Leaving on a jet plane

It's time for travel plans.

First up the weekend after next is Hamilton Island. I've never been there before and maybe I have made a mistake in arranging the trip. It seems to be a place for holidaying families, groups and couples.

Hamilton Island

I am travelling solo with the intention of enjoying a quiet, relaxing Easter long weekend doing absolutely nothing apart from reading and eating and doing very little else. I may regret the destination. Or maybe not.

Then in September a trip in quite different circumstances. I'll be joining five friends visiting Malta, Sicily and Rome. It will be my first visit to both Malta and Sicily and my second visit to Rome more than forty years after my first visit there.

Malta

Planning for this trip has been underway in ernest for a month or two and today we got together over lunch at Icebergs Club to confirm various accommodation options canvassed earlier through the internet.

I also paid for my flights this week so am now very much committed financially to this overseas trip.

Bridge

Tonight, 37.44%, 11/13

Machu Picchu

(Sydney Theatre Company)

A married couple, both Engineers, are involved in a road accident leaving the husband a quadriplegic.

'Machu Picchu' sets out the problems the couple faces following this life changing incident, how they handle these problems and through flashback sequences the aspirations they had which now may never be achieved.

A new play, probably still undergoing development. Nicely acted.

★★★

The Lady in the Van

'The Lady in the Van' is the film version of Alan Bennett's real life experience of a woman who camped on his property in her van for fifteen years creating havoc for himself and the neighbourhood.

The trailer suggests this film is a comedy but seen in full the story is a drama with humorous aspects. Maggie Smith does her arched voice, hand flapping acting that has become her signature style and Alex Jennings is superb as the put upon, conflicted Bennett.

★★★1/2

Son of Saul

The Hungarian film 'Son of Saul' won this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

It is a very grim film set over a period of about thirty-six hours within the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. A 'Sonderkommando' (Prisoners forced to work in the crematoria of the camps before themselves being killed) tries desperately to find a Rabbi to attend to the funeral rites of a young gas chamber victim.

It is filmed in a most unusual style. The screen ratio is the old style 'Academy aspect' which makes it look at times like a home movie and also narrows substantially the viewers' field of vision. The camera focusses mostly on extreme close ups of the main character. Most of the rest of the vision is out of focus so that the viewer concentrates entirely on the main character and is spared a direct view of many of the horrors of the holocaust. Most of the shocking events are portrayed obliquely at the edges of the screen and through the soundtrack of events occurring off screen and are no less horrendous for that.

There are two main plot lines neither of which are revealed by direct narrative but which the viewer is left to slowly discover as the events unfold.

Unlike the fantasy horror of '10 Cloverfield Lane', this is real horror.

★★★1/2

Let me tell you about the bank....

AdRad commented on my blog recently about my unprecedented letters of complaint to several bureaucracies (Qantas and Bupa). He is a perceptive young man, that AdRad.

To confirm those perceptions I am about to fire off a complaint to a third organisation, this time my bank.

The background to my complaint is what happened here.

On 26 February I was told by what was almost certainly an overseas call centre* that I would receive a replacement for my compromised ATM card within five business days. When ten days passed without a new card arriving I called the centre back and was given conflicting information from the earlier advice but was assured my card would arrive within several days.

Yesterday, with still no replacement card received, I called the centre for a third time. The operator put me on hold then told me she would conduct investigations and call me back. She didn't.

Today, I went to my branch to make enquiries in person. It turns out that my replacement card hasn't arrived for the most obvious of reasons. I don't know what the call centre thought it was doing but no replacement card had been ordered.

That has now been rectified and I should be receive a new within 'five to seven days'.

We'll see.

(* All three calls were answered by operators with sub-continent accented English and the calls sounded as though they were travelling through a pipe.)

10 Cloverfield Lane

I never saw 'Cloverfield' (2008) and I gather that '10 Cloverfield Lane' is not a sequel to the earlier but rather exists in some type of 'similar universe'.

John Goodman is keeping a young woman imprisoned in his specially designed underground bunker for her 'protection' because of some undefined catastrophe that has killed off life on earth and left behind a toxic atmosphere.

As B-grade horror movies go this is of superior quality and should best be viewed on a stormy or wintery evening not as I did on a gorgeously sunny day when I should have been out and about. It does go a bit loopy in the final fifteen or so minutes and has an open ending tailor made for a sequel.

★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 49.35%, 11/15

Wartime Sydney

It was the Second World War but Sydney didn't seem to have a care in the world. Footage of Sydney and surrounds in 1940, taken by an unknown American tourist, recovered from a garage in California.

Bridge

Tonight, 47.59%, 8/11

Hail, Caesar!

Maybe it is just me but these Coen Brothers films are all alike. The trailers promise more than the films deliver.

'Hail, Caesar!' is for film buffs who know enough to recognise the minute by minute references from Hollywood history. Set in the 1950s, a film star is kidnapped from the lot of a Biblical epic and the Studio Head is confronted with a ransom demand whilst simultaneously he manages the production of a kitsch array of musicals, westerns and romantic extravaganzas.

Ce and I chuckled at moments but most of the large audience watched in complete silence. Some dead spots made the film seem long. Perversely the film gave us lots to discuss and giggle about on the bus trip home.

The after taste was better than the meal?

★★1/2

Brooklyn

A young Irishwoman migrates to the USA in the 1950s leaving behind her mother and sister. Homesickness is eventually overcome when she falls in love with an Italian American. A family death causes her to return to Ireland and the woman faces a dilemma when she is courted by a an eligible Irishman from her home town.

'Brooklyn' is a picturesque but cliche ridden movie. Saoirse Ronan does her best in a role that offers only one real scene to demonstrate her acting skills whilst Julie Walters chews the scenery as though it is the last buffet meal of her life.

Highly regarded generally but I found it mostly pedestrian apart from the climactic final 15 minutes or so.

★★1/2

Eye, Eye, Sir

I haven't had any response yet to my letter of complaint to my health insurers about their online booking service, or more accurately non-service.

My eye examination was yesterday. It went well.

There is only the slightest change to my left eye and none to my right eye. The variation from the previous examination, two years ago, is minimal and there is no need for me to get new spectacles.

There is no evidence of macular degeneration. No evidence of cataracts. My eye pressure is 'excellent'.

All is well on the 'eye front'.

Bridge

Tonight, 50.28%, 7/14

Flying low

My letter of complaint to Qantas about response times on their 'priority' line has not elicited the compensatory gifts predicted by Andrew.

I did, however, receive a telephone call from someone in Customer Service apologising for the delays, agreeing that these delays were unacceptable and 'assuring' me that my complaint and others on the same matter have been brought to the notice of senior management.

The assurance may be code for 'placed on file and closed' for all I know.

At lunch

I've been remiss lately with my blogging and worse still with keeping up to date with the blogs of friends.

I can't exactly explain why. It feels like I've had fewer hours in the day available to me but that can't really be the reason. Days are still 24 hours in length aren't they? Then again my 'social' life has been more active than usual. Normally I'm not one to participate in many 'lunches' and yet I have participated in three in the past four days.

Bank of Melbourne's World's Longest Lunch

The first lunch was for the 'friends of friends' visiting from Italy. As befits both the guests of honour and the Italian/Greek hosts a marinara pasta was the feature dish.

Lunch number two was a delightful backyard barbecue reciprocating my New Years Eve gathering with barbecued lamb, barbecued chicken strips and a middle eastern chick pea salad the feature dishes.

Then lunch number three was a gathering of fellow travellers for the trip we are planning to Malta, Sicily and Rome in September. A gorgeous home made lasagna was the highlight.

My contribution to each lunch was store purchased cakes; a strawberry, apple and rhubarb cake at two lunches and a blueberry cheesecake at the third.

I've been compromised

My weekend is off to a bad start.

I came home to a message from my bank that my ATM card has been compromised and cancelled.

My card number and PIN were used five times today at a suburb 50kms from where I live. Person(s) unknown checked my balance, made two withdrawals and two other withdrawals were declined. I did not authorise the transactions, nor have I loaned out my card at any time, nor have I shared my PIN.

My guess is that the card was 'skimmed' when I was using it an ATM.

Following up this afternoon the bank has accepted a fraud was committed and I will be repaid the two unauthorised withdrawals.

Unfortunately I have to wait for a replacement card to be sent to me.

It is an awful feeling. At least this bank was quick to pick up the fraud unlike another bank a year ago who, until I raised the alarm, failed to notice literally dozens and dozens of unauthorised uses of my credit card within a couple of weeks amounting to around $3,000 of services in a city on the other side of the planet at a time when I was clearly home in Australia.

BUPA pooper

BUPA your service sucks.

A few years back the British based international healthcare group BUPA took over the health insurance company I belonged to for all my adult life.

A couple of weeks ago BUPA wrote to me advising that it was time for my 24 month eye examination. It invited me to make an appointment either by phone or online. The online instructions appeared simple and clear;

• Step 1 Visit www.bupaoptical.com.au
• Step 2 Click the 'Book and Appointment' link and the follow the steps

I followed those steps precisely nominating my appointment time at the Bondi Junction Optical Shop - the very shop referred to in BUPA's letter to me - from a schedule on the online site of half hourly times which commenced from 9am on the date I selected.

Within seconds I received an email from BUPA Optical Bondi Junction thanking me for my appointment request and continuing as follows;

'The team at Bupa Optical Bondi Junction look forward to serving your eyecare needs and will be in touch via phone or email to confirm your appointment.'

Twelve days later, with no email or phone contact from BUPA, I called into the Bondi Junction shop to confirm my appointment. The staff member checked and told me they had no record of my request; notwithstanding the email confirmation.

How can this be? Well, this is what she told me.

• The online booking system is not a 'live' site.
• The shop does not receive the data entered online.
• The times shown in the online site are not the actual times available for appointments but the hours the shop is open. (This comment makes no sense since the site lists half hourly slots.)
• Although the shop opens at 9am (or perhaps it is 9.30, that was not clear to me) eye examinations are not available until 11am.
• Earlier time slots for examinations are only available on Saturday hence are very popular and have to be booked far ahead.
• Her final advice was to book examinations by contacting the shop directly, not online.

Why, BUPA, do you send letters out inviting online booking when the online system is not active?
Why, BUPA, do you refer members to an online site that has appointment slots that don't exist in reality?
Why, BUPA, do you send email acknowledgements of online appointment requests when those requests die in cyberspace unrecognised and unknown to your shops?
Why, BUPA, do you not have eye examination timeslots that your working members can attend outside of their working hours or that your members can attend with minimal disruption to their work arrangements?

Why, BUPA, should I continue my membership with your organisation?

Bridge

Tonight 35.19%, 17/17

Bridge

Tonight, 49.39%, 6/9