Read all about their schemes and adventuring.... it's well worth a fee......

I don't really have anything to blog about, so it is with Aussie spirit that I have decided to have a whinge............. I am going to call it;

"WHAT CHEESES ME OFF..."

• TV stations changing their programming just when things start to get interesting. I love watching tv: it is my chief recreational pastime. I find it extremely annoying when a station shows 1 or 2 episodes of a tv series, then don't run it for a while, or all of a sudden stick the show in at an obscure timeslot, eg "BUFFY" turning up at 1am on TEN the other day, "Supernatural" off for a couple of weeks, "House" coming and going at odd times and tonight, Nine decided to run a repeat of a "documentary" about Carl Williams instead of "The Mentalist"..... The same thing happened with a little series called "Roswell" back in the early 90's........ Unfortunately, most of the shows I like seem to be on late at night..... I know there's more, but that's enough of those for now.....
  

• Anti-smoking ads: Anti-drinking ads as well. These just don't work. They are so awful and offensive, and the only people who seem to really pay attention are the people who don't partake of the advertised evil product. So much money is wasted that could be put to better use in the hospital system. GG is part of the "Healthy Harold" generation, for whom the evils of drinking, drugs and smoking any substance have been force-fed into them. Like most teenagers, they just don't care about any of the dangers......... it's more important to have fun..... they tend to look upon the ads with ill-disguised scorn. No amount of adverse advertising will ever stop this stype of behaviour unless people really want to. And no-one ever believes that they will become addicted. Putting up the price of cigarettes isn't really much of a deterrent either..... GG smokes "roll-your-owns" because they're cheaper. Our house has always been a non-smoking abode, so the argument of "children copy the example of their parents" doesn't fit here....
  

• Parking fines. Or more specifically, my daughter's parking fines. Last year, I payed over $500 to cover these little babies for my daughter. This year, during February and March, my delightful daughter has racked up another 5 or so at $84 a pop, all because she "can't afford/be bothered" to organise more appropriate parking. There is only metered parking, not residential parking where she lives in Newcastle, and as a person who frequently works until 3am, waking up to move her car from outside her residence is not often a priority. Newcastle Council booked her 3 days in a row....... If the fines aren't paid by the due date, another $50 is added on. It's a rather convoluted process to submit a stat dec stating I wasn't the driver at the time of the infringement, involving a solicitor or legal counsel.......
  

• Whilst I'm on a car-related rant, e-tags and motorway tolls cheese me off as well. last year, after a few of these little suckers arriving in the mail after Beloved drove through Sydney on his way south, I tried to buy an e-tag on-line. After 3 days of NOT being able to succeed in this endeavour, I tried to phone, again to no avail.... The same thing happened to Beloved again in January, but as he was driving a rental car, the account didn't arrive until March, complete with high administration fees. In March, GG managed to rack up 3 motorway tolls in the space of 14 minutes..... because she didn't address the issue within 48 hours (after she phoned me on the day and I advised her to phone 1300ROAM), the admin fees on these little suckers have ended up costing me $35 instead of $11... what-the! Probably the most annoying thing is that I can drive around Sydney without paying any tolls except to cross the harbour........ You're probably wondering why I pay the fines: it's simple. "Her" car is registered in my name so that the insurance and CTP is cheaper...... To change it over into her name will not only make the insurances more expensive, it will cost money (of course) for the transfer..........

Ok. Rant over....... thanks for listening......

Now, to think of a title.. it has to be lines from a song, or a title ..... Oh yes..... "Crime of the Century" by Supertramp.....

Here's the rest of the Supertramp song:

Now they're planning the crime of the century,

Well, what will it be?

Read all about their schemes and adventuring,

It's well worth a fee,

So roll up and see.

And they rape the universe.

How they've gone from bad to worse:

Who are these men of lust, greed, and glory?

Rip off the masks and let's see.

But that's not right - oh no, what's the story?

There's you and there's me

That can't be right.........

Cheers, Cyndy ;0)