Happy End of Financial Year (EOY) to all those other tragic individuals who ended up in an accounting field like myself.
EOY means that the next few months are going to be incredibly painful. It's also the time that every piece of computer equipment which has been working faultlessly for most of the year will implode & cause panic beyond the worst nightmares. The probability of this occurring is directly proportional to the importance of approaching deadlines.
For this particular year however, I'm free of the EOY demons. This hotel has overseas interests & operates on a calender year rather than a financial year. Since I moved from the Pier in January, I missed the last year end here & I don't have to go through another until the end of December. WooHoo!!
I just hope all the accountants enjoy their End of Financial Year dinners tonight & don't suffer too greatly with hangovers tomorrow. I've been to some amazing bash's in which the most stuffy of employees, ends up staring blankly at the ceiling after colapsing to the floor via alcohol inducement.
I actually had someone here grab me today & tell me how they were tempted to jump to my defence after hearing a radio station bag out accountants as the most boring people on earth! They were going to call up & abuse the announcer, but of course mobile phones & peak hour traffic don't mix too well!
Sure, there are a few accountants that take themselves too seriousl, enjoy what they're doing & bring down all the cool ones but rest assured that under the crisp white business shirt or blouse (yes, there are plenty of female ones as well. They're just hidden out the back!), there is a funky, cutting edge individual, stiffled by a career with a justifiably bad name!
My biggest purchase during my time in Sydney was a watch. A Swatch watch to be precise!
I've only ever purchased two watches in my lifetime. The first was a stylish gold thing back in my high school days. Of course, anything worn to school will be trashed before too long & I think it was dragged down a wall after I was bumped during my first week of ownership. The crystal was pretty scratched up, but it became a reliable timepiece that now you couldn't tell it was ever gold.
No worries about colour change this time though. Black & white face in an aluminium case. It perfectly matches my T610 mobile phone! That wasn't planned, I just happened to notice after a week or so when they were side by side.
I tossed up on whether I actually still required a watch. My last piece was from a work place that I wore until the battery died, then I just stopped wearing one. Over the last four years, I've made do with the clock in my mobile phone & my astute skills of telling the time by the position of the sun (that last part is a total lie!).
Now I actually have a watch strapped again to my wrist, it's like I've always had it. I thought it might be annoying or I would forget it was there, relying on other souces to determine the day's length, but I'm always flicking my wrist around to see it. It's also good to be able to give people a hurry along by glancing over & over at it whilst people ramble on. They eventually get the message!
I suppose I should show you what it looks like. It's called paving stone, based on the strap. Being aluminium, it's amazingly light, looks cool & hell, it even glows in the dark!
One of the hardest things to do in this world is write in cards.
The problem is, I do it so often with birthdays & farewells etc., I struggle to obtain words that make my message stand out.
I'm not sure which is harder, writing in a card you're giving to someone else personally, or contributing to one of those massive A3 size monster cards where every other employee has their say.
I can normally come up with something witty when it's just myself writing in a card, but if you're the last person to sign a collaborative, all the good lines are taken!
I know other people suffer from this lost for words syndrome. I've just written in a card for an employee's 50th & some have resorted to colouring in their message & even little puffy stickers! I came up with something, but it still sucked.
How many ways can you say "Best wishes"?
I always purchase cards that never have anything written in them. The only thing worse than other people stealing all the usual messages, is when the card makers do it!
The best farewell card I've seen was given to a soccer nut. A soccer ball signed by everyone removed the whole anxiety of creative thought & was also a really cool item that will last a whole lot longer than a card.
His only problem was he needed them to get a second one, so he could actually kick it around!
I need just one more day of weekend! Might have to have a chat to a local member of Parliament.
I'm feeling rather ordinary today, though it's all my own doing. That said, I had a great night.
Yet another farewell from the Pier hotel. They happen far to often but thankfully everyone gets a decent send off. I don't know what time it ended as my last dance was just after midnight. Quite a few were still up for a number of hours to come.
I'll throw in a bold statement at this point & say that Adelaide girls are prettier than those spotted during my Sydney excursion! Maybe it's just me, but last night I was surrounded by some amazing beings of the feminine variety. I just didn't see the same quality interstate. I'm sure there would be plenty of "stunners" over there, I just didn't have my attention pulled their direction like here.
I know there were some photos taken of myself with a few of the ladies, so I'll have to make a few calls to get them!
Nothing explains why I feel under the weather today. I consumed one beer & about two glasses of wine over six hours. People around work keep telling me that if I feel as bad as I look, I probably shouldn't be here. I'm not that bad, surely! It just sounds like I've smoked a couple of packs of cigarettes, when all I did was a bit of passive smoking during the evening!
This Friday night could be much of the same. Staff are booking rooms at the hotel so they can write themselves off properly!
To all those watching the Big Brother Intruder special tonight, I hope you caught a special moment which the Producers completely missed.
The scene was all the lads sitting in the lounge room discussing how intruders will change what they do in the house. Ryan comes up with a phrase along the lines of ;
"We are all comfortable enough to fart around one another & cum on each others backs!"
That's not an exact quote, but you get the gist of it.
I pretty much choked on what I was eating, not quite believing my ears.
Such a comment my make it to an 'Up Late' episode, but just after 8pm on a Friday night during prime-time?
You've got to love live television!
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Lenny went for US$623,500
Blackie went for US$959,500
Amazing prices for what are priceless instruments.
Lenny & Blackie were two Fender Stratocasters used extensively by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Eric Clapton respectively. Both guitars were auctioned for Eric Clapton's Crossroad charity, set up to help individuals with drug dependencies.
Overall 88 guitars went up for auction in New York, bringing in US$7,438,624.
Based on some pretty simple calculations, that an average price per guitar of US$84,500.
Both of my guitars would be valued at US$3,750, which makes me feel... rather poor & ordinary actually!
Unfortunately, these magnificent instruments will disappear from public view after gracing stages across the world, never to be touched again by the musical brilliance which originally brought them to life.
The upside is the money made will benefit so many people & after the loss of a child & going to the brink of mortality himself, Eric can easily see that a worn out strat, no matter how sentimental, can now be wielded for a greater cause.
Adelaide University don't have enough room to conduct final exams within the University grounds, therefore all the students toddle off to the Wayville Showgrounds & perform the exams in one of the Pavilions.
All sounds pretty simple doesn't it.
Okay then, how about the Showgrounds making a profit from the students by charging them a fee to park their cars!
It's not as though they already pay a yearly fee to park at the University & let's not even talk about actual course fees!!
In an update to the last post, the chef involved just came back & had a second look at the report . I think he was testing the water after his last effort. I can't say I paid him much attention, but he did say "thanks" as he walked out the door.
Doesn't mean he's any less of a prick!
Since then however, I've had some stupid scrag from the Australian Tax Office (how I wish I could use names here!!) threatening legal action.
I've probably blogged about this before, but the story is, they want to fine us for late payments because their systems haven't picked up the correct information. Their errors go back to early 2003, but they want all the information which make up all the payments by tomorrow.
Their kidding themselves. It's not like anyone's trying to run a hotel here!!
I haven't actually looked at any of the work I need to do today. With chefs & tax office cows, my finance department has become the Info Technology specialists as well.
I know all I need to know about computers, to keep my home one up & running & the occasional fix up to basic office PC twubbles. Throw in Linux, Novell, Micros & at least four different versions of Windows trying to live in harmony, & I'm getting out of my depth. Apparently, an commerce degree teaches you these things! I must have missed a few days at Uni!!
It's time to alienate an entire sector of society.
Chefs!
Who the hell do they think they are?!? I'm yet to meet one that is actually normal & fits into the world around us.
Their lives revolve around sticking things in fryers & whacking stuff on plates. So how do they get the opinion that the world revolves around them?
I just had an Executive chef throw a report back in my face because I wasn't in the office last week. It's not as though they weren't aware of the fact.
Pricks, I tells ya. They're all pricks!!
I received my business cards on Monday. All very classy, including little logos for the awards the Hotel has recently won. I now have around 300 cards of which 10 will be the maximum I give out in the time I work here. The rest will most likely sit in my wardrobe along side about 480 cards from the Golf Club & two boxes of separate designed cards from the accounting firm of which there are about 800 cards.
Generally, receiving new business cards is a sign that I'm probably going to move to a different job soon. After the earlier confrontation, I wouldn't mind too much, so how's about a job in Sydney!!
Could someone please remind me why I came back to Adelaide?
I find it curious that when you are away on holidays, work matters can wait until you get back, regardless of how serious. However, every single one of these issues must be rectified by 9am on the day of return!
My departure was kept rather silent, which is now obviously a good thing. I've had quite a few staff that have complained about not letting them know I was going away & if they had known, would have spoken to me the day before I left. As if I wasn't busy enough!!
I'm back in Adelaide now, after eight sensational days over on the East coast touring Sydney.
It all went well up until about Wednesday when I found my Palm had performed a hard reset in my luggage, thereby rendering it useless for blogging. I had taken precautions by uploading all the required files to a memory card, only to find they can't be copied back to the Palm! Hence, the lack of updates! I also managed to catch some Sydneyite's cold which messed me up for a day or two. I was really shagged on Thursday, but overall it didn't hold me back too much.
We arrived back last night, instantly vowing to return after discovering the weather that greeted us. Ten degrees & raining! Welcome to Adelaide!
I've spent much of today just downloading photos from my camera. Around 600 in total, most are different shots of the same thing. The best have been saved to CD & are a good selection of the entire trip. How the hell I'm going to show them online is a bit beyond me yet. I may have to do a bit of a montage!
As for the whole site of "One Before Unlucky", it's having a huge issue in loading. I noticed it the day last Thursday, just before I left which didn't help in trying to fix it. I'm going to play around with a few things until the blasted little "error on page" message disappears from the bottom the browser! Any little html gurus out there want to lend a hand in sifting through the code?!?
I'll have to update on the last few days of the trip when I sort out everything else. Back to work tomorrow, which I'm not looking forward to. There'll be something I missed before I departed for sure that will cause me grief. Can't wait!!
Okay, I was a slackass yesterday & didn't post. Way too tired after walking countless miles, but it was a top day & yet another one of perfect weather.
The last place you'd expect to find the Sydney Hard Rock Cafe is in a back street, but it is! It's well out of the way from anywhere, but it's a darn cool place to visit. We were there before the actual cafe opened & were allowed to just browse without anyone around. Truely, some amazing rock memorabilia, most of whih I now want hanging on my walls!
Any night harbour cruise is well worth any price. The views are priceless. It's just as well all the high-rise residents are so wealthy to afford leaving their lights on all night!
Today we checked out Olympic Park, home of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. It's a great place to tour, especially when it's quiet like today, with virtually the main stadium to ourselves.
Also had a look around the Aquatic Centre & some of the features around Olympic Park. Overall the entire park was very quiet until we found out there were six major events going on & that even when 100,000 people are in the park, you can walk around without seeing anyone!
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I love the mornings here in Sydney. There is such a vibe at every hour of the day & it's so cool to be a part of it!
The Taronga Park Zoo ended up being a disappointment. I've never been a massive zoo fan, but when you throw literally hundreds of children into the mix, it's just insanity. Possibly the most frustrating few hours of my life. They need to have children free days, then I'm sure it would be an amazing place. However, that said, I still have an issue with a monkey finding delight in fingering it's own butt!
The views from the Zoo are also pretty inspiring.
Tonight, we had dinner in The Rocks & walked all around Circular Quay & the Opera House. The lights of the Harbour are spectacular, so it's no wonder four million people decided to live here (even if it is at great expense!).
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This morning was cold & just what was required to wake myself from a rejuvinating sleep.
I'm staying on the sixth floor of the Sydney Central YHA, which is about 15 minutes walk to the centre of Sydney. The view is decent & well, you can see for yourself.
We toured this morning by bus, around all the major points. I finally made it to The Rocks, which is the coolest place. I've always hoped to go there but I don't know why I've had a fascination about it. The Rocks is an old part of Sydney that has never been updated, with old wool stores, cobbled streets & a whole lot of charm. Excuse the thumb!
Whilst in the area, we climbed the south tower of the harbor bridge. I'd love to walk up it but at $155, it's a bit steep (no pun intended). Once again, some amazing views.
Tonight was a stroll through China Town. A massive area when compared to Adelaide & Melbourne.
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Well, here I am in Sydney & at present, completely buggered. I'm not actually staying at the Rocks, but it just made a good title!
The flight over was in pitch black to a blinding sunrise. The view the entire way was cloud free & highly scenic. After battling to get our luggage & working out how to board a train, we found our lodgings, which are basic but comfortable.
First outing was to the Sydney Acquarium. Pretty darn spectacular. Each exhibit is more elaborate than the last until you're walking through a corridor with glass walls, ceiling & floor!
Next stop, Sydney Tower, with views to basically everywhere. We were there for a couple of hours to watch the sun crash into the earth & see the lights ofvthe city take over. Here's a sample of views by camera phone. I've taken over a hundred photos on my digital camera from the tower, which I'll post when I get back to little ol' Adelaide (if I want to go back!).
More tomorrow after a solid sleep!
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I've pre-empted the mad rush that will be at 4am tomorrow morning by actually packing last night.
One thing I've determined during the process is my personal reliance for all things electric.
My requirements are a Battery charger, Mobile Phone charger, Palm handheld charger & Shaver. I've dropped in a double adaptor just in case I'm staying in one of those dives that only has one power point per room.
At the end of it all, I'll forget something critical to sustain life, but I must keep remembering that I'll be in a city where they do actually sell stuff.
I'm sure this paranoia has developed from my mother's side & I'm desperate to break the cycle. She packs for a trip like this by going through a wardrobe & pulling out really old jumpers, etc., then packs them "just in case". If you had to fight off moths to pull them out, plus you forgot you owned such outdated clothing items, the odds of finding them useful on a holiday is by my guestimate, highly unlikely!
My next post should be from the last Olympic city with a big coathanger.
I'm in the process of finalising the End of Month reports for the hotel. At present, all the Executive staff are perusing their results & frantically coming up with excuses for their department's performance. It doesn't matter how well you've done, it's never good enough!
Tomorrow will see the mayhem start again, trying to get the reports to the overseas partners. It'll be a solid day from 8 till 8, getting it all done! After which,.....
I've got to start packing!!!
The flight to Sydney is at 6:10am. The taxi to the airport will pick us up at 4:30am. I'll probably need to be up at around 2am to prepare, which really means... I'll be sleeping on the plane.
I've managed to fill the memory cards for my Palm with some fine music for the flight & the blogging by PDA is all set to go. I just hope I find some time to actually post in amongst it all!!
A few weeks ago I drew a line on the roof of an office here at the hotel. Drawing on a ceiling isn't normally on my "top things to do" list, but there was a reason which has turned out to be beneficial.
The line was drawn to mark the progression of a water patch which had appeared over a month or so.
Last week, the line was brought to my attention only to find the spread of "whatever it is" had grown substantially.
Today, a fourteen foot copper pipe is being replaced which is a main sewerage line in the basement. A small hole had developed, leaking a not too desirable fluid onto the ceiling tiles.
This isn't the first time this scenario has been played out. Only a couple of years after the hotel was completed, the pipes in the same area exploded, sending a wave of.... ummmm, you know what, crashing through the roof.
I'd thought my choice to have a web page had been taken from me last night! I was able to post, but my site just wouldn't come up.
I think I found the culprit to be the list of referrers which has now since been given the flick, & we're back to a nice clean chunk of html.
In other news, the woman who faked being hurt in my car accident last month has made a claim for her non-existant pain & suffering. I had to fill in a form last week from the government insurer giving my side of the incident & asking me if I accept full responsibility for the crash. Are you kidding me?!? Lets face it, if they weren't on the road, I wouldn't have hit them, therefore it's only partially my fault. I also explained what actually happened & how the woman appologised at the scene for her antics & she wasn't really hurt! I'd love to here what sort of claim she has actually made!
One last bit of bitching for today...
It seems that in one more attempt to remove all rights from the citizens of Australia, the South Aussie Government has decided that rain water collected in tanks can have it's use regulated!!!!
That's right, if you're caught using water that has fallen from the sky to replenish a thirsty garden, you can be fined... up to $5000!?! Yep, if the water for your garden comes from the heavens, that's okay, but collect it in a rain-water tank & then decide to sprinkle it on your herb collection... start paying up for the privledge.
I'm sure the next step will be a rain levy. Based on a government installed rain gauge to determine the amount of rain, which can then be multiplied by the size of the respective property, a set rate per unit of rain could be applied. Now there's a way to raise some revenue!
I just hope the Premier & his Department don't blog surf, or I might be giving him some ideas!
I'm getting ever so close to perfecting the art of wireless blogging.
The post below was constructed by;
a) taking the photo using a SonyEricsson T610 mobile phone.
b) using bluetooth to transmit the image to a Palm Tungsten T handheld.
c) writing the blog entry on the Palm using hblogger.
d) transmitting the photo to the website from the Palm using vfsftp software, via bluetooth, through the T610 using GPRS.
e) sending the blog entry, including the html links to blogger, also via the T610.
It's clumsy at the moment, trying to get used to the ftp software, but it does work a treat!
I've just got to be careful of any "template malfunctions" along the way, which might cause things to "pop out" of place!
Having two car manfacturers in Adelaide means they have to test their new models somewhere.
It's actually been years since I've seen any prototypes roaming the streets but the above was taken on my way to work yesterday. Unless covering your entire car in vinyl is a new trend, I suggest it may be a future model Holden Commodore due to the shape of the doors. I nearly did a bit of crash testing on it when it stalled just after this photo. It then disappeared with some healthy wheelspin to catch up to a second covered car!
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A great bit of footage this morning on Channel 9's Today show regarding the Olympic flame.
The flame arrived in Sydney at some darkened hour & then taken to the Opera House where Cathy Freeman was the first torch bearer.
With the torch lit, she's proceeded to the stairs of the Opera House to begin the journey, where the camera man filming the event gets man-handled by three police officers, pushing him into the crowd. All the while, one of the officers had their hand over the camera lens, in a "Nothing to see here, move along" kind of way.
Who the hell did these cops think they were?!? It's a public event aimed at having a community spirit & global collective of good will, yet the police don't want anyone to see it?!?
I would be lost without my Palm Tungsten T. My SonyEricsson T610 mobile phone merely complements it, but will never take over all the functions of the Palm.
It's my photo album, mp3 player, calendar, address book, share portfolio, blog entry system & of course... games machine. There hasn't been anything I've not been able to achieve on it with a bit of hunting for software.
A lot of people think they are yuppie devices aimed at trying to look cool & up to date with technology. Mine looks like a wallet (in its leather case) & few people have ever realised what it was. I can't remember how I survived before my beloved little Palm.
My problem is, I just can't see a mobile phone ever being capable of taking the place of a hand-held! SonyEricsson tried with the P800 & new P900, but a touch screen on a mobile is either too small for proper use or makes the phone downright huge! (just look at some of those phones on the 3 network!).
Long live the Handheld & all the pleasure it's provided geeks like myself all around the world.
I thought of a comment about something else to have in the palm of your hand, but it would have been far too rude!!
Some people are more stupid than others, then you get the piste resistance!
A guy called the hotel yesterday & I happened to be the poor schmuck that answered.
His request was simple, in that he wanted to cancel a wedding reception. Here's a run-down of the conversation. This is the brief version, because he waddled on for bloody ages & I've regressed as much as I can to the dark corners of my mind.
Me: Firstly, what name was the reception under?
Dork: Umm, dunno, could have been me, Larry I 'spose.
Me: & a last name?
Dork: Carly (or that's what it sounded like!)
Me: Could you please spell that for me?
Dork: Curtgaly (it sure didn't sound like he said it).
Me: What date did you have booked?
Dork: When I made the booking or when the wedding was gonna be?
Me: The date of the reception!
Dork: 11 April 2004.
Me: Since the date has passed I'll have our wedding coordinator get in contact with you to determine whether a refund can be given. Do have a phone number we can get you on?
Dork: I've got me mobile, but I can't remember the number, so I'll have to hang-up check my number & call back. (I managed to grab the caller identification from my phone, but wasn't going to let him know it).
Me: Okay, what about a home number?
Dork: Oh yeah, 8*******.
Okay, by this point I'm a bit suspicious. He's clearly not on this planet, but to cover any later queries, my last question was about the girl he was planning to marry.
Dork: Gabby (& then something garbled).
Me: Could you spell her last name for me?
Dork: Umm, I dunno, It's a hard one.. Ummm... Eaunivurin... or something like that. (Yes, those are his words! He couldn't even pronounce the name & either way it wasn't going to be spelt anything like that).
Is there any wonder the relationship came to an end?!?
What was the chick thinking when she accepted a proposal from this guy?!?
Was she a mail-order bride who also couldn't speak English?!?
Would she have used a hyphen in her name to become "Gabby Eaunivurin-Curtgaly"?!?
Wouldn't you normally cancel a reception prior to it taking place?!?
How the hell did the guy find a job with which to raise the funds for the deposit?!?
