I’ve never hated someone I don’t know before.  I’ve disliked staff at cafes, celebrities, miscellaneous smokers and girls that look way too beautiful for it to be 7am.  I’ve been furious at careless motorists.  I’ve been abrupt and impolite on behalf of friends and family - but only to those who truly seem to serve it.

I hate you.

When I worked at Telstra, I was an avid collector of the $4 big issue.  There was a friendly salesman at the foot of the stairs at Roma St, and I often needed some light reading for the bus trip home.  On top of that, the stories aren’t so bad, it’s for a good cause, and I guess I enjoy the liberal bias.

Then I bought a car, got a job where I don’t have time to read magazines while at work, and they bumped the price up to $5.

Fast forward to about a month ago, when this irritating woman surfaced outside work.

The first time I noticed her was     after lunch one afternoon.  I managed to slip past without being harassed, but several people queueing at the lights weren’t quite so lucky.

The next morning, after collecting my breakfast from Java Coast, I went and stood at the lights.

“Buy the Big Issue?”
–’err.. sorry - I just spent my change on breakfast’

At this point, the green man rescued me and I dashed across the road.

For the next few days, I wore my iPod to avoid having to talk to her.  Metal makes me scowl and/or dance about like an idiot anyway, so she didn’t bother with me.  At least, I don’t think she did, I couldn’t really hear anything.

The next week, I stopped in at the cafe to grab breakfast and at the chemist to buy chapstick - winter wreaks havoc on my lips.  I spotted her as I came out of the chemist and fumbled around in my bag for my iPod.  Fuck.  No battery.  Shit.

I stood at the lights and hoped for the best.

“Buy the Big Issue?”
–’No thanks, I don’t have cash on me.’
“So go take some out - you had enough for food”

My jaw dropped.  This woman honestly expected me to go to an ATM, take money out, and buy an overpriced magazine from her, all because i had enough to buy myself breakfast.  I told her that I thought she was incredibly rude, and went about my day.

I’ve noticed her doing the same thing to others.

Last week, an elderly couple - canadian tourists - walked past her, talking to each other and looking up at the construction diagonally opposite.

“Buy the Big Issue?”
*no response*
“BUY THE BIG ISSUE?”
*couple continues talking to each other and pointing at the construction*.

At this point, tapped the man on his shoulder and prompted him, again, to buy the big issue.

I don’t know about you, but I find that to be completely unacceptable.  It’s one thing to demand that people find an ATM and give you money for an overpriced, shitty magazine, just so you don’t have to get off your arse and find a real job, but it’s another to actually touch someone.

So, I’m pretty appalled.  And I hate you.

I took the day off work yesterday to have my car looked at - he was making some suspicious crunching noises, which have thankfully now been rectified.

I figured while we were in Ashgrove I’d go to Guitar Brothers in Red Hill to survey their collection of Dean basses.  I was considering buying an electric guitar, but Nathan has a plethora at home that I’m always welcome to use.  I’ve pretty much staked a claim in one of them anyway

I’d already done some research at home.  I hit up the the Dean website to check out their range of basses and fell in love with a few in particular - the Metalman 2A collection.

Luckily, Guitar Brothers had a couple in stock.  They had the regular ML Metalman, the Metalman 2A Z and the V.  I decided upon the Z.  Nathan had a quick play with it in the store and gave it two thumbs up, so I bought him.  On the way home, we named him Murphy.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8818/mma2zlgwr5.jpg

Murphy!

I barely put him down for the rest of the afternoon.  I bought a 10w Kustom practise amp as well, so I can listen to all the mistakes I’m making.

To be fair, I only despise the ones who umbrella irresponsibly.  Responsible umbrella-ing is tolerable.

http://www.dimplex-australia.com/DIMPLEX/jsp/c_product_item.jsp?elementID=113&parentID=4&grandParentID=47

Bad news though - I had to cancel our dinner reservations because we’re both really unwell.  I woke up this morning and called work and promptly fell back asleep.  Being sick is awful

Edit: My nose is so blocked that whenever I try and sleep I wake up because i feel like I can’t breathe.  This is a mess.

I’m taking advantage of the days off my doctor insisted upon, and catching up on some housework.  I’m going to take lunch to Nathan’s work today so we can have a bit of a picnic

I’ll update with pictures later.

Nathan, Ash, Rach, Laura, Grant and I are heading north on the weekend to go camping! :)  Here’s the general itinerary:

Friday Night

Staying at Mum’s place and having dodgy Morayfield thai food for tea.

Saturday

Waking up at 6:00 and basking in all of mum’s pancake glory - she makes the greatest pancakes in the world.  After robbing mum’s house of all the pancakes, we’re heading off at around 7-7:30ish, hopefully arriving by 8:30/9ish.  Any later and we run the risk of missing out on our excellent campsite down the back.

Definitely stopping off in Maleny for pies though.

Staying the night on Saturday!

Sunday

Waking up, potentially hungover and doing a whole host of camping activities - staying again on Sunday night.

Monday Morning

Packing up and hopefully leaving by 11am.. again stopping at Maleny for pies on the way through.

And that’s it.

Last week while I was in Gladstone (one of the most boring places in the universe, honestly.) Nathan went to Anaconda and braved the crowds, and bought us a camping table, two awesome chairs, a blowup mattress and a blowup mattress blow-er-up-er-er.  Now we have pretty much everything we need, aside from a whole host of awesome lights, but both Ashley and Grant have some, and we have a couple of torches at home.

]]> http://jessmukkah.com/2008/06/26/camping-camptacular-iii/feed/ http://jessmukkah.com/2008/06/18/all-the-things-i-hate-about-the-rockhampton-plaza-hotel/ http://jessmukkah.com/2008/06/18/all-the-things-i-hate-about-the-rockhampton-plaza-hotel/#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:05:58 +0000 Jessmukkah http://jessmukkah.com/?p=347 The Rockhampton Plaza hotel is a piece of shit. Seriously. A piece of shit. A piece of shit that still, for some reason, see fit to give themselves a 4 star rating.

These are the things I hate about this hellhole, in no particular order.

- The service is fucking awful. The counter staff were cold and unhelpful.

- The shower has NO FUCKING WATER PRESSURE.

- There are 6 levels and only two elevators. Oh yeah. One of the elevators is broken - and by my internet research, has been since at least February. Classy, guys.

- My bathroom leaks. I know this is a fairly general statement so I’ll be a little more specific. There is a pipe that comes out of the wall, and water drips out of it onto my floor.

- ONTO MY FLOOR AND SUBSEQUENTLY ONTO MY PYJAMA PANTS. I thought that deserved its own line

- The room, while not dirty or messy, just seems grubby. The bed is uncomfortable and the sheets just don’t seem white. This isn’t helped by the fact that there aren’t many lights in the room - and one of the lamp globes are broken.

- The TV is fucking small. They say they have cable, but.. they only have 6 channels aside from the normal Free to Air, and three of those are sport.

- There’s no minibar in the rooms. In order to enjoy the minibar, you have to go down to reception and purchase the items from there. What the fuck.

- On all of the websites I visited before opting to stay here, they ALL listed that there was room service. Upon my arrival I was informed that room service has been restricted to breakfast only, and it seems that they intend on keeping it that way.

Out of 10.. I would give this place a 2. Fuck staying in this place, I’d never, ever do it again.

I’m sure I’ll have more to add after I sleep on it. Luckily, I’m off to Emerald tomorrow.