freo, way to go

holy cow.. what a start to the season. a couple of weeks ago the media was tipping us to lose the first four games and yet here we are, sitting second on the ladder and undefeated after two very good victories. the thing that's most exciting has been the contributions of the new blokes to the club. we all know how good sandilands, pav and haselby are but now they finally have a young group of players who can make the most of their abilities. barlow has been unbelievable in his first two games whilst silvagni has also played two outstanding games. the hyperactive aggression of ballantyne is fantastic to watch as he madly chases either the ball or any opposition player silly enough to pick it up. morabito has shown glimpses of what he's capable of and i'm looking forward to watching him develop.

so, all is happy down at dockerland ahead of a huge test this week against geelong. wouldn't it be amazing if we could knock off the reigning premiers? there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to.

the end of the bill

it's with great sadness that i read today that ITV have decided to axe 'the bill' which is one of my fave programmes. i've watched it for many years except for the period when it was going through it's worst soapie-style stage. it provided me with most of my knowledge of london life although i don't know if that was a good or bad thing. it was certainly a surprise when i moved there and found that people don't generally use words and phrases like 'guvna' or 'nasty little toerag' and that there wasn't actually a place called sun hill. i've thought the show's really improved recently with some good story lines but i guess when they cut down from two episodes per week to one i knew it wasn't going to last much longer. so thanks for entertaining me over the years. you'll be missed!

len fallon RIP

my grandpa died yesterday morning. it's been a long time coming but when it finally happens it's hard to comprehend. i guess my brain just isn't processing the information properly. i know the fact that he's gone but it doesn't seem real. i guess the funeral will help change that.

grandpa was a good bloke who lived a long and godly life. making it to 94 is a pretty good effort! he was very proud of his australian heritage and was well known for being able to recite poetry to suit any occasion. the advice he gave at my 21st on the type of women to seek out was certainly very interesting. his speech at my brother's wedding was also quite a classic. he worked as a mechanic and used his skills to keep our mini going for a lot longer than it should have. he was also quite the genius at using scraps of metal to manufacture parts for lawnmowers to keep them going.

but no one's perfect and grandpa was no exception. he was known for his explosive temper and there was many a time i saw him blow up at people without any real provocation. he was also one of the worst drivers i've ever been in a car with and quite scary at times.

so the last of my grandparents has now passed away. i'm sad.

ruby hunter RIP

i'm really sad this morning to hear of the death of ruby hunter. she and her partner, archie roach, did so much to bring a human face to the experiences of the stolen generation and help us understand a little bit of what they went through. for her to have been forcibly removed from her parents at the age of 8 and still go on to live such a full and productive life speaks of the amazing inner strength of the woman. also, to have met the love of her life at the age of 16 when homeless on the streets and to remain with him all her life speaks of her great loyalty. she was truly a remarkable australian and an inspiration and example to us all.

my thoughts are with archie roach and her family.

love it or leave - cya pauline

for all of her faults, you've gotta give credit to pauline hanson for having the integrity to truly embrace the 'love it or leave' mentality. so many people, usually meatheads, spout it as some sort of anti-immigration or anti-multiculturalism mantra directed at non-caucasian australians with the premise being if they don't love the meathead view of how australia should be they should leave. the funny thing is they chant it without really being prepared to leave the country themselves. the fact is, australia is a tolerant, multicultural society so either love it or leave... or in the words of the bumper sticker: FIFO (fit in or f**k off).

somewhere a village is missing an idiot...

lycra-clad loser

i almost had a prang with a cyclist on the way to work this morning. as i was turning right onto weaponess road at a roundabout, some dickhead on a pushbike decided that he didn't need to follow the rules of the road which demand that he give way to vehicles which have already entered the roundabout (usually coming from the right). instead he kept going as i was turning through the roundabout and then actually shouted at me when he was almost hit. i'm so over these lycra-clad losers. after a couple of years working on st georges tce i'd had more near misses as a pedestrian from these idiots hurtling along footpaths than i could count. they want drivers to treat them as equals on the road but they also want to be able to fly along footpaths. basically these arrogant prats want control of wherever they choose to ride and woe betide anyone who gets in their way.

what am i going to do about it? to be perfectly frank, absolutely nothing. apart from whining here that is.

laneway festival

i only got a ticket to today's laneway festival quite late but am so glad i did. first things first: northbridge is, without a doubt, THE worst venue for a festival i've ever been to. trying to get in and out of the main stage area is a nightmare. those unfortunate enough to be stuck at the back of the main crowd had views obstructed by the sound desk and the trees. also, the amount of sound carrying over from the other stages was dreadful. in theory, the northbridge cultural centre should be a fantastic place for a festival but in practice it's not. but that was the only negative for me. i came for the music and that was wonderful.

the first act we saw was whitely. i'm not a big fan and don't know much of his music but he was good. not good enough that i'd go out of my way to see him again but good enough that if he was on the bill of a concert i'd be happy to hear him.

one of the main draws for me was the fantastic voltaire twins. every time i see them i can imagine being in steve strange's blitz nightclub in london in the early 80s as they play such wonderful new romantic tinged electro-pop. their set was in the daylight which doesn't lend itself to their music but their stage presence is such that they're easily able to overcome this and draw the crowd in. as well as old faves, they played some new material which i presume will be on their debut album. the songs were strong and i'm certainly looking forward to the album.

next up was mumford and sons. as megan and i had stayed for the end of voltaire twins' set, we arrived at the main stage after m&s had started playing and got stuck up the back (see my earlier whinge about the difficulties of being stuck there). we hung around until they played 'little lion man' and then took off to see the middle east. they were good without being something to write home (or on a blog) about.

following the middle east, we headed over to watch sarah blasko. i'm not a fan of hers and this performance did nothing to change my mind. dull, boring, middle of the road dross for people who like whatever triple j tells them to is my opinion of her. megan enjoyed her though so i'm sure plenty of people will disagree with me.

the other act beside voltaire twins i was looking forward to was the xx and they didn't disappoint. i'm only a recent convert to this band but am totally sold on their debut album. their music is beautiful and powerful in its subtleness. what i hadn't expected was how good they'd be live. they managed to grab hold of me for the entirety of their set and even had me dancing (badly) at times. i'll definitely see them next time they come to perth.

the unexpected highlight of the show for me was florence and the machine. i quite like the songs i've heard of theirs and expected to enjoy their set but was amazed at how wonderful their live show is. florence's voice is a power to behold but when she combines it with antics such as crowd surfing and climbing the scaffolding, it's a formula for crowd ecstasy. i found the first couple of songs rather dull and was thinking that i'd not really enjoy the set but it just got better and better. the sight of the entire crowd bouncing in time was fantastic. the songs are good and she knows how to hold an audience in the palm of her hand. they were definitely the best act of the night in my not-so-humble opinion.

it was a very good festival and is only let down by the venue. i appreciate it was originally held as a festival in the laneways of melbourne (hence the name) but it's grown beyond that now. if they want to hold it in the northbridge cultural centre then they need to limit the numbers. if they want the large numbers then they need to hold it somewhere more appropriate. it seems silly to pretend it's some low-key underground festival when the number of punters doesn't bare this out.

this man is a moron

yep, this is the retard who thought it'd be a great idea to run onto the waca in the middle of a one day international and assault one of the pakistani players. really, you've got to wonder at what goes through the pea-brain of people like this. we all remember (well, the older ones amongst us do) what happened back in 1981 when some english idiots ran onto the waca and terry alderman ended up with a dislocated shoulder which wrecked the prime years of his career. there's simply no excuse for this type of behaviour. it's not funny or clever. it just betrays an astounding level of stupidity and a clear lack of appreciation for the sport. no true cricket lover would ever do something like this.

and what were his mates doing when this goose was hatching his ill-conceived plan? i'd imagine they were sitting there braying encouragement like the slow-witted donkeys they are. they'd be lucky to be able to scrape together a full brain between the lot of them.

in my not-so-humble opinion, the retard who ran onto the ground should be slapped with a huge fine and banned from all sporting events in WA for life. this would include football, soccer, basketball, cricket, rugby etc. we really can't have idiots like this spoiling it for everyone

a catch up

crikey.. i can't believe it's been over a month since i last posted an update. i didn't even wish everyone a merry christmas and happy new year. how rude!!

since i last posted, i finished my lengthy period of unemployment and started a payroll job at the go marine group which is going well. it's only a three month temp role but there's indications it should go permanent. i've always said that a job is only as good as the people you work with and i've been lucky in the past to have worked with some really great people who ended up becoming good friends. the crew i'm working with at go marine are also a very friendly, fun bunch and i can see that my time with the company is likely to be very enjoyable.

2009 was an interesting year. it started with a lot of promise as my contract with chevron continued. unfortunately a new payroll manager started at the beginning of january and took an immediate dislike to me. i'm still bewildered as to why but feedback i've received from other people has reassured me that she regularly has problems with people she works with. she never gave me negative feedback about the quality of my work so i can only assume it was something about my personality she didn't like. needless to say, when my contract with chevron finished in june i moved on, only to find there wasn't a lot of work for payroll officers. i ended up getting a short contract for five weeks and when that finished i choofed off to the philippines for a couple of weeks. i got home from there in mid september and had a couple of job offers but decided that neither were what i was wanted and that i'd hold out for something better. interestingly, it was around this time that chevron wanted me to come back. of course, i said no as i don't want to work with that payroll manager again. i must say that, immature as it may be, i got quite some satisfaction in saying no. early in the year i'd booked a two week trip to cambodia and as that got closer, it became pretty much impossible to get a job as no one wants a new employee who is going to take off soon after starting. still, it didn't take long after getting back home before my current job started.

and that brings me up to date. i've got no travel plans for this year but if some very cheap flights become available i may just head off. i still want to go to vietnam, laos and thailand and would also like to return to the philippines.

so, a belated happy new year to everyone and here's hoping 2010 is a good one.

i like soccer but...

the bust up between the AFL and FFA have had me quite bemused this week. i enjoy soccer and would love to see the world cup hosted in australia, but not if it comes at the expense of the football season. it's not often i agree with andrew demetriou but this time i reckon he's got it right. the FIFA rule that no other sporting competitions can be run at the same time as the world cup is arrogant and unreasonable. whether soccer supporters like it or not, football is the most popular sport in australia and the FFA need to negotiate with the AFL rather than attempt to dictate terms. demetriou's role is to protect the interests of football in general, and the AFL in particular, and if he didn't do so he'd be neglecting his duties. to blame demetriou for us potentially missing out on hosting the world cup is ludicrous. if we miss out on the opportunity to host the world cup because an agreement can't be reached with the AFL, the blame lies fairly and squarely on FIFA and their unforgivable arrogance.

latest hungry jack's ripoff

can you believe how shameless hungry jack's are in their chasing of profits? first they changed the default size of combo meals from medium to small. this doesn't particularly bother me as it's probably for the best that i eat less fries and the drinks usually have free refills. it's more the way they've tried to sneak it in quietly that i find rather dishonest. now at the innaloo branch (and quite likely others) they've taken this one step further. i was in there yesterday and noticed that when the person in line before me placed his order, the guy behind the checkout asked if he wanted it medium or large. of course, the bloke asked for medium and was charged the upgrade fee. there was no mention from the checkout guy that there was an extra charge for a medium meal and no mention of the option of having a small meal. when i ordered my whopper meal, he asked me the same question: "do you want medium or large?" (with the voice intonation dropping on 'large', thereby implying that these are the only two options). i replied by asking, "don't you do small sizes anymore?" to which he looked rather surprised and asked, "sorry?". i repeated the question and he confirmed that they do small meals so i placed the order for that.

i realise that the upgrade fee is only 55 cents but it's the principle of the matter. if they're going to ask which size you want, they should either offer all the choices or none; not just the choices that attract an extra charge. i would presume that most people, when asked if they want medium or large, would choose medium. using a simple, dishonest tactic, hungry jack's are now able to entice the majority of customers to pay for an upgrade without realising they're doing it which i reckon is pretty unethical.

cambodia pt5

this should be the final installment as i fly out tomorrow arvo but i just had to put down a couple of things that happened within a few minutes of each other today. i was sitting up at wat phnom watching the world go by when an american couple walked behind me. as usual there were kids asking for money but his response was anything but usual. the exchange went as follows:

kids: mister, give one dollar
american: you should study hard and become a successful executive... don't beg

bearing in mind the kids were no older than 5, i found his response very comical.

i then bought a can of sprite off a seller and put it down after drinking a bit. a monkey, seeing that i'd put the can down, walked up and took it. instinctively i reached out to get my can back and the monkey attacked me. it grabbed my arm and bit me on the hand and then ran off with the can before turning around and getting ready to attack again. another monkey saw what was going on and started running up the hill with teeth bared clearly ready to attack as well. fortunately a policeman came running and scared them off but i was a little bit shaken and will now have to see a doctor about getting rabies shots when i get home.

tonight i had a really good green curry from a small roadside restaurant. i picked it as it was full of locals which usually indicates good food. the excited shout of 'barang' from the staff when i asked for a table makes me think they probably don't get an awful lot of foreigners dining there. none of the staff spoke english and they did seem to see me as a bit of a novelty. again, the value is stunning. i had a huge green curry and a bowl of rice and a coke for the princely sum of around $2.50. dining out in overpriced perth will never be the same again.

cambodia pt4

sob.. it's getting close to hometime. yesterday was a fantastic day as a few of us took off on a yacht to go sailing to a couple of islands a fair way off the coast. it was a warm day and although the wind wasn't up, it was still a fantastic time. we got to the first island and went snorkelling. it was brilliant in the shallows as there were a lot of flourescent tropical fish that were happy swimming around my arms if i stayed still. unfortunately a sizeable crab wasn't so happy to see me and chased me away. after some lunch on the yacht we sailed off to another island with a snowy white beach of fine sand. the water was so warm and the weather so good that one couldn't help but be relaxed. we headed back from the second island and eventually got back to sihanoukville and dropped anchor as the sun went down. it was a beautiful sunset as we sat on deck drinking some ice cold beers and relaxing even more.

today was another day sitting on a deckchair and contemplating how life must be for rich people that aren't workaholics. being the stupid bloke i can be, i managed to get sunburnt on my last day on the beach which was the first time i've really been burnt since getting here. trust me to save it for the end of my trip. tomorrow morning i'll be taking the early bus back to phnom penh and then saturday i leave for perth. sigh.

2009 afl draft

wow, what an exciting draft. i'm stoked we picked morabito with our first pick as he looks a readymade afl player and could well rival the impact our past two first picks have had in their debut seasons. i'm also very excited that we picked up nat fyfe with our second pick. i watched him dominate the forward line in my mighty tigers' colts grand final win this year and had hoped we'd get him. i don't know a lot about the rest but i look forward to seeing what they can do. i'm also stoked greg broughton was promoted from the rookie list as, in my humble opinion, he was the best first year player last season. he's so unobtrusive that he's easily overlooked (a la shame parker) but he's an extremely effective and courageous defender who quickly became an integral part of the backline last season. i'm not sure where this leaves matty de boer as he's still on the rookie list but i've no doubt his future at dockerland is secure after his fantastic debut season.

also, as a die hard claremont supporter, it's great to see a number of our boys get taken in the draft, even if one did go to the yuppie scum up the road. there's a real sense of poetry that nicholas winmar has gone to st kilda, the club where his second cousin and namesake was such a superstar. what i did find very disappointing, however, is that no one picked up ian richardson. it's great for claremont that we'll have his outstanding talent again next year but it's sad for him that no clubs have recognised his huge potential. he's a bit of a cult hero down at tigerland now with the regular call of 'kick it to richo' ringing out from the grandstand. still, that's the one sad point in an otherwise exciting day.

i can't wait for the 2010 season!!!

cambodia pt3

so my last day in siem reap was great. first i went to a place in the mountains where the rocks in the river have been carved as a kind of wild temple. it was great as the carvings are not immediately obvious but gradually reveal themselves as you look harder. there's also a waterfall there which was nice and cool. then in the arvo it was off to beng mealea which became my favourite temple over ta prohm. it's a long way out of siem reap (the best part of an hour on the back of a motorbike) and is really a big ruin with the jungle having taken control. unfortunately we left fairly late and as the sun sank, the ride became quite harrowing. a note to cambodian drivers: when it's dark and you're riding a motorbike, TURN ON THE HEADLIGHTS!!! the situation was that i was sitting on the back of the motorbike (no helmet of course) with the driver doing between 70 and 80 kmh as it's getting dark. the road is bumpy and there's motorbikes coming against us on the wrong side of the road with no headlights on. it's at this point that he decides it's a good idea to answer his mobile phone. needless to say it made me very nervous and there were a couple of very close shaves. he also needed to keep his helmet visor down as there were plenty of bugs in the air but, of course, it was tinted so he had to keep lifting it to see what was ahead and then he'd put it back down again. i was so thankful to make it back to the hotel in one piece.

that night it was onto a night bus that took me all the way to sihanoukville where i am now. the cultural stuff has been done so it's now time to relax. i've spent the past two days sitting on a deckchair a couple of metres from the water getting massages and having cold beer and fruit smoothies. tonight i had tea at a russian run restaurant called the snake house. my table was a big ceramic urn with a glass top and a python inside coiled up on a branch. it was certainly unique! they also had a massive aquarium bar and a crocodile besides many other snakes and a turtle.

sadly my trip is drawing to a close and i only have a few more days before it's back on the plane home. still, i reckon i'll be heading back here again as it's a great country.

cambodia pt 2

wow, two days of walking around temples is so very tiring. i had a nice foot massage last night from a place called dr feet but even so, my feet and legs and back are still really sore. the girls doing the massages laughed at my toenail polish and asked if i was a ladyboy... hmmmph. still we all had a good laugh and they were good fun.

i started off yesterday by spending about 3 1/2 hours checking out angkor wat. it's huge and absolutely stunning. no words i can write will do it justice so if you're interested in reading about it and seeing some images, check out this link. following angkor wat, i headed off to the ancient walled city of angkor thom. this contains a number of temples, the biggest and most impressive being bayon which has massive carvings of faces looking in all directions - a way for the king to keep an eye on his subjects. these two sites took me a full day to explore and i was very weary by the end. i was also at the point where i thought i'd lose sanity if i had one more woman screech at me "mister, you buy mango", "mr, you buy pineapple", "mister, you buy banana", "mister, you buy cold drink"etc. i know they're only trying to eke out an honest living but seriously, if i want a friggin mango i'll ask for one!!!

today started at my favourite temple of all: ta prohm. it's the temple that was featured in the film 'tomb raider' and has massive trees and roots covering many parts. it was fun wandering around imagining what it must have been like for the people who first came across it in the jungle. a number more temples followed but really, there's not an easy way to describe them all and i'm sure i'd bore everyone if i tried. one thing i really enjoyed was lunch. i stopped at a small eatery and had amok with chicken. amok is a national cambodian dish and simply delicious. i reckon i'll have to learn how to make it as i could definitely go that again.

so that's me so far. i reckon i'll head upstairs for a shower now and then out for some fried noodles and a mango shake from a roadside stall.. great value for $1.75!!! then a cupla beers and time to hit the hay. i've another day of temples tomorrow before catching the night bus to sihanoukville.

cambodia pt1

i've been in cambodia for a few days now and thought it about time i made mention of it here. i arrived in phnom penh on saturday arvo and hopped into a tuk tuk to take me from the airport to my hotel. the traffic here is organised chaos. i thought this was the case in manila but phnom penh really takes the cake. cars, motorbikes and tuk tuks vie for space on the road and basically drive wherever they like. it's nothing to see several motorbikes driving against the flow of the traffic and people just move out of the way. it seems like madness at first but it seems to work very well.

on my first day i visited the former prison of tuol sleng (also known as S-21). prior to the khmer rouge taking over the country in 1975 it had been a high school but was turned into the most notorious place of torture under the regime. many of the people who were tortured and killed were photographed before their ordeal and there's several rooms of photos to take in. i also visited the killing fields were many of the prisoners of S-21 were taken to be killed. to save on bullets, the khmer rouge had them kneel next to a mass grave and bashed their heads in with farming implements. except for the small children. many of these were taken by the feet and had their heads swung into a tree trunk. all in all, they are exceptionally sad places and highlight the brutality of pol pot and his henchmen (and henchwomen). following this i visited the 'russian market' - so called because it was the preferred place for russians to shop in the 1980's. it is the most remarkable market i've ever been to. it's massive and sells nearly everything you can imagine; from food (veg, herbs, raw meat and also meals) to all sorts of nick nacks, clothing, material, motorbike parts, household goods, jewelery, books, cds, dvds and many other things. so that was day one and it was indeed a full one and was concluded with a great massage from the good people at seeing hands. they're a chain of massage places throughout cambodia which train and employ blind people.

day two started with a visit to the silver pagoda which is next to the royal palace. it is called silver as the floor of the pagoda is tiled with squares of silver. it must be the most expensive floor i've ever walked on. i then moseyed over to the national museum and checked out centuries worth of angkor artifacts but i must admit it didn't take long for all the little buddahs to look the same. the afternoon was a fairly quiet affair but did include another massage.. this time for 1 1/2 hours (not bad for $9).

day three was my last full day in phnom penh. i had a moto driver take me out into the countryside onto mekong island where i met a lady named clara and her family. they have a weaving thing (loom?) under their house and weave material to sell in the markets. she was lovely and very welcoming and so i bought one of her products. it was great fun getting out into the villages and riding on the back of a motorbike. of course, being on the back of a bike in the crazy phnom penh traffic took some getting used to but eventually it was more fun than scary. again, the arvo was a fairly quiet affair with a couple of beers at the famed FCC (foreign correspondents club) and another massage. yep, i could easily get used to a life of long, cheap massages. this time my masseuse decided to find every knot in my muscles and knead them fully. it was rather painful but, i guess, necessary.

day four involved and early start as i was to catch the 8.30am bus from phnom penh to battambang. of course, i got there early and, of course, it didn't end up leaving until 9.20am. on arriving in battambang, a tuk tuk driver offered to take me for a drive out to the bamboo train so i could go for a ride on one. for those who don't know, the bamboo train consists of two axles (one attached to what appears to be a lawnmower engine) with the equivalent of a bamboo fencing panel on top. they ride along a small railway which has trains coming in both directions. when two bamboo trains coming from opposite directions meet, discussions are held and in the end, one of the trains is dismantled and taken off the tracks to allow the other to pass. the train is then put back together and the journey continues. needless to say, it was great fun and a very unique experience. by the time i'd finished that, it was nearly dark so i took a quick wander around town before sitting down for tea at the famous 'smokin pot'. the food was great but the three loud obnoxious americans at the table next to me weren't so wonderful. seriously guys, there's no need to swear in such a loud voice in a restaurant and no one really wants to hear about photos of you baring your arse.

so, onto day five: today. the reason for going to battambang, apart from the bamboo train, was to catch the boat to siem reap. i'd read that it is a marvelous journey but it surpassed all expectations. we spent about 5 1/2 hours journeying through narrow passages with bushes rubbing against the boat. we passed numerous floating villages and even stopped at a shop in one. the toilet at the shop was just a drop over the water which makes one wonder how hygienic it is crapping directly into the water your home floats in. of course, they charged like wounded bulls but they have to make a living like the rest of us. there was also much bird life and jumping fish and even a bright orange snake winding its way through the trees. eventually we reached siem reap and a tuk tuk was waiting for me with my name on a card. a quick trip into town followed and finally i rocked up at the lovely guest house i'm now at (with free internet.. yay!!). i've been out and bought my three day pass to the temples and seen my first one which was spectacular. tomorrow i'll be hitting the legendary angkor wat which i'm sure will be mind blowing.

so that's the expurgated version of my cambodian odyssey so far. now it's time for a shower and a cold frothie before hitting the sack.

on refugees

i must say that i have great sympathy for those whose home has become so unsafe and antagonistic towards them that they're driven to the point of giving up everything they have in order to flee their country in search of safety. i couldn't imagine how dreadful life would have to be for me to sell my belongings in order to scrape together enough money to pay people smugglers to get me to asylum; usually in a country that wouldn't really want me there. it saddens me that so many australians lack even a basic compassion for these people. assigning them the derogatory term 'queue jumpers' demonstrates just how little the average australian understands.

now, having said this, the current case of the tamil people presently on a boat in indonesia has me baffled. they claim to have escaped from sri lanka to the jungles of malaysia so i'm puzzled as to why they didn't seek asylum there. they're now in indonesia so i don't understand why they're not claiming asylum there. surely if you're a fair dinkum refugee who had no choice but to flee your homeland, you wouldn't be fussy about where you end up but rather gratefully accept shelter in the first country you get to.

as i said, i have sympathy for genuine refugees and certainly feel that we have an obligation to treat them humanely, especially when they've fled countries such as vietnam, iraq or afghanistan which we've invaded. what does cheese me off is when people claiming to be refugees start issuing demands about which country they will accept asylum from. they should never forget that it is the right of each country to decide on whether they will be accepted; it's not their right to pick and choose.

perhaps there's some crucial point i'm missing here and would be more than happy for someone with greater knowledge than me to set me straight

long overdue update

crikey.. it's been ages since i last posted so i thought i should write a quick update.

flying home was an absolute ordeal. we left manila about half an hour late which is pretty much standard for arvo flights so i wasn't concerned. the dramas started nearly an hour into the flight when the pilot announced over the PA that there had been a power failure in manila which caused the air traffic control to lose all radar and radio so the plane would have to turn around and return to the airport there. groan. so we returned and landed and sat there. and continued to sit there. and then had our tea... and continued to sit there. eventually we were told to buckle up again as we were going to take off... over 3 hours later than our original departure time. of course, this meant we all missed our connecting flights in singapore. fortunately i was flying singapore airlines which is my favourite airline and they had things in hand. when we landed they had tables set up to tell us when our replacement flights would be leaving. ultimately, rather than landing in perth at 11.45pm on sunday night as planned, i landed at 6.30am monday morning.

this then brought on drama number 2... customs!! i was almost out the door to the foyer. almost. that's when a nice gentleman asked me to come with him. really? after everything else? being the compliant, friendly, law-abiding person i am, i complied with his request in a friendly law-abiding manner. he asked to check my hand luggage and proceeded to empty my bag whilst asking about my holiday - where had i gone? did i enjoy it? how was the diving? next it was my backpack's turn. i unlocked it and he proceeded to empty this as well. argghhh!! a lady came and took my cameras and memory cards away to look through whilst another person took away my empty backpack to be x-rayed. now, i'm seen enough episodes of 'border security' to know what was going on - they thought i was a drug mule which would ordinarily be laughable but wasn't quite so funny after the flight problems i'd had. i also had a job interview lined up for 3pm that arvo and just wanted to go home and get some sleep before it. obviously nothing was found so you'd think that'd be the end of the inquisition right? ahh.. you'd be wrong. i was told they wanted to do a frisk search and was given a card to read which explained my rights. naturally i had no objection so my shoes were taken to be x-rayed whilst a customs officer proceeded to give me a frisk search. sure enough, i was clean so i just had to wait for the sheila who'd taken my cameras to return them to me. i grabbed a chair and sat reading a book whilst waiting. eventually she gave everything back and i was told i could now repack my backpack. why is it a backpack which previously fitted everything comfortably is now full to overflowing? i guess that's just one of life's mysteries. i can't complain about the demeanour of the customs agents as they were polite. still, i don't know that i'll be as friendly and effusive if they search me again when i return from cambodia next month. i've a good mind to leave a few notes for them to find giving them a piece of my mind!!

so, once i was released from customs it was time to go home and get some sleep before my interview. long story short - i had three interviews that week and was offered two of the jobs. i turned them both down for different reasons and am consequently still unemployed. it's not a huge drama and something suitable will turn up eventually. i'm not eligible for the dole so am living off savings which don't take long to dwindle.

tomorrow i've enrolled to do the two day senior first aid course with st john so at least i'm putting my time to good use.

hopefully my next update won't be so far in the future