Hello and welcome to the blog...and welcome to the 350th post...or there abouts...and what is there to say but this...
Today is the official funeral of Nelson Mandela, and I ask again that readers pause to honour his life and acknowledge his passing...May He Rest In Peace.
Even today when I want to do an almost whimsical recount of some stuff that hasn't quite worked out for me in Mt Gambier, it by necessity immediately descends into an almost libelously scandalous diatribe about 'why does this crap always happen to me?'...but first this...
Lutheran Christmas Lunch: yesterday I cracked wise about 'the disenfranchised' not being able to get to the City Council sponsored lunch the Lutherans are 'hosting' in the Old Town Hall on Christmas Day, but it's 'alleged' to me that there may be a shuttle bus running...don't know sorry, didn't hear that in the interview, but I did miss part of it...strictly for balance if not accuracy, There may be a shuttle bus running...(go on, you know you want to...(he's going to say 'who's bloody paying?')-Ed)...and who's bloody paying for that?...(you are so predictable-Ed).
(But sorry no, I don't know what 'Council's sponsorship' of the event entails...but it may be 'free use' of the Old Town Hall and/or money for the catering...or maybe petrol money for the highly contentious alleged 'shuttle bus'-Ed)...you're hilarious...but I'll tell you someone who's highly contentious...Toronto Mayor Rob Ford...(highly contentious?...I'd say more like 'contentiously high'...see what I did there?-Ed)...yeah, that was actually the joke...anyhoos...
The point I was trying to make was not that I'm opposed to Christmas, I'm not even opposed to Council supporting a Christmas lunch for 'the disenfranchised', but the facts remain that 1) in whatever way Council 'sponsors' that lunch, that is all ratepayers money...Council money is ratepayers money, I don't care whether it's Federal or State Grant or rates or borrowed, whatevs...and 2) when that money is being used by the Lutherans for a grossly hypocritical self-gratification of self-congratulation, ratepayers are paying for that...and that ain't right.
I'm not going through it all again today, but please review my previous posts about the Lutherans and St Martins School, and the actions and/or inactions of Mayor Steve Perryman and Mt Gambier City Council...it is not my place to specifically discuss the trauma that the Lutherans have deliberately visited on other parents in order to protect a "text-book grooming paedophile", but I have watched it happen and had it all done to me...and I have suffered for it...
Amusing Anecdotes of Self-Defense: Unfortunately, my AASDs don't offer much real humour apart from this...(now?-Ed)...yes, now...(huhhmm...Why do people take an instant dislike to Nick Fletcher?...'cos it saves time-Ed)...thankyou...and now 2 amusing tales I'd like to call 'My Cover Stories' because both of those individuals specifically involved have ended up on the cover of the Mt Gambier Phone Book.
Down In A Hole: was where I regularly found myself back in 1999 as a volunteer cave guide for Lifeline at what was then their Engelbrecht Cave. Shortly after I moved to Mt Gambier in late 1998, an Adelaide parking ticket I didn't even know I'd received caught up with me as a 'Warrant' and so I ended up at Lifeline for 3 days, and they asked me if I would give their cave-guiding a go, which I did for about 6 months...and I was very good at it.
Not long after I started there, a woman claiming to be the married coordinator's 'girlfriend' began ringing and then coming to the Cave office wanting to know where he was...at first politely and then more and more insistently...apparently by this stage he was already avoiding her...and then she started coming around the counter and effectively cornering me and making suggestive comments, etc...I found myself in the middle of some sort of 'extra-marital affair spat' being 'sexually harassed' by the woman involved...
I verbally reported this to my 'superiors' but it was already well known what had happened and what was now happening because the woman involved had called the Lifeline warehouse a few times as well...but before it could be resolved, one evening she showed up at my caravan asking if I wanted to have dinner...fortunately I had my child there and so could justifiably decline, but she insisted, I again declined, she left, and I went immediately the next day and lodged what I thought was an official complaint.
I was assured again that it was all in hand, but a few nights later she showed up at my caravan again, and I politely tuned her in about how inappropriate it was, and reported it again...and have a wild guess who it was that was kicked out...(well you, obviously...even I saw that one coming-Ed)...damn straight...as it was explained to me 'gee whiz, sorry, but it's all a bit difficult because he's the coordinator so we're going to have to ask you to stop cave-guiding for us...oh, but you can keep working in the filthy, grotty warehouse busting your back hauling bales of clothes, etc'...(that'll teach you to be so damned gorgeous-Ed)...hilarious...
And I was the best guide they had too...go there at 8am approx, get the keys and cash from Andami supermarket, open and clean up the office and caves, greet tourists and take the tour money, do the 50min long tours, run the short movie at the end...do that 5-6 times a day...up and down 4-5 flights of stairs whilst gabbling away about the geography, European history, etc...and then close up and return the keys...and I loved it.
One day a couple were hanging back and asking me why I was there, and I explained moving from Adelaide to see my child, and being unemployed, and the volunteering, and the lady quietly said something to her husband, they both nodded, and he reached out to shake my hand...and there was a $20 note folded in his palm...I said that there was a donation tin just there on the counter, but they insisted it was for me...I was shocked, but they accepted my explanation that I was their as a volunteer to raise money for Lifeline so we all agreed and that 'Redback' went in the tin.
Then, shortly after it all unraveled for me because of the jilted girlfriend, the gentleman concerned was lauded for being a champ on the rear cover of the Mt Gambier phone book...(hilarious-Ed)...yes, nearly hilarious as seeing ADASE founder Helen Williams on this years front cover...ADASE being Anxiety Disorders Association South East Inc...hilarious because the only time I met her, in 2006, it was in a meeting/appointment organised by and conducted with my Disability Support Provider (somehow I was dumped into the DSP Sector in 2003, but remained on only Newstart Allowance payments and received no official counselling, etc).
I was shocked because Ms Williams just glared at me from the moment I walked into the room and then right through the 'appointment'...I hadn't said a word, never met her before, yet she scowled at me with the authority of someone who apparently knew all about me...and whatever it was she thought she knew, she hated me for it...and made no attempt to hide it...ironically, it was her immediate, unprovoked, and undisguised dislike for me that made it easy to deal with, but the fact remains that I was really struggling at that time and her behaviour was grossly unprofessional and potentially very damaging.
After the meeting my DSP worker apologised profusely, stating that he didn't know what had happened nor why...he was very supportive of me and clearly quite shocked and disappointed with Ms Williams...I just assumed she was aligned with the Lutherans or something like that...don't know, don't care...I'm not making any judgement of ADASE, I'm just stating what happened to me and how Ms Williams behaved in that one meeting.
In closing I'll just note that the cave-guiding is who I was and what I was capable of when it came to being publicly confident before the St Martins Lutheran stuff broke me down...working hard whilst dealing with unemployment, part-time parenthood, etc, in a town where I really knew no-one.
Tomorrow: Wind Turbine Stuff
And probably a bunch of other bits and pieces.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers, thank you for your patronage, and laters.
No comments:
Post a Comment