Litterally

Waiting in line to be served at Priceline the other day, I overheard the checkout lady ask the customer in front of me if she would like a free gift - to which the customer replied a flat "no" (I did not see what the gift was, as I was too distracted by the 30% off manicure products sale to my left).
I got to the counter, and the checkout lady then asks me if I would like a free gift (while pointing to a small make up bag). Thinking that you can't get something for nothing these days, I said:
"Sure, how does it work?" (read: do I have to sign up to your club or buy something that is not even close in value to the cheaply china made makeup bag).
Without missing a beat, she replies: "It has a zip in the top you can open like this (she demonstrates) and pop your makeup inside...."
Yes, she was being serious.

Taxi Tales

With MD and Al both posting blogs about taxi rides, I would like to join in on this particular subject. While they both spend much time in taxi's - my role demands I spend most time in taxi's. This, I believe, allows me to be quite the expert on taxi capers.
Whilst I am fortunate enough to not have been in a situation such as MD found herself in, I can certainly relate to Al and the fear he holds for his life when entering into the yellow capsule. It's like Russian Roulette - we may have survived thus far, but one day that bullet will come up. It's incomprehensible that these people are trusted with our lives and hold such little regard for this small fact.
As well as the dangerous driving, there is also the dangerous environment. I've been in a cab where the driving was OK, but the state of the cab made me grateful that I always have a travel size Dettol sanitizing gel in my handbag. Seriously. The vinyl seats were ripped, the back vents were non existent, gaffa tape was holding several things together, and the roof (and pretty much everything else) was covered in grubby hand marks. How is this allowed? What if I was new to Melbourne and this was my first experience of a taxi? Not acceptable! I regret that in my haste to leave the taxi, I didn't get the taxi number to report it.
Then there is the problem of the smelly taxi. This has happened on several occasions. I'm not talking about "unpleasant", I'm talking about "I don't care if it's snowing outside, I'm opening all 4 windows because I need the air (and possibly somewhere to vomit)". Again, not acceptable.
And here's a new one: The taxi with no fuel. This week alone I have been in 4 cabs that have their petrol light on. One even loudly beeped the whole 30 minute journey as if begging it's driver to hydrate it. How the driver ignored this I do not know, but it made my journey most unpleasant as I resisted the urge to tell the driver to fill up just to stop that blasted beeping! I mean it's stressful enough not knowing if I'm going to make it to my destination alive, let alone with the added stress that if I do make it, I'll be late because the driver had to pull into a Caltex....

Indivi-dual-ity

Words...have you ever thought about them? I mean, we use them all the time, but really, the beauty of words is that most of us don't even think about how we use them - they just....get used. Some are over used. I work in a corporate world, and I can tell you (moving forward), that some words (in the current climate) get so over used (so to speak), that they loose all meaning. Most meetings, phone calls, emails & memo's could take half the time if such superlatives were just omitted. If we have to use so many words in a day, could we not (at the very least) find new words to replace the old? It really would make the work place so much more educational. I mean, thesaurus's were invented for a reason...
I think of this because I do work with some very intelligent people. I work very closely with a migrant (we'll call her Dallas), who - despite her not arriving in Australia until 3 years ago - has a better grasp on the English language than I do. This perturbs me somewhat. Instead of saying "we get along together as the relationship works for the both of us" she will instead say "we share reciprocity".
Then there are the other two characters you probably know - MD and Al.
MD has almost been banned from Friday night quiz. As if her English wasn't good enough, she can also answer in another - somewhat exotic - European language (not sure if you'd like me to give away what this language is MD- is that getting too personal?). Then she could probably tell you the country of origin of where that question came from, and the history of any related fact...anyway - MD just has a way with words.
Then there is Al. He walks up to my desk ranting and raving about whatever the latest thing to rant and rave about is, and somehow manages to throw "duplicitous" into his descriptive. This made me feel somewhat offended, and at the same time, in awe of the somewhat adventurous use of such a descriptive adjective (tautological I know, but I like to get my point across doubly so).
Oh words.....don't even get me started on double entendre's, oxymoron's, acronyms and thing-a-lings...and what's the word for when you put two words together and somehow it makes sense (read: "Spork = implement that converges spoon and fork)??

Joining the crew

So, I too have joined the blogging crew. I was starting to feel a little left out.
MD hadn't written about me in a while (and I missed myself), and now Al has gone all literary on us and found a new calling in his blog. So, I thought....if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
It does raise all sorts of questions though. I know MD has always kept her identity private (and of those who appear in her blog - did you really think my name was Deb?), and I think that's wise. Al too, has kept an air of intrigue in his identity and background. I think it's a good idea to keep people guessing. I'll give you and example:
MD and I attended a training course the other day. It was pretty wanky. I won't tell you the content of the course, but it's basically recognising that different people have different personalities and styles which may be different to yours. I get along with most people, but for some reason, I just don't get along with this facilitator. I find her hypocrytical, and well, just sometimes downright annoying (my issue I know!). So when, at the end of the day, she challenged me, then stated "you know Deb, I haven't figured you out yet" - I thought "good, I'm not here to be figured out!"
So, coming back to my point, I look forward to holding a sense of annonymity and hope I don't get "figured out"....