oops ~ my bad
nothing like losing a whole week somewhere
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not tonight darling … I’ve got a headache …
21 Aug
As I was consulting Dr Google today for a tad of self diagnosis, I was surprise to stumble across a link to a number of articles on sexual headaches or coital cephalalgia (try saying THAT one 10 times).
Being of curious mind, I clicked through to see if they were talking about the ‘excuse headache’ or something real.
But no… sure enough, it is a classified medical condition that causes quite some grief (as you can imagine) and requires delicate management.
Imagine that … just as the earth begins to move, you are struck down with a headache that would ‘kill a dog’ … and at the very least make you feel like your about to have a stroke.
Mr 50 Something and I have often pondered how many baby-boomers succumb in the throws of passion… I mean there would be quite a few middle aged lovers who are not match fit, yet feel they can do laps of the bedroom like they’re still 20 Something.
I wonder just how many heart attacks or stokes are recorded as death by passion ?
trash or treasure….?
19 Aug
I wonder how long it takes to acclimatise to having only 2 mouths to feed… I mean it’s not as if my home emptied suddenly overnight … yet I still can’t get it right.
I’ve always been an over-provider… catering for a crowd plus a bit (just in case) … but on Sunday night it was enough pumpkin soup for a month… tonight’s Osso Bucco will be leftovers for the next week…and now it’s tucked away in the fridge beside the leftover lamb dish from last Saturday
.
The sensible thing would be to freeze it all, but I know if it makes it into that chilly chest then it will never be seen again….what a waste that would be (at least THIS way I can wonder about the waste and ponder the alternatives).
I have considered takeaway packaging and gifting to homeless folk… (but fortunately or unfortunately there is not a high demand locally)…. I’ve treated the dogs like princesses from time to time…(but their aging digestive systems are beginning to suffer if they over indulge) …. and I have tried using 5star leftovers for fishing bait (with some moderate success if I can manage to get it to stay on the hook – at least this feels like recycling)…
mmm…I guess I just need to pay more attention, and one of these days I might get it right ….
that line in the sand ….
16 AugWe all have one …. You know, that ‘line in the sand’ that tells us what we think is acceptable, and what is just that ‘bit too far’. While I’m all for self expression, and daring to be a little different… today I saw something, that for me, just crept over that line.
You see, I was sitting in a cafe and I noticed this very anglo elderly woman (high end 70’s by my calculations). She was seated with her side to me, but I noticed that she was wearing leopard print lycra tights. I had a little internal giggle and thought to myself ‘good on you’ ….I guess.
BUT when she turned I noticed that she had her nose pierced !! There she was sipping her
latte with two sleepers sitting side by side in one very wrinkly nostril…and I almost choked on my coffee.
I was reminded of the saucepan advert with the elderly woman sporting a tattoo on her arm ~ referring to ‘not-so-good’ decisions….. BUT piercings are so easily removed (if you want to).. so my guess is that she was perfectly content with her look… again ‘good on her’.
I wonder what her grandchildren think ??….and does it even matter??… I guess!
The Pump House Restaurant Q station
moving mountains…
15 Aug
Making a move anywhere is tricky business. Whether it’s the end of your lease…or a move to your dream home, the idea of packing all of your belongings up and relocating them …just so you can unpack them again …is overwhelming (and makes me tired).
BUT an office shuffle is a whole other beast…
Rather than working from a common goal, it’s every man/woman for themselves….and while you all know what’s got to happen, it takes a well planned strategy to bring it to fruition without bloodshed, breakage or personal injury. Today we did just that … like a well oiled game of musical chairs we relocated 8 people with a few frayed nerves but minimal fallout.
Like any move, the cull is the best (and worst) part … the time to reminisce (when there really isn’t time) and to decided what is worth keeping and what is now junk. One on my many highlights was my work diary collection. It was hilarious seeing the ‘corporate’ style organiser that was the size of a brick in 1998 (but must have made me look important) … gradually shrinking and eventually giving way to the 2014 ‘one stop shop’ that is a smart phone. The sad part of that is …what will there be to pour over in another 8-10 years when the next move comes …all this history we’re making will be living ‘in the cloud’ somewhere… with nothing to sit and laugh at. 
I found floppy discs and cassette tapes with reports of old projects…and radio interviews that I did ‘last century’ …..back when I had a voice. …and I found photos, newspaper clippings…. and reports that I wrote dating back to 1992 that made me think … mmm who wrote this? what a good idea ….It sounds like something I once knew.
I’m pleased to say that we all survived today ….I’m sore and exhausted ….and barely awake enough to tap fingers on my keyboard.. BUT it was a major achievement (and I’m actually looking forward to going to work on Monday – just to bask in the newness of change).
peeking through the window @ North Head, to Sydney Harbour
grey matters…
14 Aug
I do get, that along with the ageing process, comes change….and that nothing quite looks or feels the way it used to…BUT what find hard to reconcile, is the rate that things ‘fall out’ of my brain these days.
I know I’m not alone in admitting that I often walk from one room to the other and forget what I was going for … needing to re-trace my steps to start all over again. Thank goodness I work with quite a few ’50somethings’ who share my problem …. (now, that creates a great picture eh? all these middle aged office workers scratching their heads and walking in circles) …. but we DO get things done.
However the really tricky one is remembering peoples names for more than 10 seconds. I have begun to wonder if I am just plain inattentive?… if there is too much going on in my head?…. OR if I have brain damage? (at least THAT would explain what’s going on).
The other day I caught up with a couple of interstate colleagues that I hadn’t met previously. I was pretty sure that I had their names all sorted after months of emailing …. BUT, having chatted over coffee for a while, I then went to introduce them to some of the crew … and I drew a complete blank !!! I had NOTHING!! ZIP!! ZERO!!
Thankfully they were of ‘similarly maturity’ and we all laughed about it … but seriously???? where did those names go ?
I wonder if we just cram so much in, that our brain becomes like a computer hard drive that needs a defrag… before it crashes…. (think it’s time for some maintenance).
skin deep ….
13 AugWhere can you go and spend $280 to strip down to your undies and gaze at the amazing uninterrupted views over Sydney Harbour… while being tortured?
It sounds a little kinky… (we all know nothing is ever quite as it appears)…but it was nothing more than my annual ‘burn off’ @ the Dermatologists office. The thought of paying all that money for the pain and then saying ‘thank-you’ always makes me smile…. But I guess (a bit like insurance) it’s a necessary evil, especially when you have been ‘blessed’ with red hair and freckles….and have already had one melanoma ‘near-miss’.
Having said that …it was not ALL bad.
I’ve made no secret of my people watching habits…, and a Dr’s surgery provides a perfect and discreet place to soak it all up. Especially one that offers cosmetic dermatology as well as ‘routine maintenance’.
There I was with one eye on the harbour views, and the other one of my fellow ‘waitees’…when I spotted her. A woman with a face so taught and smooth that it looked like it would tear if she smiled; and lips so plumped and upturned that she could barely cover her teeth (I reckon they might even flap when she spoke).. Then there were the tattooed eyebrows and lip-line that completed the work of art.
Strangely though this artificially youthful face, sat atop a clearly ‘70Something’ body…. I wonder how you decide what bits to work on and where to draw the line…. ??
Wonder Years 
marketing? or pain in the bum ? …
18 AugIt seems to me that everywhere we look or listen we are being encouraged to buy or try something that we either don’t want, don’t need ….or don’t know exists. But I guess that’s not new.
What is new (ish) though, is the bombardment of marketing emails and sms messages… I feel like it’s almost time to change my email address just to get off the marketing merry-go-round…. but then I think why should I ? (that’s kind of like moving house because the letterbox is full of junk-mail).
But … on a slightly different note, this week I have had some very odd telephone calls.
Odd because:
Let me explain ….
Two days in a row last week, I had long winded (recorded) messages left on my mobile phone voicemail… (who on earth records their message to record ???) Both messages were from my industry Union, telling me that I am “the backbone” of my workforce and that I should get behind the latest Union initiatives…
How ridiculous, I mean this man doesn’t know me… and how can he be sure that I am a good worker ? and how dare he presume that I want to waste my money replaying his long winded message ? …. not to mention that they are spending Union funds on this crazy telephone campaign (last time I checked there were over 35,000 members… so that’s a lot of mobile phone calls).. mmm I wonder if we are ALL the backbone of the industry ???
The other odd calls came to the office – again I don’t ‘do the phone’ … but on seeing the confusion of the colleague that did answer, I was compelled to ‘step in’ and rescue him (then wondered why I did ).
Now I’m not able to share exactly what I do … (it’s top secret lol) … but lets just say I work in an ‘under the radar’ program.. a fabulous, but discreet service that works on a ‘need-to-know’ basis.
So… you can imagine my surprise when the insistent voice on the end of the line, was giving me the hard sell on advertising ……. via SHOP_A_DOCKETS !!! Having waited till the man eventually drew breath, I tried to explain that we are a service that does not advertise… but he went on …..and on …and on…..with all the reasons that we should , until finally I gave up and hung up on him.
The following day a similarly strange call came… but this time from the Police Department …They were FUNDRAISING!!!!!! What the ??? As I said…. we are a government department too….. so how on earth does that work???
Finally … I was driving to work this morning and I spotted a bus whose entire side was dedicated to advertising an MRI Scanning Clinic …. It left me wondering just how many people would see that bus and suddenly have the urge to visit that clinic for an MRI ????
Now I did a quick search to see what the meaning of marketing actually is. It’s true to say that there are as many definitions as there are poor examples of it …. but from 72 Marketing Definitions I took a select few (below) as ‘food for thought’ …. and have to say that it serves to confirm my first impressions – I have been the victim of multiple and epic marketing bloopers !
mmmmm …curious …. very very curious….
Tags: comment, fundraising, marketing, observations, selling, upselling