The transportation rule

When going to to see friends it will depend on which friend we are going to see to determine who will drive.

Standard logical rule that I believe has always existed: My friend then I drive to and from venue. Her friend then she will drive to and from the venue.

Actual rule that does exist: No matter where we are going I will always drive, if it is my friend I have to drive because it is my friend and she shouldn’t have to drive. If it is her friend then I have to drive because she wants to drink and doesn’t like driving at night.

Warning: Questioning the rule will result in anger, possible silence and statements of me being difficult

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The draft printing rule

When printing documents that are only required for reference you must use the draft printing feature. This will ensure that we save as much ink as possible. Time since ink cartridges were bought: 6 months

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Train Stories #3

I enjoy reading on the train, it makes the journey seem short and painless as painless as a public transport journey can be.

I have learned these days that it pays to pick the people whom I sit next to, I myself am quite tall and the long legs doesn’t help in a crowded train. So I tend to sit opposite people with shorter legs which makes the journey easier for both of us.

This day I chose to sit next to 3 noisy friends, the girl next to me and the 2 guys opposite me. I’ve never had my ear hurt by someone talking, but she was loud enough speaking of her dodgy friends and horrid workmates. The guys opposite her wrapped in every word that she said, clearly having nothing to say, they continued onward never the less in this round about conversation touching and leaving the same topics over and over again.

I wasn’t able to get through my book like I normally do, I have something else to watch out for next time that I get on the tain.

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The man with 4 brothers who are all different

I sighed and exhaled audibly through my mouth, internally it was a sign of my frustration and nervousness, I had an job interview later that day and was a little worried trying to remember everything that I studied.

The guy sitting next to me asked ’sounds like you have a tough day?’ I responded with ‘nar, just a long one mate, that’s all’

I noticed that he had an interesting ring on his finger, maybe a skull and cross but didn’t get a good look, further long on his forearm there were more linked metal and silver chains. He looked sort of like a bikie without the facial hair, tattoos or attitude. He just seemed like someone who wanted to talk.

So he talked, I learned about his brothers, how all four of them were different, careers, physical appearance, some alive some dead but still a part of him. I learned about his sister in laws how they were different. Eventually we got onto his interest of what attracts people to one another, how nothing is as it seems on the outside. How so true I thought to myself. It was about this point that my stop came up (I was only traveling from one end to another end of Collins street)

I find the city interesting, not only for the places that abound.

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The health kick

So staying true to my new year resolutions I’ve done none of them…well I’m approaching them slower than I thought I would. I have done the health kick thing, if I have learned anything from my past attempts is that I have to do changes slowly instead of a big bang approach.

They have worked, changing breakfast from anything-that-I-can-eat-in-a-hurry to oats and honey in the morning has kept me full at lunchtime. Cooked chicken and salad/pita for lunch with a protein snake at about 3pm has keep my energy levels up longer than normal.

But my biggest problem is also my most fatal, will and determination is that seems to be holding me back, that when things go crazy for a bit (fight with the partner, tough work day) I let my guard down and let the food in. It is this excat problem which has lead me to this predicment in the first place. It’s this realisation that I’ve ready many times and seen more often that not which has finally dawned on me.

This will be harder than I thought.

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Train stories #2

It’s been a long day at work and I’m at Richmond station about to board the train home, looking forward to reading my book ‘Dreams of my father’ which I had almost finished, it’s a good book so far, many insights and new thoughts, but there is a lady sitting a couple of rows ahead of me with a radiant smile something that I haven’t seen on someone in a while. A smile that seems to have been on her for a little while, she wasn’t looking at anything just staring out the window and smiling slowly and carefully thumbing a mobile phone looking like she was itching to make a phone call.

Soon enough a phone call is made and a conversation beings with a very excited voice, going over the details of the night before. It was a date, a first date with a guy that she had met through a friend of a friend. She was good looking, not a model but certainly someone that wouldn’t have trouble getting drinks at a bar or club, it certainly sounded like she had difficulty finding the right type of guy before, if not someone interesting it was someone that would treat her the way she wanted.

From the sounds of it, this guy was an interesting fellow himself, “he was so full of life, such a zest of light I have never seen before” and not a bad looker himself  “he wasn’t stunning but he was good looking, like he had got around bit, he likes spending time outdoors and can’t find anyone to spend that time with” and they had run into each other before “we went to the same uni and did the same courses, I knew his brother but not him, we talked about our favorite lectures, subjects and places around the uni”

It was interesting conversation the whole time with her face set in a constant state of happiness such that I couldn’t concentrate on my book, after a little while I put the book down and pulled out the notes on World War II that I had been slowing going through, this required less concentration and could be easily skimmed.

“we are looking forward to seeing each other again, he was so nice, it was nice to finally meet someone that I can get along with so easily”

She hung up the phone and begun twirling the mobile phone again in her hands, almost waiting to make another phone call and tell someone else the story again.

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School packed train

It’s raining I’m at the station waiting for a train which has just been cancelled. It’s cold, bitterly cold, coldest day so far for the year. I look up and down the platform and see a thinly spread group of people I think to myself ‘this doesn’t seem to bad, there aren’t that many people, I should be OK for a seat’. Time slips by and more and more potential passengers arrive and platfrom begins to fill and my previous thoughts of a seat or even a spacious ride begin to look doubtful.

I keep forgetting that this is the about the time that seemily millions of school children also board the train. The train arrives, the rain is coming down and the wind is blowing.

We board the train, I find a spot where I can stand, get my book out and begin to read, as we pass station after station it becomes apparent that the previously cancelled train has begun to take it’s tool

A women turns a head, another gets a faceful of hair, a man tries to read with another persons’ hand in front of their face holding onto the bar, eveyone contends with school kids and their backpacks being thrown around as theyswish around like water as the train makes it’s journey.

The train is full again and we are all uncomfortable.

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The trouble with good neighbours

So it was a big night, an unexpected big night.

I got home late, when I wasn’t supposed to, I had told the fiance with every good intention that I would be home earlier than the 5 hours that I actually got home by taxi. I had driven the car to the station that night because I to believe that I would be home by 9pm.

So when I got up the next morning, obviously nervous about the telling off that I would get, which I got I realised that I also had to go and get my car, what was also lucky was that my fiance hadn’t noticed that my car was missing. So off I went, by bus, under the guise that I was dropping off some dry cleaning. Everything worked perfectly, I returned in my car and no one was the wiser.

That was until the next day or so when one of our neighbours came by, a family friend of the fiance. When it was mentioned that I was seen walking to the bus stop carrying clothes and why I was doing such a thing. My story had to come undone.

That’s the trouble with good neighbors.

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Busy Trains

I know that people harp on about the crowded, late and generally rubbish service of Melbourne’s train network, but I’ve got another complaint that is more close to my heart, and like the normal problems I’ve had to compensate to work my way around it.

School children…hundreds of them, unavoidable, loud, obnoxis, intrusive, space hogs. They are everywhere and they take up so much space, funnily enough the girls tend to be fine, nothing wrong with them as they fit in like any other normal passenger (besides being numerous amounts of them) It’s the boys that are the uncomfortable part, they push, get in the way, are rude, and when you have just woken up and all you want to do is try to relax before a busy day at work is need a buch of boys screaming about something or other. But they all take up copious amounts of room which cout towards trains being late due to numours people but also school bags blocking doors.

I just realised how old that last paragraph made me sound, I shall say no more to what I’ve already stated.

So how do I get around the problem, I catch a earlier train, like most things there is always a solution.

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New Year Resolutions

I’m sure that everyone is doing them, so why not me:

  • Sell a print or digital of one of my photographs
  • Do more photography, I enjoy it and find it relaxing, so why not
  • Loose 10kg, get to size 34 pants, 15% body fat
  • Start a small home business (photography or computer fix/repair)
  • Get a job that I want
  • Find and buy into a managed fun that has regular savings
  • Find and buy shares into company
  • Build the network that I’ve been thinking about
  • Read 2 books per month
  • Write more (journal and blog)
  • Practice meditation
  • See my friends more regularly
  • Join the 365 project – take a photo per day
  • Take a photo of myself everyday
  • Build a stronger relationship with my fiance
  • Continue to understand and believe in myself more
  • Dig into my family history and record it – family tree with stories
  • Learn a second language or two
  • Ride to work or at least half way or to the station
  • Learn to cook…better
  • Develop a ‘early riser’ routine

I don’t know if I will get to them all or any of them. I’ve got it out there at least, out of my mind.

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