More haste, less speed.

[baratron]

Today has been one of those days where everything I did to try to save time ended up taking me longer than if I'd done it the "long" way first.

1. I had to get someone's address to write on a parcel. I thought it would take too long to switch on the laptop and wait for it to boot, so I went to the linux computer downstairs which is always on. However, it transpires that both the web browsers on there are 3 years out of date, and neither of them would display current livejournal styles at all well. So I couldn't actually get the address that way, and had to switch on the laptop anyway.
   
2. I figured I should go to the sub-Post Office on Kingston Hill rather than the main Post Office in either Kingston or New Malden because the queues would be much shorter. This despite it being a Wednesday afternoon, prime early-closing day for local shops. Of course, the sub-Post Office was closed and I had to go to the main one anyway.
   
3. I was so short of time that I decided it would take me too long to get the tricycle out to cycle up the hill. This despite the fact it takes me less than 5 minutes to cycle to the sub-Post Office with a heavy parcel, and something like 15 minutes to walk there.
   
4. Knowing I was already late, I should have gone to my student's house first, then gone to the Post Office in New Malden on my way to my next student. But I decided that, it being a Wednesday afternoon, the New Malden PO was bound to be closed by the time I got there, meaning that I would have spent the day walking round with a big parcel for no reason.
   
5. Having already made the wrong decision about which Post Office to go to, I had to get a bus into town. And the stop halfway up Kingston Hill doesn't have the 371, which is the bus that goes all the way to the main Post Office. So I got the 85 to the bus station, and then had to walk through town lugging the parcel myself. This would usually take me less than 5 minutes, but because of the parcel, took more like 10 minutes.

Meh. I am an idiot, sometimes.

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I think it's French. Don't you have the verb "queuing", for waiting in a line? Eh, you probably say "waiting in line" :(

The most frustrating thing about that day is that if I'd taken the parcel on the bus to the main Post Office first, it would have taken only half an hour - whereas, as it was, all that faffing about, it took me over an hour. Meh.