I've just created a blog for the East Perth Medical Centre. They specialise in travel vaccinations, hence the name of their site Travel Vaccination (without the s). They will be posting articles about why to get vaccinated and which countries you need vaccinations for if you plan on visiting them. They will also provide information such as what to do in case of an car accident, how to get treated for worker's compensation, who should get flu vaccinations as well as general health advice such as diet and nutrition information.
Even though they do a lot of flu and travel vaccinations they also provide other medical services. The have a number of general practitioners (both men and women), a physiotherapist, dietitian, speech therapist, and massage therapist.
They are based in East Perth at 168 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth, WA, 6004 and can be contacted on (08) 9221 4242 for an appointment.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Speeding Fines in France
I hired a car for my recent holiday and spent time driving around France and Spain. I generally avoided the autoroutes (and the expensive tolls) but did often take the national roads. These can be slower due to fewer lanes and also seeing you have to slow down when you go through a town. The speed limits can still be fairly high as was the case when I was travelling on the RN10 from Paris to Bordeaux.
I wasn't particularly in a hurry but was following the traffic in front of me without thinking too much about my speed. I was suddenly reminded of that however when I was blinded by the flash of a speed camera. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little there but I noticed the flash and I was caught speeding.
I had forgotten about it until today when I received the speeding fine in the mail - the Avis de Contravention au Code de la Route. I thought maybe I was in a 90km/h zone at the time but luckily it was a 110 zone. I was doing 122km/h so the fine was only 45 euros. The way it works is that if you pay within 15 days you pay 45 euros, if pay after 15 days but before 45 days then it goes up to 68 euros, and if you pay after that it goes up to a whopping 180 euros. I paid it already to ensure I only pay 45.
I'm also supposed to lose some points from my drivers licence (it doesn't say how many) but I don't see how they can do that seeing I don't have a French drivers licence. You can of course contest the fine but unfortunately I have to admit I'm guilty.
I wasn't particularly in a hurry but was following the traffic in front of me without thinking too much about my speed. I was suddenly reminded of that however when I was blinded by the flash of a speed camera. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little there but I noticed the flash and I was caught speeding.
I had forgotten about it until today when I received the speeding fine in the mail - the Avis de Contravention au Code de la Route. I thought maybe I was in a 90km/h zone at the time but luckily it was a 110 zone. I was doing 122km/h so the fine was only 45 euros. The way it works is that if you pay within 15 days you pay 45 euros, if pay after 15 days but before 45 days then it goes up to 68 euros, and if you pay after that it goes up to a whopping 180 euros. I paid it already to ensure I only pay 45.
I'm also supposed to lose some points from my drivers licence (it doesn't say how many) but I don't see how they can do that seeing I don't have a French drivers licence. You can of course contest the fine but unfortunately I have to admit I'm guilty.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
France Telecom is Useless
I was off line for most of last week due to a problem with my ADSL connection. I'm with Orange (previously Wanadoo) who is owned by France Telecom. I hate having to call people and speak French with them but I had no choice.
The reason I hate calling people was reinforced even more with my first call to Orange. I get pay TV via my ADSL as well as the internet and both went down. When I called Orange I had to speak to either an internet or TV support person. I chose the internet customer support and the woman was a complete nightmare. She refused to speak slower when I asked her which made it difficult to follow all her technical instructions. She insisted the problem was with my computer which I knew wasn't the case seeing my TPS (pay TV) was out too. She said TPS wasn't her area and she couldn't help me with that. She completely missed the point that the problem was related so it was most likely a problem with the line or the LiveBox (modem). She kept repeating that she couldn't help me with the TV and we should get on with connecting the internet. I tried to explain the problem but she just ignored me and went on with her instructions. So I was talking about one thing and she was just continued on with what she wanted to do. Maybe she thought the TV not working at the same time was just a coincidence.
After about 15 minutes of wasting my time fiddling around on my computer, which surprise, surprise, didn't fix the problem, I then got disconnected from her and she didn't call back. I figured she should have called me because otherwise I was going to wait in the queue again even though we had already started on my problem. So at 34 cents a minute that was money really well spent.
So I called back and spoke to someone in the TV customer service section. As soon as I told him both the TV and internet weren't worked he immediately tested the line and found there was a problem with it. He made an appointment for a technician to come out 2 days later (well, what I thought was 2 days later) and it was that simple. I don't what that stupid woman's problem was but at least I finally had a solution.
Two days later I was waiting for the guy who was supposed to arrive at 10:30am. He didn't turn up so I called them at 12pm and 5pm. They told me to be patient and keep waiting. The following day I called again and the guy told me he was arriving that day. So I waited around the previous day for nothing. Ok, I must have misheard the day but why didn't the two people I spoke to let me know I had the day wrong? Was that too much trouble for them?
The wonderful end to this long story is that they guy arrived (an hour late), fixed the problem and then offered to set up my wifi access seeing I had been using a usb commection. I was very happy until he handed me the bill of 149 euros. What! That's not bad for 45 minutes work. I don't see why I should have to pay seeing the problem was with their modem. I don't own the modem I just hire it from them.
At least now I won't be tripping over the wires everyday like I used to. Plus I can watch rubbish French TV again. Great.
The reason I hate calling people was reinforced even more with my first call to Orange. I get pay TV via my ADSL as well as the internet and both went down. When I called Orange I had to speak to either an internet or TV support person. I chose the internet customer support and the woman was a complete nightmare. She refused to speak slower when I asked her which made it difficult to follow all her technical instructions. She insisted the problem was with my computer which I knew wasn't the case seeing my TPS (pay TV) was out too. She said TPS wasn't her area and she couldn't help me with that. She completely missed the point that the problem was related so it was most likely a problem with the line or the LiveBox (modem). She kept repeating that she couldn't help me with the TV and we should get on with connecting the internet. I tried to explain the problem but she just ignored me and went on with her instructions. So I was talking about one thing and she was just continued on with what she wanted to do. Maybe she thought the TV not working at the same time was just a coincidence.
After about 15 minutes of wasting my time fiddling around on my computer, which surprise, surprise, didn't fix the problem, I then got disconnected from her and she didn't call back. I figured she should have called me because otherwise I was going to wait in the queue again even though we had already started on my problem. So at 34 cents a minute that was money really well spent.
So I called back and spoke to someone in the TV customer service section. As soon as I told him both the TV and internet weren't worked he immediately tested the line and found there was a problem with it. He made an appointment for a technician to come out 2 days later (well, what I thought was 2 days later) and it was that simple. I don't what that stupid woman's problem was but at least I finally had a solution.
Two days later I was waiting for the guy who was supposed to arrive at 10:30am. He didn't turn up so I called them at 12pm and 5pm. They told me to be patient and keep waiting. The following day I called again and the guy told me he was arriving that day. So I waited around the previous day for nothing. Ok, I must have misheard the day but why didn't the two people I spoke to let me know I had the day wrong? Was that too much trouble for them?
The wonderful end to this long story is that they guy arrived (an hour late), fixed the problem and then offered to set up my wifi access seeing I had been using a usb commection. I was very happy until he handed me the bill of 149 euros. What! That's not bad for 45 minutes work. I don't see why I should have to pay seeing the problem was with their modem. I don't own the modem I just hire it from them.
At least now I won't be tripping over the wires everyday like I used to. Plus I can watch rubbish French TV again. Great.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Who’s electricity am I paying?
I had a strange phone call today from EDF, Electricite de France, saying that I have been paying my neighbour's electricity bill for the last 4 months. I've never heard of that happening before!
It seems that when I made the connection they set it up for the wrong apartment. A neighbour 2 floors above me hadn't been receiving their bills because their account had been cancelled, by me, and called EDF to find out why. I'm surprised to hear they called to find out about the missing bills seeing their electricity was still connected. They could easily have ignored it. I'm lucky they called because no one has been paying the electricity on my apartment and it could have been disconnected at any moment - which is exactly what happened to me when I was in Montpellier. I had 3 days without electricity in the middle of winter. That was fun.
I don't understand how this happened because I spoke to someone in English when I connected the electricity so it's not like my terrible French was the problem. I was surprised through when the guy told me it was going to cost 50 euros per month seeing I was only paying 40 in a larger apartment in Montpellier. I thought it must have been because I was in Paris where prices are higher!
So they are going to reimburse what I paid for the apartment upstairs and I'll have to pay the last 4 months electricity for this place. I'm glad someone else found this problem before it was too late. Luckily it hasn't caused any inconvenience for me.
It seems that when I made the connection they set it up for the wrong apartment. A neighbour 2 floors above me hadn't been receiving their bills because their account had been cancelled, by me, and called EDF to find out why. I'm surprised to hear they called to find out about the missing bills seeing their electricity was still connected. They could easily have ignored it. I'm lucky they called because no one has been paying the electricity on my apartment and it could have been disconnected at any moment - which is exactly what happened to me when I was in Montpellier. I had 3 days without electricity in the middle of winter. That was fun.
I don't understand how this happened because I spoke to someone in English when I connected the electricity so it's not like my terrible French was the problem. I was surprised through when the guy told me it was going to cost 50 euros per month seeing I was only paying 40 in a larger apartment in Montpellier. I thought it must have been because I was in Paris where prices are higher!
So they are going to reimburse what I paid for the apartment upstairs and I'll have to pay the last 4 months electricity for this place. I'm glad someone else found this problem before it was too late. Luckily it hasn't caused any inconvenience for me.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Roger Federer vs Vincent Spadea
I saw Roger Federer thrash Tim Henman yesterday. Federer is playing so well, as usual. Henman didn't stand a chance. Henman doesn't stand a chance against most of the top player so it wasn't surprising that he barely won a point yesterday. Federer looks to be in top form so I expect him to easily beat Vincent Spadea in the next round.
I was quite surprised to see that Spadea is still playing tennis. I thought he had retired long ago. I was going to say that he is pretty old but he's my age so I'll keep quiet. I was also surprised to learn that he is American. I always thought he was European, Spanish maybe. I don't know why I thought that. Maybe it's been so long since I've heard his name that I had just forgotten.
Federer is still my number one choice to win the final, especially now that Baghdatis lost to Agassi. He's playing so well that I can't see him losing, not even to Nadal.
I was quite surprised to see that Spadea is still playing tennis. I thought he had retired long ago. I was going to say that he is pretty old but he's my age so I'll keep quiet. I was also surprised to learn that he is American. I always thought he was European, Spanish maybe. I don't know why I thought that. Maybe it's been so long since I've heard his name that I had just forgotten.
Federer is still my number one choice to win the final, especially now that Baghdatis lost to Agassi. He's playing so well that I can't see him losing, not even to Nadal.
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