Heavenly Beverley : To Boldly Go...

Boy, have I done some bold going over the last week. There has been physical going - to the Big Smoke this week for an action-packed Wednesday. First stop was Victoria Street in Midland to perform the ultrasound on my stupid shoulder. Apparently I have severe bursitis in the joint and they kept asking me what I'd done... How the hell would I know? We live in the country. We are the Beverley Hillbillies. I lift washing, firewood, groceries, potting mix and occasionally, recalcitrant Beagles.

So, I'm booked for yet another cortisone injection on Monday. Whoopee...

Next stop was the Bank. I had some concerns about our new business account that was linked to our EFTPOS terminal. The young, smart and efficient Amber worked through my issues. Only took ninety minutes. The wrong account had been opened, the business package hadn't been set up and she hooked me up to internet banking. We decided to leave the original account open as the terminal was linked to that account and we'd had enough strife with that device. So now we have three business accounts instead of one.

A quick trip across town to pick up the tenancy agreement for Alex's proposed housemate. Dropped the form off in Alex's letter box and onto Pet Meat Suppliers for the raw Barfy Burgers and a bulk pack of pigs' ears. All our animals eat exceptionally well @ the House that Rocks.

The race was on to get out of town before the traffic turned to chaos. I still had to stop to get quotes for the East End Gallery signage. Michael had sourced three potential businesses for me to check out. Given the time of day, I discarded one that was smack in the middle of the ongoing disaster area that was situated in the midst of the Lloyd Street roadworks. Two others were more easily reached. The first (and only) one I ended up at was Sign Supermarket. run by Tom and Grant, with one, reversed cap, young offsider. They were witty, on the ball and the quote was reasonably priced. And they were quick to understand our requirements and more or less designed the decal there and then.

It was four o'clock by this time and I was tired. After a conversation with Michael, we were happy to give the boys at Sign Supermarket the job. A last stop for groceries and drugs in Mundaring and I was on my way home. This was not an easy drive. My concentration was wandering and I had to keep bringing my attention back. I was so relieved to see the lights of home. Michael helped me unload the car and then, gallantly, heated up our dinner. Actually, it was self-preservation on his part. I would have been quite happy to have a couple of glasses of vino and climb into bed.

The mental part of boldly going mostly occurred on the computer. Those who know me well understand that I am suspicious and wary of any new technology. Even though I have owned and operated computers since 1997, I still regard them as an alien species out of annoy, frustrate and confuse me. They are a necessary evil that I actually quite like when they work. Or when their instructions are simple to follow.

Which happens rarely. New encounters online are usually accompanied by much gnashing of teeth, frequent expletives and large amounts of time being lost as I struggle with the matter at hand. This week, after reading about two cat loving architects signing up on Indiegogo to raise money to create a cat lovers' cafe, I decided to give it a whirl. I started the process myself to sign up and fundraise so we can finish the bloody building.

Complication followed complication. In order to set up an Indiegogo account, I needed a Pay Pal account. So, I started that process through our website's e-mail. That was when I discovered something was rotten in the land of cyberspace and I couldn't access the East End Gallery's e-mails. After frantic messages to Chris, our website designer and admin, we located the e-mails and I completed the process of setting up a PayPal account and then an Indiegogo account. I still haven't quite worked out how to link PayPal to our web page so we can sell our artwork, but that can wait. And this morning, our e-mail account through the Gallery page was finally sorted out in a twenty-minute phone call from Chris who walked us through that obscure world of settings and machines that go PING in the deep recesses of my laptop's mind...

Today, I have been mentally hammered into submission. My brain hurts. This whole episode has taken six days of my life. I only hope I completed the tasks to the satisfaction of the online world. Because computers tend not to be overly helpful if you have buggered it up. Without explanation, they just stop functioning.

I can feel a vino coming on. The Gallery has been very quiet and I need to go home. So, on that note, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to love you and leave you. Till next time.