Dr Livingstone I presume?

or the perils of getting it wrong...

I had waded into the upper reaches of the Whangaparaoa Plaza, bravely battling to overcome the treacherous conditions of our local shopping mall, in order to make it to the local chemist. I had earlier phoned the pharmacist and requested some more medicinal supplies.

The route was torturous, and I hesitantly pushed on through, past the displays of Clarins, foot pumices, and reading glasses. The rustling of paper bags and receipts lifted my spirits as I neared the counter....

The supplies were already waiting for me to collect and the young assistant smiled and made polite small talk....blah, blah. Naturally I was forthcoming in praise for their recognition skills, and continued to purr and smile like an extremely contented Cheshire Cat.

My purr was stifled and grin evaporated as my address was checked....it was completely wrong!
I gave my previous address in case my doctor had used an old one....
But no, that too was erroneous.

The peered at me, as if examining a particularly odd specimen, and then looked at each other in confusion, until the answer dawned on them. I was not the person they had presumed I was.

Wearing by now looks of chagrin, the staff rushed off behind the counter and soon returened with an identical bulky paper bag, presumably with my drugs conatined within.

They double checked my address with my ID, and satisfied that I was indeed myself as labelled, handed me the bag.

The Cheshire Cat returned, grinning inanely and apologising for the inconvenience (how self deprecatingly British of me), and we parted with no hard feelings.

I presume they won't do that again.

Little Lies

We remain this week firmly in the land of Fleetwood and it's Mac.

It's funny how we can go from the excitement and anticipation of an event, to the acrid disappointment of failure.

Last week I was poised to join the thronged masses in collective appreciation of the forthcoming NZ tour by the seventies superstars< Fleetwood Mac.

This week I am somewhat disillusioned...

Not with the group, but with the bizarre and complex ticketing system.

The event is being staged at the Auckland Vector Arena, and tickets sold online via Ticketmaster

So far so good.

Now Ticketmaster use a system of "pre selling" whereby certain groups of people can buy tickets before the event is released for general sale. Added to this an even earlier pre-sale is offered before the Ticketmaster subscribers offer, if you hold a Visa card. Occasionally Ticketmaster switch and the pre pre sale is offered to Mastercard customers.

As a holder of both a Mastercard and a Visa, as well as being a Ticketmaster subscriber, I felt quite confident of my chances at securing a couple of tickets for one of the 6 shows.

That was until I received an email inviting me to the pre pre pre sale using an Amex card!

But I don't have an Amex card, never have, and never will.

I tried to login and fool the system, but I was thwarted each time by the card selection type, which insisted on my non-existent American Express card. I had to give up amd wait.for the next pre sale....

Of course there was then no pre pre sale for Visa and Mastercard, only a pre sale for TM subscribers, by which time, all seats had been snapped up by aged hippy Amex holders.

And so the chain was broken.

Now each time I get reminded by an email from Ticketmaster that seats are on general sale for Fleetwood Mac, I tut out loud at their gall, to still be offering seats, when there are none. That used to be called "lying" when I was younger......

Dreams..?

As I drift gracefully into younger middle age my previously eclectic musical tastes have become somewhat refined. Once I could be espied "dancing" to all sorts, especially my youthful favourite Madonna, and all things Stock Aitken and Watercress. However I seem to do less dancing and jiggling about nowadays, preferring instead the open roads of New Zealand, putting my foot down whilst singing away to classic rock.

And thats just my daily commute.

So when 2 tours were announced recently I was left in a slight quandary.

Firstly the icon of my 80's herself is touring "down under" next year, taking in nearby Australia. Whilst here in Auckland this December, Fleetwood Mac are playing (the group, not the Lancashire waterproof coat).

So the gloves were off. I cant afford to do both, and since Madge is in Australia, the extra costs of flights, accommodation and expenses would have to be factored in. Fleetwood, mind you, are only playing down the road, the cost of our city's parking slightly more affordable than an airfare.

The Madonna of old, the classic material girl , has grown a teensy weensy bit haggard and remains unrealistically energetic in her advanced years.

What about you? I hear you cry, true, but I don't pretend that I am still 28

 The Macs, on the other hand have shrunk from 5 to 4, Christine McVie having retired. Add to this the copious amounts of hair dye and face tightening of Lindsay Buckingham.

I am leaning towards the Mac, not just as a computer choice, its just so much more dreamy to my ears now.

Dont' stop thinking about tomorrow....

Sweet Harmony

Imagine if you will, lines of equally sized sticks of liquorice, perfectly displayed with matching fruit pastilles, alongside piles of precisely measured sherbet. If only.

Quite understandably I thought this was OCD manifested in the form of organising and ordering confectionery. 

No, this eco-tune was promoted in 1993 by The Beloved (the group of course, not my actual beloved). As it tantrically progressed up the charts it urged global change and ethical thinking. All sung by a group of nudists sitting cross legged on the studio floor, which didn't help dispel the Green stereotype.

No, all is good in my world, normality reigns and all is harmonious.

Nice to see the normalities of life are still here: cats require feeding, papillons need walking, politicians are still being caught telling porkies, and NZ winters are still a tad cool and gusty.

Now excuse me, I just have to go and rearrange my M&M's, somebody's moved one of them.....

What's the name of the game?

Not Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and the grumpy one.

Instead think Opal Fruits, Jif, The Midland Bank and Marathon bars...

The march of progress swept away these once familiar marques and renamed them, much to the surprise  and eyebrow raising of loyal consumers.
Opal Fruits, once made to make your mouth water, became corporate Starburst,

Dear old Midland was taken over by the HSBC (not bad, but still lacks robust financial trust, and Marathon ran off to become Snickers, which just sounds like a Kiwi set of sneakers? 

Vim, the loo powder morphed to Jif (still well known) and then to Cif, which is just phonetically awkward:  Don't  even get me started on Oil of Ulay/Olay. Ole.

Mixed results really, but hopefully this next change will be for the better.

After 2 years my blog has evolved from Kidney Dialysis, to then a double transplant and the recovery process, to post operative narration. The name too has evolved to incorporate all these aspects, and currently is somewhat awkward, just like Cif. Just a bit odd.

And so it is time to condense and reshape, rebrand and rename...

Andrew's World  after Dialysis and a Kidney Transplant NZ will become:
Andrew's World NZ
with a secondary tag line:
 Post Dialysis, Post Transplant, Still Posting on....

The colours and background will change too as I experiment with the blogger settings, templates and gadgets. These things will take time, as I dont have a marketing department, consumer focus panels or a large budgie.

Hopefully this will be better received than Cif.