WHEN BRAINS FUNCTION

Daniel Piechnick, Adelaide's King of Scrabble

Young brains produce good and novel ideas that cater for all players. If you are old and worn off like me, you might be happy with a less strenuous tournament of only four games. If you can persevere, you might want to take another dose of four more games.

This might have been the reasoning behind the bright idea contemplated by the committee of young players running the show in SA. The novel idea of Saturday's 4+4 struck a chord with all players. On one occasion, that was followed by a more daring eight-game tournament on Sunday, which suited some Saturday's marathon  players. All games stuck to the universally agreed time of 25 minutes per player. To this brilliant committee, no flimsy excuses would justify any deviation or aberration, of 22 minutes or less, for their regular tournaments.

For those players who would like the excitement of a race, Adam devised the “speedy” tournament of 12 minutes per player. I wish him luck with this one, which my old brain would reject offhand. Maybe I should request Adam to devise a novel “slow down” tournament of 30 minutes per player! It might suit slowcoaches like myself, who require more time for clear thinking.

This is not a an ad to promote ASPA(SA), but I strongly recommend that you never miss any of their pleasant major tournaments. Take a short holiday and enjoy the peaceful and relaxed city of Adelaide.

ARE YOU SCRABBLING AWAY SOON?

This experience with Jetstar Airlines illustrates the poor quality of their customer service:

On 01/06/2017, I booked a seat on flight JQ780 for travel from Melbourne to Adelaide on 08/07/2017, via Jetstar’s gimmicky “Price Beat Guarantee”. The agreed amount of $49.50 was promptly electronically transferred, on the same day, from my Bank Australia account to their CBA account with booking reference no LJT2PX. The following copy-and-paste entry showed on my bank account:

01/06/2017
Ext TFR – NET# 1059721912 to 10955200 jetstar airways CBA – 325 Collins St Melbourne        -$49.50

I did not receive an itinerary, but I later found the following copy-and-paste entry on my bank account, showing a transfer from Jetstar :

09/06/2017         Jetstar $49.50

Those two bank account entries show that Jetstar refunded exactly the same amount paid, without any communication or explanation. I never cancelled the booking nor requested a refund. I had no satisfaction from “chatting” or calling Jetstar’s virtual or real personnel.

This episode illustrates the fact that any organisation dealing with the public should make sure they hire only competent personnel, who should receive adequate training.


The moral of the story is: Be careful when airlines try to bait you with gimmicks such as “Price Beat Guarantee” or “Fare Promise”. Your effort could be wasted, even after surmounting the fine print.

More about Harry

Harry is a unique character. You need to know him well in order to appreciate his real good side. Any person in this world has two images. The first image is a “projected image”, which is how a person is superficially seen by others. The more vibrant and smiling this image is, the more favourable are first impressions about that person. The second image is the “real image” of the person in question, which can only be found, if ever, after much interaction with that person. The difference between the two images decides on how good or bad a person might really be. When the two images overlap, you would be dealing with a normal trustworthy person.

Most people try their hardest to maintain a nice projected image. Harry is not one of those. If you rub him the wrong way, he would be quick to confront you without hesitation. This attitude did not win him many friends. In reality, Harry is a very thoughtful person who might lack the skill of how to sell his ideas. Once he is convinced that he is right, nothing would change his mind.

Harry is almost over his health problems. He would soon be back to normal. I expect him to be back to the scrabble seen in the near future. He would then continue to offer his own ideas, workable or otherwise, about how to attract escapees and new players. In the process, he might also continue to expose the inept super-nice “projected images”!

Last time I met Harry was in hospital this week, with a scrabble board. He did beat me in six games out of six. Admittedly, I have been in very poor scrabble shape of late, due to my dwindling interest in the game. But on the other hand, I was very pleased to see that Harry is now in excellent condition, on a sure way to full recovery.