Posts by Chockasunday
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Ben's mention of no Poles in London flats reminded me of an old flatmate.
I'm not sure whether she qualifies as a bastard. The only corresponding term for women I can think of isn't one I like to use.
Let's just call her Evil Witch.I lived in London a few years ago. I found a cheap flat in Streatham, sharing with a couple made up of a Colombian guy and a Polish woman (EW).
There was also a Czech guy in the flat. So I was the only one with English as a first language, but nevertheless that's what we spoke to each other.
In the interview, they said, even though it's a double room, we only expect you to be in it. I said, while I'm single now, hopefully I'll meet a woman and bring her over now and then. Moving someone in permanently would be quite different though, I won't do that. That seemed fine with them.So I moved in, and got on fine with both the guys. EW was always frosty. It soon became apparent that she ran the place. Everyone was to clean the flat every day, regardless of whether anything was dirty. When I said that I was quite busy with work, and suggested we all change to every second day, she said no.
Later, I got some scales for the bathroom, and a nice painting which I put up in the lounge. I got back to find them resting against my bedroom door.
Apparently decorations in the flat, even something as practical as a set of scales, were only to be done by the couple. Everything in the shared areas was to be only what they wanted, and no contributions from anyone else were required.Later I met a new girlfriend. I mentioned she might be staying over, and she did, and that was OK. Well, she only met the Colombian guy, not EW. Mostly I tended to stay at the GF's place.
GF came over another night. She got up in the night to go to the loo, and passed EW in the hall.
A few minutes later the couple were battering at my door, demanding to be let in the room.
I wasn't having a bar of it. 'Is the house on fire? No? Then you can wait till morning'
After a few minutes of continual inquisition through the door, my girlfriend let them in.We got a big lecture about nothing, and I insisted that GF stayed til the next morning.
The next day, after she had left, we had a meeting.
'So you don't want her to stay. Why?' I asked.
EW wouldn't tell me. They were notoriously tight with cash, so I tried something along those lines.
'If you're not happy with her having a shower, remember that I'm at GF's place more often than she's here. So overall you're saving money compared to me being single.'
No dice. How about:
'Well, if we can figure out exactly what you don't like about her staying, then maybe we can compromise. At the moment you seem hypocritical, cos you're denying me a sex life that you get to enjoy.'
Still no dice. I got annoyed.
'Well if you can't compromise or share then why are you flatting? You should get a place just to yourselves.'
Things were particularly frosty after that.Czech guy also got a lecture when he had a friend to stay. He was a student though, and couldn't afford to move.
After this my girlfriend didn't want to come to stay anymore, so I guess EW had solved what she saw as a problem.
A few weeks later an eviction notice arrived in the mail, strangely only addressed to me. The couple denied all knowledge of it. There wasn't any point arguing, it was best to move on...
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Does anyone else think banning Ron was a bit harsh?
'Some people not feeling comfortable with it' isn't enough reason to suppress someone's freedom of speech.
I don't think the purpose of PA is to attain a group consensus, it's about robust debate.
Sure, he had some odious views, and was a bit of a troll, but he wasn't insulting anyone on the board.
And his views were swiftly countered by stronger arguments.Even though 99% of people agree with the conviction, does that mean we shouldn't hear from anyone opposed to it?
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I took a working holiday and went to work as a waiter in Austria. It wasn't for the money, just the chance to practise some German and live at a ski resort for the winter.
I told them I'd never worked as a waiter before I started the job.
I soon found out waiters in Austria go to a waiters school. Damn, I was going to be in trouble now!I wished I'd asked my sister for some hints (she's worked in hospitality all her life, and now runs the Drake pub in Victoria Park, Auckland)
The only thing in my favour was the majority of guests being English speakers.
So I figured they would want my help as a native English speaker, in, say, translating the menu. It's quite hard to explain what spaetzle is.
And there's the fact that yes we really do say 'Bon Appetit', even though it is French.But no, they didn't want to listen to any of that. The couple who ran the hotel were stern taskmasters who wanted everything done their way and their way only.
They were only in it for the cash here and now. Woe betode any guest making a request to, say, change rooms. You'd have to take what you are given and that was that.
We tried to give good service in spite of the attitude of our bosses.
I speak German, but not enough to understand all of the instructions the boss gave at the start of the day.
On my first night, I made 6 mistakes, 5 of which the boss saw. Things like giving food to the wrong people etc.
The next morning the boss took me aside, and told me to be on my way.It was Christmas Day, and I had moved from London from this job.
I sobbed to Mum on the phone for a while, then I got my thinking cap on. Having come all this way, I wasn't going to give up without a fight.I made a list of 12 things they could do to improve the hotel (e.g. HP sauce for the English). I went to see the boss and told him he could have the first idea for free, and the rest if I got my job back.
He gave me the job back, but not surprisingly none of the ideas were implemented (they would have cost money, and they were too proud to take suggestions from a junior waiter who spoke such poor German).How the place continued to run I'm not quite sure. We had five new waiters in one week, all of whom lasted a night before unintentionally crossing the boss. The guests all stayed for a week, which wasn't usually quite long enough to figure out the chaos was consistent.
I survived a backstabbing sleazy Italian waiter who was every cliche you could think of. And a fight with the grumpy dishwasher where he found out exactly how much German I knew!
Although I got better, I still got fired twice more from this job. The second time the boss told me he would come and see me later, but never did.
I did last longer than the other native English speakers, who got the boot after New Years.On the other hand, I had a great time living in Mayrhofen: I made loads of friends, learnt to snowboard and got a taste for weissbier (German wheat beer).
There's another good work story that happened soon after this one, but I only tell that in person ...
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That was interesting.
It would have been nice to know where his tribe (Ngaraurau?) was from though.
I'm keen to go to his restaurant, will have to find out where it is ... -
I'm not aware of the exam cheating issue, my comments about Thompson only related to him talking about Coddington.
I enjoyed Damian Christie's item on Close Up, it was great to see some immigrants on screen answering questions I would have asked them myself, and to see that they were mostly happy with NZ.
I'm wary of NZ moving towards a press culture where certain topics never get mentioned, for example, if they are seen as potentially upsetting to some members of the community.
Support of freedom of the press means supporting publishing of not just the views you agree with, but also the views you disagree with.
The thing that gets me about this is exactly as you so correctly put it as TARGETING. It's nasty stuff.
I don't think targeting is nasty stuff; as long as it's based on facts. E.g. I'd want a chemical company polluting the environment to be targeted by the press.
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Thompson didn't sound like 'a member of the concerned coddington clan'. He mentioned Keith's response in the context of saying that both sides made it personal; therefore such tit-for-tat scrutiny should be expected. Besides, it was the interviewer who brought the matter up.
Thompson seemed to make a genuine effort to understand the criticism of his newspaper, but also defended the right of the press to publish what they want.The press should continue to be free to target ethnic or special interest groups deserving of criticism, in the same way that they are able to target, say, boyracers, as long as they have facts at hand.
Coddington made up statistics. Her lack of contrition was alarming - she attacked her critics needlessly, and refused to admit her mistakes - I wouldn't hire her to write anything if I was an editor.
Perhaps some people would like to apply a different set of standards to criticising ethnic-based groups to what they applied recently when criticising Bish Tamaki or the Exclusive Brethren? -
Hey Andrew,
I'm all for enjoying the gig. I love it when people throw themselves into it... I'm a big fan of dancing up the front myself.
I'm not a fan of people having a conversation about something else while everyone else is getting into it.
Rock on and all that!
Bevan. -
A me too to Jackie on gigs being on too late - London was so much better, support bands on at 8ish, headliners by 9.30 and done by 11. You can still go out later if you want.
And to Joanna about people talking - they should go down the back if they wanna chat.
Weirdly enough, I was at Ed Byrne at the comedy festival recently, and a couple behind me were chatting during the show. They got quite indignant when I explained that I paid money to hear the comedian talking, not them.Bevan.
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Regarding the museum, when I lived in Texas, I went to a state park with dinosaur remains southwest of Fort Worth.
There were fossilised footprints in the riverbank, it was really impressive.
Nearby was a Creation Evidence museum, purporting to show that man walked with the dinosaurs 4000 years ago. It was quite small, only one room. The evidence was nothing but a few dioramas.
Unfortunately I wasn't as atheist as I am now, or I would've told them what I thought! -
It seems like there's way too many people in New Zealand who complain for the sake of complaining.
This is particularly apparent when reading the letters section of any major NZ newspaper.
I bet half of the people complaining about boy racers never run across any in their own lives.
Too many people pass judgement on things that they're not personally affected by. This was the case with the opposition to civil unions and legalised prostitution - if you don't like gay people or prostitutes, they're not hard to avoid (although it's not the case with the opposition to the anti-smacking bill, which implicity effects every family).
People who complain needlessly bring everyone else down. (I know it's ironic to complain about people complaining, but, hey :-)
I enjoy Russell's writing cos he's always optimistic about the future of New Zealand, and he has a nationalist streak which says we can plow our own path, let's do it!
(I shouldn't post that it in a Graham Reid blog - don't worry Graham, I like your stuff too!)