggie dept, got the label for the R16 carrots and stormed through the store to show it to the supervisor who had been all snotty because I told her to take the carrots off my bill. I almost pushed it into her face, put it onto her desk and then walked out.
Still had to sort out my card so I went to FNB to see what they could do and they had a queue to forever so my card still remains blocked… Probably just as well though because if they’d have told me that I need to pay for a new card, I would have let rip in such a big way.
Still had to sort out my card so I went to FNB to see what they could do and they had a queue to forever so my card still remains blocked… Probably just as well though because if they’d have told me that I need to pay for a new card, I would have let rip in such a big way.
Poor Edie, who had been holding the honey she’d been begging me to buy but which I didn’t want to because I know she’s not going to eat it, was so shocked and quiet that she just looked at me.
I don’t advise on getting into bed moods like that (ever) but I have to tell you that about an hour after my near-complete meltdown, I felt quite calm and was being very matter-of-fact with the kids for the rest of the day. They responded quite well (whether it was because they realized they were in danger or because I really was portraying a message of calm & control is another story) and the rest of the day went relatively well.
I managed to get out at 7pm with a friend who lives ‘nextahind’ us and we had a good natter about life, kids, family and relationships. I would have loved to get out with Paul and leave the kids with someone else but it didn’t work out like that. So this morning, I woke up, still tired and a bit ‘hung over’ from my temper tantrum but ready to face a new day. AND the kids were awesome this morning… Go figure!
p.s. I think about it now and actually laugh at how much fun it was dumping all the shopping on the till and how those shop ladies must have gone home and spoken about this ‘crazy white woman’ who just lost it.
