Listen very carefully…

…I will say this only about six times.

I’m delivering training at the moment at work. In fact until the 13th July that is pretty much all I will be doing. I’ve already delivered five of just under 60 sessions to be delivered in that time frame. Already I want to scream at people.

FOR F*CKS SAKE, THIS ISN’T HARD!

I stand in a room, full of people looking at me. In front of them on the table they have a document, if they have bothered to read the instructions before coming along, about 30% don’t have one, so I make them share. They also have a folder of handouts. I either have slides projected on the wall behind me, or I don’t, depends on the room. I talk about a fairly dry subject for 150 minutes. I try and include a little humour, I try to include examples, I even try to get some kind of response out of the participants. Mostly they just stare at me blankly.

Is this what it’s like teaching high school?

People who have worked for the company for twenty odd years give examples that are out of date and try to argue why they shouldn’t have been replaced (the examples that is, not the person. I would argue, it’s the person that sometimes needs replacing). These pointless and off topic examples take time, they eat into my precious time. I have to skip points later. I have to get them back on track without causing too much of a stir. I have to be nice.

It’s hard to be nice when your feet hurt, your back aches and you’ve already said the same things at least a dozen times.

I’m thinking… calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean.

____________________________

I wrote this at 1338 on 26/5/09 in Parramatta. Haven't had internet access until today to post it.

My Favourite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright crimson high heels and feelings of smitten
Being outside watching veg grow in spring
These are a few of my favourite things

Listenin’ to music and wild meeting doodles
Fresh warm bread smells
And laksa with noodles
alpaca that run with the herd, what that brings
These are a few of my favourite things

boys in white t-shirts with blue demin flashes
Make up and costume that match fake eyelashes
memories of childhood and all that, that brings
These are a few of my favourite things

When the cat bites
When the bell rings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don't feel...so bad

Sing to the tune of My Favourite Things from the The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

When...

…does graffiti stop being a simple defacement of property and become art?

I’ve asked myself this question many times over the years, because I get enjoyment out of walking along and suddenly being stopped in my tracks by a word or image that requires my attention, sprayed across a wall.

I enjoy standing there and working out want it says. Sometimes it’s a simple word, sometimes it’s more complex. I enjoy spotting the details in the background and sometimes a treat in the foreground. The colours and technique with a spray can never fails to stun, how do they manage to get no runs?

I know from a past relationship (a friend at school would do such work) that these works aren’t just produced in the blink of an eye during an evening of boredom. They take weeks of pre planning, sketches, gathering materials (e.g. spray cans), they even need a look out sometimes. These are public works of art that need careful planning and thought, and of course nerves of steel. For being caught, means arrest, arrest could mean a stint in prison and a criminal record.

I have a certain admiration for the guys that put this much effort into their art.

That said, it’s all spoiled by the ‘taggers’. People with a marker pen that feel the need to write their name or initials or ‘tag’ on any flat surface they come across. Train seats and windows, walls, public benches, toilets doors, you name it and it will no doubt have a tag on it. Or at the very least the smear that shows someone tried to clean it off.

So where is the line between public nuisance and public artist?


- An example from Smith Street in Surry Hills

Victim or not?

A couple of weeks ago a well known NRL (National Rugby League) player and media personality hit the front page of the newspaper because he’d had group sex, SEVEN years ago.

What I’m about to write may be controversial. Don’t shout at me if you don’t agree.

I was annoyed by the revelations of the woman that she had spent the last seven years mentally scared by the consensual sex act that took place in a hotel room in 2002. She was 19 at the time and had sex with up to six NRL players while another six watched. She wasn’t drugged and was there by choice. Five days after the event, she went to the police and cried foul. They investigated and found no wrong doing on the part of the male players.

The woman, identified only as ‘Clare’ has brought this up seven years after the event, by appearing on an ABC program. She outed a particular high profile player and NO ONE else. That player has appeared on television with his wife since, the wife said ‘this was discussed between us seven years ago. It has been dealt with, the only thing he did wrong was betray my trust.’ As far as they are concerned it was done and dusted.

Today, a work mate of ‘Clare’ came out and said that she boasted about having sex with NRL players in the days that followed the 2002 hotel room romp.

The only named player has been stood down from his jobs as presenter and assistant coach.

My questions are these.

Are Matthew Johns and his family being dragged through the media for all to see and discuss as a scapegoat because the NRL doesn’t know who else to blame for the poor behaviour of players?

When does a woman who consented and bragged about a sexual encounter become a ‘victim’?

Is it just me that thinks there are more important things than a seven year old not story that deserves space on the front pages of the national media?

links:
A Current Affair Interview
Johns Stood Down
Woman Bragged
Who's Really to Blame?

If you want more on this story, search for Matthew John in Google News, the above is random selection of over 1000 links

Mothers Day

I didn’t get out of bed until 2pm. I had a bit of a bad morning, thinking about my Muv, reading and giving the cats big cuddles.

My cats, are, after all my kids.

Of course, they were completely unaware of the significance of the day and failed to give me a card or present, unless you count O-Ren sneezing on me.

In the afternoon I got up, pulled on some tracksuit bottoms and a pair of boots, went to the shed and got out the garden tools. I felt like digging. So I turned the soil, added blood and bone and Dynamic Lifter, then turned it all in.

The veggie patch a planted a few weeks ago now has;

Carrots
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Beetroot
Leeks
Rocket
Muslain lettuce
Peas
Radish
And some herbs waiting to go into pots.

Harvesting can start around the end of June, if the neighbour cat doesn’t dig it all up.

What it really needs though, is barb-a-rube.

Culture Vulture

I’ve out twice this week on school nights, on Tuesday and last night, Thursday.

On Tuesday, after work, L and I went to the taping of episode five of Top Gear Australia. We met outside Liverpool railway station and after a few trips around the town centre we figure out which road we needed to take to get to Bankstown Aerodrome. The expression of interest email and subsequent invite email had stated the filming would take approximately two to two and half hours, and to wear shoes that had a closed in toe and were comfortable for that amount of time standing on a concrete floor. I dressed suitable, as did L.

After two hours of hanging around and never quite making it to the front of the crowd to see what was happening, we planted ourselves near a Kombi with an armchair in the back. There we made some new mates. Three guys who also had failed to see anything and decided that they had to get to the Kombi soon. We chatted, laughed, took the micky and generally played silly buggers. L got so hungry she resorted to having a Chupa Chups for tea. At about hour three, L was making noise to go home, I convinced her that the presenters couldn’t fluff their lines much more and it would soon be over. I was sort of right.

The hanging around at the back paid off. On the 8th June I’ll be on telly. I managed to get myself in the front row while they filmed a segment with a Kombi and a chalkboard. I’m sure I’ll look like a complete noggin’ and cringe when I see myself, but I do believe it was the late great Andy Warhol that said, ‘In the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of fame.’ I think I notched up my first 3.

Last night, I went to the ballet at the Sydney Opera House, the total polar opposite of standing in a hanger in the middle of Bankstown. D, a friend from work had been let down by her usual companions and had asked me if I would like to see, Nutcraker.

It’s been a while since I saw a ballet. Cyrano de Bergerac was the last time I went, that was in the 90s and in London. I jumped at the chance to go again, great music, wonderful dancing and lush costumes. What more could a girl ask for on a Thursday night?

Champagne, that’s what.

There ended up being three of us. D, J and me. Turned out J, being a wholesome Yorkshire lass liked a drink, we drank a bottle in the thirty minutes before the show then another in the interval.

It didn’t ruin the performance. We got everything we expected and more. We got a show. The music by Tchaikovsky, played by Australian Ballet Orchestra was sublime, the dancing was enough to make you weep and the costumes ranged from dowdy 40’s housewife dresses to full on tulle and silk tutus. It was sheer heaven.

The evening was rounded off with crawling around on the floor of the ladies looking for a button and then another glass of bubbles and chatting, before I caught the train home and the two city dwellers, jumped in a cab.

Slap round the chops

It has been brought to my attention today that it has been a while since I wrote. I was asked, ‘Are you done with the Jodie blog?’

The answer is no, I’m not.

I’ve been stoopidly busy and have really had no time to sit and compose. The back log of things that have happened include;

New baby in the house (kitten)
Favourite things (think The Sound of Music)
Work issues (good stuff and bad)
My new veggie patch
Mothers Day
Watching a filming of Top Gear
The Basics at the Vanguard, Newtown

Hopefully, I’ll have some time to write while I’m sitting in hotel rooms in weird and wonderful places around NSW. I’m going on a training road show for work and will be travelling for just over six weeks.

Time to write

Woo Hoo!! ;-)