Time For The Male Ego To Step Aside

Shaun Tait has given up Cricket indefinitely after claiming mental, emotional and physical exhaustion. Team-mates and friends are claiming to be surprised because he showed no sign of being exhausted.

This reaction, however, does not surprise me. Us blokes generally would prefer anything to avoid admitting that we aren’t coping so well with a situation. Doing so admits to being less of a man. Thankfuly organisations such as Beyond Blue this stigma is being broken down. However, by the time the problem does get some acknowledgment it is too far-gone that drastic measures need to be taken, in this case it is quitting a professional sport.

So how far before we should ask for help? Why does the male ego get in the way to the detriment of our health?

I Love My Cricket, But…….

I growing tired of Bill “Doctorate of the Bleeding Obvious” Lawry and his thoughtless, uninciteful commentary. You all know what I am referring to, the batting team needs runs and the fielding team needs a wicket. Wow!! Thanks Bill, I didn’t know that a team chasing a run target actually needs runs, now that I’ve been told that there was actually a purpose to the game I am much more excited.

Unfortunately though I feel that if Channel Nine were to get rid of one of the old school commentators then it will quickly mean the demise of the rest, ie Richie, Chappelli and Tony, whom I quite like. Richie has earnt the right to go out whenever he chooses but I couldn’t care less about Bill.

The new boys on the team are leaving Bill behind and have more to say and more interesting things to say.

Just Got To Help Yourself

Generally speaking I don’t like people whinging at a government department, no matter what side of politics they are on. It has been the Dept of Health for a while then DOCS copped it for a while but for a short period it has been the Dept of Housing. But there must come a time when people start doing something for themselves to help improve their situation instead of relying on the govt for everything

The complaints with the Dept of Housing came thick and fast after a man was found deceased for a year in his government flat. For this to happen there are obviously faults in the system of checks and balances. But when does the blame game stop and people just decide to help themselves. Of the examples pointed out by the Sun Herald (20/1) one in particular stood out.

This elderly lady lives alone in a public housing one-bedroom unit. She has two dogs and requires constant oxygen. She sleeps on a “soiled” mattress and the dogs do their mess inside the unit. Carers refuse to go to her abode because of the mess the dogs create. Now she could do something to help herself but to her getting rid of the dogs is too much of an inconvenience because they are like family. I understand that people get attached to their pets and I am also fond of dogs despite never owning one, but there is one thing standing in the way between her and healthcare and that is the dogs.

She is not owed a living by the taxpayers of NSW and she is proving that by her neglect for her own health and well being.

The Old Bag Can’t Win

The Government has a plan to “faze out” plastic bags from shops and supermarkets. This is due to the environmental menace they become once they are disposed improperly. I am yet to hear their plan for how consumers are to haul their groceries to their vehicles. The Australian Retailers Association suggests the replacement will be made from paper, and this would mean an increase in logging. I’m sure Peter Garrett is not a fan of logging.

So what is the answer to the ‘bag crisis’?

1. Charge for bags the way Aldi does
2. Only accept reusable plastic bags – although what happens to them when they wear out?
3. Leave as is and promote recycling old plastic bags – at the moment it is just an otto bin hiding in the corner, if you didn’t know it was there you wouldn’t find it.
4. Go ahead with paper bags and cop the flack from all those anti logging people who voted for you because they thought you had their interests in mind

Either way it’s going to be hard to do away with the trusty plastic bag.

The Ultimate Me-Too

Our former Prime Minister was a cricket tragic. So what is our newly elected Prime Minister trying to portray himself as this week? You guessed it, a Cricket tragic. The camera would randomly focus on him in some luxury box, one time today he was shown chatting with Indian players I the change rooms. He also had a chat with Simon O’Donnell on the lunchtime Cricket Show. He is also building a collection of sporting uniforms to wear on his morning walk, made famous by whom.

Will the real Kevin Rudd please stand up.

Heritage Listing

Hasn’t heritage listing become a joke? If it hadn’t then Parramatta City Council has confirmed it. When I think heritage listing I think the QVB and Sydney Town Hall or Old Government House in Parramatta. The furthest thing from my mind are features red brick houses that were built en masse during the 1970’s, or features of fibro shacks built in the 1950’s.

There is nothing special about these structures. Yet, for some reason Parramatta City Council has nominated a bunch of houses, mainly in the Toongabbie area, for heritage listing. Their nomination is based on things like the original letterbox, the way the house integrates with the carport, a brick chimney or a pebble driveway.

Is this really enough to heritage list a whole property and drive their value into the depths? Because no one will ever by these houses knowing that they will need to apply to the heritage council before doing anything it. These houses just aren’t worth it.

So what could happen?

1. House becomes derelict
2. House could be deliberately vandalised
3. Owner occupiers living in rundown shack because repairs are to expensive
4. There’s probably more but I don’t think there are any good results, but who really knows

The only thing that makes these houses special is the families that live in them. Yet if they are eventually heritage listed it will be those families who will be the first to suffer

2007 – The Year Of Relative Action

I like to look back on where I was at the same time last year. I was still mopey from a break up, churchless and lacking a bit of direction. Then I look at what has gone on this year and I come up with the name, my year of action, as it was the first year I really stopped relying on others to make my decisions and do it for myself.

First The Moping
It did take longer than I had expected to move on from all that. Perhaps I was more emotionally involved than I cared to admit. But with the help of some good listeners and a book that helped proceed through “the process” I was able to at least become normal again. Possibly the best piece of advice came from a male friend. Perhaps it was that it was delivered in such a blokey fashion that it struck a chord.

Being Churchless
Firstly I wanted to tackle the question of whether leaving the previous church was just running away from my problems. I became satisfied that I just needed to make my own life after becoming so entwined in someone else’s.

I first looked toward friends that go to other churches. This worked well for two reasons: they were willing to listen to what was on my mind and it was good to see how other churches did things. Finally I checked out the one I am at now after it was recommended to me through family friends for it’s large young adult population.

After going just twice at the end of 2006 I was locked into their Young Adult Weekend Away (YAWA) on the Australia Day Long Weekend. That was a huge out of comfort zone experience but meeting one person led to another and so on. Now I have made some pretty good friends there.

Direction

I had never thought of moving out let alone buying a place until I was checking out the brand new units at Pemulway. It became something I really wanted to do and it felt like it was the right time. Pemulway turned out to be too pricey but that didn’t stop the search. I set up an inspection in March and from there it flowed very quickly. This move is the main reason for my calling this year my year of action. It’s the biggest move I have had to make and now that it is done I would recommend it to any young single adult.

Career wise I was pretty satisfied this time last year, as I had just started my job with the Ambulance Service. I was contemplating applying for Level One Ambulance Officer, ended up doing so, but getting knocked back very abruptly.

Due to events that panned out during the year I thought I should go back to teaching but was unable to get a job in Sydney. So I guess I’m no better off in this area.

Just to think that this year is just the beginning.