Transaction analysis

No doubt you can all tell that I am deep in the throes of my current unit of study – Business Accounting and Finance. Today we will analyse that critical component of business – the transaction.

The transaction consists of various parts – the offer, the commitment and the delivery. Take ice cream for example (don’t mind if I do). The shop offers you a range of different ice creams. You make a commitment by choosing one and advising the ice cream shop attendent how you will pay for it. Finally, the ice cream shop attendent delivers the ice cream, and the transaction is complete.

Now let’s consider another transaction – Foxtel. The company offers pay TV services. It does this through many forms of advertising. I rang them up, listened to the spiel and negotiated a better introductory offer (I enjoyed that part). At the commitment stage I gave the nice man on the other end of the phone my bank account details in order to facilitate payment. I went through the process of having my assent to the direct debits and the two year contract recorded. All that leaves is the delivery stage – at which point they said it would take FIVE WEEKS before they could get an installer to my house! That is four full rounds of AFL, a whole heap of the Cricket World Cup (although that drags out so interminably that I think I’ll be able to just catch the final) and God knows how many great documentaries on the History Channel (we are particularly looking forward to that one).

If I ran a pay TV company……..well, if I ran it I would make sure I didn’t have to pay for it for a start.

Overwhelming response

The overwhelming response to my issue of the day has swayed me immensely. A whopping 100% of people who commented on the issue thought I should get Foxtel, a powerful influence. I might organise it today! I wonder if I can get a convoluted staff discount? Not sure, but you can be sure I’m going to ask!

Back to surprises (see last post), yesterday I sent my beloved 12 red roses at her work, just to let her know she is special. I wanted to make her smile. It worked. 

Today I’m going to work at the closest office to home, partly for my convenience, partly because I worked so hard over the last two weeks that they can’t complain if I ease back a bit, but mainly because I have a funeral to go to at 2pm and it is closer to that office than mine. It’s for a bloke I used to work with (had health problems for years, and they finally outweighed him).

Issue for today: Homework. Study takes so much time when you are working as well. have an assignment to finish, and it is already running late. Must finish assignment. Hopefully today.

Surprises

How important are surprises to making relationships work? Sure there are surprises and surprises…….showing how tired I can be when the people at home never thought I could get any more tired is probably not the best, or most important, kind of surprise, but I managed to surprise even myself with that one last week.

I’m talking about nice surprises. Show up early at home and do all the housework while she’s at work surprises. Unexpected gift surprises. Flowers at work surprises. Pick up the kids from school surprises. Spontaneous night out surprises. All of these are things that I haven’t been good at, but all of them are doable. It’s not that I don’t think of them, it’s just that I’ve been spending the time it takes to do them at work instead of doing them. What kind of idiot does that make me (thanks Jury, you’ve got me questioning what being in my 30s means)? This is not doubt in myself brought on by a mid-life crisis……I know that because I still have tentative plans to live forever, meaning I am not consciously acknowledging that my life will have a mid-point. It is just a train of thought.

Today’s issue: Do I get Foxtel or not get Foxtel. I want to see my AFL (and to be able to flick on replay during the week if I miss it on the weekend), but that’s a lot of cash just for me to see my favourite game. To include all of the really cool documentary channels (History channel, Biography channel, Animal Planet etc.) costs even more. Decision? Don’t know yet, but I’m leaning towards yes.

Medical experiments

You read about them in the news all the time……testing this new antibiotic, trialling new cancer therapies and rubber staples to stop people from eating so much on Tuesdays. This week I am undertaking a new medical experiment……working so hard, for so long, under so much pressure that by lunchtime your stomach hurts, you can’t face lunch, and when a staff member asks if I want anything from the cafe down the road, I say “asprin”. Is this a good experiment? No. Do I want to do it again? No again. Do I have much choice at the moment? Well, people always have choices. I have expressed the somewhat untenable nature of my present work role (that is, doing about 1.7 full time jobs and squeezing them in to each week). I have told the people that matter at my work that, while I am doing my very best, I know that each of my full time jobs could be done to a better standard if they were performed by two different people, whether that was me and somebody else, or two somebody elses. They have nodded, they have understood, and I know that they are up to their necks in budget formulation, replacing staff and managers who have resigned and all of the other things that senior managers do. So in the meantime, while I wait for the solution, I have a roiling stomach at least half of the time, I have half given up sleeping and, somehow, I am continuing to perform an admirable job at work.

The only flaw in my medical experiment is that I’m not really taking notes, making it of dubious research value. I know, I know…..blogging is the answer, and I’m working on it!

Must go….it’s 6.20am (been up for over an hour and a half – damn cat) and I have to start making myself look (and hopefully feel) more human.

Cheerio!