This is the saga of getting my British Columbia driver’s licence. I had been living in Alberta for twenty years. Three and a half months after breaking my shoulder, I moved into my childhood home in British Columbia with my dad and brother. Part of the reason was that I still needed a lot of assistance; the other reason was that my mom had passed away eight months previous, and I knew my dad was lonely.

Fast forward six months to April of 2023. I decided to make the move permanent. I went to the city hall to apply for my driver’s licence only to be told that I had to get the BC Services card first.

Okay. I applied for that and sent the proof that I was living in BC. It took four months to get it!  

The day after I received my BC Services card, I went back to city hall to apply for my BC driver’s licence. That meant giving up my Alberta driver’s licence. No problem; I was told it would take two months (!) to receive it, and I had a temporary one in the meantime. Fine!

Fast forward two months. I still hadn’t received it, so I went to the city hall to find out what the hold up was and get another temporary licence. I was told there was a hold on it because I was being investigated for lying about living in BC. (Remember, I was living in my childhood home, where I had lived for nearly thirty years before moving out of province!). I was livid, so complained bitterly to my dad.

He suggested emailing the MLA (provincial politician), which I did. She followed up with the investigative unit. Eventually, a letter came in from them stating that I was under investigation, and I had to provide certain documents, chief among which was both sides of the BC Services card. I provided that, the provincial auto insurance, the optional car insurance (private company), my change of address request form, and eight other items, all proving that I lived there.

I got an email the next day saying that none of that was proof that I was living in BC; just because I had the BC Services card, it did not mean that I wasn’t lying! By the way, the government entity that provides the Services card is the same one that issues the driver’s licences!

I had to sign a form to be sent to the health authority stating that I was actually using the health system legally. I needed a pay stub showing my address. (That seemed fair.) I had to provide my credit card statements from May to October; on these, if I so chose, I could black out the account number, but that wasn’t necessary. (WTF?) And I had to provide my mobile phone records from the same time period. I decided to add the email from BC Health saying that I could have my next booster.  

The next day, I got an email informing me that the licence had been released, and I should get it in sixty (!) days.

Fast forward to December. It was still not there, so I got another temporary licence. At this point, I was told that it was still on hold! I emailed the person I had been dealing with, and she told me that no, it had been sent out.

Now, in January, it was still not there. I emailed my contact again and complained. She sent me an email telling me to go into city hall and show them the email, and I would get a replacement for free. They were catching up; it would only be six weeks to get it!

My licence came in two days ago, ten days after they “reissued” my licence. UGH!

What I don’t understand is why the same government entity that provides both cards accepted me living in BC for the one but said I was lying about living in BC for the other!

In 1981, I worked as a computer operator for a company. There was a young woman from a well-to-do family and a graduate of Radford working there. She was really into the women’s liberation movement. There was also an older gentleman who was long past the possible retirement age.

One day, I was in the lobby as the young woman was getting ready to leave. The older gentleman was leaving and held the door for her.

She lit into him.

Woman: “Just because I’m a lady, you don’t have to hold the door for me!”

Man: “My dear [Woman], I do not hold the door for you because you are a lady. That would be presumptuous of me. I hold the door for you because I am a gentleman.”

I made the mistake of laughing.

I am an Australian. I was working in London and got on really well with the team I was working with. One morning as I came into the office, someone joked:

Coworker: “Watch your wallet; here comes the Australian!”

Without even thinking, I responded:

Me: “F*** your wallets. Watch your women; here I come!”

I could tell by the looks on their faces that they didn’t expect that response and just didn’t have any comeback for that one.

This was twenty-five years ago now, so humour has changed since then. I don’t condone what I said back then, but I would definitely never say that today!

Our store has a serial complainer. My guess is that she’s only happy when she’s unhappy and has something to complain about. For customer calls, we’re not allowed to hang up unless the caller becomes abusive, and I think she knows this.

She always calls and holds up our office work to just constantly complains about anything: the weather, her neighbors, her age, her friend who was selfish enough to die from cancer. She also refused to get vaccinated, which means in 2021, when most restrictions were still in place, she was unable to go to her favorite cafe and watch people the whole day.

She called to cry to me about it:

Me: “Ma’am, the restrictions have been lifted as of last week. You can go to the café if you wish.”

There was silence for a whole ten seconds and you could hear the cogs turning in her head.

Caller: *Sarcasm.* “Well that’s just great! Nobody told me! This is terrible! They’re just letting me sit here without knowing that…”

Sigh… she started complaining about the next thing without acknowledging what I said.

I’m a panoramic photographer working for a marketing agency, and I have to call their clients to set up our appointments.

This one client pushed the shooting date for months. After we finally agreed on an appointment, I arrived and started to do my work — until she asked me to leave because “customers are coming.”

Now, the thing with panoramic photos is that the pictures are unusable unless the place is fully captured. You can’t stitch photos from different times together and expect to have a quality product. I explained this to her, and she asked me to finish my work another time.

I left, and then we started the vicious cycle again: I call to set up an appointment, she says no. For months.

Finally, I asked my boss to convince her to let me finish. He called me back, angry, because she explained that the shooting wasn’t finished because I hadn’t gone to our “two last appointments.”