Tag: Myer

New Horizons


We were away last weekend. Kiddo wanted to explore potential horizons and we obliged. It also meant she could clock up the requisite mileage as an L-plater.

We took off on Saturday morning, braving the downpour as I took us out of Melbourne. Once out somewhere on the Metropolitan Ring Road, kiddo took over and my role doubled. I was mentally still doing the driving but I was at the same time, keeping an eye on kiddo and making sure she was alert and focusing.

I stole the odd moment or so to break the monotony by taking pictures of the often beautiful country roadsides, especially when the rain abated.

LBJ came along for the ride and was very well behaved the entire time.

We got to our destination just after 5pm, checked into our pet friendly hotel, unpacked and then went out to a local Thai restaurant for dinner.

The next morning we went to a Uniting Church and relived liturgical service before visiting a market downtown and then proceeding to the CBD for Tress to visit the local Myer store. We then headed to Kiddo’s survey site and drove around a little bit before proceeding to a riverside for LBJ to do his business, enjoyed the clean crisped fresh air before looking for another restaurant for dinner. This time we found a Punjabi one and it was by far the best food we had in that town, all previous visits included. Happy, we went back to the hotel, watched the surprisingly good “Thor” starring Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins (liver licking good Hannibal) and Natalie Portman.

We left the next day just before 1pm, after Kiddo completed her survey and we pushed back to Melbourne, arriving just after 8.30pm. Kiddo was again at the wheel for the most part.

Kiddo at the wheel seems to be the overriding theme over the weekend, in so many sense of the word. She’ll soon be the driver and we will no longer take her where she wants to go.

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Retail Tailing Off?


I was in the Dick Smith outlet in Box Hill earlier today, looking for an adapter for a very old printer in our office. I could not find the adapter so I thought I’d ask one of the 2 shop assistants I saw in the shop. Neither of them showed any interest in serving me, even though I was standing right at the front of the reception, making it as obvious as I could, that I was waiting for help. I stood and waited for easily 10 minutes. One of those 2 shop assistants was behind the reception counter on the phone, obviously on a personal call. He could not have missed me, the only person waiting at the counter at that time. When he finished the call, he walked away from the counter and went to the back of the shop. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes had passed before he came back to the reception counter. I wonder if both the workers were hoping I would go away after waiting for a few minutes. As it turned out, my near 20 minute wait was futile as all it took for one of them to finally attend to me, was less than a minute to say to me the adapter wasn’t available.

It is the same with the Myer Forest Hill Chase store. For as long as they have existed (since taking over the Harris Scarfe store), they are one of the worst Myer outlets I know. The service is near non-existent and when you do get service, it is the most unfriendly type.

Ditto the Gazman outlet at The Glen shopping center in Glen Waverley. You either get no service or when you do, you get the most unfriendly, almost rude service.

So why is there a prevalence of bad service in retail outlets? You hear complaints on talkback radio but it is only when I put my own recent bad experiences that I realise it isn’t an isolated or aberration of a problem. It looks like the trend now.

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March Equinox


I think today’s the March Equinox. If that is correct, the days get shorter from today. Soon we’d have the dreaded dark-at-five pm days. I have always said to Tress and Kiddo that I didn’t mind the cold in winter. What I dislike are the short days. I think they contribute to depression for many.

I also remember 21 March for a different reason – it was the day I started work since we moved to Melbourne about 6 ½ years ago. It was also a Monday and I went in to the office of Sharrock Pitman Legal in Glen Waverley. We were living in Mount Waverley then and Kiddo was attending Mount Waverley North Primary. Tress had also started work in Myer on Lonsdale Street in the city.

We were finding our feet in Melbourne. We started to go to the International Christian Community church (ICC) in Glen Waverley. Pastor Chek Chia was there then. Other than a new life in a new city with a new job and so many other things which were new for us, we also had a very new theology to contend with in the approaches of that church towards prayer, guidance and instructions.

In some ways, the shorter days ahead reflect how I feel now. Some things appear bleak. I wish things could be different and we could unwind the clock and set things right from those early days. I know however that God is sovereign and He is also good. God’s wonderful creation included not just the March Equinox but also the September one. We’d have to live through the coming “6 months”, work on things, keep our eyes on God and look forward to the September Equinox when days will become brighter and longer again.

The creation of our God is wonderful. The cycles of astronomy and seasons are part of His beautiful creation. The ever changing weathers, life experiences, joy and pain, hope and despair and indeed even life and death – have all been “signed off” by our sovereign Lord and as the wise proverb says, we need to trust God, acknowledge Him in all things, and He will set our paths straight.

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