Olympics

Part of me admires the blind following of National flags during the Olympics.
It's admirable that people who generally have no interest in sport, get so enthusiastic about somebody they'd previously never heard of, winning.
However, it always seems strange to me that the competitor could spend the rest of their career in obscurity!

There's a similar experience with Wimbledon. Millions of people develop an incredible interest in tennis for a fortnight. They'll know the names and results of tennis players who they've never heard of. Yet as soon as that one particular tournament is over, they instantly lose interest.
With the Olympics, it's based purely around nationality.

I have a Facebook account that has pages and pages of minute by minute updates of every minutiae of the Games.
Unfortunately, I'm completely unpatriotic. Therefore, I'm unable to feign interest in something that doesn't interest me, in the name of Britain.
It never ceases to amaze me how Brits can be so interested in rowing, yachting, cycling, shooting and any other event that there's a slight chance that somebody who's born in the same country, has a chance of winning.
Who honestly gives a fuck who wins a shooting competition?! Apparently, all of Britain, if that winner is British!

I realise that it makes me sound like a miserable bastard but I really don't want to know somebody's opinion on a sport, unless they can name the top five players, or even a result prior to the Olympics in that particular sport.

Moan, moan, moan...

London

Saturday morning in London, and the Sun is out! (Generally, I am guilty overusing exclamation marks but on this occasion, it's completely justified.)
The weather this Summer has been outrageous. I've never experienced the level of rainfall that we've been blessed with.
The Olympic torch begins it's journey across London today.
Marking the start of approximately a month of chaos.
Good old London is inconveniencing the everyday lives of residents for the benefit of visitors from all over the World, who are here to watch sport.
Londoners are experiencing pay freezes and pay cuts, booming inflation and record unemployment.
People are actually refused surgery and drugs because we're told that there isn't enough  money.
Yet, there seems to be unlimited amounts of money available for a sports competition!
We live in a city where many, mainly elderly people face the decision to either 'heat or eat' in the Winter. They actually make the decision to either spend their money on eating something, or use that money to heat their home. They're forced to make that decision, while the lifetime of tax that they've paid, goes toward providing the 'Great' Britain football team £1000.00 a night hotel rooms!
Who looks at these kind of figures and decides that despite the fact that adequate accommodation has been provided on the Olympic site, it's more important to provide luxury accommodation for some sportsmen, than it is to provide life saving medicines for cancer suffers?

Back to shallow

I think I'll stay away from the personal blogs.

I'm generally quite shallow (lol. Shallow Gawl) and should probably keep things on here the same way.

My poem was written quite a while ago and isn't something that I'm experiencing right now.

Although, I think by publishing it, I've given the impression that it's an emotion that I'm currently going through.

I do have quite a lot of personal stuff going on right now but we all know that it's always best to bury  emotions and get on with life.

I've got a couple of days off of work and am enjoying the lack of structure that my day has had so far.

I tend to spend my leave days catching up with friends but I didn't arrange anything this time around.

This is short and sweet I'm afraid. Nothing worthwhile to write.

So, I'll love ya and leave you.

Till next time...

Random thoughts

I intended to write some random thoughts but it ended up being a critique of TV shows.
Thus displaying the true depth of my shallow mind.

I will say that both Leverage and Burn Notice, are on the brink of being brilliant but seem to blow it all away by trying to be too cool. LOL.
I just couldn't help myself!

Having watched England predictably build themselves up, before the usual, huge let down, in the European Cup, it's interesting to watch more British people doing exactly the same thing whilst watching Andy Murray at Wimbledon. When will this country learn?

Modern Family is far and away, the best comedy show currently on TV. Pure genius!

I'm dismayed at the popularity of stand-up comedy. Don't get me wrong, good stand-up deserves all the praise it gets. To stand up on a stage and make people laugh, really is a gift.
However, how are people like Andy Parsons and Russell Howard even making a living, never mind selling out huge arenas?!
It seems that if you've appeared on a comedy panel show, thousands of people will pay good money to watch you be unfunny.
I missed my opportunity to use a few stand-up clichés there.
Have you ever noticed how...
What is it about people...
Is it me, or do people...
Maybe I'm too fussy. If other people enjoy this stuff, maybe I'm the problem.
The trouble is, I've seen Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr, Frankie Boyle, Denis Leary, Robert Schimmel, to name too many.

So endeth my random thoughts for today

Still In Love With You

Just a poem.
Sorry, it's one of those that doesn't rhyme.
Always thought that was a bit of a cop out, despite what Susan Harvey, my English teacher used to tell us.

I don't know what it says of me, that I embrace my love for you with the same openness that I embrace the pain of us being apart.

It could be that the power of both emotions prove to my soul that our love was real.

I punish myself by remembering good times.

Words spoken, or moments spent.

Love and complete happiness clearly radiated from your face as you embraced me.

Only muted by the mutual angst each time we parted.

A simple kiss would flood my heart with love.

A love I know you shared as you sank into my arms, with a smile full of contentment.

The unmatched joy of waking beside you, having fallen into sleep with you in my arms.

Waking together with gentle kisses, happy at the thought of spending another day in each others company.

Despite the void between us, memories of tiny actions send me swirling back into your arms.

Raising a begrudging smile to your beautiful face with a simple flick of your frowning brow.

Sending equal pain and joy surging through me as I recall our love

Experiencing my life without you, only makes me yearn for my life with you.

The pain of missing you is as constant as my love for you is eternal.

I'm still in love with you

Corporate speak

This afternoon I was reading a job description and was left breathless by the complete and utter bullshit that it contained.
There were probably about two lines of useful information, heavily camouflaged beneath nonsense and 'corporate/management speak'
Applying for the job would be akin to completing a cryptic crossword!
It read almost like the result of a schoolboy bet to see how much he could  write, without actually saying anything.
I'm a huge fan of a little 'blue sky thinking' and can often be found 'thinking outside the box'.
I like to do both simultaneously as a, 'belt and braces' solution to most problems.
Despite my vast knowledge of bullshit, even I had never heard of the phrase, 'horizon scanning'!
Are you fucking kidding me?
Apparently, if I was fortunate enough to secure this post, I would be 'horizon scanning' for new ideas, responding to how current policy developments affect the company, liaising with 'policy influencers' from 'think tanks' to community groups, contributing to policy-led research and turning my knowledge into useful policy briefs to inform strategic direction and service area delivery.

If the interview was conducted long these lines, how could I ever keep a straight face?
In fact, fuck this job, I want to be a policy influencer from a think tank to community groups!
I could do it too. I have spent my whole life universally scrutinising the contradictory similarities of  the unorthodox, yet conventional progression of the simplistic complexities of Corporate strategies.


I'm tempted to apply, just for the pleasure of asking why the fuck they feel the need to make up this shit!


Moan, moan, moan...


Wish me luck! 

Prefacing

I used to have a job dealing directly with the public.
People in this line of work like to say that they're working on the 'Front Line'.
I believe this is a term that management came up with, to make less important people feel more important.
Strictly speaking, it's correct. You're at the front of a service, or company.
Essentially though, you're probably one of the least important people at your place of work.
You're the 'front line' of defence. The infantry, if you like.
Sure, you'd be told how important you are to the service and how much you're appreciated but you're not.
You're purpose is to keep the public away from the important people.
You sieve through all the shit and only let the gold through. The more important people don't want to touch the shit. So, when you come across somebody who is too important to deal with you, you pass that gold to the next person up. And so it goes in business. It's the circle of business life lol.

One of my favourite things when working on the front line was enjoying the way that people preface whatever it was they wanted to say.
I'd often get, "I wonder if you could help me?", which is perfectly acceptable.
I'd say, "morning/afternoon". Never good morning, or good afternoon, cause I didn't want to leave myself open to the question, "What's good about it!".
I'd often get that reply anyway, despite not using the word, 'good'.
Of course, I'd take great joy in pointing out that I didn't say good!

People tend to hear what they like anyway. They assume that I've asked, "Can I help you?", which I never did.
So I'd say, "Morning"
And they would reply, "I hope you can!"
I generally didn't pull people up on that one.

My all time favourite, that still makes me laugh, when I hear it to this day, is the opening line, "What it is, is..."
I could never keep a straight face. What the fuck is that?!
What it is, is!?
It was always a throw-away line to help them launch into whatever it was that was troubling them.
Usually they'd jump into the issue, so I never got the chance to ask, "What is it, it?"