Things can only get better

Today my train arrived at W-wa Jeziorki on time, and got me to W-wa Powiśle on time. I got to my first meeting of the day two minutes early. It was not raining (rained at bit during the day, but not when I was out and about). Indeed, the sun shone for a while. And, after my three-year old Nokia N95 finally gave up the ghost yesterday, I bought a brand new used phone, a Nokia N82 for just under five stoovers. Feels more solid than the N95, no sliding moving bits to go wrong, yet also has a 5MP camera and takes memory card from my old phone.

Yesterday I went to the Era dealership on Marszałkowska to see if I could change my tariff and get a new phone for a zloty (meaning: "pay us back for the real cost of the phone over the next 24 months). I had one hour and five minutes before a meeting; adequate for my transaction, I thought, especially since there were only two people being served and one other person waiting. But as the minutes passed, and the two young men serving the customers dawdled from photocopier to scanner to cashbox to computer screen, I felt that I was getting nowhere. After 35 minutes, one of the customers finally left the shop, having been properly served. The lady in front of takes her turn. She wants to pay 25 zlotys in cash for a top-up to her pay-as-you-go account. It took her a full twelve minutes for her simple request to be dealt with. Next - my turn. I explained that I needed a new phone and new tariff. "Would it be possible to deal with me in 18 minutes? I have a meeting at half past one." "Hmmm... New phone... new tariff... er... it will definitely take longer." "OK", I said, "You've lost my business. I will buy a second hand phone elsewhere and stick to my existing el cheapo tariff. BYEEEE!"

Today I visited a cold-storage warehouse in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. It's amazing to see how the workers there hustle when the temperature inside is +4C. Maybe Era's dealerships would work more efficiently if they were housed inside coolrooms.

Back to Koleje Mazowieckie. Online, I see my train leaves Jeziorki at 07:14. The timetable on display at the station (left) suggests that in fact my train leaves at 07:27. The online timetable is wrong. Why? Same with my trip to Grodzisk. Nice journey, cheap ticket... but why did the online timetable lead me to miss a train (10:16 at W-wa Powiśle) that was purportedly due at 10:25? If you can't trust the online timetable, who can you trust?

UPDATE: 3 September - On the third day of the new schedules, the online version has finally been amended. One thing fewer to get worked up about :-)