FRUSTRATION

Frustration! The word means different things to each and every one of us.


To me frustration is paying to watch a live streamed Australian Rules football match and not seeing more than a total of 5 minutes vision out of an available 180 minutes.


I had waited with growing anticipation all week as I do every week for my taste of “back home.” My team the Sydney Swan’s were playing the Hawthorn Hawks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Swan’s had lost their last three games and it was important that they got their season back on track with this game.


Over weeks of frustration of trying to find a live stream of Australian sporting events I had figured out that the easiest way to watch the games were to pay for them. Each game costs $6USD. Good value for 3 hours entertainment.


So I signed up as usual and wet my lips with anticipation for the first bounce of the ball that never came. My computer screen froze. I refreshed the screen and saw less than two seconds of vision before it froze again. I waited a minute, refreshed and was rewarded with another two seconds of vision. I shut the computer down and re-started it a long process and this time I got around five seconds before it froze. I wanted to throw my laptop across the room.


All I could do was wait for the score to pop up on the screen to know how the game was progressing. My team was never in front and that made it worse. In the final minutes of the game the Swan’s kicked a goal and drew level with the Hawks. I never saw any of this just the score update and the time clock showing 90 seconds to go.


Of course I missed the end of the game as I sat wringing my hands, beads of sweat on my brow. The next refresh showed that the game was over. Hawthorn players had smiles on their faces whilst the Swan’s players had grimaces. I didn’t have to look at the score to know that the Hawks had won. In fact they had won by a lousy two points.


Now that is more than enough frustration to last me a month but I went looking for more. My “other” favourite team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs were playing a match in the National Rugby League competition. And an important one at that! The fifth placed Rabbitohs were playing the second placed Penrith Panthers.


Now you would have thought that I would have learnt my lesson with the previous game. No way! I thought it was just a bad link and this one would be okay.


Fool I hear you say. Sport fanatics are like that they always are hoping for a miracle.


So I paid my six bucks and went through 80 minutes of ultra frustration. Exactly the same thing happened again. Damn! The only brightness to this mess was that the Rabbitohs won easily.


That I didn’t throw anything, kick the dog or hit the missus is a tribute no doubt to my growing old age. But boy was it a close run thing.
All the while I blamed the provider but later I found out that others in the household were having the same problems. It appeared that there was a power surge on Thursday night and whilst not frying our laptops somehow affected our laptops capabilities to stream and download.

That threw me in to a panic. How will I watch my footy this weekend? What’s more how will I watch the Socceroo’s in the FIFA World Cup. Double damn!


So in quick time I found a computer technician who will come to the house on Wednesday and fix the problem for 100 bucks an hour……………..I hope or the dog better watch out.