Need to be retired in order to have time to cope with modern life

I need to set aside at least 20 minutes while the counter staff at the local Vets tries to search on the computer to find the price for items in the shop - other than cost of services and med..... There is usually a queue of wailing cats and barking dogs to climb over by the end of it....and, "Yes"....it often takes 2 of. them to carry out said search....

I am girding my loins before ringing EDF as no matter how many times they send me a new password link I can't get into their new website - do I need to get in?! I am having to talk myself into this as I need the vat invoice. Perhaps the ironing would be more interesting.

I had an enquiry with my bank a couple of weeks ago and needed to ask some further questions.

I was dreading all that on-line chatbot stuff and decided to ring the number I had saved on my phone. The usual 'choices' came but I hung on and quickly got though to a lovely person who dealth with my query very quickly and effectively. It took no more than five minutes. I was shocked, but pleasantly so.

The bank said they were trying to improve their telephone service and they certainly had. Maybe the realisation has hit that they need to treat customers better. I hope so.

You gave me a start by saying it was Saturday today, Franbern! I’m on strong painkillers for backache and thought they’d made me miss a day!

I’ve said the same thing to my AC, I don’t know how they combine FT work, childrearing and looking after a house when an issue drops up.

We had a flood last year, the repairs from which were only completed last month. I’ve spent literally hours and hours on the phone over the past eight months, as well as completing paperwork and talking to repairers, sourcing materials, basically project-managing the whole shebang. I cannot imagine how a family would manage to combine that with the rest of their lives.

Yes, modern life does my head in at times.

I feel your pain too. Every simple task seems to take forever. This is just one week’s worth of fannying about chez moi.

A whole afternoon to add the results of a medical test to our travel insurance (cut off 3 times, speaking to 3 operatives, ploughing through security and listening to the long preamble to security 3 times), followed by Ryanair online check in (verifying my account by matching the passport photo to a selfie was fun when I took off my glasses and couldn’t read the instructions, checking and rechecking details even more so when the passport-issuing country kept defaulting back to Afghanistan). Our tour company had said cheerily that we could always check in at the airport for a small fee. Small fee? That’ll be £55 each for each leg, so £220 in all, thanks very much.

A courier return had to be rearranged for a different day because the label didn’t turn up in my email despite being sent twice (yes, customer services, I’ve checked the spam folder). It eventually had to be sent to DH’s email - no problem there - then texted over to my phone as we can’t print from his.

Yet DH received 2 NHS DrDoctor letters to his phone this week that couldn’t be opened till he sent them over to mine.

DH has tickets for the Superleague Final sitting in his online account. Or at least, there are details of his tickets there. But he can’t open them or print them, just has a message that there’s a problem, contact Customer Services. Oh for the golden age when they just used to plop through the letterbox!

I’m just pleased I’ve got the holiday coming up before I tackle the wifi contract…

I seriously wonder how I had time to work…

I feel your pain Franburn I had been going around on a Kafkaesque online roundabout aka HMRC, for literally hours to get my NI number verified on a letter to provide my Employer with evidence of my identity to comply with their *Right to Work” checks….after working there 3 flipping years.. yeh I know.
I don’t drive and haven’t got a passport weirdly- it seems

So thankfully after several conversations with a robot on HMRC that lead nowhere I opted to hold on for 40 plus minutes and a human woman answered my request with a “yes, we can send you that” within seconds. It’ll still take up to 15 days to arrive though but was so glad I didn’t ask why?
And breathe 🧘

Woops, shows how confused I am, yes today is Friday not Saturday!!!

Weirdly I seemed to achieve much more prior to retirement, ran the house, cared for Mum, sorted dogs!

I was permanently knackered l, but now I still seem to be tired, but doing far far less! Suffering from mañana syndrome 😂😂😂

I truly think it is these kinds of things which lead to people suffering stress and burnout when they are working too.

Trying to juggle it all is not conducive to a healthy lifestyle.