RIP tmc

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had been umming and arrrring over whether to rest tmc recently and something happened today that has convinced me that it is now time for Colin to leave the building. tmc has been bordering on more an on-line diary of late....something I never intended it to be. And this has lead to someone quite close to me being hurt......even though it was certainly not my intention to do so.

tmc has been a great experiment and I've loved it for reconnecting me with my love of writing. I'm certainly not going to give up but I think it's a sign to get serious about this craft and tackle something much bigger than a couple of blog entries per week.

Thanks to all of you who read tmc, some of you are my closest mates and some I've never met in my life. Regardless I've always appreciated your words of encouragement.

I never say never though, so you may see me back out there in the blogoshpere at some point but not as Colin......Colin and his blog of thoroughly modern shenanigans is most definitely and completely over.

Thanks for reading!!

C

Open Wide

10.20 am Saturday : in the dentist chair: mouth open like the opera house

Dentist: This tooth is going to require root canal treatment.

John: Oh. Is that the same as a root canal?

Dentist: Yes

John: But you said last time it wasn't a root canal? You said it required a filling.

Dentist: Yes. I was wrong.

John: But you took me through the xray and explained to me how it required a new filling

Dentist: Yes the xray was wrong.

John: I thought you were wrong.

Dentist: Sometimes xrays can be misinterpreted.

John: I thought root canals were supposed to be painful.

Dentist: Normally they are but the nerve in this mollar appears to be dead.

John: When did it die?

Dentist: It's hard to tell.

John: Wouldn't I've known?

Dentist: What do you mean?

John: Well surely I would have felt something when it died.

Dentist: Not necessarily. Sometimes nerves just die without pain.

John: Half their luck. So how much will this cost?

Dentist: Well this particular root canal is quite complex; I would have to refer you to a specialist.

John: Is that because the nerve is dead?

Dentist: The root canal has gone all the way to the bone.

John: Well isn't that what a root canal is?

Dentist: Yes essentially. But this is a complex root canal.

John: I can see that. How much?

Dentist: Because it will be done by a specialist, most likely $2500 for the root canal treatment then $1500 for the crown.

John: And I've already spent a $1000 on the original filling treatment which cracked in the first six months.

Dentist: Yes

John: This will be a $5000 tooth.

Dentist: Yes

John: What's the point of saving it?

Dentist: As your dentist I have to urge you to save every tooth but...

John: Every tooth is sacred is that what you're saying.

Dentist: Yes.....there is however only a 60% chance of saving the tooth through the root canal treatment.

John: So I will be spending $5000 on a tooth that has essentially lost it's mind, can't feel anything and has a 40% chance of not surviving anyway.....

Dentist: Yes

John: Would you spend five grand on a holiday where you've got a 40% chance of being killed?

Dentist: No

John: Exactly. When can I have it extracted?

Dentist: Next Saturday?

John: Lock it in.

C

Hip Hip.....

Judith Lucy on the film Australia :

It shouldn't have been called Australia, it should have been called Oh For Fuck's Sake!

Hoorah!

C

ASH SATURDAY

No doubt everyone (in Australia at least) has been glued with horror to their television screens watching the nightmare that has been unravelling in Victoria over the weekend. I still remember as a little kid watching the same nightmare over 25 years ago in the Ash Wednesday fires where 76 people died and over 3000 homes were destroyed. This time sadly the fire has claimed more lives and less houses (770). So far 181 lives have been lost with expectations that the death toll will exceed 300......Australia's worst peacetime disaster. I have been caught in a bush fire before. They are terrifying beasts to witness. They move fast, destroying everything and everyone in their path as quickly as they suck all the oxygen out of the air. Their roar is equally as terrifying. It is hoped that those who died had asphyxiated before the fire took them.

The last two days in Sydney it's been wet and cold and in North Queensland it's flooding. Victoria continues to burn.

What a country.

C

Red Cross is accepting donations for the disaster.....http://www.redcross.org.au/ ......please donate.

Plasma Economics

So giving 8.1 million Australians who earn under $100k a year cash handouts totalling $12.4 billion dollars is going to keep us out of recession? We've since found out that the $10.2 billion K.Rudd gave out in December in cash bonuses to families and pensioners went straight onto credit cards or down poker machines and did nothing to stimulate the economy.Why is this going to be any different? Plasma screens for all? I totally support government funds stored and borrowed being poured into infrastructure and education. This creates jobs and provides for the future but to throw $12.4 billion out the window and say "go treat yaselves kids" when the severe consequences of this huge global financial crisis haven't even hit our shores (our unemployment is still low at 4.4%) is extremely careless. We are going into a recession. No amount of cash bonuses is going to stop it. We rely on China, Japan and Korea who in turn rely on America.....they are all in recession....we're headed their way. The thing that has put this country in good stead in front of countries such as the United Kingdom is that we had savings. We had nearly ten years of budget surpluses ....our last being $21 billion. Ten of that has already been spent; K.Rudd is about to spend the rest and another 35 billion on top of that. Analysts predict that Australia will have a budget deficit of $100 billion by 2010 all in time for the next federal election....not bad going for a first term government.

The Government is wanting to push this current $45 Billion stimulus package through both the houses of parliament by the end of the week without the usual Senate Estimates Hearings that are involved in such a piece of legislation. The Opposition rightly so is opposing the move. This legislation requires far more analysis than just two days. The Government will have to rely on the support of the Greens and the Independent to get the legislation through the Senate.


It's funny how history repeats itself. This scenario is reminding me of another "Great" Labor Prime Minister who entered power at a time of great financial turmoil following 25 years of conservative rule in Australia. He championed human rights particularly those of the Aboriginal people introducing the Racial Discrimination Act and the first land rights legislation in Australia. He also abolished the White Australia Policy and withdrew Australian troops from Vietnam. He also used the nation's credit card like an elastic band plunging the nation into massive debt; a debt that was a fiscal noose around the Australia economy until the commodoties boom of the Howard years thanks mainly to China. K. Rudd's debt will be five times that of his Labor predecessor. His predecessor was also a bright shiney ray of light when he first became Prime Minister winning the 1972 election on the slogan "It's Time" ending a strangelhold the conservatives had on Federal rule in Australia. But in under three years , Mr Whitlam was sacked by the Governor-General of Australia along with the Labor Government in the constitutional controversory which was the Dismissal. I'm not saying that K. Rudd is going to run off to the middle east and get shoddy loans like his predecessor in "the loans affair", but he should take note from the pages of history and not rush huge fiscal committments through parliament without proper analysis. This recession is happening whether we like it or not, our government should consider every serious fiscal decision it makes with the due care and consideration it deserves.....not because it will look good on the 6 o'clock news.

C

Cranky Pants

I've had one of those days which I would just like to cancel. It started at 4 this morning when the moron in the block of flats next door starting performing some sort of mechanical overhaul of his long-gone excuse for a car.

I attempted slumber but could not get back to sleep mainly because I knew our cleaner was arriving at 7am and had to be awake to let him in. I find S irritating at the best of times but even more so when one's slumber has been halved. It didn't help either that my mother started speaking to me in front of S like I was in kindergarten

Mum to S: Ah Colin never likes getting out of bed!

Nor do you Mum.

Mum to S: And of course his room is a mess.

Thanks Mum. S and I have enough mutual dislike without you assisting.

Mum: Oh Colin quickly clean up your room so S can vacuum

Colin: Mum the point of having a cleaner is that he does the cleaning

Mum: Well move your shoes and books so he can get in.

Colin: Do you want me move to the furniture out as well?

I was not happy Jan. I quickly showered, got dressed and left. My brother had already left for work and Mum, Dad and I decided to go for breakfast down the road before I went to work. My mood didn't improve and became increasingly dire when the waitress spilt my coffee all over my lap. I nearly threw the table at her. She was however saved by the Eggs Benedict I ordered….they were divine.

They did not however stem my fowl mood. It has continued to brood all day grumbling its way through every email, phone call and social interaction. To be honest am rarely cranky, so I do find it intriguing when I am. It is strange to find oneself deliberately making oneself even more unbearable by one's own behaviour…..when one is fully aware that one is doing it. MADNESS.

Yes …I think I need to go for a run.

C