Last night I had a wasted trip to the large, shiny, impersonal establishment otherwise known as Cineworld in Stevenage. Typically, I prefer the smaller, more characterful cinema experience offered by Letchworth’s The Broadway. However, on this occasion, the film wanted and the times available meant a trip to Stevenage.
On arrival, we were told that if we bought out tickets online they would be almost half the price of buying them there. Groan. I had imagined that the handing over of old-fashioned cash in exchange for paper tickets would have been a simple, stress-free act securing our pass to the cinema and our enjoyment of the chosen film.
With a heavy sigh, I resigned myself to the tech handling task required. Despite full bars worth of supposedly secure internet, there was constant buffering in between myself and all the information required. My attempt to leave out my email to save spending even more time every day clearing junk from my inbox was met with a refusal to go further. Reluctantly, I entered my email, credit card details et al. After about 10 more minutes of buffering, a page appeared reading, ‘Session Expired’.
This evoked an immediate expiration of my patience and uprising of annoyance. Something that was supposed to be fun after a long exhausting workday immediately became a source of stress and exasperation. With time moving swiftly on and my sense of humour nowhere to be seen, I approached the humans to enquire what the thinking behind this was, aside from losing customers. Their ‘we don’t know/care and it’s nothing to do with us’ reply did little to sooth my stress. So with the mood ruined and the will to continue having wilted away, we left. We planned a return to the ‘user friendly online service/not ripping you off for wanting a human to serve you’ approach on offer at our preferred cinema. There will be no more trips to Cineworld.
What a disappointment and waste of time and energy when both are already depleted.
But a reminder, that if tech tipped me over the edge, there must have been other factors involved in pushing me so close to it. And therefore, a none too gentle invitation to take time out today to allow myself to rest and my resources to recover. As well as exploring what else was making me so stressed and annoyed.
It’s exhausting, if rewarding (sometimes) being a human especially when fascinated with the ongoing business of learning and growing that are essential to maintaining a sense of aliveness.
And another thing, the last before I sign off, I promise … OVO; it’s been a year so far of about 60 phone calls and emails to sort out their ‘not-smart-at-all-metre’ and their mess ups with bills. It’s become something of a part time, daily interaction requiring job along with the jobs of maintaining health and navigating technology. No wonder I’m so bl**dy tired!