An Altercation and Other Errors

It was freezing cold today...I think the temperature got to 16c. But at 6.30 am at Wacol Station, it was very cold and that wasn't taking into account the wind chill factor. So, here I am sitting waiting for the train when I heard the sound of discord...two women having a rather warm discussion about something in the car park. To get into the car park, we use the entry marked "Entry" and to leave, we use the exit marked "Exit" which, on the road side, has a big sign saying "No Entry". Right? Unfortunately sometimes people enter the carpark by driving in the "Exit/No Entry" way...I'm guilty of doing it myself on occasion. However, one must look left to ensure there is nothing coming from that direction.

Obviously, this was what the discussion between these two women was about. One was a Goth looking young girl...very long straight hair dyed jet black, black clothing and lots of black eye makeup. The other protagonist was a woman aged about 50. They moved off further down the platform, still "discussing". A few seconds later the older woman came back in tears, blood on her face and accompanied by another woman who took her up to the stationmaster.

At that stage, the announcement came that the train was approximately two minutes away so I walked down to where I usually get on. The "Goth" looking girl was standing waiting for the train and on her mobile phone to someone. The stationmaster came up to her and although I couldn't hear what was going on, it was obvious he was asking for her particulars. She was gesticulating and giving her side of the story...and then the train arrived. I didn't see the injured lady at that time. The Goth girl was in my carriage, again on her mobile phone and was upset as her eyeliner was making tracks down her face.

When we reached the city, I saw the other lady who was bleeding and she had a big cut/graze under her eye which went down onto her cheek. Lord only knows what happened, but I wouldn't be surprised if a charge of assault was made against the Goth. What a start to the morning.

I made my way to work and the morning went tolerably well. I went for lunch, came back and proceeded to carry on with my work. We use digital sound files and for some reason or other, my footpedal wasn't working...I couldn't get anything, so switched screens to the transcription module and...eek! There were no files whatsoever...I frantically hit the mouse on this function and that one...nothing! My off-side was happily typing away so I asked her to switch to the transcription module to see if she had any files. There were none, only the ones she was working on.

So...nothing for it. I went to find the practice manager who, fortunately, does not panic (unlike me) and said he would have a look on the server to see what he could find. To cut a long story short, some of the files downloaded yesterday we found, because they had been backed up at midnight. Unfortunately, this morning I had downloaded 30 files for A, who had a huge consult yesterday and of course, they were deleted before the backup took place at midnight tonight.

What had happened was that my off-sider, while I was at lunch, decided to do some housekeeping and instead of deleting old files, deleted the ones that hadn't been typed. Of course, she was mortified and went and "confessed" to our practice manager. He is one of those people who is pretty philosophical and recognises the fact that people do make mistakes.

As I said to him, if we're going to make a mistake, we may as well do it properly and make a big one...he laughed then asked us who was going to tell A he was going to have to redictate 30 files. Ahah, I wasn't going to be back for a week, so I nominated him. As he went out the door, he called out to my offsider to wait until tomorrow when I wasn't there and then tell A I had done it. I ask you, with friends like that, who needs enemies?

I just might have to ring A tomorrow and let him know that there's going to be a nasty rumour...

Seriously, I have made my own stuff ups and our practice manager knows we learn from our mistakes and that going off the rails isn't going to fix anything. He's such a sweetie...even if he is a stirrer!