There is a clothing store in the Chadstone Shopping Mall which displays a female T-shirt with a worrying message.
I have walked past it several times and wondered what sort of female would wear it.
This is what the T-shirt says.
“Did I have fun?”
My reply to this chick’s question is “If you can’t remember whether you had fun or not, then you can be certain somebody else definitely had fun.”
The flower of womanhood has certainly withered, has it not?
You have to wonder what got into the heads of a collection of excellent celebrity actors to accept a role in this woeful film. Fine acting is how one could describe it or perhaps an example of O.A.A (over acting anonymous).
A bunch of annoying characters get together in Osage County, Oklahoma to have it out following a family tragedy. Now that is an original premise, is it not?
Plenty of screaming, moaning, groaning, accusations. A collection of the usual redneck gripes…”He’s not your cousin, he’s your brother…damn. Shouldn’t make a difference, should it?” Not round here in these parts.
Nothing like the old musical “Oklahoma” you could say.
May I suggest that this film will do very little for the tourist trade in Osage County, Oklahoma. It will reinforce old prejudices about dysfunctional families and whose family isn’t, anyhow?
No wonder I’m sick and tired of the old themes. Marriage stinks, children abandon you and then you die, old and lonely. Very uplifting, indeed.
My one consolation is that this film did not receive any awards in today’s Golden Globes Awards.
It is a tragic beginning to 2014 for two police women and one police man. These poor souls have suffered extreme burns to their bodies when they answered a call to come to the aid of a man who was threatening to blow himself up.
Something had upset him, some romance gone wrong or whatever and so the place blew up when the police entered his apartment. One police constable has burns to 90% of her body. What horror!
The explosive guy has survived, unfortunately, while the innocent police folk are scarred for life. That’s if they live…
I can’t help thinking that there is something wrong with society that puts up with these people who want to cause so much grief to innocent hard-working citizens like the police who tried to help him.
I have to be frank here and state that if someone threatens to self-harm or go on a hunger strike we should call his bluff. As Nike says “Just do it.” It will save us a lot of trouble and will get rid of these publicity-seeking pests.
So a person refuses to leave his apartment, so what? Hours of negotiations would be avoided if they just told him “Go ahead, make my day!”
In my opinion, the only time that we should interfere in the displays of stupid egotism is in the case of an hostage situation in which innocents may be in danger. That’s when the authorities have to become involved.
Quite frankly, I would have organised for the other residents in the apartment block to be escorted out of the building and then, for all I care, he could blow himself up to smithereens.
It breaks my heart to see three innocent people have their lives ruined just because this idiot was having a tantrum. It’s simply not right.
You can add the following to the list of things that piss me off.
I am driving along minding my own business when one of those infernal SUV’s cuts me off, as is its wont. There is something about an SUV (four wheel drive vehicle by its other name) that rubs me up the wrong way.
Let’s be honest, it’s not the vehicle so much as the attitude of the driver of an SUV. It takes an especially annoying sort of person to drive an SUV in the middle of a big city.
I know that this vehicle never leaves a bitumen road to climb a crag in the outback. It never ventures far from the cafes and shopping malls of Melbourne and it usually double parks outside a school at drop-off and pickup times.
Drivers of these cars rarely glance in the rear view mirror or have second thoughts about doing a U-turn in the middle of heavy traffic.
So that’s why I have concluded that people who drive SUV’s are not considerate, courteous or intelligent. And that’s putting it mildly.
So you can imagine my reaction when I read on the rear window of an SUV that there is a “Baby on Board.”
What is that notice meant to signify? Does it mean “Please don’t hit me because I am special because I have a baby in the car.”
or
“Be aware of my great contribution to overpopulation and applaud my achievement in producing an offspring.”
I have to admit that my initial response is to mutter “Who gives a stuff?” and then I’m tempted to toot my horn very deliberately in acknowledgement of such information. After all, the message has been received and duly noted. “Baby on Board. Idiot at the wheel!”
There are two million homeless people in India. These people have nowhere to sleep, don’t know whether they will still be alive tomorrow and where their next meal is coming from should they survive the night on the streets.
Life is grim for them.
So a bunch of middle and upper class Indian do-gooders decided to do something for the homeless.
The idea they came up with was to spend a night in the open–al fresco, so to speak, to demonstrate their support for the poor unfortunates. It made them feel good to perform this generous gesture for their ‘fellow men’. After all, it was only for one night and they could always breakfast at some posh hotel the next morning.
Not for one moment could these rich people experience the stress and deprivation of being genuinely homeless. Not for one moment could they possible understand what it feels like to be insecure.
What hypocrisy!
The rich Indians had slept rough “shabby chic style” the way that Prince William of Buckingham Palace did a while back to show his support for the homeless in Britain.
When I say “rough” I mean minus the duvet, the fluffy pillows and the lavender-scented sheets. William was protected, of course, by the Secret Service and was never in mortal danger of being stabbed overnight as he slept. Nor was he concerned about where his kippers and coddled eggs would come from in the morning. We can assume that he felt pretty safe.
This was a gesture and as far as gestures go, the publicity shots were pretty successful.
I mean what more could the popular royal do, you ask?
Well, he could have invited a few of the homeless people to sleep on his turf in the palace. Offer them some shelter.
And that’s what those well-off Indians should have done. After all, they had homes, beds, food and safety.
They should have provided some decent sleeping quarters for the homeless, if they were genuinely concerned. That would have demonstrated that they really cared instead of taking part in a pointless stunt of tasteless and fruitless condescension.
They call themselves “Hot Listings” or” Million Dollar Listings” but these American TV shows make me squirm. While British TV shows about real estate treat the audience with respect, the American ones are embarrassingly phoney.
Why? Well, it’s because they follow a formula of females in very high heels and strident voices dragging some individual around a mansion worth several million with 6 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms which cater for the most incontinent of residents.
And, of course, there’s the kitchen which will never be used but which has to contain every appliance that has ever been invented. It’s to die for don’t ya know with the marble on the bench top which comes from the underbelly of a crag in Africa and costs an arm and a leg. It was shipped in bits and pieces and then stuck together in situ because of its Gargantuan weight.
Are you impressed yet?
Mustn’t forget the cellar filled with wine that’s too good to drink. And so we exit this stately pleasure dome in Xanadu and admire the infinity pool filled with mineral water from Evian.
Okay, so you’re impressed by now. And that would be perfectly understandable, but apparently, according to the producers, it wasn’t enough for the viewers. The producers wanted to add some spice, some tension, some “human interest”. So they concocted pseudo rivalries between the realtors.
They hate each other. They are bitchy, they gossip, they compete.
And then one of them experiences a major personal catastrophe. His dog dies and his friends attend a canine wake. Will the rival realtor turn up or will he really behave badly? Ho hum…
As if that’s not enough drama we have to endure the private musings of another realtor. He is gay and his partner wants to adopt a baby. Alas, he is not sure whether he is ready for such a commitment.
Is this silly soap really necessary?
Quite frankly, I love looking at real estate. I love interior design ideas. I love interesting architecture. That is why I used to enjoy such programmes when they first appeared on TV.
But no longer…
I have been totally turned off by the stupid scripts which pad the shows with personal issues about dead dogs and jealousies and relationships and who cares?
What should have been an interesting insight into the property market in the U.S has turned into a collection of puerile and petulant rivalries along the lines of “Toddlers and Tiaras.”
Thank goodness for the British and Australian versions of real estate shows. May they never emulate their ridiculous American counterparts.
You couldn’t help but notice that the promoters of Actimist had decided on a bltiz campaign on TV and in the print media. They were going to push Optrex Actimist eye spray constantly until they saturated the market with this product. They even displayed piles of it in a container in Woolworths.
So how was it different from other eye sprays? Well, you could spray it on your closed eyelids. You could spray it on eyes that had make-up.
And it was perfectly harmless.
What they didn’t tell you is that it can cause the eyes to sting quite painfully. It also ran down your face and would streak your eye make-up.
This is what happened to me.
Worse still, after removing all make-up and spraying my eyelids in the evening I would wake up with gunk on my eyelids and have trouble focussing for a few hours.
To prove my point, I stopped using Actimist and had no trouble seeing clearly the next morning.
Of course, it could have been be the case that I was the only person on this planet who experienced problems with Actimist, but somehow I don’t believe that I’m so unique. In fact, I came across a review on the internet from a person who had a similar reaction to mine.
That makes two of us, at least.
My advice is when there is a huge marketing programme of a product be wary. You are playing around with your eyesight and that is very risky.
I am sitting at my desk opening a package from McPherson’s Consumer Products. Inside the jiffy bag I find a pair of Manicare cuticle clippers.
These have been sent to me as a replacement for a pair of clippers that had become blunt. When I had inquired how long such clippers should stay sharp McPherson’s immediately offered to replace them. I sent them a photo of the clippers to prove that I did indeed own a pair and in a couple of days the parcel arrived.
Now that’s how business should be done! Customer service is extremely important. It goes without saying that companies such as McPherson’s believe in keeping faith with a customer.
Unlike Bertocchi Smallgoods who caused me such grief with their false labelling and when I asked them about the ingredients they informed me that the labelling on their product was incorrect because they were trying to use up old casing.
What they should have done is to treat me with courtesy. But they didn’t and it was up to Woolworths to handle the problem.
Needless to say I have not bought any Bertocchi smallgoods since. However, I would not hesitate to buy a McPherson’s product in the future because they stand by their customers.
It was always a personal thing with me. I had met former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, years ago and he struck me then as a very supercilious person who would say anything and do anything to get power.
Years layer I was to have my opinion confirmed when he did a backflip on certain issues that he had sworn by.
I guess all politicians change their minds as time goes on, but in Rudd’s case it was a conviction betrayal. He pretended to support a cause and then betrayed it when it suited him to.
I never forget a betrayal.
If you want an example of how low Rudd can stoop one only has to think of his farewell speech when his party lost the election. He could not resist saying ‘”Eat your heart out” to Dr Bill Glasson who had not succeeded in winning the seat which they both contested.
In my opinion, that is very un-Australian and I was never convinced that Rudd was pro-Australia.
When you think about it Tony Abbott could have thrown many more blows at the Prime Minister. There was the terrible outburst against the Chinese Embassy staff who did not translate some Chinese message for him. He threw a hissy fit then and even used pretty shocking expletives.
And yet, Abbott chose not to capitalise on Rudd’s bad temper. Abbott also had at his disposal the recorded clips of the former ministers and caucus members of the Labor Party who announced to the whole of Australia and the world how difficult Rudd was to deal with.
They chose to go to the backbench or even resign rather than serve in the government with Rudd.
They couldn’t stand the way he did business.
Abbott had all of this dynamite stuff at his disposal. He could have used it and yet he didn’t. I think it was because he didn’t want to stoop to conquer. He allowed Rudd to be negative and hysterical in his attacks on Abbott.
All this made Abbott look good. He remained calm and in control while Rudd continued to rave on. I’m convinced that in Rudd’s dictionary the words “brief” and “concise” do not exist. He simply couldn’t stop himself from going on and on.
The results of the election aren’t in yet, but whatever the outcome, Abbott has gained my respect.
LiliGans.com 