media circus

Reading today’s Herald on Sunday is just making me angry. I’m talking about the mess a certain sports broadcaster has gotten himself into.  I love this quote:

“He has struggled with the fact that people do not seem to understand that he is extremely remorseful and he has reached a stage where he just doesn’t know what he can do.”

I don’t know, but here’s a thought, why not just shut the fsck up.  (And yes I know we should all stop blogging about it too – I get the irony here).

Honestly, he did the deed, he admitted to doing the deed.  He can say sorry all he likes but it doesn’t stop me from knowing what I’ve read about the original incident.  He may be a thoroughly nice guy, this may have been a one off lapse in judgment, he may never do anything like this again - I don’t know, I don’t know the guy.

Funny though, the domestic violence ads on TV always say don’t go back.  No matter how sorry he is just get out.

guide to shoplifting

Have you ever wondered which stores actually use those security systems they have at their doors?  I’ve never given it another thought till I got my new bag with the 8 magnetic catches.

If a store has a magnetic system and actually bothers to turn it on I know about it.  Annoyingly my bag triggers those systems as I walk through the door.  The thing which amuses me is the stores which only turn it on sometimes.  I’m also fascinated that not once have I ever had someone come after me and challenge me. Part of me is pleased I don’t look like a shoplifter but I also wonder why the shops don’t care more.  It can’t be cheap to install one of those systems so I wonder why they bother if they either don’t use it or ignore it.

And of course I’m growing to hate the sound of beeping at those few stores who do use it.  I don’t really need my arrival announced to all shoppers.  I’ve noticed the only people who turn to observe what’s causing the beeping are other shoppers.  Curiously, in the Sydney CBD, the trend seems to be to turn the detection systems off at the weekend – a higher volume of shoppers with magnetic fastening bags causing too much noise I expect.

And no, of course I’m not going to tell you which stores.

all aboard the mighty 200

Planet of the dead started like a cross between Tomb Raider and a James Bond film.  All the while I was thinking OMG it’s Zoe Slater.  She was annoying on Eastenders so I wasn’t holding much hope.  Michelle Ryan’s character Christina had an air of smugness and superiority about her right from the start as she robs a gallery of a golden goblet.  She of course in her get-away ended up on the same London route 200 bus as the Doctor.  Did he really need to be eating an Easter egg as he got on the bus?  I know it is the Easter special but it was all a bit naff.

As one would expect the bus enters a tunnel, drives through a hole in the fabric of reality and ends up on another world with 3 suns.  The bossy boots/little rich girl/dominatrix Lady Christine da Souza proclaims herself leader. The bus driver attempts walking back through the hole and is fried, they realise the bus has protected them like a Faraday cage but of course it is now stuck in the sand and then runs out of petrol.

Back on earth UNIT is called in and mad professor/welsh nutter character Malcolm begins his work.  Of course cell phone coverage between earth and the planet is no problem.  Another bus passenger, Carmen (Ellen Thomas who played the acerbic Liz in Teachers), can hear voices, lots of voices of the dead. Christina and the Doctor head off to investigate and run into a couple of human size fly creatures – Tritovore – turns out they crashed on the planet too. The Doctor and Christina soon learn the sand storm heading towards them is actually a swarm of metal sting-ray type creatures which have devoured everything on the planet.

The Doctor explains his pseudo science to Christina with my fave line of the episode when he describes something as a “super clever out of spacey way”.  Anyway, alien tech scavenged from the fly ship, fly-people devoured by the sting-ray creatures the Doctor and Christina race back to the bus.  With the final element – the golden goblet- the bus powers up and levitates back through the wormhole and over London in a very Harry Potter-esque moment.

Gratitude all round – nutty Malcom hugs the Doctor and can’t stop saying I love you, the Doctor seems fine with that but is disgusted when saluted by the UNIT boss.  Predictably at the end Christina wants to join the Doctor, he says no, she is handcuffed for the theft and led away, he relents and pops her handcuffs, she escapes and flies off in the bus.  Meanwhile Carmen tells the Doctors “your song is ending sir”, that it is “returning through the dark” and “he will knock 4 times”.

 I’m just pleased Christina didn’t leave with the Doctor.

Of curious interest is the title of the next episode – The waters of Mars. It is an anagram of both “The masters of war” or “The war of masters”. Coincidence?

i just want to shop

Hello blog, long time no post. Things have to excite me or  annoy me before I’ll post about them and of course they have to be topics which wont get me fired.  Last but not least I have to have time.

A couple of times lately i’ve gone out shopping and two things are reaaaaally annoying me.

1. What is with those giant pushchairs? The size of SUVs these monstrosities have no place in small shops. In fact the owners of these beasts probably have SUVs, I can’t imagine they’d fit in a normal sized vehicle. These are the pushchairs designed for the great outdoors and they make perfect sense their but in small shops and busy shopping malls they just get in the way. Only one thing makes it worse and that’s when parents let the slightly older child push – then no-one’s ankles are safe.

2. Sales which are not really sales. We seem to be in the season of endless sales at the moment along with any excuse for a sale. But they aren’t really the bargain they claim to be. In fact, recently when I was in Farmers pointing out that there discounted price was more then Dick Smiths current advertised price the assistant offered me the item at that price at Farmers since it used to be that price a week ago.  Now I’m not suggesting that Farmers raised their prices then put them on sale at slightly more than they cost the same day. According to the assitant the price had been raised for a whole week before they went on sale and I’m sure it was a coincidence. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel like a sale.

I’m also tired of the endless advertising of sales which end up being not much of a discount. No-one is fooled by the promise of “up to 50% off everything”. You just know  it is the $10 usb sticks which will be 50% off and the $4000 TV will be 5%.   At the moment it feels like everywhere is advertising a sale all the time but not offering anything all that spectacular.  I ’ve stopped looking at the advertising and don’t believe any of it.