I found my GPS!

Exciting news and I'm sure you all feel better for knowing this.

Back in January I wrote an entry about the case of my missing GPS that was in the safest of all safe places. Yep, January. It's now, what, almost the end of June and it's only just re-appeared.

Before exploring this scintillating topic further I do need to correct a slight untruth in the heading of this blog entry. I didn't actually find my GPS. I need to extend my gratitude to the hard-working cleaning staff at Bulleen Wash and Wax, or Suds and Duds, Clean and Spiffy, something like that. I had attempted half-heartedly on a few occasions to track down that hiding place of my GPS with no luck. Using The Force to find locations had been working thus far with no major mishaps. Now before you go and call me lazy, I have some damn good excuses (excuses - classic sign of a lazy person).

1. Usually my back seat (and rearvision mirror) is taken up with these two furry critters.

And even if they're not in the back seat, their dog rug is, which makes rummaging under the seats a trifle difficult and if I'm wearing a material that fur can cling to, I exit my car resembling a female version of Chewbacca after just a few minutes of hunting. So really, unless I was going to go hunting for my GPS naked, it wasn't going to happen. And I don't know the neighbours well enough yet for them not to call the cops on me.

2. Even though I've been living in this house for almost 5 years now, each time I go to see my parents I seem to accumulate another long lost possession of mine that they don't want to keep on storing and it ends up in my boot.

Anyone want to play, guess that object and its purpose?

There's many layers to the contents of my boot. And I did briefly start shifting things around to have a hunt around for the GPS, but once I realised that it has taken years of speed humps and vibrations to make those objects click together to fit into the boot I didn't want to disturb it further. And before you state the obvious by saying, "Why don't you just take all that stuff inside?" I'm going to rebut with, because our house is also full. The previous owners of our house were not storage idea geniuses. Who installs a set of wardrobes in a bedroom where the doors never open up completely to give you access to the shelving? You can either get to half on the left or half on the right, but never the entire shelf! Sheesh.

Anyhoo....

So back to Bulleen Vac and Wax, Shine and Gleam, maybe I should go and check my receipt for their real company name?

I can see the look of despair on the faces of the staff of this car wash when they see me pull in. I try to make the time between their tortuous task as long as possible, because I care about their mental health, but sometimes the fur just gets beyond amusing and I have to make the trip.

The Manager walks up, greets me, looks at my car, sighs, I make my best "Sorry" face and go and get a coffee while they go about their business.

It's amazing some of the long-lost objects they uncover. If the car-washing business doesn't work out for them, I'd be happy to write a reference to pursue a career in archaeology.
This time the Manager came to see me mid-clean with a message from the cleaners. "They want to know if your dog is now bald". Ha ha, very funny.

He then went on to suggest ways in which I could perhaps reduce the amount of dog fur accumulating. He suggested one of those dog harnesses. Yep, got one. Imported from Germany by BMW no less. He said that maybe I should leave the harness in, rather than pulling it in and out as the fur is probably falling out during that process. No worries, except that the only time I take the rug out is to come here for a clean. Out of ideas, he then asked how big the dog was. When I said there were two and one was 45kgs he muttered under his breath, "Well that explains it".

And indeed it does. I know how much I moult, and while I weigh the same as our big guy Ralph, there's a much greater fur/hair to surface area ratio happening. I just have my head, he's got an entire body of moulting potential. And he has the pointy sticky-in fur too.

So now a week on I still haven't put the dogs back in the car and I'm the worstest dog Mum in the whole world... according to them.

Just give me a few more days enjoying my fur freeness and then they'll be back in the car, furring it up, heads out the window, doggy grins on both their faces and I know I'll feel better having them back in there too.

Next time, leather interior.

Oh Gad and Where's my GPS?

Even if I had have needed to turn right, I would have gone straight.
The driver saw me take this photo. I was a little worried he thought I was going to report him and come and persuade me to delete the photo.
Should he have quizzed me on my intentions with the photo, I wonder what he would have said to my response, "Report you? Nooooo. This is going on my blog. Personally I think you could have fit a few more on!"

As for my GPS...
All I know is that it's in one of those "safe places".

How can you not find your GPS I hear you say?
Or maybe you just "Hmph"'d to yourself and thought "Who really cares?".

Anyhoo....

I keep on getting told "Well, just think back to when you had it last".
And I do, but it's not helping.
Why?
Well, seeing as you asked.

A normal day with clients goes along the lines of this.
I have a presentation/training session to do. So as I'm leaving the house my thought processes are something like:
"Ok, lights off, dogs out, doors locked, fans off, garage door locked. I've got my laptop, laptop charger, mobile internet, phone, USB key/s, manuals, notebook, client notes, GPS, wallet, Software CD's, FTP usernames and passwords, list of client usernames, Reader, water bottle, keys, oh crap, keys, heels (because I don't drive in my heels), cardigan for if the room's cold, coins for a coffee on the way. Check."

That's while I'm walking down the hallway to get out the door.

I drive to the location through peak hour traffic and finally get to a carpark.
As I'm getting out of the car my thoughts go:
"Ok, put shoes on, take cardi, bag, water bottle, hide iPod, put phone in bag, don't forget to get the manuals out of the boot, projector, laptop, notebook, GPS needs to be hidden. Ok, a thief won't be able to see it here."

Turn away from car and start walking where my thoughts are now, "Ok, so Chris, Jeff, Wayne, Craig and Michael are going to be in the meeting", then remember the positions of the people, go through what they need.
"What level are they on again?"
"I hope the SSRS Reports run as they should, my SQL has been playing up and running slow of late. Really must get around to formatting my laptop. If only the ATO would get rid of that stupid software I'd do it tonight. BAS is due soon. Need to free up some space on my external hard drive before I can format. I should back up all my pics too incase the hard drive fails shortly. Crap, should have paid the phone bill before leaving. Don't forget to put your phone on silent. Did I lock the car?" Pause. "I think I locked it. Oh well." Start walking again.
Walk into the reception of the client...

So while I know exactly where and what I was doing last time I had my GPS, that incredibly sneaky place I hid it is just a blank space in my memory as I was trying to remember to not call the MD by his last name. Both his first and last name could be first names and sometimes that can catch me out if I'm not paying full attention.

How do you go with people that have potential first names for both their first and last name? Ever get mixed up?

At some point in the next couple of weeks I'm going to have to pull my car apart looking for this sneaky little place. Hopefully the GPS holder is with the GPS, because that's hiding somewhere too. Another thing to add to the never-diminishing To Do List.

That's the universe for me right now.