Wednesday, November 30, 2005

I tried to blog this at around 5am when I got home last night, but my Palm handheld reset as I went to post, losing everything I had written, so I spat the dummy & went to sleep!

After working all day yesterday, I did night audit at the Hotel & survived with coffee, red bull & a few hot chips, until about 4:30 when guests started to check out & there was nothing more for me to do.

The city night life was interesting. First up was the guests leaving a conference completely smashed & stumbling down the stairs. Getting through the revolving door was a distinct challenge for some. Apparently, it was a conference of medical staff, & I heard a couple slurring about having to get to work in a few hours!! If you had a procedure with any of the above attendees this morning, I hope they didn't leave anything instruments inside!!

Next was a guy who wanted to check-in only to find he actually made the booking for the following night! Thankfully, we still had rooms available but he ended up in a lower quality room, but still paid the price as his original booked room. He wasn't very smart!

Now, I mentioned that the odd prostitute is witnessed, providing services to men interstate on business, away from their wives. Well, spot on midnight, a young girl, possibly under 20, enters & heads directly for the lifts. If she had walked in, smiled at the front desk staff & acted normally, no-one would have realised, but she didn't make eye contact with anyone & the speed she walked made her stand out from the other guests.

Precisely half an hour later, she walks briskly from the lift, out the door & down the street, never once looking up & again drawing the attention of various people in the foyer who casually smirked at one another.

I read today's paper at around 4am when they were delivered & the flight crews were the first guests to venture into the morning air. I can see why some people like working at night. It's generally peaceful, but busy enough not to be boring. I'm not sure I could get used to going to sleep as the sun rises, but knocking nearly an hour of driving to & from work through lack of traffic, sure makes it tempting!

 

posted by elliott  # 4:44 pm

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I volunteered for to be stupid for a day & work some ridiculous hours to help fix up a department in the Hotel.

The issues which need to be addressed are to do with the night audit function. The word of concern in that sentence is "night".

I'm a ‘nine to fiver’ in everyday life, but to fix night audit, means I really need to be around during that period when the sun is facing the planet's underbelly. Hence, I'm not only working today, but I get to come back & work tonight between 11pm & 7am!

Thankfully, I need only watch what the guys do overnight. Thinking will probably not be my strongest point… at say, 3am! I know how ordinary I feel when I'm out at such an hour on a weekend, so I'll be keeping the ‘Red Bulls’ on hand.

It will be interesting to see the city transform at night though. I've heard the stories of the hookers who saunter in to satisfy the business men up in the Hotel rooms & the tales of the ghost who freaks out the flight crews on the first floor (apparently he prefers blondes!).

Now, I'll get to see it all first hand... if I can stay awake that long!

 

posted by elliott  # 12:18 pm

Monday, November 28, 2005

Friday was White Ribbon Day which equates to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

It's an important day which highlights the fact that behind many closed doors, women are being brutally attacked by those who are supposed to love & protect them. Many are even brain-washed into believing they deserve it!

I had a friend who was beaten up on a few occasions by her boyfriend & while everyone was welcoming in the new Millennium, she was being dragged through a house by her hair. She wouldn't come & see me because she was too embarrassed about the bruising & when she detailed the assault in an email, it was all I could do to not be physically ill.

Until this point, it was only in passing that I had heard some comments that he was hurting her. She managed to hide any emotional scars with conviction, making everyone think she had the situation under control.

Thankfully, she eventually saw the light & with a good network of friends, that New Year incident was the last time he laid a hand on her. However, she considers herself to be one of the "lucky" ones.

Talking someone into realising they are being abused is tough. Sometimes it just isn't possible & they even turn & defend the actions of the abuser.

The Advertiser (Adelaide's daily rag) ran a two page spread on the weekend of the legend of George Best. George was regarded as a football superstar with Manchester United, but went on to throw most of his success away. He became a drunk who eventually needed his liver replaced & at one point went on to defend wife-beating on national television.

He died on Friday due to massive organ failure.

In one way the timing was bad, promoting the guy with significant newspaper coverage in my mind condones his actions to some extent. Acknowledging his death is one thing, but such an extravagant eulogy is a bit over the top, especially when the wife-beating was mentioned briefly in the side notes.

It could also be said, the timing of his death was good, having a known abuser die on the day when the world condemns such actions. It's messy, but a few will find solace.

Until recently, I never really considered Karma to exist. Recent events are changing my mind & this one falls into this category. I don't care that George Best may have been one of the finest soccer players ever, he violated some of the simplest human rights & whilst soccer fans will remember him favorably, justice of another kind has been served.

 

posted by elliott  # 5:24 pm

Saturday, November 26, 2005

I did a bit of advertising for Coopers Breweries on Friday afternoon when a plastic poster from The Flagstaff Hill Hotel blew across the road & got stuck on the front of my car.

I had no choice but to keep driving to the top of the hill, otherwise I would have been swamped by traffic.

Quite a few people were bemused coming the other way as the poster just happen to attach itself the correct way around & the right way up!! What are the odds?!?

When I pulled over, another gust of wind ripped it into the air & down into the valley. I was going to do the right thing & dispose of it properly, but nature didn't give me a chance!

 

posted by elliott  # 11:00 pm

Monday, November 21, 2005

I had a bit of a run in with a staff member's husband a couple of weeks ago. They call one another numerous times every single day & it goes way beyond the "isn't that cute how much they're in love" scenario. Most of the time they're arranging which restaurant to eat at, which golf club to play at, what they've bought, etc. All the stuff which doesn't need to be discussed at a moments notice.

My incident with the husband occurred when he called & I picked up. I said I'd pass on the message that he rang & there was a distinct hesitation before he said "just make sure you do pass on the message, because you don't always do!"

What do I fucking look like, his personal message service!?!

I was still courteous & of course I've since thought of so many retaliatory comments which I could have used! I'm just not good at thinking up quick witted responses!

Anyway, I picked up the phone yesterday & said three words "hello, no & no." As soon as he heard my voice he asked is his wife was there & then if I knew where she was. As soon as I replied no to each of his questions he hung up. I don't think he understands that I am effectively his wife's boss! He may learn this in the very near future however!

To put this couple's phone habits into some sort of perspective, I went through the phone bills back to July it was easy to see which mobile phone number had been dialed the most. Over the period of four months there were 194 calls to her husband! This excludes calls which were made to her husband's office & all the calls he makes to her!

As for passing on messages, if I think they're important, I'll go out of my way, but when I know it's going to be something along the lines of; which outfit to wear on the golf course so not to clash with the colour of the grass, I couldn't really give a shit if she gets the message or not & I know full well it'll only be another fifteen minutes before he calls again!

 

posted by elliott  # 4:08 pm

Friday, November 18, 2005

Due to Rummy being in the village, another event is being overshadowed. The Classic Adelaide Rally has become a bit of an institution over the years & has been running throughout the week.

Rallies are a tough spectator event, because they simply don't follow the same path for a number of laps, they whiz by once & that's it, unless you chase them down on another stage. The great part for the rev-heads is checking out the cars as they come & go from the centre of town between the rally & their respective hotels.

I've only spotted a couple of competitors which are staying in the Hotel (the road blockages aren't making life easy for them), but during the morning & late in the afternoon, there has been lines of historic & flash new cars traveling on the main roads.

I can also now officially say I have been passed by Peter Brock in a race car! His little yellow Elfin changed lanes in front of me on Anzac Highway last night, before blasting off down Greenhill Road. He came close to getting bingled as a four wheel drive cut across in front of both of us! I thought about seeing if I could chase Brocky down & make it a real contest, but I don't think my little Charade would have been up to the challenge!

I might well pop into the hills tomorrow & see if I can catch a little of the action like I did a few years ago. Find a tight & tricky corner & you'll be guaranteed some spectacular (& very expensive) moments!

 

posted by elliott  # 3:27 pm

I went to a farewell bash last Saturday night for a couple who are venturing beyond our shores & into the big bad world for the next couple of years.

The night was going pretty well until around ten when some of us noticed a small melee in the beer garden of the pub. The male member of the celebrating couple had upchucked into his own beer! Obviously he was getting pretty drunk by this stage & the pub's security were threatening to kick him out.

The group of people I was with found it mildly amusing but also thinking how embarrassing it must be for his girlfriend who was with us & the majority of her family.

After a short while things calmed down & about an hour later the party was ended abruptly when the same guy was kicked out of the pub for getting his old fella out & taking a leak at the bar!!

If that wasn't enough, I've since discovered they went back to a Hotel & got kicked out for the same thing!!

I've never felt any compulsion to get my dick out in front of my mates. Maybe it's just me, but some personal items just don't need to be shared around.

Look out London, here he comes!

 

posted by elliott  # 9:38 am

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The road blocks were being pushed into place when I left work tonight. Channel Seven had set up a satellite dish next to the outside dining tables of the Hotel around midday. The other TV stations weren’t far behind in staking claims on the footpaths of North Terrace.

I stated in the last post I didn’t want Donald Rumsfeld to come to Adelaide, but I’m over it. Donald can come & meet with whomever he wishes & leave quietly, so long as he doesn’t cause anyone any grief.

What I am severely pissed at is the pathetic attempt to impress another country’s member of Government by going completely over the top.

The Adelaide City Council was out in force today, sweeping gutters, trimming trees, cutting the grass of the King William Street median strip. Never before has the city looked so neat & tidy…. Let me rephrase that. The length of King William Street to the Town Hall & North Terrace back to Port Road has never looked as pristine! I’ve no doubt Rumsfeld will comment from the back of his darkened windowed Government vehicle on just how manicured the little town of Adelaide is! Why do I get the feeling he won’t be checking out Hindley Street any time soon?

According to the papers, up to 500 police will be present to ensure his safety. Even those officers approved for a bit of a holiday have had their time off revoked & called in for duty.

A few months ago, the Southern suburbs had a bit of a crisis with a car roaming the streets & the driver hurling rocks into the path of oncoming vehicles. A number of people are simply lucky to be alive & one young lad has had his life changed forever due to the resulting injuries of one incident. The Police responded by placing a few more random patrols on the roads for a couple of weeks & now the search is over. Not that they found the guy of course, that would require Police resources. Resources which we now discover can only be obtained to impress foreign dignitaries.

Let’s face it, Donald could have easily been slipped into Adelaide without any fanfare, had his meetings with Alexander Downer & made it to America before too many people had worked out what was going on. Even though I know what he looks like, if he walked up to me in the foyer of the Hotel I’d probably wonder if it was him, but if I didn’t know he was coming, I would be unlikely to make the connection. Geez, if he can turn up in Iraq without notification where they all want him dead, surely he could do it here, where no one really gives a shit?

It’s times like these when I wish people like Donald Rumsfeld had their own blogs. I wonder how he would describe his visit? Possibly:

“Friday 18th November 2005

Left Australia today after very successful meetings with Mr Downer. Everyone keeps telling me how Adelaide is a cute little place which doesn’t deserve it’s “murder capital of the world” title.

Can’t really form my own opinion though ‘cause I couldn’t see a darn thing with all those fucking Police in my way!”

 

posted by elliott  # 9:22 pm

Sunday, November 13, 2005

So Ronald Dumsfeld (I like his name spelt this way!) is coming to Adelaide late this week. Therefore, I’ll be working just across the road as he somehow manages to bring city life to a standstill.

As yet, I still can’t find out why he’s coming, other than for a couple of meetings at the Town Hall. The fact that he is the US Secretary of Defence & requires three floors of a hotel, a major city thoroughfare to be blocked & snipers on a few surrounding buildings, makes me think he is the one who needs defending. What about the rest of us??

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the CIA had a look through the Hotel, but I didn’t expand on it at the time. Now since Rumsfeld makes the front page of the daily rag, I hardly think disclosing details could put anyone in danger! A security team did check out the roof & surrounds when it was rumoured Condoleezza Rice was coming to town. Now I know that a least one hotel room facing North Terrace is booked for the security operation & whether someone will be scanning people from the sight on a rifle, is something I’m not sure I want to know!

Donny gets three floors of the Hyatt to himself, which allows a floor above & below to absorb any…… hell, I don’t know,…. noise maybe?!? I don’t think one floor will absorb any kind of explosion!! I’m sure any guests unfortunate enough to have a room booked during this period will have to undergo intense security procedures. Body cavity search anyone??

Will I be able to get to work on Thursday & Friday? I wouldn’t have a clue! If North Terrace gets blocked, then the odds aren’t good, but it seems information on what exactly will happen is anyone’s guess.

I would have preferred Rumsfeld stayed away from Adelaide. I don’t consider his presence to heighten any threat of terrorism, but I am offended that someone who means nothing to this country be given treatment which rivals royalty & is without doubt at our expense!

UPDATE - Monday 14th November

SA Police have released the following road closure.

North Terrace will be closed from 6pm Wednesday 16th until 10pm Friday 18th for all East bound traffic from the Morphett Street Bridge to King William Street.

 

posted by elliott  # 5:38 pm

Monday, November 07, 2005

I love a good conspiracy theory, so I occasionally check out sites which feature discussions on wierd subjects like secret governments, aliens & of course the New World Order.

Most is complete crap, but that does not mean that it can't be great reading. Some stuff is most certainly real, but not officially acknowledged. Area 51 is covered beautifully in pictures over at Dreamlandresort.com & places like Mount Weather & Site R outside Washington can be readily found on the net. I've done some careful Google Maps hunting & the Mount Weather facility is visible, but like most American places of secrecy, the clarity isn't very helpful.

I came across a fascinating story which I ended up spending a couple of hours working through last night. The name John Titor even gets a mention over at Wikipedia as a potential hoax which has been hard to disprove. John postsed to a number of forums back in 2000 for a few months & then disappeared & has never been heard from since. He claimed to be a time traveller from 2036 & while most would discount the story at that point, what he wrote over that period is fascinating. His knowledge of physics is remarkable & his numerous predictions of what would happen between now & 2036 have been scarily accurate to date.

A number of people managed to collect the majority of his postings from various sites & they are archived at the "Above Top Secret" website. There is a lot of information which can start to hurt the brain, especially the in depth analysis of time travel.

If the story is a hoax, someone has really gone out of their way to get their facts straight & maintain a perfect script for four or so months of posting. The cult status of John Titor has now out grown the Internet, with a book being published & the likelyhood of a future movie!

His main prediction was for a civil war to start in America during 2005 & with only a month & a bit to go, it's looking a touch shaky. However, with the chaos in the US, some would argue it's already begun!

 

posted by elliott  # 5:00 pm

Sunday, November 06, 2005

I went to the most crapmongous quiz night on Friday. In fact, if it had gotten any worse, there probably would have been a riot! Since it was a fairytale themed night, a riot of individuals dressed as Snow White, Shrek, Peter Pan & Cinderella, amongst others, would have at least made it interesting.

First was the complete breakdown of the computerised question system. Had it worked, it would have been fantastic, but multiple Windows error messages kept popping up & even when they resorted to a manual system to show the questions, problems still occurred.

I went along with the Sales team from the Hotel to make up the numbers, so thankfully I was in good company. We kept ourselves amused during the evening, whilst the table next to ours decided to drink heavily to pass the time. In the end, one of them who was marking our answers leaned over & suggested we should all go back to High School after we got a few questions wrong. We later found out that he was a University lecturer which pretty much explains everything.

I met up with a guy I went through Flinders University with & who later went on to lecture in Accounting. He said I was lucky to have a job in the “real” world, rather than only being able to teach people concepts which he has never seen in the workplace. I had never thought about it, but knowing about accounting principles & knowing how to apply them are very different beasts indeed. He told me that even with all his years at Uni, employers wouldn’t even look at him because he had no true experience.

So, I feel better about the guy who abused us, safe in the realisation he knows a whole lot of general stuff, but will never have a real job!

Before the final round, when we knew we wouldn’t have a shot at winning the event, we unanimously decided to leave for home. Normally, I’d feel bad about leaving when a lot of hard work had been put into organising the night, but a few tables had already left & due to all the unforeseen calamities, it ended up going for a lot longer than anticipated.

Someone who was to be at our table, managed to break his wrist in a sporting accident on Thursday night. It may have been an extreme way to get out of such a crap quiz night, but in hindsight, he may have had the right idea!

 

posted by elliott  # 8:43 pm

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

It's the race which stops a nation & gives me about six minutes to enjoy some peace & quiet without the phone ringing. Today, that will be a bonus, because I haven't the time to abuse the last staff member for their stupidity before the next one comes along!

The Melbourne Cup is a mugs game though. Horses can run fast, but they still do whatever they want at the end of it all. If they chose to buck their rider, jump the barrier & trample over all the posh chicks in those half-hat thingos, well, who's going to stop them?

Literally millions of moolah have been placed on favourite, Makybe Diva, winner of the great race for the last two years. However, the owner can pull the horse out of the running at the last minute if the track doesn't look quite right & they were still deciding this last night. Why you'd want to lose money with that kind of risk, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I've had a flutter on probably the last ten Melbourne Cups, only once scored a winner (in an office sweep) & once backed the final finisher! (It actually didn't finish dead last, because, yes, one actually broke & leg & was shot. I use "dead last" therefore, in its most genuine form!)

Overall, I'm still out of pocket when you would think the odds of picking a good runner out of 24 nags wouldn't be too hard, especially when half have odds so long, they should have obviously been put out to pasture years ago!

So, this year I'm not even in the office sweep. I don't feel the desire to cheer on a horse I've never heard of & will never hear of again after today. I think it’s called "blind faith", to take a plunge without any background or research to back the logic of betting.

To all those who back a winner, congratulations & spend the winnings wisely. To those who back a loser, well, just enjoy the thrill of the race & be safe in the knowledge, the horse you placed good money on will shortly be minced up & sold to feed starving dogs around the nation!

By the way, those half-hat thingos, as I understand, are officially called "fascinators"! Hmmm, fascinating!!

 

posted by elliott  # 1:23 pm

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