Singular Scene

So Singular in Each Particular

Pretty Angry Young(ish) Thing

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Well; little thought has gone into posting lately. I have had many moments when the framework of a post would be born in my mind only to be complete rubbish when written down. Usually because it doesn’t sound nearly so interesting as it felt at the time…

Oh yeah… That and the fact that I haven’t been very good company lately… Ask any of my friends…

erm.. perhaps better not to…

So I finally took time out from the telly tonight to try and get to the bottom of my malaise. Particularly as I had been ever so much more than cranky all day. This was compounded by the little darlings at the office who chock up our mail server with too big emails and make it impossible for me to achieve any kind of work because it cruicifies my access to the internet… (See? Grumpy as hell… anyway, I digress…)

So, I took myself and my Precious off to the bedroom and hauled out my dusty Sketchbook to do a bit of soul searching. Ed.Using a sketchbook sounds ever so arty… complete rubbish, of course, she usually ends up writing in it rather than sketching given that she is much more text oriented than capable of rendering a recognizable image…

I put on some meditative music and began to draw.

As is usually the case I ended up writing… writing a letter actually. And as I wrote down how I was feeling I realised that the thing that had put me in this aggravated state is my anger.

Bitter, ugly, screaming, red hot, bloody, Anger.

Me.

That Furious.

Anger I had been holding onto for 3 months.

Not Good At All.

And the only way to deal with it in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone more is to forgive. Which I could argue about and justify myself against and be perfectly fair in doing so. It wasn’t my fault.

Seriously.

At All.

But that doesn’t solve the anger problem. That doesn’t make me any more pleasant to be around.

No.

Stopping the anger and choosing to forgive is the only way to go forward.

So I crawl up onto His lap and cry into His shoulder because the anger came from a painful experience and He is the only one who really knows the story.

And I promise Him I will phone home.

Night of 1000 dramas, I mean dilemmas

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Well, not actually 1000 dramas, dilemmas.

More like one really…

Anyway, it was a baby sitting situation, Mum and Dad and kids x2 are staying in temporary digs while their house is having renos done. I arrive to babysit and am introduced by Mum to Hostess (I think s-i-l) who will be relieving me later in the evening as Mum and Dad are planning to have a big night.

The money is left on the counter and Mum, Dad and Hostess leap into cab and toddle off while I settle in to watch Bruce Almighty on the telly

All is quiet on the Western front…

… Still quiet…

… yawn…

Time passes…

12.00am. Sounds of door slamming, car doiong a u-turn and keys fumbling into the keyhole…

Door opens…

Hostess stumbles in… very much the worse for wear…

Slurs a hello, responds rather negatively to the question “How was your evening?” and flops down on the sofa.

Falls asleep immediately.

Snores…

Time passes…

… still snoring.

I look over, Hostess and dog called Archie are both snoring…

and drooling on the pillow…

I decided to watch the conclusion of Bruce.

Hostess is still snoring.

Crash heard from upstairs… baby screams… fallen out of bed…

Drop everything and run upstairs to cuddle Baby and snuggle her back to bed… Return downstairs… Hostess and Archie still snoring on the sofa…

Bruce concludes… I remain…

Question: Should I leave kids in care of comatose Hostess?

Hover…

Tis 12.30am… need sleep… Mum and Dad can’t be too far surely?

Shake Hostess to tell her goodbye and officially hand over responsibility…

Shake her again…

Shake and shout “see you later”…

Still comatose…

Decide to leave.

Guilt leads me to SMS Mum and Dad from the car… “Have left home, owe you $30.00 will return tomorrow. Am concerned as Hostess in bit of a state… Are you far from home?”

Skip forward to today…

Arrive to drop off $30.00 and Hostess opens the door… Is on the phone.

I hand her the envelope and she tells me sorry about last night… special circumstances… would have woken up if anything happend…

I didn’t think I could tell her… “Baby fell, Baby screamed, tried 3x to say goodbye, while you slept on”… without looking like a b*tch.

So I nodded and smiled and didn’t feel guilty at all for the SOS SMS*…

(SMS is Australian for text message)

Notes to Wedding Planners

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If you should find yourself embarking on managing such an event as a wedding, either as an event planner or a bride/groom here are a few tips that will make the day less memorable for all the wrong reasons for your guests…

1. Arrange for the bride to arrive less than 45 minutes late…
2. Make sure you give the guests the right address to the reception venue.
3. Choose a venue that has easy access to parking… remember, most of your female guests will be wearing shoes which are not suitable for walking…
4. Cocktail parties are very funky and cool to have for your wedding reception and while your reception venue may also be very funky and cool it is good to note whether there are enough places for abovementioned ladies to sit, especially the pregnant ones…
5. It is also good if the reception venue is a good shape for circulating… it is suggested that square rooms which are dominated by a square, huge bars in the centre of the room may not be ideal, as it also makes it very difficult to get a clear view of the speechmakers during speech time.
6. On the matter of speeches, it is a good idea to have a stopwatch and an agreed length of time in which the speakers MUST finish their oration.
7. Be very careful of who you allow to make a speech. People who think it hilarious to laugh at others people’s expense and will be indiscreet about the wrong things after a couple of wines should be considered a bad choice.
8. On the matter of food, again, cocktail is very funky and cool (and perhaps cheaper than sit down) but it is suggested that there be a) enough food provided for very hungry guests b) waitresses who can remember who they have served and more particluarly, who they haven’t c) something slightly substantial to eat (i.e. more than a gorgeous, delicately prepared morsel) before 10.15pm when the alcohol has been flowing freely since 7…

Enough said

Thai me Up and Leave me to Starve

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I’ve a hate relationship with Telstra our national Telco (henceforth referred to as “Tellsomeonewhocares”) … This is because I believe their service to be apalling and their prices extortionate. So I don’t use them. My calls are carried by “the competition”. However there are times where contact with “Tellsomeonewhocares” becomes unaviodable.

This evening was one such time…

As I said Hooroo to the lads at work and was about to leave on the button of 5pm, I remembered one crucial bit of website administrating I had forgotten to do so switched on ‘flightdeck’ to get things back on track. Of course, it always takes 2x as long to do something when you are in a hurry… So at 5:40 I left the building and as I was driving home I decided that a Thai takeaway would be in order as I had to be at work (sitting on babies) at 7pm.

Not being in posession of the number for my local Thai establishment I called “Tellsomeonewhocares” to ask them to connect me.

Now… having been so flustered that I couldn’t pronounce the name of said local I did my best with the rather impatient “Tellsomeonewhocares” representative who answered my 1223 inquiry. When I explained what I wanted she flippantly directed me to a number, which I dialled, and which was answered by a suitably Thai sort of voice.

Of course, being that such establishments are staffed by non english speaking persons I did not hear the correct articulation of the name of that fine restaurant so had no reason to suppose that there was anything untoward going on.

Until I showed up to collect my dinner.

It was emphatically not waiting for me and there was no record of a Chicken and Cashews (no mushrooms) with small boiled rice for a ‘D’

Bu**er

I rang the number given my by “Tellsomeonewhocares” and found that my dinner was waiting for me across town… I apologised profusely, tried to explain in broken Thai (actually, very loud English) that I would not be coming to pick up dinner and they could charge “Tellsomeonewhocares” for the food. And waited another 15 minutes for my local to cook for me.

Now… if my ‘friendly’ “Tellsomeonewhocares” operator had been less concerned with meeting her quota of information calls, she may have extended her time allocation to me to actually give me some kind of restaurant in an approximation of my neighbourhood.

But no… she fully confirmed my distaste for the company and decreased the opinion held by my Thai friends in the restraunt trade in Mosman…

When will they learn that customer service is the means to their success? Oh right… they are government owned.. they can do as they please…