Cashpoints/ATMs

 

Perhaps it’s just me, but it drives me nuts every time I go to take cash out from the ATM and that question pops up asking me: “Do you wish to save this withdrawal as your favourite transaction?”

No, I told you last time... I do not have a ‘favourite’ transaction. I’m quite happy thanks with the choices on offer... and if, on the odd occasion, the one I want is not listed I’m more than happy to type it in under the ‘Other Amount’ option. Please listen to me and don’t ask me that same question EVERY time I make a withdrawal! This does not save me any time at all and doesn’t make me feel loved and I think that’s what you are trying to do, yes?

Am I the only one that whinges about this?
Take it to the forum

Rubbish Television Ads

 

What is it with television adverts in Australia? I’ve been here nearly ten years now and they still drive me nuts.

Your average movie seems to run for longer than Gandhi because there are ad breaks every five minutes. The ads are about three times as loud as the movie so you have to reach for the remote to turn down the volume. Then when the movie eventually comes back on after another three minutes of your life wasted yet more ads appear at the bottom of the screen and distract your attention from the movie. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you are at the most important part of the movie or not. The ads are virtually guaranteed to spoil your viewing experience.

Sport is also ruined. Who wants to see the celebrations or analyse the game? No, instead we get to watch some more ads whenever somebody scores a goal or try or at the end of every game or over. Cadel Evans is just about to cross the finishing line in the Champs Elysees, to become the first Australian to win the Tour de France... so let’s go for a break. Then let’s spend half an hour thanking each one of our sponsors.

If the ads were any good it would not be worth the whinge... but how many ads on Australian television are memorable or make you laugh, like the Cadbury kids with the eyebrows? Most of them seem to involve spruikers screaming we’ve got 10% off this and 20% off that and everything must go. I’ve seen better at the local cinema thirty years ago.

Pommie ads are definitely more fun!

Nail Clippers on the Train

 

Is there an etiquette lesson I missed?  Has personal hygiene become acceptable in public places?  Who would clip their nails on the train to and from work AND who would think that this was common or acceptable behaviour?

I was sitting calmly on the train yesterday morning playing Angry Birds when a large shard of nail landed next to my left foot, just as we were pulling into Sydenham station. As quick as an owl I turned my head back over my shoulder and gave the offending lady my best death stare! She was far too involved with her fingers to notice the horrid face I was pulling... so the clipping noises got quicker and louder and with each click of the clippers my temper rose a notch.

I stopped trying to destroy green pigs for a moment and called my wife to announce to her, as loudly as I dared, that there was another clipper on the train, my second this month. Do you think that it made her stop? I couldn’t be that lucky!

Is it just me who thinks this is a filthy habit for a train full of commuters? Should I have just got up and moved downstairs and found another seat? Should I have asked her politely to refrain? Should I have yelled that no one wants your DNA all over the train as I really wanted to?  Should I just stop whingeing and get on with life?
Take it to the forum!

Whingeing Pompkins

 

This week, I would like to whinge about pumpkins: Queensland Blues, Big Moons, Happy Jacks and Red Warty Things.

Australians are nuts about filthy pumpkins. They serve them with baked dinners (roasts), they make soup out of pumpkin and they even put pumpkin in bread and ravioli. It’s almost as trendy as goat’s cheese over here and I hate that too.

In my view, pumpkins should not be eaten. The hollowed innards should be thrown straight in the bin and replaced with a white candle. There are few vegetables which are so hard to chop and which become so mushy when cooked.

I sometimes wonder if Captain Cook may have started this national obsession with the sloppy orange vegetable. Apparently he was sailing the Great Barrier Reef in 1770 when he discovered an island that he thought resembled a pumpkin ... and promptly named it Pumpkin Island. I’ll blame him anyway.
Take it to the forum!