Sounds of Silence

My Ipod player thing needs a new battery and regardless of how or where I placed the radio I just could not get any station to give me sound static free, so as Steve was out all day at golf, I have revelled in the quiet. Ahhh.

There have been giggles and light chatter from the park, but mostly it has been me and the dog, and the burr of my machine as I made biscuits.

The tellie proved a bit of respite for a while, but in all honesty, I do love the silence.

There is always so much frantic frenetic noise and movement that a day off, is wonderful.

I think my need to sink into the quiet began when I was teaching. In any one day I might have entertained, disciplined and hopefully taught 200 kids and the noise was just a given. A drama space, often McGuivered out of a breeze way or built under another building,  generally had kids' noise bouncing off the concrete and back into the room, escalating the noise and heightening the chaos.

I am surprised that the 'Elf and Safety police have not outlawed Drama teaching unless all concerned are wearing industrial headphones. Oh shit! I have probably just given another fool a job!!

Anyway by day's end I was more than happy to sink into my old chair and surround myself with still and quiet. The house was pretty calm and quiet unless Belly had been pinged for smoking or similar teenage misdemeanours, or we had people in drinking and being silly.

The strange silence might well explain why Belly now surrounds herself with rowdy metal bands screaming and screeching.

I do wonder if the cycle will continue with Zig choosing calm over the metal madness. Only time will tell.

In the meantime I will enjoy the sinking of the sun.

More GCCC crappola.

The training process for GCCC customer services staff.

( Of course the initial 3 days would have covered Elf and Safety gems about not hanging yourself with the headset cords and how to operate the toilet, where to go if there is a fire and which forms to fill out to claim compo if there is a fall even if it was a result of human stupidity.)

Trainer:   Here's your headsets, pop 'em on and turn up the sound

Joanne:    Yes master!

Trainer:   If the phone rings push the delay button which will play some recorded bollocks to the     caller.

Joanne:    Yes master.

Trainer:   If the caller has shown tenacity and is still on the line after 10 minutes of bollocks they are dangerous. Under no circumstances give them any information.

Joanne:    Yes master.

Trainer:    Do NOT think for yourself. Do NOT even attempt to be helpful and under NO circumstances are you permitted to tell them your NAME.

Joanne:    Yes master.

Trainer:    If at anytime the caller is asking for specific information chant, 'I am not obliged to tell you that.' Let's try that together.

Trainer and Joanne chanting together. 'I am not obliged to tell you that, I am not permitted to tell you my name.'

Trainer:  Remember that the less helpful you are the more council workers we can have, so one day maybe we can take over the world... Fill the world with mindless useless drones on full pay so that the rates money can all be eaten up paying ourselves and then no services will be provided so there will be no cause for any of these people to ever ring again. Oh what a wonderful world that would be!.

There are high 5s everywhere and Joanne is sent off to man the phones.

Today I spoke to the 'lovely' Joanne from GCCC customer services, who uttered the most amazing, appalling words, " I am not permitted to tell you my surname." She was not OBLIGED to explain the hierarchy of positions in the Animal management section of the council, but apparently she was not PERMITTED to tell me her name.

I cannot even imagine my reaction if I was ever told that I was not PERMITTED to say my name. 

Building a different website for this Blog

I am not an IT genius. There are people in the world who are worse at managing the modern techie stuff but they aren't many and I rather imagine that they are indeed quite a lot older and have absolutely NO interest in ever being able to replace their old banking Passport or their sepia family photos.

I want to know HOW to do stuff and I know I will not be a quick study. Any youngster will tire of my questions quickly and their constant fiddling with tweetie pies and texts while they are teaching me will just give me the irrits.

I read quite a few blogs and some of them look very schmick and some of 'em look like mine. I reckon it is possible to guesstimate the age of the author by the format of the blog.

I know it is possible to part with cash and someone will do the design but I want to know how to do it and manage it and change it if the mood grabs me and I am a control freak anyway so I don't fancy someone else doing all the doing.

So today I took the plunge and dived into a website that proclaims to deliver you a wonderful fully formed website FREE OF CHARGE. I signed up and went through the design sequence and it ended up looking the same as mine is now. Not exactly the same but close enough to make no difference at all.

I want some drop down options and categories and a useable spot for people to argue or agree or just say something pleasant or not. I just want it to look modern and be friendly enough in design for people like me to manoeuvre around.

If anyone knows of a website that might give me a step by step, written for dickheads who were taught by teachers who threw actual chalk, please let me know. I don't know why it is not possible to leave comments on this site, but it is possible on google+ or facie.

 

Gold Coast City Council - changes afoot?

I got the documents I had requested and brief, barely begins to describe - One page of edited notes and a picture of Steve and Dog and a map of our house!

The explanation letter ran 2 pages!! It explained that if I was not happy there were other forms of recourse. It was clearly too much to expect anything like a bit of customer service!

So I got to and wrote my own 3 pages to the Mayor and our local guy and the GCCC CEO. I thought I'd give 'em a week to get back to me.

I outlined the events and my concerns about the council procedures and finally asked for a review of the process prior to sending out threatening letters.

I did not include a phone number or an email address because I had hoped they would actually write back.

But NO, I got an EMAIL from my local councillor guy. I am not sure where he found the address but there was some sort of weird mention of the last elected bloke so I guess it must have been on record somewhere. This is what I got back.



SUE ELLIOTT CR239436 Request review Council procedures relating to dog complaints ‏

   

 

 
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  Eddie Sarroff
  Edit profile details
   
Eddie Sarroff
Division10@goldcoast.qld.gov.au

 

From:	Division10 (Division10@goldcoast.qld.gov.au) This sender is in your contact list.
Sent:	Monday, 4 August 2014 9:30:07 AM
To:	'sueandbell@hotmail.com' (sueandbell@hotmail.com)

Dear Sue

 

I refer to your recent letter addressed to me and copied to Mayor Tate requesting Council to review its procedures relating to dog-related incidents as a result of a recent event in Gladys Moncrieff Park at Bundall.

 

Arrangements have been made for the matter to be investigated in accordance with Council’s adopted Complaints (Administrative Actions) Policy and I understand a response will be provided to you within 14 days. Once the investigation has been finalised, a copy of the outcome will be made available to me.  

 

In the meantime, if you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact John Madigan on 5581 6664.

 

I appreciate you bringing this matter to my attention.

 

Regards

Paul
Paul Taylor  MAICD
Councillor for Division 10
Chair Engineering, Water & Transport Committee

 

 

 

I am not sure what most of this means. It's not that I lack basic comprehension skills, it's more that as I do not work in a bureaucracy I don't know the lingo.

 

I wonder what the Council's adopted Complaints Policy is. It does not sound like a way to coming up with a new procedure though. It sounds to me like someone will have a look at what I wrote and decide if I had the right to complain.

 

I obviously have no clue who John Madigan is or his role in this matter.

 

I am so pleased that Paul Taylor appreciates my letter. I rather imagine that bit might have been added as a bit tongue in cheek though. 

 

As I can expect a response in 14 days I have to imagine that they are NOT in fact considering a change of policy as I rather imagine that would take very much longer.

 

This is very disappointing. How can a Council action the allegations from  an anonymous fella without considering that there could be an alternate take on the events?

 

I worry about the clear and obvious corruption possible. I worry about the effects of this sort of bullying behaviour especially against people less able to defend themselves.

 

It will not be even close to good enough for some clerk in the Council have a look at my letter and go, 'Oh dear dear me, isn't that a bit rich, we will have to take that threat letter off our records. I'll send the woman an email and let her know. Not today of course cos I have to get myself sorted for my RDO tomorrow.'

 

Firstly I do not believe that they will remove it, and as they investigate themselves there will be no way to verify it anyway. 

 

And secondly I want the procedures to be reviewed.  

 

It seems to me that so much of the world has gone mad. Money grabbed, with threats of eviction for non payment,  from rate payers, distributed to employees who are not accountable, and the people parting with all the  money having no say in how it's spent or the processes used.

 

When did this become the accepted norm.

 

The Mayor Tom Tate, has had his hands full in Glasgow,  so I understand that I have not heard from his office, but the CEO Dale Dickson whose nose is firmly in the rates money trough has not seen fit to respond at all, not even one of his many underlings whose noses are similarly smudged, has been bothered to acknowledge my letter.  

 

The wheels of change move far more slowly than is strictly necessary mostly because the institutions that permit the change are fighting so hard to ensure their own longevity.

Botox for Migraine.....sheeeeit!!

I am not know for keeping my suffering of migraines under wraps. I seem to have spent years whinging!! I reckon I had tried about everything, including some rather odd concoctions and weekly pummelling to the shoulders and neck which used to leave me weak and crying. I only just pulled up short of leeches and injections of cow shit. When I read about the Botox option I thought YIPPEE.

AS with any new idea, there are hoops to be hoolaed and so they were. Today was the big day. All the obstacles were covered and I was off for my bit of Botox.

Once the paper work was filled in - you know the sort of government shit one has to endure - Stat Dec to say that I had tried everything and that my desire for Botox was not driven by a vain choice to remove wrinkles and the ability to express surprise, the Doctor began to outline the possible downsides of the stuff. Well the possible side effects didn't really bear thinking about, and I was having trouble keeping calm just considering the 31 - yeh THIRTY ONE! injections. I looked at the picture and diagram on the wall and breathed deeply and wriggled my toes.

I did not exactly leap onto the table / bed thing.

She's not much for conversation this Doctor. She just started sticking me. The forehead was first. She asked me how many I reckoned she was up to. I said 9. She apologised and said only 7. Shit shit shit!

I turned my head and she started up in my hair. Well that fucking hurt!! I just kept breathing and wriggling my toes. Other side of my head, same result!! The first side was bleeding and she asked me to put pressure on it and sit up and climb off the table while spreadeagling some medical expensive looking machinery. Dainty I was not!

Sitting in a chair now and she attacked the back of my skull. The first one really hurt and I was told later by the receptionist that I did shout out SHIT and that the others in the waiting room heard me clearly. Good to know that there had been no impact on my vocal cords.

Stab stab stab. And then she came to the shoulders. She told me that these needles do hurt, cos they are like any normal injections. She was right.

Now I am crossing my fingers and hoping that I am part of the 70% of people who react well to all this abuse.

I told Steve about it when I got home and he just shook his head and said he didn't know how I could even think about going back in 3 months for another crack, and then it dawned on him that if 20 minutes of this shit is better than the migraine, then the fucking headaches must be truly shitful.

20 minutes of yuko instead of days and days of the other, is a trade I am happy to make.

How is Sally Pearson going to celebrate?

I've been watching a bit of the Comm Games and as I sit here, my arse spreading itself comfortably over the lounge, I am struck by how these elite athletes say they are gonna celebrate their success.

Sally Pearson said she was gonna hook into a packet of Tim Tams. Bugger me!! If that's the standard, I must have been a Comm champ every day for years.

It is almost impossible for this couch potato to imagine the sacrifice needed to compete on the world stage. The fat fairy would need to arrive with a very large empty wheelbarrow and steal away half my body weight before I could even begin to start on the training regime, of cardboard and no sugar or fat - deep fried Mars Bars are the Devil's Temptation.

Celebrations have always been driven by FOOD and DRINK. Where to EAT, what to EAT how to EAT, and drink drink drink. And god knows that there has not been anything comparable to celebrate.

I have enjoyed watching athletes squeal with delight and their concentration and focus loosen up morphing into utter joy. It must be this utopian endorphin rush that forms the basis of their celebration. Of course I am not all that convinced that this rush would be better than  a glass or bottle of bubbles and a big bowl of creamy pasta followed by a walloping chunk of cheesecake, but then I am not the fastest, fittest, most flexible anything, but don't stand between me and a biscuit.

It's entirely possible that if Sally Pearson was  presented with a pic of me tucking in, and she was  told to pop it on her fridge, then she could well be motivated to do whatever it takes to avoid looking like THAT.

In fact I reckon that's what I should do. I could be the ANTI motivator.

Ooh goodie. I have a part to play. Yippee.

School Holidays and Richard Branson.

 

 

Bell and me in London when she was 10. Yeh it was cold, but we had to go in our summer cos I was a teacher.

The summer hols have started in the UK and my teacher friends are breathing a sigh of relief, while other friends with kids are wondering what the hell they are gonna do for 6 weeks.

Unless you are part of the 'Money ain't no object' brigade, then it's likely that taking your family away for the summer is just too bloody expensive. Of course the UK does not have this issue all to themselves, it's the same here in OZ and I bet just about everywhere.

As a teacher, holidays with Bell during school holiday times were always a given. I had no option to take her out of school and whisk her off on some adventure.

So I was keen to read Richard Branson's article in support of exactly that.

http://virg.in/cht

I wholeheartedly agree that family time is always going to be a bonus for kids.

I wholeheartedly agree that the stuff kids learn on holidays is valuable and rarely taught at school.

I wonder about a society that actually issues fines for parents who take their kids on holiday in term time, with notice and a willingness to take a bunch of books for homework with 'em, but cannot ensure kids from poor households can get to school routinely. 

I do have more faith than Mr Branson in the usefulness of the stuff taught at schools. So yes kids learn 'stuff' in their travels that they don't learn at school but they also learn stuff at school that they more than likely don't learn on holidays.

I borrowed cash all the time so Bell and I could go on our adventures and then I spent the rest of the year paying it back, and even so, we went more places than most of the kids she was at school with. People might say that we were lucky, but I reckon it was down to the fact that I worked so bloody hard, was prepared to borrow to go and am a bit of a gypsy at heart].

So, of course parents should be able to take their kids out of school in term time. Kids should be exposed to as many different places and people and experiences as their parent's income allow. The school staff must surely be in a position to distinguish between a holiday request and a parent just too lazy or bullocked to get their kids to school.

I suppose with my teacher hat on, I would request that when the kids are returned to school that THEY do the catch up, not the teachers. The teachers will have not doubt already prepared holiday work prior to the kids going so it would be cool to think that the kids' holiday jaunts do not mean a great deal of extra work to their already 'going like a steam train' teachers.