Category: Rants

Dear RoadHog GP

So on Saturday morning, shortly after 5am, I left Jozi to go spend what was left of my long weekend with the parentals.  It was a bit of a last minute decision, but i was tired and stressed and I missed them and i needed the break.  So after one seriously hectic week i packed my bags and hit the road.  Excited about the drive as always…I love road trips!

About 23km or so before the De Hoek Tollgate, i spotted your vehicle in front of me on the highway in the fast lane.  You were only going about 80, but moved over into the slow lane long before i was anywhere close to you, so i just continued merrily on my way.  Then, as i pulled up beside me you suddenly swerved and tried to push me off the road.  Instinctively i hit my brakes and the hooter at the same time to prevent being pushed off the road, changed lanes and passed you in the slow lane.  Then all hell broke loose.

For some arb reason, totally unknown to me you started chasing me.  Driving right on my ass and gesturing at me through the window.  I was getting freaked out, as i knew the tollgate was coming up and I’d have to stop. We finally reached the tollgate and as we stopped you stopped right on my ass to prevent me from going anywhere. You and the guy in the passenger seat got out, ran up to my car and started bashing at the windows with your fists…trying to break the windows, shouting.  I clearly recall every single word out of your filthy mouth…the string of insults was started with :’I’m gonna f*** you up you racist little bitch! I’m gonna get you and I’m gonna f*** you up you f***ing racist bitch”. I suspect the look on my face didn’t help, i was so surprised by the whole thing that my face literally portrayed ‘dude, what the hell are you on about”.  Thankfully, the car in front of me went through the gate and I could move forward, AND a taxi driver pulled up behind your car and started shouting at you through the window….at which time you ran back to your car.

The lady working at the tollgate, bless her soul, told me to just drive, she’ll try and stall you long enough so i can get some distance between us, as I’d have to turn off the highway soon and didn’t want you following me onto the abandoned little farm roads that I’d be taking. To say that i was driving 160km/h would be an understatement. I figured I’d rather get a fine or be pulled over by the cops than be pushed off the road by you and your insanity.

I was quite badly shaken at the time.  I’m fine now, but dude, seriously, you need to get help.  I didn’t even do anything and you were trying to attack me and push me off the road…what is up with that?? or did you figure it was a nice little game because i was a girl and i was alone in my car? Coward! It’s people like you that cause other people to live in fear and to buy guns.  It is due to people like you that our can’t reach it’s full potential. 

Sadly I didn’t think of taking down your registration number at the time.  All i wanted to do was get out of there.  If i had, you would have had so much crap right now.  Next time you decide to act like a complete neanderthal i hope you mess with the wrong person..idiot.

Regards

Ruby

On being disappointed in yourself

So today is NOT a letter…as you can see.  I didn’t feel like addressing the post to anyone as I would have had to address it to myself, which would just make me feel worse than i already am.  So it’s a post, an honest one and one that i didn’t especially enjoy writing….but it’s good.  It’s important to be honest with yourself from time to time.

You know those moments in life when you suddenly stop and look in the mirror, so to speak, and see changes in yourself? Yesterday was one of those moments.  It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t expected and to be honest it wasn’t very enjoyable either.  Because i looked at myself and I saw that there were things about me that were beginning to change…some of them were good and provided proof that I’m growing as a person, but some were downright disappointing.

I had to be honest with myself and admit that I did not like what I saw.  The only relief I found was in the fact that these changes have as yet not affected anyone else but me.  I haven’t started lying, or purposefully hurting people, nor have I left behind any of the things I stand for in life. In fact, i think if i had to explain what exactly was bothering me to most people they would laugh and point out that they don’t understand what I’m disappointed about. But somewhere in the last couple of weeks I’ve started losing a part of who I am.  Things that make me who I am, that shape my character and my personality and form part of the person that my friends love and care for.

And for what am I losing these things? I have NO idea.  I can’t quite put my finger on when it started or the reason for it.  All I know is it stops NOW.  I can quite clearly see where i will end up if I allow these changes in me to take place, and I don’t like what i see.  So I refuse to let it happen. 

I’ve been a bit of an emotional wreck the last couple of weeks and I’ve been blaming a myriad of things for this.  And yes, I have been taking severe strain with the fact that i was in a position where i had to move and didn’t have a place to move to. And moving in itself is a pretty stressful thing.  But in retrospect i think my emotional roller coaster had way more to do with me being unhappy with myself than anything else, and it’s just so much easier to blame other things rather than yourself.

I’m disappointed in myself for allowing myself to make compromises that I would never normally make.  I don’t deal well with disappointing people, even more so when I’m the one i disappointed.  I’m grateful for the fact that the subtle changes which have only started very recently have mostly  been internal/emotional of nature and as yet have not affected my outward behaviour.  Not that it makes me feel better about the situation, but it serves as a little bit of a comfort.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure a number of people are quite confused at the moment and have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about.  I’m sorry bout the cryptic nature of the post, but the fact is, if nobody has noticed the changes and they don’t know what I’m talking about it proves I’m right in saying that the changes are currently internal of nature and I can therefore stop them from taking place before it affects anybody else but me.

Even though having to face being a disappointment to yourself is never a ‘nice’ experience, I’m kinda grateful that I was forced to face reality yesterday.  It helped me to see something which could potentially be a problem and fix it.  Most ironic part of all of this……..facing my demons yesterday had an immediate affect on my emotional state.  Am back to being my normal, calm, happy and sunshiny self. 

Rubyshoes is back y’all!

Dear Vo-duh-com

*sigh* I don’t even know where to begin with this letter. I’m so frustrated, and irritated and actually just completely ticked off with you guys.

At the end of January, you guys deducted more than double what my bill would have been from my account. When i queried it i was placated with some obscure story, which I accepted for the pure and simple reason that i wanted to keep my sanity. After speaking to a multitude of people at customer care who all insisted that this was MY problem and that I should sort it out despite it being YOUR mistake.

Then, at the end of last month you guys had the cheek to deduct an even BIGGER amount off my account. I had a teeny tiny little heart attack! I spoke to 3 different people working in your customer care department, each one being more stupid than the last. I finally snapped. I told the 4th girl that answered that i do not want to speak to her, i want to speak to a manager. She wouldn’t budge, and had the audacity to call me rude, blegh, but she finally put me through to a manager after i asked her if she really wanted to take responsibility for this problem.

Now, i have 2 different accounts with you guys. The one is a 3G data card contract. I pay a fixed amount every month for a certain amount of data and then i pay a special rate for any extra data i use. The second is my iPhone contract. These two contracts are completely separate…2 different invoices, 2 different sim cards, 2 different pin numbers. The only place they become integrated is with my debit order, as I’ve arranged to have only one debit order for both accounts. My accounts with vodacom have been running this way for the past 2 years without any problems.

According to what your manager told me…..my 3G sim card has been inactive the last 3 months. Complete rubbish as i use it every day. So what happens is, not only do i pay my standard contract amount for my 3G, which i according to you don’t use, you then take the full amount of data used on that sim card and charge it as out of bundle rate data on my iPhone!!!! So i pay the contract amount for nothing and you charge me ridiculous rates for data i used on a different sim card???? The really ridiculous part is that you’ve been sending sms‘ to my data card sim card to tell me how much of my data bundle I’ve used, and you’ve been sending sms‘ to my iPhone to tell me how much of my iPhone data bundle I’ve used, neither of which have been exceeded.

So when i instructed the manager to make sure that the problem gets fixed, he tells me that in order to sort it out they’ll need to perform a data audit of some kind. But there is a catch….there is a charge involved…which I’ll have to pay…so let me get this straight. You guys messed up royally and I have to pay for you to fix it? You guys already owe me a crapload of money!

So please, just fix the problem. I hate having to always fight with people. You’d think that if you were nice to people they’d at least try to help you, but no, as it turns out you need to be rude in order to get people to do what’s right. It sucks.

Please take note that i will not be letting this go. I expect this problem to be sorted out, and soon. No more nice Ruby…i can play hard ball too you know.

Regards

Angry Ruby

Dear Metrocops

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

On Friday night, while i was on my way home from watching District 9…..awesome movie btw, you guys should totally go watch it if you haven’t seen it yet…..the unthinkable happened. There I was, driving along happily in my little baby, listening to Nickle Creek when suddenly this black car, came speeding from behind, overtook me, cut me off and forced me to a standstill. Then, within seconds 2 metro police vehicles came to a screeching halt behind my now stationary car.

I was feeling pretty confused until the first shots rang out. Those idiots were firing at you guys and i was right in the middle of it all. After what felt like an eternity and a million shots, more metro cops came chasing from the other direction and the dudes were apprehended. I on the other hand could not move.

A very friendly policeman, whose name I just can’t remember, came up to me and asked me if I was OK. I wasn’t, but I managed to say that I was and that i would like to go home now. He was sweet enough to escort me home and make sure i got there safely. I was sort of OK until i actually got home…I freaked out, completely. And bought shares in Hysterics R us…and throughout all of this the kind police officer just stood there patting me on the back and telling me it’s OK, it’s over now and I’m fine.

So I’d like to thank you guys first of all for dealing with the situation quickly and efficiently. And even though i don’t remember the guys name,I’d like to say thank you to the police man who treated me with such kindness and patience in my moment of absolute melt down. Thank you!

Regards

Ruby

P.S. erm…..just so you know, I’d like to point out to you guys that you might want to reconsider having roadblocks on Witkoppen during peak time traffic…..It really really screws us normal people around and makes us a bit negative…k?

Dear Vodacom

According to this and this we now have to register our sim cards. Now don’t get me wrong. I understand why it is necessary to ensure that you have details of people buying sim cards. I’ve been victim of a stalker for such a long time, and because he keeps using prepaid sim cards he bought for 99c there is nothing anybody can do about it, so seriously, I get it.

I even understand the fact that current prepaid users should come into a Vodacom outlet to register their sim card. What I don’t understand though, is why on earth current vodacom users who are on contract need to come in and register their sim cards. You’re kidding me right?? I mean, when i applied for the contract I had to give you a copy of my ID, a utility bill as proof of residence, my full names(which is silly since you already have a copy of my ID) and a whole bunch of other things. Now why on earth would I need to come into a Vodacom outlet to give you copies of documents and a list of information you’ve already got?

Regards

Ruby