Getting It Off My Chest

I may have a simplistic and naive view of the world, but it angers me to the core that in a world with so much war, disease, poverty, hunger, drug culture, to name but a few items, that the news media and so many government and religious leaders are so singularly focused on denying individuals (in this case those who wish to have their same sex relationship recognised) of what should be, a basic right of existence.

If you believe your actions are supported by your God.  Then you can have Him/Her to yourself.
Your Dogma is flawed, and your God is not worthy of me.

I respect religion, and those who find solace and strength through it, but that respect does not extend to the Zealots and self righteous.

Purge complete, time to resume my day!

HAPPY WEEKEND TO YOU PEOPLE! 🙂

Suck It Up Whiner!

Ok, I’m up for a rant, this is going to be a therapeutic text based purge and then I’m going to move on with my life.

Here goes.

I bowled tonight with one of my friends, one of my competitive friends…

We’ve both had bowling lessons, and there’s always some healthy competition between us, with each of us doing the best we can do out bowl the other.

Tonight, for the second time in a month I had the highest overall pin total.  By one, that’s right, ONE pin.  Admittedly I’m pretty happy about that but I like to consider myself gracious whether I’ve won, or lost.

Not so my bowling partner.  Last time I won a tantrum and sulk ensued that even managed to get publicised on Facebook.  Tonight came with an outburst as well.  It’s kind of funny, but also kind of tedious.  For god’s sake it’s a game.

Not to mention I’ve been bowling badly for weeks now.  Admittedly I’ve been battling Pneumonia, but I still get frustrated.  But I do my best to smile regardless of the outcome.

Sigh.

Ok, that’s my purge, now to move on with my life.  We won 2 out of 3 games tonight, and won overall pin tally.  So a good night overall, especially given we were 2 people playing against 4.  We both did very well.

Hooroo!

Dirty Bastards!

Well as expected I didn’t bowl quite as well tonight as I did yesterday, but I ended my last game with a respectable 190 excluding handicap, so I’m not too upset.  The main issue for the night, the lane computer was faulty, for the entire 3 games, it miscounted everyone’s bowling.  You could get a strike without bowling, and have a strike or spare counted as nothing when you did bowl.   Very frustrating.  In the end, in conjunction with the other team we ended up scoring manually, along with having one of the staff sitting at the console manually altering every game.

Very tedious, not to mention slow.  We usually finish around 9-9.30, last night it was 10.30.  

As for the dirty bastards…   During a bathroom break I unfortunately witnessed 3 consecutive people use the bathroom and then walk back out without washing their hands.

GROSS!!  You may know where your hands have been, but I certainly don’t.  Never before have I been happier that:
A)  I wash my hands, and use paper towel or my sleeve to open the door to leave the room once my hands are dried.
B)  I have my own bowling ball, so I know where it’s been and who’s hands have been in it.
C)  I carry hand sanitiser in my bowling bag, and in the car.

Call me paranoid, I’m certainly not a germphobe, but some people are just gross.  As it is I’ve already got a cold that someone so “generously” shared with me, I’m happy to leave my exposure to anything else at a minimum.

Ok, that’s my rant done.  Hooroo!

Infuriating

It’s been over three years since I’ve been employed, and to say I’m getting frustrated would be a very large understatement.

I started applying for jobs here a full year before I left Australia, and the three years since.  That’s four years of job hunting.  I’ve had responses, I’ve even had job offers, and offers of “cash under the table”.  But since I require a Work Visa to work here I’ve either been declined for a position, or declined myself.

Accepting a cash job may sound like a good idea, but it’s not.  Very much not!  Not only would it be a breach of my current Visa, which is a Visitor’s one, but if I breach it, which for anyone out there reading, I very much WILL NOT be doing, the consequences are dire.  Immediate deportation, and a life time ban from American soil.   That’s a whole lot of soil, and a large portion of the world marked off limits.  A risk I’m not prepared to take.

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve literally made thousands of job applications, many I’ve never had any return correspondence from, some I have.  The ones I have heard from have sounded promising until I’ve mentioned the requirement to be sponsored for a Work Visa, to which on every occasion I’ve received a polite sorry, no, good luck etc.

Well I’ve had enough.  It’s even more insulting when my own partner tells me that I should just keep applying.  When exactly is enough, enough?

Not only did I put my career, and in some parts my life on hold to give him an opportunity at his own career, I sold my car, a large amount of my belongings, and I’ve been unemployed for over three years.  Without my own income, my savings have steadily dwindled, and I’m bored out of my mind.

So I quite rightly, in my mind I think I’m well within my rights to suggest as much, requested that he start considering either a transfer or resigning and returning to Australia.

You’d have thought I’d asked for a kidney, actually both of them.  It’s not exactly a pleasant experience being made to feel ungrateful, unreasonable and selfish for wanting to actually be able to make a living and have an income to be able to contribute, and be able to purchase things without having to ask, or often beg, for permission.

Even today, just to have lunch with a friend, I had to ask which card (bank) I was allowed to use.  Pretty bloody ridiculous given I’m an adult.  But that’s how it is, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Oh, and it’s always fun being told in public, and often in front of friends, “Well I pay for everything.”  Some day soon my patience will evaporate instantly when I hear that comment and the response may be a punch in the mouth.

I’ve paid, believe me, I’ve paid, and if I had the finances to do so, I’d be on the next plane out of here, and that same person would be on their own, and right now, I can pretty happily tell you, I’d not look back or regret the decision.

If you’re going to treat me like a financial prisoner you may just end up with a mutiny on your hands!

Grrrrr!

Missed by a week

and a bit…

With all the chaos of the last few weeks, I completely overlooked that my Blog turned 3 a little over a week ago, on June 11.  Happy Birthday/Anniversary.

As of June 2, it’s also been three years since I’ve been employed.  A fact that is fast becoming a sore point.  A very sore point.  Despite all my attempts, I’m growing resentful, and it certainly doesn’t help when the person that I put my life on hold for spends every waking moment attached to a computer or television screen.

Patience is wearing very, very, thin.  Thin enough that I’m seriously contemplating a return to Australia.  Recent events have given me a little more clarity on life, and it doesn’t make sense to continue being in stasis for someone who’s unappreciative.

I’ve made the sacrifices, and my enthusiasm has been waning for quite some time, as has become apparent in the lack of enthusiasm in my blogging.  I’ve been reading over past entries since the inception of my blog, and the spark just isn’t there anymore.

I guess we’re just going to have to see what happens.  Growing older doesn’t worry me, trying to find work as I get older does.  Terribly.  I left Australia and a job I loved when I was 33, now I’m 36 and due to Visa restrictions am unemployed.

For the record, I’m not depressed due to my Father’s passing, as someone pointed out.  That is not the crux of my problem, I’m still grieving, but had he still been alive, my situation wouldn’t be any different.

Ugh!  Over it!

Greedy Bastards!

Not that I need the extra stress right now, but we recently were called to a meeting at my Grandmothers Aged Care Facility for them to tell us they’re closing down.

Their excuse, “there’s no demand”.  The reality, the facility and surrounding retirement village is located on prime land, that until recently was under a 100 year covenant.  Now they’re selling it for development and evicting the residents.

So after spending the last couple of weeks already fighting the good fight in paper warfare, now I’m at it again.  Well more accurately, still.  Only this time I’m also driving around checking out alternative facilities, collecting the relevant applications, and completing the files, all in the hope of finding my Nan a new home.

I’ve found a place that I think will be perfect.  Mum and I checked it out on Monday.  Today we took my Nan back to have a look herself.  So far she loves it, and has said it’s an upgrade on where she lives.

This afternoon I’ve been completing applications like a madman, sourcing paperwork and making sure everything was in order, before diving into the car and hightailing it back to the facility to submit her application.

Apparently we’ll find out on Friday afternoon if her application is successful.

*FINGERS CROSSED*

Armageddon

Well, this trip has had everything.  Death, Plague, Pestilence…   Is there something that I’m missing.

Just when I thought I was finally over the flu drama, I woke up this morning with Conjunctivitis.

Grrr!

Just for good measure, now I have a migraine.

That’s it!  I’ve had it!  I’m going to bed and staying there!

Sound the alarms! I’ve got the Plague!

I’ve been back in Australia since Mother’s Day, Sunday 10th May 2009, and before I even made it out of the airport there was a Quarantine scare on the plane.  Apparently someone spent the entire flight coughing, sneezing and being all feverish, enough that noone could disembark before we’d had Customs on board.

We got the all clear, well at least I and the people in the front of the plane where I was sitting at the time did.  I started my flight in Economy (the cheap seats), but as I’d explained I was flying back urgently and needed to be off the plane as soon as possible so I could get to the hospital to visit my Dad faster, the lovely flight staff on my Qantas flight moved me into an empty seat in Premium Economy (there was also an empty seat next to me), so that I’d not be disturbed and could attempt to relax on what was going to be (and was) a very stressful flight.  They out did themselves when 45 minutes before landing I was moved into the First Class section to ensure I’d be able to get off the plane as a priority.

Thank you Qantas!

Back to the story, after disembarking, I literally ran through the arrivals lounge towards Immigration and Customs, only to be stopped and told to walk slowly past a line of infra-red cameras.  Apparently all passengers were being checked for signs of fever.  We’d also been handed declarations to fill out in regards to our health.  All of this due to the current Swine Flu scare around the world.

Again, I made it through all clear.  I wasn’t ill at all.

Not until 2 and a bit weeks later.  Over a week of minimal and no sleep from being at my Father’s side until the moment he passed away, and all the stress in the lead up to the funeral, I became very rundown and exhausted.  Enough that when my lovely little nephew, who I’ve recently nicknamed “Typhoid Mary”, “Bringer of Plague”, and “Contagion”, shared his lovely cold germs with me, and left me all congested and feeling awful.  Gotta love a child that’s so unselfish.  Ugh!

Of course this week I finally crashed and burned.  Monday started off well, then went downhill.  Fast.  Aches, pains, nausea, diarrhea, all the fun stuff, and I spent the rest of the day in bed with the toilet being my best friend.  I’m still unsure whether the dizziness was due to the illness, or spinning around over the toilet trying to decide which end to aim over it.

Tuesday was better, I felt a bit average, and still wasn’t in any mood to eat much, but finished the day with a lovely big bowl of homemade “Jewish Penicillin”.  Chicken soup made by my lovely Mother in-law Julia.  Thank you!  I felt much better. 

Then I went to sleep, and it all turned pear-shaped.  Fever, chills, sweats, not much fun at all.

By morning, Mum had been watching television, seen all the hype about the “Swine Flu Pandemic” and based on the symptoms on the television, diagnosed me as being positive for Swine Flu.

Sigh.

Admittedly, I did (still do as I type this, but not as bad) feel like crap.  So I made a Doctor’s appointment.  Of course, as is always the way by the time I arrived at the Doctors surgery I was feeling much better, and from what I could see around me, I was most certainly the healthiest person in the place, and probably in more danger of being infected, than doing any infecting of my own.

The Doctor himself didn’t seem to think I was in any danger of having the dreaded Plague that is in all the media right now (Swine Flu), but as I flew into Melbourne from Los Angeles, and all the current cases in Victoria came in from Los Angeles as well, and coincidentally on the same flight number (different days) to me, decided to prescribe the “anti-biotic dejour” Tamiflu, and told me to not leave the house until Friday, when I was to return to his surgery to receive the results of the throat swab he took.

So much drama.  It’s just not worth coughing or blowing your nose these days.  Especially when the tablets you’re prescribed are $75 for 10 capsules.   I believe (I don’t know from experience, I promise) recreational drugs aren’t that much more expensive! *laugh*

So, fingers crossed the results are negative.

Until then, let the drama continue.  All I wanted to do was curl up for a while with lots of hot lemon drinks, panadol/tylenol and rest.  So much for that idea.

If the results are positive though, does that mean I’m not Kosher?  Technically by birth I’m Jewish, as is my partner Mark.  This could create problems.  *giggle*

Goodnight all!

Gauntlet of Death

Although, some may call this “Racist, Sexist Pig”, but you can’t please everyone.

It’s been a super busy day today, with over 4 hours of driving, hundreds of photographs, and lots of sunshine and colour, and a lunch out by the river.

Today, being Sunday, and a lovely day at that, we hopped in the car pretty early and drove out to see the Tulip Festival in the Skagit Valley, Mt Vernon area.

There was literally millions of tulips, and almost as many people, most of whom were trying to walk through the tulip fields, despite the signs clearly asking them not to, to take photographs.  It amused me to watch the farm employees wearing brightly coloured jackets waving orange plastic batons and asking people to leave the fields.

Thank the gods for zoom photography, you can make it look like you’re in the middle, just by standing at the edge.  Which is what I did, such a good boy.

Now to destroy that image, and replace it with a less than politically correct one…

Once we’d returned from the Tulips, we decided to head back to the Bird store where we bought all the components for our newly assembled bird feeder.  Why?  Because this morning when I drew back the curtains, I was greeted with the view of a very happy squirrel perched on the feeder, tucking into a hearty breakfast of bird seed.  Silly me!  I had the option of purchasing a “Squirrel Baffle”, a collar that goes around the pole of the stand stopping Squirrels from climbing it, because I have two dogs.  Two dogs who I had stupidly assumed would chase the Squirrels away.

The dogs in question?  Curled up, sound asleep in their kennel less than 3 metres from the feeder.

Grrr!

Anyway, I bought a baffle, problem solved…  Then the fun started.

As we were leaving the car park, a minivan (on my left) reversed out of it’s parking space without looking, causing me to angrily hit the horn (I wish it was louder, and had a laser attachment, or a canon….), the driver, an Indian woman, looked surprised that there’d be anyone else on the road at the same time as her…

Less than 30 seconds later, another car pulled out (on my right) and had to hit the brakes suddenly so as not to run into me.  An Asian woman…

Now, I’m driving a small 4WD, it’s white, the sun was out, and I can assure you, it’s not a stealth vehicle, it’s actually VERY visible…

By this stage I’m simmering on the good side of unleashing some road rage, not really, but I did have whole pile of profanity just itching to be released into the ether.  Thinking it was over, we continued on our way to the exit, only to have yet another car come around the corner, faster than it should, nearly hitting us.  Another female driver, this time race unknown.

It was literally “The Gauntlet of Death”.

Now, I know some VERY good female drivers, and drivers of all Nationalities, but why is it that the two main offenders today insist on reinforcing a stereotype?

Shoot me down for being unfair, but we’ve been joking for a long time when something adverse happens on the road, to the point it’s almost “Driving Bingo”.  It’s an Asian/Indian Woman, or it’s a Lexus driver…

Ok, I’d better go hide before the abuse starts… 😉

Hooroo!

I’m going to kill him!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

I finally decided to cook a roast tonight, and have a close friend over that I missed seeing over Christmas.  Despite being ill, I’ve been unpacking boxes, rearranging furniture, and slicing, dicing and preparing food most of the afternoon.

Then I had to go out for a Physical Therapy session (With the afore referenced friend.  She’s my therapist.)  So I turned the oven down to a low temperature and left.

Only to come home, open the oven and have the house fill with smoke.  Which it’s continued doing all evening, and I’ve been perplexed as to why.

Now sitting here, in the middle of Winter with all the doors and windows open so the smoke will dissipate, it’s finally occurred to me what the problem is.

It’s Mark!

He changed the temperature settings on the oven to be Celsius, not Fahrenheit.  Of course, since everything else is in imperial measurements I forgot, and have had the oven running at Fahrenheit values on Celsius temperatures.

Hopefully I can rescue the meal.  Mark on the other hand is going to be requested to put the oven back on it’s original settings and stop meddling.

Grrr Grrr GRRRRRRR!

Gotta go, there’s charcoal to be scraped.  Not really, but it sounded dramatic! 😉

See ya!