Monday 30 July 2012

Who'd be an Olympian?

Who the hell would be an Olympian?
The endless training, the life sacrifices, the criticism.
Nope bugger that, I'd rather sit on my fat arse and watch them achieve something I never ever could and berate them when they don't win.

Doesn't make much sense does it?
But it's that fucked up mentality that's plaguing our elite sports people who are representing our country.
This time around we've seen and heard it all and we're only a few days into competition. 'Not good enough' 'hopes lost' 'disappointing'.

Is that really the attitude we should be embracing?

There is no harsher critique than the athlete themselves. They don't go to the Olympics to lose, they go to win, that desire burns deep within them or else they simply wouldn't compete.

Yes there are some sports that Australia excels in, like swimming, but lets face it, you can't be the best at something forever, and to expect that is unfair.

I don't have to point out the unbelievably harsh social commentary about Leisel Jones being 'unfit'. 5th fastest in the world in her event is hardly unfit. Let me repeat that 5TH FASTEST IN THE WORLD.

Last time I checked, I wasn't 5th best in the world in anything, what about you?

I watch the Olympics each day, and I get more of a buzz watching the womens weightlifting and seeing someone not even win a medal but achieve a PB. The look on their face when they smash their personal best is fantastic, their coaches go bananas, they love it, because on the world stage they have done their very best and they're happy, so why aren't we?

I feel sad, not sorry, for our Olympians who don't win, because they've given everything to their sport, and yet it's never seemingly good enough.

I'm pretty damn proud of anyone who represents Australia (unless they're a fuckwit).

Lets celebrate the achievement of that, rather than kicking them when they're down.

my heart skipped a beat.. or something

About 10 days ago I was sitting on the couch at home, exactly as I am now, when I felt something I haven't felt before. It was as if my heart stopped, then thumped back into action again. Wait, lemme get that right, it felt like someone squeezed the blood out of my heart, a flutter, then thump.
'What the hell was that?' I thought. 
Then it did it again some 2 minutes later, then again, and again. 
I put it down to heart burn or some sort of reflux messing with me, so I ignored it, as blokes do, coz ya know, we're pretty stupid like that. 
So I went about my business over the next couple of days, went for a walk on Saturday, just a lazy 8.5 kms, because despite my hefty appearance, I do like to do at least some form of movement to make sure the bones don't seize up, all the while this 'flutter' in the ticker continued, but didn't affect me walking, not shortness of breath, no dizziness, no adverse effects. 
In the first few days, there was a dull ache that went along with this weirdness, and that was enough to convince me to visit the doc and find out what the hell is going on.
The Doc didn't seem that concerned, which is always a relief when it comes to ya heart doin flip flops. 
I had an ECG, (for the uninitiated that's when they attach electrodes to your torso measure the electrical activity of your heart) and no one has contacted me since that, so I can only assume that things seemed pretty normal there. 
Today, I went back for a bunch of blood tests and to get a Holter Monitor. The Holter is a little pack, not much bigger than an iPhone, that has 4 leads coming from it that are attached to your chest and this will monitor my hearts activity for 24 hours. 
My heart is still doing it's little dance every now and then, and on the Holter is an 'event' button, which I can press whenever I feel my heart do whatever it is that it's doin. I don't have to, because it's all being recorded,  but it gives the boffins a reference. 
So, it's been on for 12 hours so far, and it'll be interesting to see if I get any sleep with all these wires hanging off me, what's more, I wanna know what he hell is going on with my dicker ticker.
I'm optimistic, but realistic. It's probably nothing, but it could be something.
I guess we'll find out soon enough. I'll keep ya posted. 

Wednesday 4 July 2012

30 yr old fashion revival

Yesterday as I was driving I saw a bunch of young kids, probably 15-16yrs old, and all of them had skateboards.
Nothing special there, skateboarding is awesome, always has been, the weird thing was, they were all carrying their boards, what's more, they were all those small skinny 80s fibreglass ones. What the fuck is going on there? I had one oft hose when I was 6 in 1980. It was blue, and it was awesome, for a 6 yr old. Why are they making a comeback? They're shit for anyone taller than 4 foot, you're not about to attack the mega ramp and the X-Games on one.. what gives?

People have been trying to bring back the 80's for a while now, lets face it, those of us who were old enough to remember them often look at them through rose coloured glasses, it was a simpler time. You thought nothing of turning the tap on out the front and hosing down your driveway, or leaving the sprinkler going in the backyard for hours on end, what a bonus of actually having seasons back then.
We walked to school, or rode our push bikes with no helmets, and as soon as I got home, I threw my bag into my room and headed out into the court to skate/play footy/cricket/ride bikes with the other kids in the court or around the corner till it was dark then I'd head home for dinner.

I won't rant on about the 80's, we've all seen the spam e-mails about how kids today don't know how good they've got it blah blah blah.. but lets face it, if we had today's technology back then, we would have been the same. Don't even pretend like we wouldn't have.. c'mon now, you're only lying to yourself.

So what's with the shitty skateboards? Are they trendy? A fashion accessory? As I mentioned, they were carrying them, for blokes, in their teens.. carrying skateboards. If ya gunna do that, finish the whole thing off with a "CHOOSE LIFE" t-shirt, and have a yellow Sony Sports Walkman hangin off ya belt.  Now THAT'S fuckin cool.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Sunday rant

Carbon Tax. Gillard's a liar. No shit. Everyone politician lies. What makes one party better than the other? Not a lot, we each just take what we want from the party that caters best to our needs it seems. One thing's for sure, you add the word 'Tax' to anything, and people won't like it. Another certainty is that this 'carbon tax' which isn't taken directly from our pocket, but indirectly by increasing the price of services, won't reduce the amount of pollution this country creates, which, on a world scale, it pathetically small.


When the Liberal Party get elected (don't even pretend they won't) will they scrape this cash cow? They say they will, but I doubt it.


Let's move on to fuel prices. Yes Australia enjoys a relatively low fuel price compared to a lot of countries, but we're far from cheap. It's great that it's dropped recently, but what annoys me is when people say 'jeez, petrol's cheap isn't it?' It's not fuckin cheap at all you clown, it's just cheaper than what it was, and for a country that could be self sufficient in fuel, it's a disgrace.


Example: On Friday I saw unleaded for $1.20 per litre. On Saturday, the price had jumped to $1.39 per litre, despite the fact that there had been no increase in the price of crude oil.
There has now, by 9%, but why is it retailers are allowed to increase prices as soon as there's word of a crude oil increase, and yet it takes weeks for it come down when there's a drop?
That's price gouging at it's best and the government is doing fuck all about it.


At least some don't jack it up instantly.. on the corner of Stud rd and Heatherton Rd in Dandenong there is a Shell service station on side, and a BP on the other. Saturday midday the price at Shell - $1.39, BP - $1.20
Guess which servo was full.


When I started driving nearly 20 yrs ago, we had petrol rations due to strikes and yet petrol remained at a steady price when they could have smashed the hell out of them. In contrast, we also enjoyed a price war back then, the cheapest I bought unleaded petrol for was 56cents per litre. That was in 1993.


I know I'm ranting, but that's what this blog is for, I have to get all this shit out of my head. Why doesn't the government do anything about constantly fluctuating fuel prices? Coz they're making shit loads. And that goes for all political parties. They've been double dipping for years, there's the excise on petrol, and the GST, why would they scrape something that makes them millions?


It works like this, ALl petroleum fuels (not LPG) are taxed at 38.14cpl. GST is also applied to the total price, at 10%, it's a tax on a tax. 


How is that fair? It's not of course, but no one is doing anything about it. It's fucked. The Libs brought in the GST and now Labor has brought in the Carbon Tax, and Australia is fast becoming one of the most expensive places to live. Food, clothes, housing, fuel, water, electricity, gas etc etc, it ain't cheap. 


Right, I think that's all I have to say about that for now, I am feeling cleansed in my mind.. don't get me started on the boats, why this is still an issue is beyond me. There was a policy in place when Howard was in power, that seemed to work well, what happened to that? 


I don't have all the answers, I wish I did, although I also wish the people were are elected by the people to serve the people would sack up and stop pandering to vocal minorities in order to 'look good'. News flash, you're not looking good, you're looking shithouse. 





right, back to the footy..