Yesterday and today I have been on the phone many, many times with Harvey Norman; they have not called me back at all when they say they will, and I have been expecting 4 or 5 calls from them until this point. Each time I call them when a reasonable time to expect a call has passed by a few hours.

The store has no replacement units in stock, and are not expecting any until late next week at the absolute earliest — probably the week after. They refuse to express one down from Sydney saying it’s too expensive (forget the fact I get servers couriered from there every now and then and they’re far more fragile).

Today, we went to the store to inspect their floor stock. I didn’t really want to buy it but if I want a unit this side of 2007 I think this is the only way it will happen. There are a few small scratches on the front but noway near the number on the unit we currently have unassembled on the floor in it’s box.

We did get a very slight discount, and “free” delivery and pickup of the old unit, and I don’t need assemble it, but this is all a very slight pittance when it should have been done right in the first place.

Moral of the story is: If it’s not in stock, don’t buy it from Harvey Norman.

Last night Justine and I went into the city; once we’d arrived we split up. I went to Movida, and Justine went to The Groove Train. I met up with Trav and Stephan — I’d invited a lot more people but there were almost as many cancellations as invites, ah well.

For dinner, we shared something like seven dishes which included things like wagyu beef with truffles, scallops, gigantic mushrooms, cuttlefish and other brilliant things; we finished off with churros and chocolate for dipping. It wasn’t that cheap, but it was delicious.

We slowly made our way up to meet with Justine and the other girls that were with her, passing a few pubs along the way, and then we all went bowling at Kingpin. I was leading most of the way but in a return to my traditional form, choked near the end. Stephan won and Trav and I came equal second.

A few more people left, and a much smaller group of us walked around the city for a bit before ending up at the craptacular Dallas Bar (don’t go there, really) where we spent about half an hour before Justine and I decided it was time to call it quits. A $50 cab ride later, and it was time to sleep.

The funniest thing about the “buck’s night” (other than it wasn’t really one), was that all the guys that turned up were in relationships.

This morning, at around 10am, I popped down to Harvey Norman to sort out the entertainment unit fiasco from the evening before. As expected, they were almost no help whatsoever. The person I spoke to on the phone last night told me to come down as a manager would be present today, but there was no manager — at least no one who wanted to admit being a manager.

I took a bunch of photos before I left the house of the problem parts of the unit (the “top” part had the wrong holes drilled into it, meaning none of the bits fit and damned if I was going to drill them myself; if I wanted to do that I would have gone to Bunnings instead of Harvey Norman. The wrong doors were also supplied, and “bottom” part was totally scratched).

I showed the photos to the person working and explained what I wanted — them to express courier a replacement (or get one from another store, or give me someone else’s, I don’t care), deliver it for free and pick up the old unit, all before mid-next week. I’ve already waited two weeks for the unit, why should I be expected to wait another two weeks just because there was a screw-up?

To be honest, I don’t like my chances and I think that Harvey Norman are going to make things difficult, but I won’t find out until Monday until there is a “manager” available. Maybe.

We waited two weeks for our new TV cabinet to be sent down from Sydney (because, you know, it’s so far away), and this afternoon I received a call from Harvey Norman telling me it was available to pick up.

This evening, we popped in and picked up the flat-pack unit, squeezed it into Justine’s car (the rear door didn’t close, so I squished into the rear seat and held the box and the door closed while we drove the few kms home.

Unpacking the unit, I had a bit of trouble with the instructions — the holes on one of the parts of the unit didn’t match the picture — I spent about five or ten minutes trying to make heads or tails of the crappy instructions before I asked Justine in to have a look at the holes on the part too.

She agreed that it looked wrong, checking through some other parts, they had provided us with three of something we needed one of, and zero of something we needed two of. Frustrated, I called the store back and they told us to come back in the morning to talk to the manager; the person at the other end of the line said “I couldn’t get you a new one even if I wanted to”. Great service there, you jerk.

So now, after unplugging all our stuff and cleaning up the area, I have to reconnect it for another week or two until we get something else to use as a new TV cabinet. I don’t look forward to the visiting the store tomorrow; my experience thus far with this whole cabinet has been dreadful.

Well, Movember is over and like all good men this month (and a large number of bad men), I let my facial hair run rampant. Some may have chosen a handlebar, some may have chosen a Hitler, some may have chosen a 70s pornstar.

Me, I chose a do-whatever-it-wants-as-it-barely-grows style (which is rather similar to a 70s pornstar), which suited me and my facial hair well. It suited me because I didn’t have to shave, and suited my facial hair because it was allowed free artistic expression for an entire month as opposed to the usual regime of regular beheadings.

Now though, the month is over and I thought that you, the reader, should be able to share in the exciting triumph that was the transformation from furry manling, back into regular old run-of-the-mill me.