of why Religion is the bane of our society.
It is Kate's 8th birthday in late July but with school holidays intervening, she gave out invites to her classmates on Thursday for her party. This party is a month away.
One little girl came up to Niki on Friday and said "Sorry, but I wont be able to come to Kate's birthday party because we have Church".
In 24hrs, a parent has stopped their child attending a birthday party in 4 weeks time because they have to go to Church!
Lighten up people!! Let the kids have fun!!!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Train Follies
Ever since the work laptop was superseded by my PSP, the Lime Kettle posts have been coming from my desk at work where I have had a chance to read the papers and collect my thoughts...
Sometimes though, you wish you can just capture something then and there on the train and pass that on to you my dear readers. I have had a few of these train moments this week... so in summary I will share them now:
The Sex Was Awesome!
Coming home the other night, a girl sits behind me and she is already yacking on her mobile phone. Loudly. I fire up the PSP and I am loading my FIFA 07 Soccer game and right in the pause of the music as the game loads up I hear clear as a bell. "We spent the whole weekend making love! The sex was awesome! I came about 5 times". Now I am no prude, but why do early 20's somethings feel that the quiet train is a place to talk loudly into the phone about your sex life? Of course I hit MUTE on the PSP and listen in to her chat, but it tapered off into discussions on shopping and so I pumped up the volume and tuned out. Needless to say when she did get off the train at Penrith, she was still yacking.
Morning Callisthenics
Train pulls into Penrith station on the way to work early one morning and the train is reasonably full. A lady, wearing a pastel lime green tracksuit who is in her late 40s and of a "rotund" build gets on the train and squeezes into the little single seat under the stairs. I am sitting one seat back from her and facing her as she then stands up in the aisle and takes out some hand cream. She rubs her hands with the white cream and then starts doing stretching exercises... reaching for the stars and then trying to touch her toes. She repeats this several times. She then walks briskly up the aisle. Then she's back. Then she's up the aisle again and back again. I realise she is walking "for exercise" up and down the aisle. She does this a further 3-4 times and I realise she is wearing pink bed socks instead of shoes.
She then takes out a pillow and with an air of obsessive compulsion takes out a square pillow and proceeds to wrap her matching lime green scarf around it... and its hard to describe but it took her about 10mins to do this as she was obsessed with getting it perfectly straight. She then sits down and does ALOT of shuffling of said pillow as she goes from leaning against the window to leaning against the wall of the stair well in her little single seat. She has also procured a large (think double bed size) pink blanket and she spends an eternity shuffling and getting comfortable. The woman sharing the seat opposite her gets up at some stage and moves away to the next level of the train... clearly fed up with this delusional woman. I should also say at all times this nutty lady had a massive smile on her face and her eyes looked wide... I now think in hindsight she was on some sort of medication.
When she is comfortable we're now near Strathfield and a girl has sat down opposite her. The girl has a bad cough and keeps coughing. The nutty lady then glares at her and tells her to take her cough outside... the girl moves away.
She finally seems to doze off in her blanket as we're going past Newtown and just 5mins from terminating at Central. If you dont know Sydney geography, she has taken 75km of an 80km journey to get comfortable... one of the most bizarre things I have seen on the trains.
The Silent Killer
Last night coming home I am sitting next to a young lady in her 20's. I am playing PSP and she is reading. Then I smell it. A vile fart. Horrendously bad - and I have my own benchmarks in that area - and it seems to be coming from my right side ( i.e. the girl). She keeps reading but it is really bad but she doesnt seem fazed. I know it wasnt me and I am sure it was her, but I cant be sure. It passes only for it to return 10-15mins later. Now I know it wasnt me, but what if it wasnt her? Then she may think it was me?! Bloody hell... it was bad.
She got off the train at Emu Plains and I didnt smell it again and I now submit this scenario to dismiss the notion that "Whoever Smelt It Dealt It".
Sometimes though, you wish you can just capture something then and there on the train and pass that on to you my dear readers. I have had a few of these train moments this week... so in summary I will share them now:
The Sex Was Awesome!
Coming home the other night, a girl sits behind me and she is already yacking on her mobile phone. Loudly. I fire up the PSP and I am loading my FIFA 07 Soccer game and right in the pause of the music as the game loads up I hear clear as a bell. "We spent the whole weekend making love! The sex was awesome! I came about 5 times". Now I am no prude, but why do early 20's somethings feel that the quiet train is a place to talk loudly into the phone about your sex life? Of course I hit MUTE on the PSP and listen in to her chat, but it tapered off into discussions on shopping and so I pumped up the volume and tuned out. Needless to say when she did get off the train at Penrith, she was still yacking.
Morning Callisthenics
Train pulls into Penrith station on the way to work early one morning and the train is reasonably full. A lady, wearing a pastel lime green tracksuit who is in her late 40s and of a "rotund" build gets on the train and squeezes into the little single seat under the stairs. I am sitting one seat back from her and facing her as she then stands up in the aisle and takes out some hand cream. She rubs her hands with the white cream and then starts doing stretching exercises... reaching for the stars and then trying to touch her toes. She repeats this several times. She then walks briskly up the aisle. Then she's back. Then she's up the aisle again and back again. I realise she is walking "for exercise" up and down the aisle. She does this a further 3-4 times and I realise she is wearing pink bed socks instead of shoes.
She then takes out a pillow and with an air of obsessive compulsion takes out a square pillow and proceeds to wrap her matching lime green scarf around it... and its hard to describe but it took her about 10mins to do this as she was obsessed with getting it perfectly straight. She then sits down and does ALOT of shuffling of said pillow as she goes from leaning against the window to leaning against the wall of the stair well in her little single seat. She has also procured a large (think double bed size) pink blanket and she spends an eternity shuffling and getting comfortable. The woman sharing the seat opposite her gets up at some stage and moves away to the next level of the train... clearly fed up with this delusional woman. I should also say at all times this nutty lady had a massive smile on her face and her eyes looked wide... I now think in hindsight she was on some sort of medication.
When she is comfortable we're now near Strathfield and a girl has sat down opposite her. The girl has a bad cough and keeps coughing. The nutty lady then glares at her and tells her to take her cough outside... the girl moves away.
She finally seems to doze off in her blanket as we're going past Newtown and just 5mins from terminating at Central. If you dont know Sydney geography, she has taken 75km of an 80km journey to get comfortable... one of the most bizarre things I have seen on the trains.
The Silent Killer
Last night coming home I am sitting next to a young lady in her 20's. I am playing PSP and she is reading. Then I smell it. A vile fart. Horrendously bad - and I have my own benchmarks in that area - and it seems to be coming from my right side ( i.e. the girl). She keeps reading but it is really bad but she doesnt seem fazed. I know it wasnt me and I am sure it was her, but I cant be sure. It passes only for it to return 10-15mins later. Now I know it wasnt me, but what if it wasnt her? Then she may think it was me?! Bloody hell... it was bad.
She got off the train at Emu Plains and I didnt smell it again and I now submit this scenario to dismiss the notion that "Whoever Smelt It Dealt It".
Thursday, June 28, 2007
A new start...
Today I resigned from my job to take on a new role in North Sydney. I have always been careful not to discuss work in this blog and I want to keep my personal thoughts separate from my work life. Also, I did read an article the other day that recruitment firms now routinely "Google" their prospective hires and hence thats further reason for keeping things separate.
But in short, I received an offer a week ago, finally negotiated the final terms yesterday and then quickly this morning I saw my boss and gave my 4 weeks notice. Fortunately he took it very well and whilst disappointed in terms of the disturbance it will cause at work, he is supportive of the move and wished me the best. I in turn will spend the next 4 weeks "handing over" and I am happy to do so given the reaction this morning was a good one.
My last day here at "Old Job" is 26 July... my start date at "New Job" is TBA, but I am asking for a week off in between.
The new role is my bosses job at another organisation and is a great opportunity to step up, see a bit of the world, work in a different style company (I am moving from Property Development to Heavy Engineering) and of course there is an improvement in the pay...
So, all is good, depending how the next 4 weeks go, I may get a bit bizarre with my posts....
But in short, I received an offer a week ago, finally negotiated the final terms yesterday and then quickly this morning I saw my boss and gave my 4 weeks notice. Fortunately he took it very well and whilst disappointed in terms of the disturbance it will cause at work, he is supportive of the move and wished me the best. I in turn will spend the next 4 weeks "handing over" and I am happy to do so given the reaction this morning was a good one.
My last day here at "Old Job" is 26 July... my start date at "New Job" is TBA, but I am asking for a week off in between.
The new role is my bosses job at another organisation and is a great opportunity to step up, see a bit of the world, work in a different style company (I am moving from Property Development to Heavy Engineering) and of course there is an improvement in the pay...
So, all is good, depending how the next 4 weeks go, I may get a bit bizarre with my posts....
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Couldn't be better said...
I have lifted this from today's email from crikey.com.au who lead their email with the following comment from long-serving Sydney political journalist Alex Mitchell. Crikey say that they couldn't put it better themselves and nor can I, so I copy this verbatim...
"This is the last throw of the dice for John Howard. He is doing one big favour for the mining industry which he has faithfully served in public life for the past 30 years by rolling back Aboriginal ownership of their tribal lands. Cynically, cruelly but utterly predictably, he's doing it under the hypocritical colours of humanitarianism. (Very similar to the invasion and occupation of Iraq sold as "spreading democracy"). In his four terms as PM, he has starved indigenous health, education and housing of funds, abolished ATSIC and pointedly marginalised the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio. This particular pre-election pitch is aimed at Lateline viewers, readers of The Age and The SMH and ABC stalwarts, the demographic that constitutes Australian (small "l") liberalism. These are the feeble-brained, hand-wringers who are congenitally incapable of separating the wood from the trees. They are types currently heard sobbing: "I'm no fan of Mr Howard, but at least he's DOING SOMETHING!" Yes, he is: he's giving the mining giants the leg-up they need to start exploring, digging and quarrying in indigenous lands in the Northern Territory and then elsewhere. He is being aided and abetted by Kevin Rudd's craven behaviour. Instead of falling into line with Howard's agenda, he should have demanded complete details of the plan, the highest-level briefing, sought face-to-face meetings with Aboriginal leaders, state premiers, police and army officers and taken the lead in a national debate. Instead, he mouthed pieties such as "I'm taking Mr Howard at his word" and "I believe the Prime Minister when he says he is responding to a national crisis" etc etc. Has anyone realised that these are almost the same words used by Kim Beazley when he backed Howard during the Tampa scam? By his pusillanimous approach, Rudd has vacated leadership on the tragic issue of rescuing Aboriginal communities and given Howard the opportunity to play his sickening Father of the Nation role. Paul Keating, you were right about the Rudd team of fixers, hucksters, flyweights and spineless opportunists." Alex Mitchell
Hey mate! No one will call you anyway!
Look at this idiot... sitting in his fold out chair for a farking phone...
Mate, no one will call you any way, so why bother?
iPhone addicts start queuing for their fix
Mate, no one will call you any way, so why bother?
iPhone addicts start queuing for their fix
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
I am now too old...
Is this guy even speaking English?
Rapper calls Rove Live 'racist' | NEWS.com.au Entertainment: "US rapper Xzibit has walked out on a scheduled appearance on Rove Live after what he claims were racist comments from production staff."
Rapper calls Rove Live 'racist' | NEWS.com.au Entertainment: "US rapper Xzibit has walked out on a scheduled appearance on Rove Live after what he claims were racist comments from production staff."
Bitter Salty Taste
With the water in Sydney's dams reaching an all time low due to the drought and population growth, we turned to alternative options for water and arrived at the verdict to build a Desalinisation Plant. Basically extracting the salt from sea water and using it, which is a pretty obvious thing to do given our "country is girt by sea".
Apparently though that there are some devastating environmental impacts in the area of the De-Sal plant, but that price was deemed acceptable as it will be located in Sydney's environmental disaster which is Kurnell.
So apart from some minor enviro protest, its a done deal.
But then it rains... its pouring and we all rejoice because the Dam is "HALF FULL"... I though in my pessimistic state tend to think of it as remaining as "HALF EMPTY" and therefore, before the Drought returns (which it will surely do given the El Nino / La Nina effects) we should build the damn De-Sal plant. But the Greenies say "no! look at the rain! we're saved!"...
Anyone with half a brain should realise that Australia is in serious shit if we do not provide water from other sources as opposed to drying up our natural water courses... has anyone seen the photos of the Murray Darling Creek? It used to be a mighty river... now its no good except for tadpoles. And all this enviro concern is over a headland of land in Sydney's south that is already riddled with petro-chemicals and other nasties.
De-Sal Water... its the best and only way forward.
Apparently though that there are some devastating environmental impacts in the area of the De-Sal plant, but that price was deemed acceptable as it will be located in Sydney's environmental disaster which is Kurnell.
So apart from some minor enviro protest, its a done deal.
But then it rains... its pouring and we all rejoice because the Dam is "HALF FULL"... I though in my pessimistic state tend to think of it as remaining as "HALF EMPTY" and therefore, before the Drought returns (which it will surely do given the El Nino / La Nina effects) we should build the damn De-Sal plant. But the Greenies say "no! look at the rain! we're saved!"...
Anyone with half a brain should realise that Australia is in serious shit if we do not provide water from other sources as opposed to drying up our natural water courses... has anyone seen the photos of the Murray Darling Creek? It used to be a mighty river... now its no good except for tadpoles. And all this enviro concern is over a headland of land in Sydney's south that is already riddled with petro-chemicals and other nasties.
De-Sal Water... its the best and only way forward.
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