Don't you just love the attitude of public sector clerks early in the morning? Especially on a Monday morning, when it's all sunny and shinning and perfect for someone to mess with the whole Zen attitude?

Well, this morning I had a little administrative tasks to take care of at the Bucharest labor office. Never mind the huge queues that leave no air to breathe, the lack of information and the wrong direction one gets. I finally made it to the clerk the company I used to work for was assigned to. I met this pissed off lady (she had been working for less than 10 minutes and she already had an attitude). She was explaining to me that she is now doing things that were 'our' responsibility. She did not mention which exactly these things were.

Cris and I did what needed to be done: looked all confused, smiley and in a general state of awe when faced with her profoundly secret knowledge. She agreed to help us (aka do her job). We're going again next week. On a Monday, again. Bad luck at the beginning of the week...not a good sign!

Some times I simply cannot get my mind around situations I am forced to deal with. For example, why would an airline company such as MyAir open an agency/office/whatever in Bucharest that does not make reservation or sell airline tickets??? If I want to check prices, I can do so online. Availability, mkay, that is something interesting, but how would that ever be reason enough to open an agency and not have a hot line only?

Then we move to ING. I've been meaning to have a debit card issued by this bank for well, about7 months. I went to their closest branch from where I parked my car today. The nice ad on the door said they were open until 1.30 pm. It was 12 and they were closed...Nevermind, we got to a different one and got everything done, quick and easy, great services actually. Piata Romana is the place to go, really! Oh, and they had no idea other branches were closed long before due time!...

Anyway, these, my corporate friends, are not cases of smart/attractive/customer confidence building behavior. It is not something I approve of, indulge or support in anyway. And I hope one day, maybe one day, such things will no longer happen.

1. I seem to have no time to do the things I love for satisfying periods: reading ranks first here, then seeing more of my friends, then traveling more, then seeing more movies, good ones preferably.

9. I am tired and am getting no real rest, although I sleep a lot.

OK, enough complaining from me. Which are the reasons behind your frustration?

I am really tired of drivers being pissed off because I happen to follow the rules and not treat them as optional. If there are speed limits and you feel like breaking them, be my guest! But don't you there honk or swear because I choose not to!

I have seen plenty of crazy drivers this weekend. Crazy to the extent of taking unnecessary risks every other minute. Well, it's a free country, risk killing yourself, risk killing others, but please don't act as if you are right and I should stay off the road for driving as I should.

Two accidents with pretty messy consequences happened on Sunday. And that on my way back to Bucharest alone. Is it really worth it? Trading your life and others lives or serious injuries for half an hour? I doubt it. So next time any of you out there thinks of giving angry looks and honking, think again. If you don't, well, then you might be crazy or an idiot...My take on this!

It seems people in the Romanian banking system have no idea how to do their job! They show no respect for all their customers and are generally never worried about time and how much it values. How did I reach this conclusion? Well, a few examples might help:

Example 1: Most banks have their work hours proudly displayed on their doors. Most switch their sign from Closed to Open at 9.am. Why is it then that if you are their first customer you go in and are asked to wait in a bitter voice, as if you are disturbing them? They come in earlier and everything is supposed to be ready by 9 am. But noooo! This just happened today at Volksbank. Was I annoyed? You bet!

Example 2: Assigning different priorities to customers may be understandable. But when corporate customers have a higher priority at all your desks, this becomes a problem. The common customers are as important, at least to themselves...This is BRD's policy in at least one of their branches.

Example 3: Volksbank again...Their system is returning errors for about 8 months (as far as I know), and they still have not fixed it. Besides that, when it's not working, the cashier is angry and tells customers to come back later. Apologies? Are you crazy? No way!

I have a long term loan from Volksbank. But I swore never to work with them on anything else. I don't care if their offer is better than others. I would like to actually be able to pay what I owe while facing less problems. And I'd like them to treat me better actually...