Anger

{ May 12, 2012 @ 12:05 pm } · { anger }
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A couple of weeks ago, I found out that my elderly next door neighbour (facts not completely confirmed but 98% chance) had scraped her car against mine and damaged my new car slightly. Before all of you gasp in unison and combined horror, I’ll add that now that I have calmed down from the event, the scrape was against my side mirror and is hardly noticeable. The worst thing was that there was no note. She has also damaged my girlfriend’s side mirror in the same way but unfortunately, that actually broke her mirror. (Again, no note…) I just hope that every time she sees me, she will be so consumed with guilt that it makes her sick inside. (Doubtful)

Anyway, I discovered this on my way out to boxing class. By the time I had stewed over it a bit and thought about the rudeness of people, I was pretty fired up. I pretty much rocked my boxing class. My punches were hard and explosive. There was no stopping me. My eyes were filled with steely focus and determination. I smashed the punching bag with great technique. The trainer was impressed.

Unfortunately, I haven’t really been able to reproduce this awesomeness since… maybe once or twice. I have linked my great boxing sessions with times when I was fired up with anger. And I think my problem is that I don’t really get angry that often. I’m just not a very angry person. I get annoyed and irritated a lot, but it rarely crosses over into anger territory. And usually I just find something new to get irritated at and I forget about the original one.

I’ve tried everything to get me back into that zone… listening to The Presets and Sleigh Bells before training, thinking about exams or assessment (this just makes me feel tired), boring myself senseless a few hours before to build up restless energy. They don’t work.

So here’s a list of Things That Make Me Angry. Or At Least Pretty Annoyed. Feel free to add to the list and help me out…

  • traffic on the Western Ring Road – or any traffic for that matter
  • scratched DVDs when you borrow them from Blockbuster
  • Christmas shopping parking
  • expensive clothes that looked good on you in the store but suddenly look awful when you try them on again at home
  • speeding or parking tickets
  • being kept waiting on hold – with bad on-hold music – when you’re using your mobile phone
  • bad customer service
  • writing a long e-mail and then getting an error when you try to send it, losing everything you wrote
  • being continually walked into because you’re small and big people think they have “right of way”
  • people who tailgate in wet weather
  • trucks that tailgate in wet weather
  • people who are condescending

Can you add anything else to the list? What makes you angry? Or at least pretty annoyed.

Roads

{ April 13, 2012 @ 3:07 pm } · { driving }
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Along the very long stretch of road I drive on to get to uni and back, they have been doing roadworks. I’m not sure when the roadworks actually started (it was before my need to use that road) but I anticipate that they will be working on it for a while yet.

After the week long Easter holidays that I just had, I was driving to uni again and came upon a changed stretch of road. There was a sign saying “Road Marking Trial”. As I drove along, they had been experimenting with different types of road marking. The first one had a sign saying “Yellow Tape” then “Yellow Paint” then “White Paint” and “White Paint with Reflective Beads”. I took this all in with much interest. I found myself staring at the different road markings and comparing them with each other. The yellow seemed more contrasty. The white paint with reflective beads seemed shinier. I imagined them in different road conditions. I wanted to let them know my input on the trial. And then I realised that I am probably thinking about it too much. I guess it’s proof that my drive to uni and back really is as mind numbing and boring as I thought it was.

But then again, this isn’t the first time that roadworks has intrigued me. There was a patch of road somewhere in the western suburbs of Melbourne where they had Road Surface Trials. I have driven along that stretch of road a few times and I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to compare between road surface blends. I would not only think about how it felt to drive over the different surfaces, but also the noise, the reflectiveness and how much it might cost per square metre.

Maybe I should’ve become a civil engineer. Or a road specialist. (Probably doesn’t exist). But I guess I would’ve been too tempted to draw pictures on the road with the white paint… No… the white paint with reflective beads. That was my favourite.

Centrelink Surprises

{ February 1, 2012 @ 9:58 am } · { customer service }
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Today I applied for Austudy. For my overseas readers, Austudy is a fortnightly payment that the government gives you whilst you study full-time. It’s not heaps but it’s money. And I’ll take it. Centrelink is the government agency that takes care of Austudy and welfare in Australia.

This wasn’t my first brush with Centrelink. I used to get Austudy when I was studying at university many years ago. Also, more recently, I went to the Centrelink office to get a Healthcare card. (Again, for my overseas readers, this is a card that gets you discounts on prescription medicines, public transport, movies, etc. Yeah, it’s pretty good here in Australia…) On my recent jaunt to Centrelink for my Healthcare card, I was surprisingly pleased by the level of service I received. The officer was efficient and polite. I wouldn’t go all the way into “friendly”, but I completely understand her lack of zest in the job. After working in libraries for many years, I have a certain empathy for customer service officers. So today, I was interested to see if Centrelink would live up to its new reputation with me.

You might be shocked to hear that they did. I think I came at a good time because there were only two people ahead of me in the line. (I brought a book to read as I stood in the queue anyway). I was actually served by the same officer as I was last time I visited. She’s not really into smiling but, dammit, she got the job done quickly.

So what’s going on, Centrelink? Have you really lifted your game in the customer service area? Or have I just found a small pocket of anomaly within government department services?

I’m not sure if I’ll actually be able to get Austudy but I’ll hear back within 14 days. Either way, I’m really kind of impressed.

Motel Room Quilt Covers

{ January 9, 2012 @ 3:11 pm } · { accommodation, travel }
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Over the Christmas and New Year period, I spent most of it in motel rooms. Before your mind falls ungracefully into the gutter, I’ll add that my motel room stays were due to a road trip from Mt Gambier to Sydney and from Sydney to Melbourne.

I have previously noticed that motel rooms seem to all have the same kinds of quilt covers. You know the ones I mean… they are usually in patterns of ochre, a little light blue, aqua, orange, and yellow. I think they all buy in bulk from a special motel goods wholesaler to provide visitors with an authentic motel experience.

I was going to take photos of these quilt covers for you but I actually had stuff to do other than photographing linen. So I tried to search for the patterns in Google Images. Unfortunately I couldn’t find them online. This just leads me to believe that the Special Motel Goods Wholesaler is obviously part of a secret retail society hiding their quality products from the public. So if you wanted the authentic motel experience every night in your own house, you will be greatly disappointed.

I did manage to go on some individual motel websites to provide, for your viewing pleasure, an example:

However, not all motels went the mainstream route. The last motel I stayed at tried to break away from the pack. Instead of a quilt cover, they actually used two white sheets (one on the top, one on the bottom) to surround the quilt – creating a makeshift and easy to remove/clean cover. Top marks for trying.

Life Observations’ 2011 Statistics

{ January 9, 2012 @ 2:35 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 25 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Online Shopping and Christmas

{ December 9, 2011 @ 8:26 am } · { girlfriend, shopping }
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Yesterday, I came home from training to find three parcels underneath the doormat waiting for me. My girlfriend has been relying on the wonders of online shopping to purchase most of her Christmas presents this year. I find it is really the way to go because between the both of us, not much shopping gets done when we go out. Usually, when we go out with gift buying as a priority it usually ends up a bit like this:

Me: Oh look! Shoes!
Her: Do you really need more shoes?
Me: Let’s just look…
Her: Do you have any ideas on what I should get x?
*long, silent staring between both of us*
Me: Oh look! Bags!

Then it ends with both us empty-handed and:

Me: I’m tired…
Her: I want coffee.

So, you can see that harnessing the power of the internet for shopping is really the best way to go for the both us. Anyway, I know for a fact that one of the parcels that was delivered yesterday is my Christmas present. I spent much of the afternoon staring at the Express Post bag and stroking it. I know that sounds creepy but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. After my girlfriend saying many times during the evening “Get away from that post bag!”, it is now hidden in an unknown location.

Do you think a Vespa scooter and/or a full acoustic drum kit can fit in an Express Post bag?… Probably not…

Best Girlfriend In The World

{ October 27, 2011 @ 8:30 am } · { girlfriend }
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As the title of this post suggests, I think that I may possibly be the best girlfriend in the world. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything. Well… okay, there’s a bit of trumpet blowing. But I am not really that great with wind instruments. I have a bit of asthma and not a great lung capacity. (I even get kinda light headed when blowing balloons…) But I digress…

Reasons why I might be the best girlfriend in the world:

  1. I get out of bed in the morning, even though I don’t have to, when she does so I can make coffee and breakfast for us to eat together before she goes to work (I might also just be a natural early morning waker)
  2. I make her lunch to take with her. And I sometimes add a bonus cute romantic drawing stuck on her lunch box (to embarrass her when she goes to eat lunch with her work mates)
  3. I clean the house (sometimes) and do the laundry (if bored)
  4. I have started ironing her work shirts (because sometimes they are mine)
  5. I cook dinner and have it ready for us to eat by the time she gets home from work (my timing sometimes varies)
  6. I do the grocery shopping and sometimes buy her a treat to cheer her up (often something I want to eat too)
  7. I write songs about us and sing them to her whilst playing guitar (I make them up on the spot and they don’t really make a lot of sense. But they are cute and funny at the time)

I am sure that this is not an exhaustive list. But I thought I would stop before all of you get insanely jealous. I’m pretty sure I have convinced you by now that I might possibly be the best girlfriend in the world – which is a concept that many of you might find surprising, considering my history of commitment-phobia. But I think I am good with commitment now. I even have my mobile phone on a post-paid plan!

Oh and P.S. – She is pretty awesome too.

Free Time

{ October 24, 2011 @ 8:10 am } · { life }
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Now that I have all this free time on my hands, I am convinced that I should do something productive. Rather than lying on the couch reading, watching DVDs, and browsing the internet, maybe I should be creating amazing works of art, writing mind-blowing symphonies, and taking amazing photographs. But isn’t it funny that the more time you have, the more time you waste?

I have started not wasting as much time as I have done in the past couple of months since becoming gainfully unemployed. I have locked myself in for at least 11 months of hard karate training at least twice a week. (You know how much I avoid contracts/commitment). And I am now playing guitar more and trying to expand my musical repertoire. I have started a little wood carving/sculpture. I cook meals, desserts and most things in between. And I draw cartoon dinosaurs remarkably well now.

But I am still plagued with the niggling feeling that there’s still more that can be done and still more that I should be doing. Even if I was achieving amazing things, I have a sneaking suspicion that I would still feel that I was not doing enough and that over-riding guilt would be hanging over my shoulders. As long as I keep feeling this, my free time isn’t free at all.

And with that, I am going to stop with the weird Jerry Springer impersonation and lie down. I’m tired. I had odd dreams about polar bears last night. Let’s all ponder that for a moment before returning to our usual guilt-ridden lives.

The Downward Slide

{ August 11, 2011 @ 2:01 pm } · { life, sleep }
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I have noticed that the quilt/s on my bed tend to fall off the foot of the bed during the course of the night. This is extremely annoying, especially in winter, as I am woken up several times during the night to pull up the heavy covers. Sometimes the sliding of the covers downwards is quite fast. Once, when I was tucked in bed reading, I observed that the quilt had moved off my shoulders and was already making its way to the floor in the space of 10 minutes.

The covers on my girlfriend’s bed tends to slide off sideways. The footer of her bed is raised upwards from the mattress, stopping the downwards slide, but instead redirecting it sideways. The sideways slide isn’t really preferable because inexplicably, one person will get blamed for hogging the covers – even though there was no tugging involved. For the sake of our relationship, this bed is now in the spare room (also referred to as The Music Room or The Mystery Room).

So we are stuck with the downward sliding covers. Has anybody else experienced magically moving covers? Have you found a way to stop it? If so, I would love to hear from you. It is currently doing my head in.

Cold and Flu Tablets

{ July 29, 2011 @ 12:52 pm } · { health }
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Dear Mr Local Pharmacist,

It is flattering that you think I have the skillz to cook up speed from the cold and flu tablets that I requested. It is also flattering that you think I am a NIDA trained actress to be able to put on this disgustingly congested act of mine.

But stop pretending that you’re a doctor and just give me the damn pills.

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