People Aren't Wearing Enough Hats

Hello Bulgaria, France, the United Kingdom, and the USofA, and welcome to the blog...and Capt Happy Chap rides again...(and with good reason too, if half of what you've told me is true-Ed)...well it's coming from Mt Gambier City Council so it's potentially at least half true...(that's very generous of you-Ed)...I refer of course to today's advertised post, which I've pushed to tomorrow sorry because after yesterday's vitriolic binge and/or purge (I'm never quite sure which it is) I'd just like to tidy-up a few loose ends in a slightly lighter tone...

And unfortunately the first end is the end of the Council meeting 21st October 2014 and the closing rounds of self congratulation from retiring Councillors Biddie (Tietz) Shearing and Jim Maher, and outgoing Mayor Steve Perrymen...whilst I've covered most of the detail from those speeches, I'd just like to re-visit the mutual admiration of how fantastic Jim thinks Stevo is, and likewise how Jim mate is Stevo's new bestie, etc, etc...it was truly sickening to watch these 2...and last gasp was Stevo mate...(maaate-Ed)...openly describing the structures of control and corruption that have so thoroughly rooted Mt Gambier and allowed/perpetuated/protected the St Martins Cover-up...

For minutes he went on about how fantastic Rory McEwen was/is, and how Rory had taken him (Stevo) under his (Rory's ) wing and introduced him (Stevo) to all the people who helped his career there-on-in...(and what great things Rory had done for his family-Ed)...indeed, and how great Rory's wife was to Stevo's wife and the kids and everything's fantastic and everyone's just super...absolutely sickening and an absolute indicator of how comfortable and self-justified these people are in their corruption...

In my rather unpleasant reality that's the person (locally) second most responsible for the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, second only to the person he's gushingly praising-up, and only just ahead of 'Labor stalwart' Jim Maher...so I get to spend my evening (21st Oct 2014) sitting right behind Viv Maher, herself complicit in the St Martins issue...(shall we give her 4th?-Ed)...yeah, go on, why not...listening to Jim praise-up Stevo, followed by Stevo slobbering all over Rory...(yep, that's ya' St Martins Child Abuse Cover-up Trifecta right there-Ed)...indeed it is Ed, indeed it is...

And when Stevo was done with his verbal Rory-fondling he went straight onto what a top bloke Greg Muller is...(and at that point I decided I'd had enough...but unfortunately I'm only a contrived literary tool utilised to 'engage with' rather than 'lecture at' availees of this 'ere post...if it wasn't for that, I'd have stormed out I would've-Ed)...but instead you stayed with me 'til the last, bless you... 

Ironying Out the Wrinkles: in that I'm hardly thrilled to come last in the Mayoral elections, an election where I didn't really expect to come much higher but would've been nice to not be last, but when having a mild whinge about it to someone, they said 'get over it, you've achieved exactly what I expected you to, it's the blog that's important, and the credibility you've achieved there-in'...(you're right, there is a certain irony in someone supportively saying that they expected exactly that you would run last and genuinely well done for it-Ed)...indeed...

And another day another whinge to another person was exuberantly and demonstratively contested with the observationings 'no way man, good on you for at least having a bloody go, we need people like you doing what you're doing'...I was floored that such a relatively reserved person whom I didn't think liked me all that much would be so openly and emotively supportive...(good on her, eh?-Ed)...absolutely...thankyou... 

Putin In The Ritz:...Obama in the Meridien, Abbott in the Surfers Paradise YMCA ...if this is the answer, the question must be 'where are our illustrious leaders staying whilst in Brisbane for the OMG20'...(and that's actually just the G20 Meeting of the 20 leaders of leading global economies-Ed)...well how the shreck did Oz getta' guernsey then?...(not sure, I think they have to invite the host don't they? can't rock up to someone's house for a party and not invite them?-Ed)...perhaps we're the USofA's 'plus one'...(maybe China's-Ed)...whoevs, the important thing is we're going...(I'll have to get a new hat-Ed)...oo oo, that reminds me...

People Aren't Wearing Enough Hats: is a collective title for several things in the media recently, namely...
Part 1: Is that whilst the whole Horse Racing thingy doesn't mean a whole bunch to me personally, I acknowledge that there's apparently an allied industry in aesthetically appealing generally revealing coiturey for the otherwise apparelly-challenged...and that includes hats...(fascinating-Ed)...ahaha, I'll give ya' that one...and associated business, eg, millineures (hat-makers)... 

And so when Lady Chamomile Smythe-Tompkinson visits Tristan, Millineure To The Stars, and he says, 'so now I'm gonna' make it look like a flamingo has collided with the back of your head, that'll be $4500 thanks' apparently this year they'll have not been harangued by the common soldiery wandering about the shoppe because the plebs ain't got the spare extra cash to spend on extravagant hats, etc...(I notice that it got so bad that some young women couldn't even afford underwear, leading to the introduction of related Dress Codes-Ed)...yeah I'm not sure that was a lack of finances so much as a lack of finesse...(I'd have said lack of self-respect-Ed)...maybe, a bit...

Part 2: As a twice-times Cancer survivor, the massive Lymphoma tumour in my chest that I had 8 months of Chemotherapy and 4 weeks of Radiotherapy to treat in 2004/05, that was my second 'episode', after having 2 'regressed malignant melanomas' removed in 1996...I continue intermittently to have moles removed as precaution...as a young and very vain man I spent a a lot of time sans shirt, hat, etc, but I rarely go anywhere now without a hat, long sleeve shirt, etc...and I'd like to pass on this observation as is the title...

I reckon I've made this joke previous but it certainly bears repeating, I continue to see the vast majority of people, eg, walking the magnificent Blue Lake, not wearing hats...(and lots of singlets, etc, meaning exposed necks, backs of ears, etc-Ed)...and many of the few hats worn are actually caps that similarly offer little if any protection to the back of the neck, ears, etc...Please People: and tell the people you know, particularly flabby white folk like me, please, please, please wear broad-brimmed hats and long sleeves and if ya' have to be brown, use a low-irritant fake tan and shizzle...

Part 3: Is about the increasing lack of and/or increasing average age of volunteers, etc, which itself ironically sees less people in our community wearing more hats each when it comes to running these volunteer organisations...(that is ironic, not enough people are wearing those hats so more people of the less people end up wearing more hats-Ed)...exactly...

And in closing, now the Sow Strayn Ombudsman is having a go at the SA Independent Commission Against Corruption...(what the Police Ombudsman again?-Ed)..no no, the Acting Ombudsman Megan Philpott, not the PO Sarah Bolt...(why are our Ombudswomen called Ombudsman?-Ed)...om stuffed if I know, but I'd guess convention...and the conflict appears to be about an increase in workload that is also then being duplicated within the ICAC as well...as with all these alleged conflicts, I struggle to see them as genuine, but rather as confected arguments to give the false impression of independence and credibility...

Tomorrow: The Council Inheritance Stuff

And freak me out to see on the news the window cleaner's swing-scaffold hangin' off the new World Trade Centre building, because I did that job on 2 buildings in Adelaide, namely the AMP building on the South West corner of North Tce/King William St, and the Grenfell Tower, and we also went onto the roof of the Commonwealth building along King William St...

First day (1989) was get in the open scaffold at ground level on the South face of the AMP building , 2 cables only on either end, not attached at all to the side of the building, and go up to the roof (18-20 floors) and then get out onto the roof across the foot-wide gap, to then see that the horizontal supporting poles for the scaffold were not actually attached to the building at all, but loose poles with heavy weights and sandbags stacked on the other ends...(omg-Ed)...indeed, and then fill up the buckets with water and back over the parapet into the scaffold, across that gap that now looked a metre wide...(I bet-Ed)...and slowly down floor by floor...(ick-Ed)...

And between floors no grip on the building at all and only little sucker things when we were stopped and thank gourd I only did that building that one day, because having seen how it was just hangjn' off the top of the building I'm not sure I'd have got in it a second time...the dude I was workin' with had been in it only weeks before on the Western side when high winds 'unstuck' them about 6 floors up and blew them out across the footpath on the other side of the lane, crashing back into the building several times before a brief calm allowed them to get back to ground level...(I think I just soiled myself-Ed)...fair enough...

I'm not great with heights but that day was particularly quietly terrifying...the other scaffold at the Grenfell Tower was absolute bloody luxury compared, up to the roof in the service elevator, to a fully enclosed and covered basket hanging from a crane that ran on rails around the top of the building and was attached by rollers to the side of each window frame...that sucker wasn't goin' nowhere but up and down...and we're cleaning windows when the bloody phone rings (and this was 1989, no mobiles then sonny) the cradle/scaffold thingy had a telephone, 2 in fact, and someone was ringing from the AMP building across town on North Tce to tell us we'd missed a window...hilarious...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...