Look! Here Is the Photo Book!

We finally received the photo book we ordered at Big W. We picked it up on Saturday. Before we stepped into the store, we had actually prepared ourselves for further bad news. When I saw the clueless bloke who served us the first time we went there to pick up the photo book, my heart sank. Luckily for us, he wasn’t manning the counter independently that day. Another bloke was there with him. He did however serve us first and when he struggled to find our item, he asked the other bloke for assistance. From my observation, the other bloke must have been the supervisor and seemed to know what he was doing. He found our photo book in an instant and offered to unseal it for our inspection. He also carefully re-packed the photo book into a zip-lock bag.

The photo book turned out ok. Even though it was sealed, there was a minor bend on the front cover. We also didn’t notice faults on one page when we were inspecting the photo book at the store. We were obviously so happy to finally see it there for us to pick up that we missed that page. I will have to apply some magical crafty tricks to fix it. The truth is that I am not happy about it but for the price that we paid - $9.98, I am not willing to go through another round of dealing with them. Despite the faulty page, M is happy with the outcome.

This is the front cover. We really love this photo of our beloved Guinea Pig.

This is the back cover. In the style that we chose, the picture on the front cover extends a little to the back cover.

These are a couple of pages inside.

Still No Sign of Our Photo Book Yet!

In a post last week, I mentioned our wild goose chase to Big W to pick up the Photo Book we ordered. Well, we were told to come back on Monday but because we weren’t able to get there that day we gave them a few extra days to sort out the problem. We went down to Big W last Thursday. I was full of excitement. We even went to the washroom to wash our hands prior entering Big W because I didn’t want our dirty hands to mark the photo book. As we approached the photo service counter, I dragged Moosh to the bikes display to inform him that I saw a lady at the counter. I just didn’t want to be served by that other guy again. But guess what? It didn’t matter who was serving. She too didn’t have anything for us! She looked everywhere and then came back to inform us that there must have been a problem with our order. She offered to chase it up for us and promised to call us on Friday to let us know what had happened. We were disappointed. As I watched her searching everywhere for our photo book, I had already resigned to the fact that it wasn’t there for pick up.

How much bad luck surrounds my poor little Guinea Pig? This photo book is meant to be about him but even it too has gone missing. At this stage, I don’t even feel safe about the photo files we have uploaded at the store to make the photo book and was wondering if the files can be sold on to other people without our consent. While it is a breach of copyright to develop downloaded photos belonging to other people, is it a breach of some kind of copyright law if people with poor work ethics sell their customers’ photo files to others? I am not saying that this has happened. I am just wondering aloud about the rights of a customer’s photo files when they are uploaded into those machines. A Guinea Pig is just a small disposable furry pet to many but imagine if a customer’s precious baby photos were sold on without their consent. That will certainly be a safety concern, won’t it? Again, this is just me wondering aloud.

Anyway, the lady from Big W did call back as promised last Friday. She left us a long message because we weren’t home to pick up the phone. Apparently, our photo book was damaged during the printing process and she has re-ordered another copy for us. I wonder who found out that the book was damaged. Was it the printing company or Big W? If it was damaged, why wasn’t one re-ordered right away? Why does a customer have to twice attempt to pick up the item before he/she is told later that the item is damaged and has to be re-ordered? Is it really damaged or has one copy gone missing? This is just me wondering aloud again. Of course, answers to such questions will never be known. Imagine if I rocked up in person and start asking such questions. I would have been branded the worst customer in the southern hemisphere. Back to the message left by the lady. We were also asked to pick up the photo book next Friday (12/09). Because we won’t be able to make it that day, we will have to wait till Sunday instead. I hope they won’t let us down again.

An Unusual Experience

I can’t exactly remember what time it was when this happened but it was Thursday night. Was it before or after Cranford (on UKTV)? Anyway, I had taken off my socks and slippers and was on the balcony looking at the few stars, the clouds and the lights above Eureka - this is something I do almost nightly. As I was looking at these four stars above my head, I felt something small standing next to my right. I looked down but there was nothing there of course. The feeling though was like I was looking at the stars with my little friend. For a split second, I even felt the warm sensation of his fur on my right foot. It felt like the fur around his neck and upper chest area. It was such a bizarre experience that I fled inside. It wasn’t M playing a trick on me. He was at the computer reading a message board. I sat down on my side of the couch and told him what just happened as I stared at my Guinea Pig’s photo. I don’t want to admit it but he (my Guinea Pig) suddenly looked sweeter than ever. M turned around and said, “See. I told you that he is still with us.”

I didn’t really want to post this for all to see. I don’t want people to think that this lonely 30 something year old should quit day-dreaming about her dead Guinea Pig. It wasn’t a day-dreaming episode. All I can say is that it was an unusual experience. Although I was somewhat surprised by what had occurred, there was also a feeling of calm. As a result, I had a good night sleep and a productive Friday. Today marks 4 months since our little friend left us. M absolutely believes that we have our Guinea Pig’s ashes in the little urn whilst I, on the other hand am not quite sure. One thing I am absolutely sure is that it will take me ages to get over the fact that I arranged the wrong final journey for him. From the moment I selfishly bought him as a present for my birthday, I had wanted to give him the best and yet I failed him right at the end.

Two Mooncakes + One Big Caterpillar

I bought these from Bread Top and just couldn't resist having them before dinner time. The mooncakes have custard + egg yolk paste fillings. They were all Yummy with a capital Y. Ok, I am off to watch Cranford.

My Dad's B'day

Today is my dad's birthday. I can't wait to give him a call this evening. It is so hard that we live so far apart. I can't wait for when M and I are ready to make our big move. Being close to my family is becoming more and more important by the day.

Mending the Tea Towels

Not just the two tea towels, I mended a bath towel as well! After years of use, some parts of the edges of these 3 pieces have come undone. I decided weeks ago to mend them and only lazily set up the sewing machine today to get them fixed. Now, the three can be used again. The towel is particularly old. It is one that is hardly ever used nowadays and is normally placed at the bottom of the pile, to be used only when we have run out of other towels.

I must be going mental. Is there anyone else out there mending tea towels? Most people would probably just throw the old ones out and buy some new ones.

No Sign of Our Photo Book Yet

We went to Big W on Saturday with the intention of picking up our photo book but it was just a waste of time because the book was no where to be found. The guy serving M was not very professional and seemed unsure of what or where to look. He spent several minutes looking everywhere and then came back to ask M what he was picking up. M patiently told him that we were picking up a photo book that we had ordered two weeks ago. The guy went back to look some more and then went over to page for someone. That someone never responded to his call for help and he just continued serving other customers. After two happy customers left with their photos, the guy returned his attention to M. This time he typed something into the computer and then looked again everywhere for our photo book. When he stood up again, he noticed another queue of customers lining behind M. This time he suggested that M come back on Monday as it was obvious that the photo book was clearly not ready for pick up yet. While the guy was looking everywhere, the big photo developing machine was spitting out photos. They all fell straight to the ground and M even saw the guy stepping on some of them. Once I heard that, I wasn’t all that sure if I would ever have my photos developed at Big W. We only had the photo book created there because of a promotion. Normally, we have our photos developed at Harvey Norman. We are heading to the city again later this week and hopefully, the photo book will be ready for pick up by then. If it turns out great, I will blog a little about it soon.