Oh the Maggies.....

The curse of Chiron continues..... with just another 5 correct picks, I seem to average about 5 correct picks per round. But oh those Maggies, I did pick them and for a while I thought I would regret it..... oh what a massive comeback..... made up for the fact that I also picked the Bombers ;)

Here now a holiday weekend here on the west coast, "Foundation Day" which they now call "West Australian Day"..... whatever name one calls it, its the last of our holiday weekend until the distant future of September. And now three weeks without rain, and more freezing cold mornings.

Well I did finally get my new phone. One normally shouldn't make new major purchases during a Mercury retrograde, especially electronic products, but my old phone had failed once again.....

So Wednesday was the day, when I was off work, and despite some Mercury moments I did finally managed to get the phone.

First thing was my groceries delivery. I always have my grocery order delivered on Wednesdays cos it is when they offer free delivery for orders over $100 - and here in Perth the most expensive city in Australia it is very easy to rack up $100 worth of groceries just for the week!! And well since I was off work I'd booked the delivery for first thing in the morning - 6am-8am. On the day of the delivery you can log into the website to get a more precise estimate on when the groceries would arrive. And this would leave me enough time to make it to the telco shop for their extremely early opening time of 9am..... here in Amish-like Perth LOL

Nothing should surprise me during a Mercury's retrograde.... so when I logged onto the website, it told me that the groceries would be delivered LATE, indeed 9:30am! In all the years I had my groceries delivered this was the first time it be so late. A couple of other times it had been late by less than 30 mins. This time it be at least 90 minutes late!!! This would seriously throw out my schedule for the rest of the day - just as expected for a Mercury retrograde.

So change of schedule..... might as well start making my garlic potatoes for the week. I always have my garlic potatoes, it keeps the cold and flu at bay. I don't do flu vacs, indeed I don't do any vacs. The flu shot is offered for free at my workplace, and everyone else gets the flu shot except me, I choose not to. Everyone else at work always ends up getting the flu and taking time of work. I never get the flu, indeed over the past several years the only time I had gotten the flu was during that fateful September from Hell in 2011 when I took my wife to the hospital - I caught the flu FROM THE HOSPITAL!!!! So except for that one time, I had never gotten the flu.

Meanwhile back at the ranch..... I was about to start making my garlic potatoes when the groceries truck turned up!!!! At the ORIGINAL time!!!! So while the website said the delivery would be 90 minutes late, the truck turns up ON TIME at the originally arranged time!!! Moral of the story, never believe a website especially during Mercury's retrograde!!!!

Now I was back on my original schedule.

My first stop was Bunnings..... needed replacement items for my gardening, such as, the replacement nylon cutter wheel for my edger. Long gone are the poverty days when mother would make me cut the lawn edges with an axe cos we couldn't afford an edger. Those days are gone..... thankfully!!!! I get the best of gardening implements for my gardening, including an electric edger.

So I was at Bunnings.... and was about to pay for my purchases when I saw there were no manual checkout operators, only the self-serve checkouts!! EEEK!!! It's not that I'm a techno-phobe, I am just a Mercury-Retrograde-phobe, I don't like trying anything new during a Mercury retrograde period. Also I am phobic about trying to learn anything new in a public setting. If I needed to learn anything new I prefer to do it in the privacy of my own home where no one would know of my mistakes - a part of my Chiron wounded healer in my natal Ascendant sign. For many years the stores and supermarkets had those self-serve checkouts, obviously a money-saving gesture, more self serve checkouts means employing less checkout sheilas, so save money. However in the past there had always been manual operators available, though they deliberately use less of them, you always wait longer at manual checkouts than at the self-serve checkouts. This is true even for the "express" manual checkouts. The reasoning being that people don't like to wait too long in queues so out of frustration they'd at least try the self-serve checkouts. However my phobic for learning something new in a public setting outweighs my frustration at waiting in queues. But now at Bunnings I was for the first time confronted with the ONLY option of using the self-serve checkouts, there was no manual operators available, and this during a Mercury retrograde!!!!! Most fortunately there was a very helpful sheila who guided me. Employing one sheila for six self-serve checkouts is way cheaper! LOL! Anyway it was indeed a very simple process, indeed most painless for a Mercury retrograde period. I am by no means a convert for self serve, but at least I now know how to use them, at least at Bunnings!! I'm not sure if they're all the same at other stores and supermarkets, and not willing to try yet, though am wondering how long it will be before the supermarkets uses the tactics of closing all manual operators?? Also it makes me wonder how one could use them without a credit/debit card. Could one use them with cash. I always use my card anyway so was not an issue, but there are still those who uses cash only.

Now to the telco shop..... and more Mercury retrograde moments. Despite being the 2nd person to turn up I was told I would have to wait for 90 minutes because they were short staffed!! Ironically it was one of the scenarios that I predicted would happen due to a Mercury retrograde!! However since my request was relatively simple - I already have an account with the telco so all I needed was to upgrade my phone - the helpful sheila suggested I go visit the smaller alternative shop, still located in the mall, but designed for more simple requests.

So I went to visit the smaller alternative shop, and well they were indeed able to help me immediately. However this was not the end of my Mercury retrograde moments!! The particular phone I wanted was out of stock!!!! Ironically another prediction came true, I also predicted that the phone I wanted would be out of stock due to Mercury's retrograde!! I wanted the 128 Gigs model. A geek like me can never have too many Gigs of storage space for all my many apps, files, and other data. The 128 Gigs model was out of stock, and it be another MONTH before they would get more in stock!!! EEEK!!! But they did have the 64 Gigs model in stock. OK its only half of what I wanted, but still way better than my old and now non-functional phone which had only a very meager 12 Gigs. So I figure I'd settle for the 64 Gigs. Still a brand new Samsung Galaxy S6 which had just come out, it is the latest model. It comes in 32 Gigs, 64 Gigs and 128 Gigs, so at least I gotten the mid-range model of 64 Gigs. Now just have to get it all set up...... nearly finished it I think...... it did work on my walk this weekend!! I went on the same walk as last week when my old phone failed on me, so this time was able to record my GPS and how far I walked! Another thing, the phone charges up way quicker, less than a couple of hours with the new fast-charger device that came with the phone, but even with my old chargers it still charges up way quicker. No more waiting for half a day for my phone to charge up!!!!!

Now just another week or so before the end of Mercury's retrograde..... uhhh a lovely Full Moon tomorrow night, I love Full Moons, its my favorite time of the month........

Speaking of dealing with stores.......

....and using self serve checkouts.....

um.... yes..... ;)

Now speaking of phones....... its seems it was like it was on another planet when back in my teen years there were no cell phones, only those rotary dialers and you had to wait until mother went out before calling my secret lover.... hehehe...... these days I'm too old for secret lovers, even non-secret lovers! LOL!!!!