Weekend Wrap

The weekend wrap. Everyone’s favourite part of Monday!

This weekend started off pretty well. I went to see the Avengers with my girlfriend and although I felt disgustingly sick from the amount of pick ’n’ mix I ate, the film was thoroughly entertaining.

Saturday. Now where do I begin with this sorry tale of woe! It started off fine. The weather was good and I was going to earn myself $20 for sampling cider – sweet. On the way to the train station, the car (that my girlfriend got serviced for this very problem) began to overheat. We stopped and put in some water, it cooled down enough to get me to the station but my poor girlfriend had to cancel her massage appointment and wait for someone to come and help her out.

She waited there for 45 minutes to be told that she had got ripped off by a franchise garage, what a joy. Meanwhile everything was going ok for me. I had made it to the Market Research place and was 20 minutes into my testing. Then the computer crashed. After it was started up again, I had to do it all again. No worries, so I did that.

Just as I was 2 questions from the end (an hour later) the computer crashed again! there was no way that I was doing it again, luckily I could finish it on paper and collect my $20. Happy, I went to wait for the train. I waited the 13 minutes for the train in the sun, it was rather pleasant. That was until the train went straight through the station!!! Someone to do with the train service then told me that there had been a problem and that the train wasn’t stopping, the next train was in an hour!

No way was I hanging around for that. I went out of the train station to catch the bus, only to see the bus pulling away from the bus stop as I approached the road – great. I checked another route, there was another bus that would take me to Parramatta and from there I could get home. Off I went to that bus stop to find, yes you guessed it, the bus pulling away from the stop – bollocks!!!

There was only one thing for it, I got a cab back to a main station. There goes the $20 I made. So far the market research thing had cost me money! Eventually I got back to Ashfield. My girlfriend picked me up and we were off to Ikea to get a bookcase.

Or so we thought. The traffic was an un-mitigating disaster. Everywhere we went to try and make it in the direction of Ikea was choc-a-bloc with traffic. Bumper to bumper. We soon gave up and went to another shopping mall.

This was more successful. I bought a couple of beanies and some socks, (mmmmm new socks) and together we bought a new duvet set, all rather exciting. It was made more exciting when I nearly left said duvet set in a homeware shop and walked out, only to be reminded by my ever alert girlfriend that I no longer had it.

The fun doesn’t stop there. On the way out of the car park, we managed to not get bullied into giving up our right of way, and made it into daylight. Oh the relief. That was very short lived. As we sat at the traffic lights, a car, clearly too big to fit through the gap it was trying to get through bumped into us. Of course!! Fortunately there was next to no damage to our car apart from a little scratch, hopefully a lot more was done to her car. We thought it was best we just went home for a bit.

After relaxing at home, our Saturday took a decided turn for the better. We had a lovely meal out, for $15 each due to a voucher, then went home watched a film and put this day to bed.

Sunday couldn’t have been any worse. And it wasn’t. I went back to finish my market research, earnt $100 this time and brilliantly the train stopped at the station. We went up to the Central Coast for my girlfriends nan’s birthday lunch, which was very enjoyable and were aiming to get the 3.26 back home.

As we were heading to the station, we could see we were cutting it fine but we always had a minute to spare. Or so we thought. We bundled out of the car only to see the train pull away from the station. Back into the car we  get and try to beat the train to the next station.

We fail. It has already gone by the time we get there. We have an 18 minute wait, not enough time to go for a drink and knowing our luck this weekend, if we had done that we would comfortably have missed the next train. Sitting on the platform the news comes down, our train is delayed for 8 minutes. Of course it is, why couldn’t the previous train have been delayed.

The rest of the journey passed without incident. I fell asleep, woken when someone kindly knocked my shoulder with their heavy bag, and we got home about 5.30. I had waited all day to watch the recorded Champions League Final.

I knew it wasn’t going to be a great game but I sat through all 120 minutes of it, getting ever more excited when I thought of the chance of penalties. I fast forwarded the adverts to get to the penalties only for the recording to have stopped as the first taker was walking up, the story of the weekend. At least we got to watch a bit of Homes Under the Hammer before bed. That is the thought for today, tune in tomorrow for something else. Laters

How can I Help ctnd

Continuing on from my ‘rich and powerful people relying too much on others’ theme, I will now delve into the knock on effects that this has.

As I described yesterday, some people, not all may I add, that have a lot of power and a lot of money, have someone to do everything for them from wiping their arses to sending an email for them. Yes it is a bit of jealousy on my part but who the hell isn’t jealous of people that can do what the hell they want.

This though then gets passed on. There is nothing worse than a spoilt child. I worked at a summer camp in America. It was a residential camp, and it wasn’t cheap. It was about $4k per child to go to the first session which was 4 weeks. It was another $3k per child for the second session of 3 weeks. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that is $1k per child per week.

The camp did have decent facilities. The children were always entertained until they went to bed, but for a grand you would expect luxury if you were an adult, and this was far from luxury. The children are very used to getting what they want. If they wanted to get some food, they would scream and stomp until they got it, if they didn’t want to do an activity, they would go off and sit down and refuse to participate.

No problems you say, one less for you to worry about. Oh no. you have to get them to enjoy themselves or the parents are on the phone demanding why their little bundle of joy has called saying that they are not having the best time ever! the sun shines out of their arses. They can do no wrong in their parents eyes. They have seen how demanding their parents are of their staff and are so used to getting their own way for 2 reasons1) their parents can afford it and 2) it is just easier for them to give the little shit what they want.

Put them now in real life situations, when they don’t have everything they need and want at their beck and call and the shit hits the fan. Tantrums of gargantuan size are witnessed and some have to be seen to be believed. I wish I could say that they grow out of it, but clearly judging by some of the stories you see in the papers and some of the TV shows you know see, they clearly don’t, and the worst part of it all is that they get away with it!

It is not just the children that are affected. This example is from the work place and I can talk from 1^st hand experience having witnessed it. Some P.A’s get on their bosses bandwagon. Yes their bosses are high powered and important enough to have P.A’s but my god they think they own the world.

One came down and started an argument with a department that a request she put through 15 minutes ago had not been dealt with. Due to the fact it is a rather large company I work for, on average a request gets dealt with within a couple of hours depending on what it is and the department it goes to. This happened to be to accounts payable – the most busy department in the company. She was screaming her head off how it wasn’t acceptable that it wasn’t done and she will get her boss out of a very important meeting if she had to.

She continuously dropped his name in there, as if trying to impress us. We all knew who she worked for and would be more impressed if she told us she had actually eaten something more substantial than a stick of celery for lunch. After much shouting and threatening, the woman who was taking the brunt of it decided to call the boss in question. His exact words were ‘no worries whenever it gets done.’ I have never seen anyone look so sheepish.

There are some people that have enough weight behind them to be able to throw it around, they just need to be careful how they do it and who sees them do it. the people that think they have enough weight to throw around never do. That is the thought for today, tune in tomorrow for something else.

How can i help you?

Why do some people, the richer they are, become so dependent on other people to do things for them. This also goes for people that are higher up in jobs, they need a PA to do the most mundane of things for them.

I know that these people can be incredibly busy, so some of the smaller things like emailing someone, copying something etc can be done by someone else, not problems with that. It is when it comes to things to do with their mobile phone, it has a problem, or is doing something that they haven’t seen before, that these people that are usually so in control get so flustered.

It is always the little stupid things that really get them in a muddle. I work in administration and I deal with the companies mobile phones as part of my job. I received a call from a manager who’s PA was on holiday. They received a new iPhone. It was all set up and ready to go, all they had to do was put the SIM in.

I told them that very information. ‘How do I put the SIM in?’ was the question. I explained about pressing in the little button you have on the side, a tray will pop out then place the SIM in there. ‘Which way do you put the SIM in?’ I then went on to tell them the tray was cut in the way the SIM is shaped and therefore there is only one way it can fit in with the gold chip face down.

Thinking that would be the end of the phone call, I was preparing to say you’re welcome and hang up, how mistaken I was. ‘I have put the SIM card in and now the tray won’t fit.’ A very confused me on the other end of the phone asked what they mean it didn’t fit. ‘I put the SIM card in and now the tray won’t go in.’ They had put the SIM card loosely in the phone and then tried to put the tray in after!!!

This is a manager, that has to know all the ins and outs of their business and they can’t work out that the SIM card goes on the tray provided not just loose in a phone. I couldn’t speak for a minute as I was laughing so hard. We had to fish the SIM card out with a paperclip and explain the situation in person.

This is just one isolated incident. Of course everyone would like to be wealthy enough to have someone cook and clean up after them, someone to drive them around everywhere and to make their bed in the mornings. It is a luxury, but they get far too reliant on others. What happens if they lost their job, lose all their money, I’ll tell you what, they are buggered with a capital B.

Tomorrow I will continue on this theme and how it goes further (queue chilling music with a scary laugh over it too). That is the thought for today, tune in tomorrow for something else. Laters

Weekend Wrap

It’s the weekend round up! This weekend was a nice quiet weekend for me. Sometimes it is very nice to have those type of weekends, just time to chill and not do much.

After another week slaving away at my desk came to an end on Friday, I headed home for a date with the sofa. My girlfriend was out with her mate for the evening so I settled down to watch some rugby. Not only did I do this I also did some of the washing that was there to be done. I know lifestyles of the rich and famous!!!

After the mountains of washing had been hung out, I entertained myself with, rugby, and 2 episodes of ‘Game of Thrones’ which after a slow start to the 2^nd series, has really picked up and is now a very good watch.

I was a good boyfriend and went and picked my girlfriend up from the station when she arrived back, brought her home and not long after that we were nicely tucked up in bed. I know how to party on a Friday night.

Saturday. Alighting from the bed at 9.50 I went about my tasks. I cooked my pasta, ready to be eaten before I left for rugby, shaved and made my kit bag. I then accompanied my better half to her beauticians appointment. I can’t believe how quick she was in and out, it was painless. I then dropped her off at the station for her to go to the Central Coast and I went home for my gourmet pasta.

Saturday afternoon was down the rugby club. It is always nice to win which we did, but this one came at a cost. My left knee is currently quite swollen and giving me a bit of jip! As this was the first home game of the season a few boys stayed around for some beers. This was my night. I stayed at the club until about 11ish, then went home and promptly passed out on the sofa at about 1145. I know how to party on a Saturday night! After waking  up on the sofa, freezing at 2.30 I thought it was time to go to bed, which is exactly what I did.

Sunday did not start well. After my toilet break at 6.55 I went back to sleep, only to be awoken when I knocked my knee, this agony left me no choice but to get up. The time. A disgustingly early 9.10!!! Walking proved very difficult so I took the executive decision to do as little of this as possible.

1 film down and half way through a second I decided it was lunch time. Due to a slight excess on the beers the night before, a dirty takeaway was my only option. My first choice was vetoed by the sheer amount of traffic on the road, I was distraught. Luckily there was another option close by so I went there (nowhere near as satisfying but beggars can’t be choosers)

My beautiful girlfriend returned at 4pm. Thank god for that, I had missed her and the boredom was starting to get the better of me. The Sunday ritual could then begin. The grocery shopping. Unlike other weeks, it was quite quiet this time round, a very pleasant surprise, although slightly uncomfortable walking on the knee.

Dinner was a chinese feast. Spring Rolls and two type of Dumplings, one steamed and one fried by our own fair hands and my god it was good. Post dinner on a Sunday is tv watching time. Due to both of us lacking in some sleep, one episode of mad men was watched and then it was time to hit the hay, yes I know disaster – no Homes Under the Hammer!!! Don’t you worry, I will rectify this next weekend. That is the thought for the day, tune in tomorrow for something else. Laters

Online Dating

I don’t understand why there is such a stigma that is still attached to online dating. Yes when it first came out, people that went on it were very hush hush about their involvement, but now it is a great way of meeting people.

With people being very career orientated now, men and women, they have a lot less time to go out and meet someone. It is not very often that you will meet the love of your life in a nightclub or pub, yes it does happen but it isn’t a regular occurance.

Yes you have to go out and meet people of the opposite sex. If you do not do this then you will have no confidence or no clue as to how to actually interact with them when you come across one you actually like. It isn’t so bad in a pub or another social setting, there tends to be a group of you and you can actually hear what the person is saying, and if you are not getting along that well you can just go back to your friends. In a club it is so much harder. The music is too loud, people are too drunk, and let’s be honest, you are just looking for a pillow buddy for the night.

Add into that the long hours people work. The time they get to themselves they want to relax, unwind, chill with friends, not frantically run about trying to find their soul mate. Here is the beauty of internet dating.

The main ones go into intimate detail about you. They ask all sorts of questions that you yourself wouldn’t have even thought to ask a potential partner. They then take this and match you with someone they think is compatible, brilliant. All that hard work taken away by the click of a mouse. Now I’m not saying that you will be attracted to the person or person’s the computer finds for you, but you will be well suited and it will give you a starting point to look at other people on the site and maybe message a couple.

That leads nicely onto my next point. If you are the shy, retiring, unconfident type, then sending someone an email is the perfect way to strike up a conversation. There is no chance of getting the embarrassment of rejection, as no one else apart from the 2 of you know what has happened. If you strike lucky and they reply to you then boom, away you go, it is nice and easy. You can build it up, talk to them online, then maybe on the phone and the next thing you know you are on a date thinking ‘my god that wasn’t so bad.’ No my friend it wasn’t!

Now there is no excuse for you to say ‘oh there is nothing out there that I want.’ There most certainly is. There is sites that specialise in sugar daddy’s and mummy’s, there is religion only dating sites, there are sites just for people that want to make the 2 back monster asap, there are even sites for people that want to discreetly cheat on their partner.

Now all you haters out there will say 'how do you know the person that you are emailing is actually the person in the picture's.' You don't. Pure and simply you don't. It is a risk that you have to take if you are persuing the online dating. What I will say is that the, chances are, depending on what site you are on, that the person you are talking to is infact the person you see in the pictures before you. The more reputable the site the less chance of Michelle becoming Michael.

Times have changed people. Of course if you are one of the devilishly handsome/beautiful confident people that can strike up a conversation whilst waiting to pay for your groceries then well done you. if you are not though, don’t worry about going on internet dating, it is the way forward and if anyone says anything to you about it, then they are just jealous and not getting any. That is the thought for the day, tune in tomorrow for something else. Laters

Bloody Jobsworth

Some people love their jobs. Some jobs are very hard not to love, movie star, sportsman/woman, radio dj. All these have something in common. They are very well paid and the person doing them is I’m pretty sure, doing something that they love and have worked their whole life to achieve.

I reckon 95% of the working population are not in their ideal jobs. They would much rather be doing something else and they for damn sure, would rather they were making a hell of a lot more money.

Yes some people do grow into their jobs. They may have been at a company for a long time, worked their way up through the hierarchy and now be in a management position. It may not have been their first choice but once they have reached that position and pay structure, I am sure that they don’t mind their job. This is no excuse though to be a jobsworth!!!

For all you people that don’t know what a jobsworth is, it is someone that takes their job far too seriously, does everything correctly down to the letter. Also someone, that if you are cutting the smallest of corners will pull you up on it, either make you do it again (even if it is perfectly fine) or give you one hell of a bullocking.

Obviously the bullocking ones are the people that are on a power trip. They love the fact that they are the manager and they get off on it. After reading you the riot act for using a paper clip instead of a staple, they head into the toilet to have a quick one off the wrist to congratulate themselves on being brilliant.

Another example of a jobsworth on a power trip is a dick of a steward. I can talk from personal experience here. I went to the Heineken Cup Final at Murrayfield with a group of guys from my rugby club. A hip flask was brought into the ground. Now strictly speaking you are not allowed hip flasks but I have not been to any professional rugby match where there hasn’t been a hip flask banded about. The hip flask was happily passed amongst the guys and the randoms we were sitting with, all good natured, all having fun. A couple of stewards noticed but the atmosphere was jovial, they turned a blind eye and got involved in some good banter. Top blokes. Then there was the jobsworth. He clocked the hip flask. His face went red. His expression said ‘HOW DARE THEY BRING THAT IN HERE, NOT ON MY WATCH.’ He came over and demanded the hip flask. It was passed to him with a fair amount of resistance but eventually he got his grubby mits on it and then, criminally, poured the contents out. What a grade A knob. This is a prime example of a jobsworth. He then disappeared to have a shifty of the wrist and congratulate himself on a job well done. That is the thought for today, tune in tomorrow for something else. Laters

It's up there again

As of last week, on a Monday you will all be treated to a rundown of my weekend. I know that you are excited about this, last weekend would be very hard to be topped, this weekend whilst not topping it was still extremely enjoyable, and here it is.

It’s always a nice feeling to finish work on a Friday. This week I headed off to Newtown to meet my girlfriend, have a superb Turkish dinner, then watch Stephen K Amos as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival. He was brilliant, my cheeks were hurting at the end which is always a good sign after you have seen a stand-up comic. On the way home we stopped off at my favourite Gelato place where I helped myself to desert and I was one happy guy. When at home we watched some Come Dine with Me and the final episode of the Walking Dead series 2 and then off into the land of the Z’s, wunderbar.

Saturday. After a very enjoyable lie in, a nice relaxing morning was had. I took my girlfriend to the station so that she could meet her mum and spend a day shopping in the city and I went off to rugby. The ground we played at was superb, the man that manicures the lawns of the SCG also does the grounds of Drummoyne Rugby Club and let me tell you, you can tell. The pitch was immaculate if the performance wasn’t. After the rugby, again, was the only negative of the weekend – the bloody Sydney traffic. Honestly, the person that staggers the traffic lights should be shot, they just don’t have a clue. Add to that the people that queue across the junction and you get gridlock, but hey I had some good old dance music pumping out of the radio to keep my spirits up.

After a nice shower when I eventually got home, it was dinner time. We went to the very Italian suburb of Haberfield. Now apparently you don’t go to the restaurants there for great service, it doesn’t exist, but when the food is that good who gives a rats arse!!!! I even bought myself a superb biscuit to enjoy when at home. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, tending to my wounds and watching Mad Men with the accompaniment of my better half and a quite sumptuous biscuit. Superb

Sunday. Another lie in. again not a ridiculous lie in, but just enough. The pair of us arose at about 10. The usual Sunday morning pottering about was then undertaken which involved a bit of washing and hanging out the washing and taking some clothes off the rack and putting them away and then we were off on our travels again. Watson’s Bay was the destination, Fish and Chips was goal. The sun was out, the ferry crossing, quick and uneventful, the queue for the fish and chips – monstrous. Fortunately for the establishment the 25 minute wait for the take away fish and chips was worth it, the fish was excellent, the chips damn good.

After gorging ourselves a nice walk in the sunshine was needed and undertook. Our arrival back at the ferry terminal coincided with the arrival of the express ferry service back to Circular Quay – perfect timing. 25 minutes later the two of us were in the Guylian restaurant indulging ourselves on a waffle and a milkshake, hell yes.

After this extravagance a bit of a reality bump was waiting for the train home amongst 1,000,000 families with kids, nothing that a brisk walk down to the other end of the platform couldn’t fix, sorted. Groceries for the week purchased on the way home, dinner cooked and demolished, it was relaxation time. Very needed. The only way to end a Sunday night, yes that’s right Homes Under the Hammer, Ace. That this the thought for today, tune in tomorrow for something else. Laters

I Feel So Much Better

Is there a better feeling than the feeling when you feel better after being hurt or ill? I am sure all of you reading this will know exactly what I am talking about. There is no one that has never been ill or hurt.

With illness, you can never see an end. Whether it be a bunged up nose or something more serious all you can think of is how you feel. For example with the bunged up nose, you eat food but don’t taste it. you try and sniff but nothing happens, when you blow your nose it instantly fills up again not allowing you to breathe. All you can think is ‘when am I going to taste food again’ or ‘I just want to be able to breathe through my nose again!’

Last night I felt sick. I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I was going to blow. I went to the toilet and fortunately nothing happened. I sat on the sofa for a little bit, had some water and gradually felt better. I slipped back into bed and went back to sleep. This morning I still wasn’t feeling at 100% (aaaaaahhh I hear you all cry). Yes indeed poor old me. My stomach was giving me a hell of a lot of jip, but as I write this it has all abated and I am feeling fantastic again!

Normally I would just be feeling my usual. I’m not ill fortunately and I’m not doing much except sat here at my desk, but because of the recent period of being under the weather I feel awesome. it is almost worth feeling like shite just for the feeling after.

The same can be said when you get hurt. When you have a bruise, no matter who you are, you always have to poke it at least once. Why do we do this? That I have no idea but we do. Some of them don’t hurt so we get away with them, but some really hurt, and yet we still do it! I think that we like the feeling after the pain has gone away. The one where you just feel so nice and relaxed, when you really are just feeling normal again. Here’s to pain and illness and getting over it. That is the thought for today, tune in tomorrow for something else. Laters