The power of grump

Culturally the single biggest hurdle I have dealt with here is that, sometimes, you just have to be grumpy and let people know you are! It is very un-british and very un-kiwi. It is a necessary survival mechanism. I have just spent two hours on the telephone with my internet provider who then informed me…..oops, bad modem installed, hey here’s a number you can call, gee only available four days a week and most definitely not this weekend…..kinda random……..sorry. So I took a breath and demanded to speak to the supervisor….well they had just billed me for the full month and taken my credit card number….that seemed to work fine. It seemed to me they took my credit card readily enough and now I had an erratic, limited service - not to mention the fact that come Monday if I don’t have internet I have to go into the office and, regardless, come Sunday if I don’t have it I have to go find it……’cos dealing with emails before Monday helps me survive the week! It takes a lot for me to get grumpy with anyone (seriously it is a deep personality flaw, I’ve never mastered spontaneous grumpy and don’t much hang on to real anger…..frustration and disappointment yes, anger no). Mostly I have to think about it and decide I am going to do it. It’s not spontaneous – it’s not a natural way of being. I resent having to do it because mostly I think people should behave and do the right thing, well…….they don’t. So grumpy muppet worked, or at least maybe worked. On Sunday they promise someone will arrive. I will lurk…..they better arrive or I will have to wind myself up again! On balance Kiwis are “passive aggressive”, we invite people to get it, we really are not as direct as the average American or European I might add (my pop psychology insight). There are merits in both but, of late, I’ve figured that throwing my toys from the cot is sometimes the only choice…..maybe, just maybe, it might work….