Just call me Grumpy

Everything is annoying me today. So much so that I had to make a list.
In no particular order.

1. I wasted 20 minutes of my precious time going to the bank to deposit lots of coins I had diligently counted hours earlier. I discovered banks don't work 9-5 these days... 9.30 - 4.30, I arrived at 4.33. That bag was heavy!

2. Since I don't think I'll ever be lucky enough to get what is at the top of my wish list Garmin 405 Forerunner I decided to get a cheap heart rate monitor as I'm not sure if I'm working too hard to be effective. Well, cheap is cheap I guess. The box was brand new, the watch display was on when I opened it (I was sitting outside of Tony's work by this point), 30 seconds later - nothing! Totally dead. I'll have to take that back tomorrow. Plus point, it's just up from the bank so I can do that too.

3. "Tear here" strips on food packaging. They NEVER work!!! Argh. Who tests these things? Which brings me to...

4. Stickers. When you buy something and they place a sticker directly onto the product and they are not easy peel - why, why, why? I just want to buy something, take the sticker off without spending 20 minutes getting it all off and then be left with a stupid glue mark on it.

I saved the best for last.

5. My cooker. OMG, OMG, OMG, can I repeat that over and over again? Not as in " how totally exciting", but "omg, I don't flipping believe this $@!#". It is almost 18 months old, I have hated the hob since day one, even blogged about it once. The oven - great, the hob - not so much. It is touch control, ceramic and was very expensive. The number of times I have *cursed* that thing. Literally will take 20 minutes to bring something to the boil (and that is with already kettle boiled water). The number of meals ruined because of timing issues.

Today I was making Ben some pasta and accidentally brushed against one of the controls and a little . I had never seen before appeared next to the ring. I didn't know what I'd pressed and couldn't get rid of it, so I just switched it off. When Tony and I came to make dinner tonight, Enchiladas, yum, the . was still there when I switched it on. I pressed a couple of buttons and noticed : had come on next to the ring. Eh? Then noticed the ceramic went super bright. OMG!!!!!! The power has always indicated 1-9, but after experimenting, I've now discovered you need to press for the ring which will give a low heat, press it again for medium and again for rapid heat. How stupid! The rice pan boiled in like 3 minutes.

18 months! Of course, did I ever read the instructions?? I remember reading over and over about the oven as it has tons of functions, fan, no fan, pizza baking (?) blah, blah, so how can I not remember the hob bit? Surely if I'd seen it I would have known what to do.

Sorry that bit is so long, but you have no idea how frustrating it has been. Now I can cook properly, so it's a grumpy point to start with, but I'm now so excited to see how fast I can cook things. The chicken actually sizzled tonight! Never been known ;-)