CelestialRose’s Neighborhood

Fitness First wins legal stoush over 'sick' woman's contract

Wow, $200!  That must more than make up for all the negative publicity!  I was a member of Fitness First for a little while a few years back.  I joined on a special deal before they opened the outlet near where I live.  It just didn't live up to expectations at all, ie, there was never anyone around to help with equipment (only unsalaried 'personal trainers' spruiking for business), the carpark was always chock a block and the front desk staff were 'care factor = zero' personified (as with the time my locker jammed and they told me to come back in half an hour when another staff member returned from her break!).  I was also enticed to join by the benefit of being able to use their city outlet on days I was at work but that was always way too crowded, ie, you couldn't even get a square foot to yourself in the changing room during 'peak times' such as lunchtime or after work

Even though my initial contract had expired by the time I decided to cancel my membership, they still tried to make me go through hoops to get out of the contract, ie, tried to tell me I had to go there for an 'interview' with the manager at the outlet near my home during business hours before I could cancel.  Being the bolshy little emu that I am, I managed to kick up a fuss and get them to waive this requirement.  It annoyed me that I had to go to these lengths though.  I really came out of the experience with the impression that they were just money making bullies.  This latest piece of news does nothing to dispel that impression. 

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These were part of a competition between advertising agencies on a television show all about advertising.  The challenge: to persuade Australians that a military invasion of New Zealand would be a good thing!  Think the second ad was the one that won. 

Reading on train

And this is what I am reading:

Blackbird House

Alice Hoffman

It is short stories which I often find unsatisfying, ie, you just feel you are starting to get to know the characters and care about them and then all of a sudden they are gone.  I am not feeling this with these stories though.  The stories are all linked by a common setting and have a kind of magical quality to them which I am loving.  I love these words from one of the characters in one of the stories on the subject of reading:

I read books as though I were eating apples, core and all, starved for those pages, hungry for every word that told me about things I didn't yet have, but still wanted terribly, wanted until it hurt.

Made me wonder if the purpose of reading is to fulfil a kind of yearning?  I know I get very agitated if I can't read.  It is like books are a kind of drug for me.  Maybe I need to spend more time just looking out the window sometimes. 

My husband wrote the first item for him.  See if you can work out what else he wants me to buy. 

Js list

My daughter and her friends have their choir concert next week.  They are rehearsing somewhere near my office and the plan with a three hour break between final rehearsals and the actual performance.  The teachers supervising this activity offered to take the kids to McDonalds for "dinner" during this time or we could pick the children up from rehearsals ourselves as long as we had them back at the concert venue in time.  I figured my daughter would be so tired after a whole day of rehearsals, and with a late night of singing to follow, that McDonalds with loads of other kids would really not be a good idea (besides which I don't really consider it proper food - more an unhealthy snack).  I said I would pick her up and take her back to my office for a toasted sandwich and a rest and offered to do the same for her friends whose parents don't work in the city.   I wasn't sure how many takers I would get but it seems my daughter's friends all think a toasted sandwich in my office kitchen way more exciting than a trip to the golden arches!  Who'd have thought?

Ugly building

Building entrance

Outdated Kiwis ahead of the crowd.

ALL you ski enthusiasts who have been suffering sleepless nights over where old ski clothes end up can now sleep soundly as I have discovered the answer: New Zealand.

I have just returned from a week's skiing in the snowfields around Queenstown and my circa 2004 jacket and trousers outfit - completely old hat according to my teenage son - made me look like I had come straight off a Milan catwalk. I have never seen such a collection of ski outfits from the 1970s and 1980s all in one place: stretch ski pants, puffy salopettes, faded fluoro, the lot.

The Kiwis have clearly gone out of their way to corner the market on this gear.

This taste for the antiquated is also evident in New Zealand's choice of automobiles, which includes a lot of second-hand cars from Japan.

Japanese manufacturers ship them south to keep the market for new models strong at home.

Perhaps North Face, Spyder, Columbia and their ilk have adopted the same approach and are rapidly buying up outdated ski gear on eBay and shipping it across the Tasman.

Although New Zealanders do not appear to have invested a cent in new ski clothes since the 1980s, money seems to have been pouring into helmets, in all different colours, shapes and siz

I hardly think Australians can criticise any other nation for being unfashionable!  After all, Kath and Kim's wardrobe choices didn't just spring from nowhere.

Kimmeee

Loathes:

• being woken up by the happy sound of a compressor and a couple of jackhammers
• costume parties for adults especially when you don't know many others going
• 60 year old work colleagues who behave like 6yos

Loves:

• finding a good (and willing and available) babysitter
• a good friend returning unexpectedly to Sydney after several years living in Dubai (seeing her on Saturday)
• finding the perfect trousers on sale at David Jones

Looking forward to:

• dinner with the mums ahead of a school event this Thursday
• finishing the project I have been working on all year (absolute D day is 29 August)
• getting my teeth into a new project (not sure what yet) 
  

  Chatter

What do you think about airlines charging for your second bag? Will this change the way you pack?

I think this could seriously backfire as people will just try and cram more and more into their carry on luggage.  As for me, I have always prided myself on being a light packer (although not as light as my husband who is so minimalistic that he ends up borrowing stuff from me all holiday).  Also one benefit of having to pay for plane tickets for the kids is that they each get an adult sized luggage allowance of which we only need to use a small portion.  For others needing some tips on how to travel with less, see here.  I no longer follow the "rule of three" now that I am travelling with kids as I don't want to spend my whole holidays washing.  This is also unrealistic for travelling in the tropics as clothes get too smelly to be reworn again and again.  Having clothes that mix and match well, suit multiple purposes, dry easily and don't need ironing is good though as is getting a low maintenance hair style before you go as this can cut out the need for heavy things like hairdryers or straighteners.  Choosing the right shoes to take is also important as shoes tend to take up a lot of bag room/weight.  Again, something multipurpose and comfortable is good. 

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Show us your bookcase.
Submitted by Alexandra.

This is part of one of our bookselves.  We also have a lot of books in crates at the moment partly due to the renovations and partly because we have just run out of space for them all.  As you can see, there is no rhyme or reason in the way we organise our bookshelves.  The history and art books on these shelves are mostly my husbands and the novels, cookbooks and Indonesian dictionaries are mine.  The kids' books are mostly in their room although occasionally their books will sneak onto our shelves or vice versa. 

Bookshelves

The title of this entry actually stolen from a blog entry by Lawrence Money on The Age newspaper website.  It made me really sad to read it as it something I have given thought to as well, ie, 

Thanks to the rock spiders and pedophile scumbags, women and children have to view any strange male with suspicion.

The Best of Gary Glitter

Gary Glitter

Money's blog entry is about the impact this has had on men causing them to feel that they can spontaneously engage with children or even offer assistance to one without being viewed as a potential paedophile or child molester.  This causes well intentioned men to modify their behaviour and maintain a level of reserve in dealing with children who are not their own.  This has negative implications for children as well.

As I have written previously, my daughter is very enthusiastic about Kung F. I am pretty sure one of the main reasons she is so enthuiastic is the instructor she has, the delightfully un-PC Instructor Brad (not his real name).  Brad is a middle aged guy who lives and breathes Kung Fu and the kids just love him.  He has dreadful nicknames for all of them (eg, my daughter goes by the name Oompa Loompa and her class also contains students known as Carrothead, Tomatohead, Supermodel and Big Fella) and is very physical with the kids, not just in sparring but in picking them up and throwing them in the air after class.  He does all this in full view of the parents and his own wife and baby (nicknamed Ranga) and we all just laugh and love the fact that our kids are enjoying themselves and progressing so well at Kung Fu.   

(The following photo is of one of the junior instructors (Brad's son, "Bighead") and my son during sparring practice.) 

Kung Fu boy

One of the reasons Instructor Brad is so blog-worthy for me is that you don't encounter many men like this these days.  Less and less men are going into the teaching profession these days and, if they do, it is usually to teach at the more senior levels.  Even in primary schools, the few male teachers are usually assigned to Years 5 and 6 rather than the infants classes (presumably as older children don't want hugs when they fall over or need help because of toileting accident etc etc).  My father on the other hand, who started his teaching career in the 1960s had his first job at an isolated one classroom school in the country where he was in sole charge of about 20 kids ranging in age from 4 to about 12.  I can't imagine that happening these days although, in my father's case, this was definitely a positive experience for his students, many of whom continued to write him letters for years after he left the school.

Dad and me 1

Anyway, the point of this blog entry is certainly not to say that all our modern precautions around protecting children are a bad thing.  If they save one child from abuse, then this must be worthwhile.  It still makes me sad though to think that, as Money writes:

The pervs and sex weirdos are winning

and we are all the losers for it.