Charming

Some of the evidence coming out of the inquest into the death of Dianne Brimble points to a cruise on the P&O ship “Pacific Sky” being pretty damn sleazy. In the most recent evidence we have one of the 8 men who are regarded by police as “persons of interest” (because she was found dead in their cabin) showing just what a charmer and a gentleman he is. Among the comments made in his statement to police:

“It’s like, Hi, see you. I just brushed her off, I didn’t want to speak to her . .. breath, yuck, ugly dog, just go talk to someone else. Ring the RSPCA,”

“She smelt, she was black, and she was ugly,”

“There was this fat thing laying in my bed, and just like … yeah, it’s like, can you get off?

“I am just angry … I am, yeah, pissed [off]. How dare this thing f–k my holiday up.”

“I want a big apology from everybody out there … Just, like, all the
passengers … I’d really like the captain to do something about it. That
would make my day. You know, it’s not his fault, I understand, but it’s
not my fault either.”

Lovely! Charming, woman hater, narcissistic, selfish ….all wonderful qualities. And here he is:

The one on the left - Letterio Silvestri. Not that the other one (Mark Wilhelm) is any better, judging from the evidence. He’s the one who had sex with Mrs Brimble, and took, or had one of his mates, take photos of the happy event …. no doubt so they could circle jerk over them later on. And all of this allegedly happened while she was drugged out of her mind, by GHB allegedly administered by one of the 8 “persons of interest”.

The evidence of late does P&O no credit either. Looks like they were very keen to sweep the death under the carpet rather than help get to the bottom of it.

Update (28/6/2006): More on just what a charmer Silvestri is.

Technorati Tags: Dianne Brimble, rape, Letterio Silvestri, P&O, Pacific Sky

How do you lose $4.7m playing the pokies?

Ask Kate Jamieson, who used to work for Bendigo Bank.  She did.  Problem was she stole her gambling money from the bank.  She was in court this week.

She did most of her gambling at Crown Casino, going up to 3 times a week, and putting up to $20,000 through the $1 poker machines.  She must have lots of patience …. I get bored shitless after putting about $10 through.  She must be a loser too, putting that much through she must surely have had some decent wins along  the way.

Says plenty for Bendigo Bank too that an employee can get away with stealing this much.  If I were a shareholder I’d be putting some serious questions to the directors and management next AGM.

Technorati Tags: gambling addiction, poker machines, Crown Casino, big loser

Flying is fun

I had a bit of a debacle of a day today.  Had to go to Sydney for work, for a10.30 meeting.  So I booked myself on the 8.15 flight which should give me plenty of time to get to where I had to go.  I was good and rocked up to Canberra airport by about 7.20, and went to hang out in the lounge (no waiting round with the riff raff in the public waiting areas for me).  I must add that it was very foggy here this morning, meaning no planes could land here, therefore none were available to fly me to Sydney.  So I waited, and waited, the 8.15 departure slipping to 8.55, then 10.05, 11.05.  I rang Sydney to let them know my situation, and moved my meeting to the afternoon.  The lounge at the airport was standing room only.  Just before 12 I decided to give up and abandon the trip, went to the desk to cancel when the first inbound plane landed, so my flight could leave about 12.15 …..5 hours waiting!  Thats the worst I’ve ever had - its foggy in the morning several times each winter, but about 2 hours is the worst delay I’ve had till today.

Anyway, got to Sydney about 1.30 for my meeting, dealt with a couple of other things, then got back to Sydney airport for my 6.55 flight.  Well, the delays this morning still hadn’t worked themselves through the system, so the flight home didn’t go till nearly 8 pm.  At least waiting around in the lounge in the afternoon is better than in the morning … it has the advantage of free drinks.

So, 6 hours of waiting around at airports today.  What a way to spend a large chunk of my day!

I chuckled to myself on the way home, when I got my boarding pass it said “catering not assured”.  Well fuck me dead, I thought, I’m devastated at the possibility of missing out on airline food.  I don’t even know why they bother serving food on domestic flights now, its such a token effort anyway … crackers, cheese and dip in a plastic box, with an OJ.  Best thing I’ve had on an afternoon flight lately is when they’ve served a packet of cashews and some of those cheese twist thingys.

Anyway, despite my joy at the prospects of spending much time hanging out in airports, I’m flying again on Sunday, to New York for the week, for work.  But that’s business class, so I’m not going to suffer being jammed into economy class, so I get one of these.

Technorati Tags: flying, airlines, delays, airline food, New York

Fucking pussies

The title I chose for this post sort of reminds me of an old joke from school:

Q - Whats better than fucking babies?
A - Nothing, its the ultimate.

But, actually what I intended to write about was this story of some pussy at Telstra who was traumatised by bad language at work. He developed anxiety and depression after his bosses told him to “park your little arse in that chair”. He’s now been awarded workers’ compensation for almost 3 months off work because of his emotional distress.

Now I thought, what a fucking pussy! Get a thicker hide, mate. Who’s bothered that much by a bit of swearing? At my work, there’s a fair bit of use of “fuck” and its derivatives (useful word, “fuck” - can be noun, verb, adjective, adverb … just so versatile), “shit” (hardly counts as swearing anymore), and occasionally “cunt”. Its just how it is, and has been most places I’ve ever worked, to varying degrees.

I must say though, that I really can’t stand people who say “fucking” this, “fucking” that in every sentence - that really does demonstrate a certain lack of intelligence and laziness, ie they don’t know or can’t be bothered thinking of another word. And in this Telstra example, where the guy affected by the swearing was a “religious teetoller”, obviously his colleagues and managers showed a distinct lack of sensitivity and basic respect for the guy.

Oh well, fuck, cunt, shit, bum …..take that!!!!

Technorati Tags: foul language, swearing, fuck, cunt, shit, pussy

Just another day in the public service

Staff at the Rural Payments Agency, part of the British civil service, have clearly not enough work to do.

They have been filling in their busy days by:

• leaping naked from filing cabinets
• having sex in the toilets
• taking drugs
• using foul language
• brawling in the reception area
• holding break dancing contests in working hours
• vomiting in “official” cups and leaving them to fester in cupboards.

What the hell?  When I was in the public service we did this shit every day, and much worse.  Now I’m in the private sector, I’ve now learnt what hard work is, and what bludgers those public servants really are.

Strangely enough, the behaviour began to come under scrutiny when a memo was sent to managers by staff, who were sick of the shenanigans.  What does that say about the so-called management?  Asleep at the wheel?  To date, “disciplinary action and a dismissal have taken place”.  I would have thought whatever managers were overseeing the people behaving that way ought to have the decency to resign and if not, be sacked.

Technorati Tags: public service, rural payments agency, misconduct, brawling, foul language, sex in toilets, break dancing, naked filing cabinets

Canberra beats up on Canberra

The Federal Government has used its powers over territories to disallow the ACT Government’s civil unions laws. Civil unions, under this legislation, were a marriage-like legal recognition of the status of same-sex couples, also referred to as “gay marriage”.

Now, I’m fairly ambivalent about civil unions, gay marriage, whatever you want to call it. I fail to see how giving this sort of legal recognition of gay relationships in any way undermines the institution of marriage or really, is anybody’s business except those in the relationship. What really shits me about the Federal government’s actions here is the moralistic approach they’ve taken to block the actions of a properly elected ACT local government, and then used their powers over the territories to achieve this. At the end of the day, we voters in Canberra elected our local government, and they are answerable to us. If the voters here don’t agree with the government’s policies, its up to us to ditch them. It should not be up to John Howard, Philip Ruddock and co to come in over the top and say “we don’t like what you’re doing, so we’re stopping it”. They can’t do this with a State Government, but can via the Commonwealth’s constitutional power over territories. In my view, disallowance of laws the Federal government just happens not to like is nothing but an abuse of its powers.

Update (14/6/2006): I might add that I’m no great fan of the ACT Government - they’re a pack of wankers, but at least they’re our wankers.

Technorati Tags: civil unions, gay marriage, ACT government, states vs territories

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

Incredible comeback in the World Cup match against Japan tonight. 3 goals in the last 10 minutes to come from behind and win 3-1.

Tim Cahill was the hero for Australia. The referee was the villain, giving the Japanese a fairly dubious goal in the first half. Was just getting ready for all the “we was robbed” headlines and rantings on TV and radio - fortunately that fantastic finish fixes that.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, Australia, Japan, Tim Cahill

Queens Birthday honours

No, I didn’t score a gong.

What an anachronism they are!  The ones that really get up my nose are those given to senior public servants, business people, sportspeople, TV people and the like.  They’re getting them for doing their job … why do they deserve the extra recognition of an Order of Australia or whatever?  If we do have to have awards like this, it should be the ordinary people who dominate them, for community work, not high profile people who are more than adequately rewarded for their efforts in other ways.

Technorati Tags: awards, honours, Order of Australia

Moccasin City = Bogan Haven

Moe, Victoria, is bogan town.  Probably best known in recent years for the Jaidyn Leskie murder.

I noticed this picture and the accompanying story yesterday, and the thought “bogans” leapt off the screen at me.

Let me list the boganiffic qualities of this saga:

• names like Bilynda, Kadee, Harley, Breehanna
• nice flannelette shirts
• the almost incestuous relationships going on, in particular the father of Jaidyn (another good bogan name) being the former husband of his mother’s sister
• women having x children by x different fathers
• almost universal unemployment amongst the key people
• drinking and drugs
• petty criminal records for many of those involved
• Jaidyn’s mother being out on the piss the night of his murder and leaving her baby with her no-hoper boyfriend
• stuff like people working on cars in their yards (I can just picture the old cars cluttering the yards) and having a pet pig.

Could we get a better example of the life of a bogan?

Technorati Tags: Jaidyn Leskie, Bilynda Williams, bogan, Moe

Lost

How lost can you get? Not as bad as 3 people in Miami, Florida.

They spent 3 days driving around Miami trying to find their hotel. They were ultimately found by police, sitting in their car in the parking area of a servo. According to police:

“The two women were taking turns driving, and they’ve been driving around non-stop trying to find their hotel,”

“The gentleman does have Alzheimer’s, so he didn’t even know he was lost.”

Funny, but kind of sad, too.

Technorati Tags: Miami, lost, Alzheimer’s