Mackasbarra – Page 6

Tree lopping is not something to be proud of being good at

stump removal Being good at everything sucks. I don’t know why it is that I was cursed with this natural ability to do just about anything. You’d think it were a blessing but it has confined me to a private hell. Contrary to what you may think, being good at everything doesn’t put you on top of the world, but instead has the adverse effect of burdening you with the incessant supplications of the common people with whom you are unfortunate enough to be acquainted. I just thank goodness for tree lopping services, Melbourne wide, for saving me from another inconvenience of having to give favours.

You know how perceptive old people are right? They’ll repeat the question they asked you five minutes ago but they’ll pick up on some minor thing you did five years ago retain it with awe-inspiring tenacity. Thus my neighbour, old man Miles, spotted me lopping down a tree in my front yard years ago and it came back to haunt me. The old codger rapped on my door, wanting to know if I could help him out with tree removal at his property across the street. I looked out at the enormous stump he wanted me to get rid of and thought, ‘Am I ever going to get a minute to myself around here?!’

I put my foot down. I feel proud of myself for showing enough spine to say No, demarcating my limits. He was a little dejected but I told him that there are plenty of companies that do stump removal around Melbourne. He was skeptical of prices and efficiency – he wanted as good a job as I had done in my own yard (and who can blame him?) – and I too offered these suggestions not really believing that they’d be the most economical. But hot diggity if I wasn’t wrong about that. The tree removal company came around and removed the stump without leaving so much as a trace of it behind. And the old man sat around grinning on his porch for the rest of the afternoon.

Conveyancing as a career

Melbourne property conveyancing Being the eldest sibling is a burden. If you were to look objectively at me, my younger sister and my even younger brother, you’d find the absolute perfect stereotype of three kids played out in us. You know how it goes. The responsible one. The forgotten wild card. The rule-breaking arts lover. All of us fit into our slots perfectly.

So my even younger brother is the responsible one, obviously. He wanted to become an esteemed Melbourne conveyancing lawyer at the tender age of eighteen. He exudes authority, strives to please the parents, takes his conveyancing duties very seriously and is probably the most conventionally intelligent of us all. I’ve visited his office a few times, when we were having lunch together. Everyone there is so focused on their work, or their clients. I’m not sure I could work in that sort of environment. Can’t take the pressure. And with property transfers and all that, you can’t afford to make many mistakes.

So that’s my brother. My sister, as the middle child, is the rule-breaker. She was doted on by my parents, not because they loved her more but because of her personality. She got away with most things, chafed under the rule system and has now gone off and joined a travelling group of artists who do impromptu shows all around Australia. The thought of her being a conveyancer is laughable.

And of course, I’m the forgotten one. As the eldest child, I quickly became somewhat overshadowed by my younger siblings, and I was often overlooked in many areas. I didn’t feel overly smothered, nor was I burdened with responsibility. Thus my career as a backup hip-hop dancer seemed the logical option, as well as teaching mathematics on the side. I’ll never measure up to the responsibility of my brother, with his desire to work a fancy Elwood conveyancing job. Neither am I a free spirit like my sister. I am, indeed, who I am. And that’s just not such a bad thing.

Parents Influencing Career Choices

game design Some people grow up with all these skills in a certain area, because their parents did something or another. You see it all the time on TV, like when they need someone to solve a particular case or whatever, and it turns out that their parents did that specific thing as a hobby so now they know how to do it too. I’m not sure it really works like that…I mean, I know people who had medical people for parents and they have no interest or knowledge of medical stuff. Some parents just don’t talk about this kind of thing with their kids, you know? I mean, not that I have experience, because my parents are dead and I never met them, but that’s just how I think it goes.

I’m guessing if you had parents who did like a game design course, you’d be more likely to get into that world because…well, games are just that kind of thing. You want to share the joy of gaming with people, so if they were game designers they’d want their kids to be into the same thing. Actually, as weird as it is that two parents could both be working in the gaming industry, it’s becoming more common. It’s not a ‘boys only’ field any more, so maybe spouses can make games together in the future. But then it might become a flipped case of the child hating video games and wanting to do, like…an IT course. Or they could want to do something TOTALLY different, like medicine. Wouldn’t that be weird? Nowadays, there are so many kids who finish school and want to work with video games because it’s a passion, while their folks try to persuade them to do something sensible…like medicine.

So things could very easily flip around in the future, you know? Tech is becoming a big deal. Not that I’m some future prediction person, but I just feel that’s where it’s going. Meanwhile, I’m not hugely into games, because…well, time. I’ve dabbled, certainly. Had a good time with Airedge, that big open world game with all the dragons, but once I completed it a few hours later I sort of lost interest. Someone doing a video game course in Melbourne needs to make me a game that’ll last!

-Mack

Studying IT – a woman’s journey

IT courses After graduating from high school, I decided to study web development in Melbourne. I remember the first day of my course very clearly, the mingling excitement and apprehension that I felt, and the thrill of attending my first class. It was a few minutes into my first lecture that I discovered something was awry. I looked around the room at the people in my lecture, wondering what on earth was giving me this feeling. Then it hit me – almost everyone in my web design degree was male.

I’d never had this experience before and felt slightly out of place. I later realised how underrepresented women are in the information technology industry and instead of feeling awkward I began to feel proud. It’s true that times are changing, while there are a few girls like me in my computer programming and game design classes, I guess there used to be even less. It’s obvious that higher education institutions along with the government and not-for-profits are making an effort to promote women to join this heavily male-dominated field.

I learned to cope with being in the minority by befriending my fellow female students for a bit of solidarity, and also making male friends for a bit of balance. After that, I started to take this budding-feminism a little further by reading some femo literature and joining some women’s clubs. It was a great experience to meet like-minded people and show the world that yes, women too can study anything they want, even IT courses. Melbourne is one of the most progressive cities in the world, so what better place to start making positive change. I even sought out some scholarships and funding opportunities that were offered outside of my academy to help me along with my studies. It really did give me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that others are willing to help. Now whenever I find myself in a male-dominated workplace or endeavour, I’m full of confidence that I can do as good a job as they can and bring about some more gender equality in the world.

My best funeral director

funeral services in Perth I’ve been to a fair few funerals in my time but recently when my father passed away, I had my first experience of organising one with a funeral director. My siblings and I shopped around among the funeral services in Perth and found one that we felt would be most willing to accommodate our needs. Dad was a pretty quirky character. He had a lifelong obsession with Queen so we wanted to have some of his memorabilia around during the funeral service, and he had three border collies which he loved dearly, so we wanted them to have the chance to say goodbye. We ended up settling on a funeral home that was willing to meet our needs.

The funeral director that was in charge of
the service was probably the best one that I’ve ever experienced. All funeral directors that I’ve experienced have been compassionate and calm but this guy went above and beyond what I as expecting. I’m going to keep him in mind if I ever have to recommend funeral homes. Perth has a lot of reputable funeral homes so I’m sure there are other good ones. The director that we had at my dad’s funeral service was special because he has a tactful way of comforting the relatives. For example, my sister was becoming a bit flustered and rude when there was a bit of a mix up with the flower arrangement – but the funeral director kept his cool and managed to rectify the situation immediately (After all, it wasn’t his fault that the florist had made a mistake). The experience that this funeral director gave us really made me feel a profound gratitude towards him. Not only did he help us through a difficult time by organising the service, his kindness and understanding actually helped me with my grief. I thought that this man is a kind of unsung hero of our country, no one realises how much of a positive impact funeral directors can make on a grieving person’s life.

The things you see in Melbourne

I drain repair live in inner city Melbourne where a lot of weird, wonderful and sometimes wacky stuff goes down. For example, the city is famous for its art and culture, which more often than not originates with renegades and eccentrics who are pushing the boundaries. My recent experience in Melbourne was a testament to this process.

I stepped outside in the late evening to get some clothes off the line when I discovered a sewer floating in the air. I couldn’t find the source immediately but when I went out onto the street I saw that a burst sewer pipe was gushing gunk out onto the street. I gagged with revulsion and went inside to call the council. Within the hour, the drain repair company in Melbourne came out to attend to the mess. I was impressed at how speedy they were and they also told me they could get the job done within 24hrs which was a huge relief.

A couple of hours later I went back outside to inspect their progress and what I discovered was a total shock. The workers had dug a huge hole in the street because not only was the sewer pipe damaged but they’d also unearthed a crack in the stormwater drain beneath the street. However, just beneath the spot where they were digging, some punk kids were having a party inside the storm water drain. The drain was mostly dry as it hadn’t rained for a few days and they’d set up tealight candles and a sound system in the drain! The kids were just packing by the time the drain contractors reached the pipe.

I have to hand it to those kids for their inventiveness in finding a quirky free venue – not that I condone their illegal activity. It’s this creativity that I love about Melbourne, but it’s also the efficiency of the services. Thank goodness the services for sewer replacement around Melbourne are so good because the job was done by morning and the stink mostly gone.

Bouncing Around Offices

finances I’ve moved offices a bit in my time. My time hasn’t even been that long, but…well, maybe I just move around a lot. Never happy, I suppose. I need to settle down at some point, but right now I seem to be on the office grind…one office after another. I guess that means I’ve picked up a few skills here and there, photocopying included, as well as fetching coffee and fixing up paperwork for conveyancing. Melbourne was the first place I worked as a conveyancer, even though I wasn’t there for too long. Really nice people in that job, actually, which always makes things easier, particularly when you stumble into a job and just sort of have to learn a lot of things on the fly. I was okay dealing with the clients and I could do up a tie pretty well (even a bow-tie) but I felt a bit reclusive at times. Sometimes I just wanted to do my work and go home, not because I didn’t like the people there because they were really great, but more because I just…didn’t really feel up to social interaction. Whenever we’d have some kind of work social outing or we’d stay back and eat pizza, I’d die a little bit inside. Maybe I’m better now, not that I have many opportunities to show it.

So yeah, conveyancing. I didn’t imagine myself as a conveyancing solicitor when I was growing up, but you know how it is when you don’t have a solid career in mind. You tend to bounce, a bit like a ball in a pinball machine. Hopefully you just keep bouncing until you light up some things, score some points and finally end up starting again. So I’d rather be…I don’t know, Perk-Man? Just eating little pellets around a maze, avoiding the ghosts and still progressing to a higher level of the same thing. Yeah, a bit of the same thing would be nice. Still, the Melbourne conveyancing solicitor gig was nice, while it lasted.

-Mack

Bending That Metal, Back in the Day

I run a very tight ship here in this construction yard. We pay our workers very well, but in return, they have to agree to keep the whole workplace free from course talk and other such nasty behaviours. These include burping, slurping, belching, squelching, rumbling, scrumming, and not having a shower beforehand. More severe punishments can be handed out for rough language, not ironing one’s uniform, talking ill of people behind their back and any behaviour deemed ‘ungentlemanly’. We are all honourable men here, and I would hate for anyone to forget this.

After all, the reputation of Melbourne aluminium toolboxes must be upheld. Too long has it been associated with course behaviour, indecent acts of bodily scratching and the word ‘dunny’. Such things are deplorable, at least in my version of the workplace. Were it my version of a proper place of business, even a construction site, we would have morning and afternoon tea at predictable intervals and cucumber sandwiches would be passed around (with watercress once per week, on Friday afternoons) whilst we’re served tea from a ceramic pot. I know the tools of our trade- under tray draws, toolboxes, aluminium accessories- do not speak of delicacy, but I wish to turn that stereotype around. We are not bound by the mistakes and crude ways of the past.

Currently, I am tolerating the coffee break phenomenon, wherein people will drink coffee and sometimes consume greasy snacks. Positive change doesn’t happen overnight, after all. I’m willing to change things one step at a time. However, the language issue is something I’m firm on. They are aluminium accessories, not simply mashed in with ‘gear’.

-Alastair

Loving our new looks

dermal fillers Melbourne My bestie Amy and I had just finished one of the hardest things either of us had done in all our years as friends. We had finally officially completed a ten week fitness boot camp. It was an incredibly intensive fitness program for people determined to lose a lot of weight as possible within the ten weeks. It was one of the most challenging and amazing experience of my life and I am so proud of us for getting through it. It’s all part of our new year’s resolution to get fitter and look better. Amy and I decided that we needed to treat ourselves as a reward for our accomplishment. We together and spoke of all the years we’d known each other and all the battles we had been through together.

We toasted to our success with a wheatgrass juice and congratulated each other on losing more weight than we had planned. To celebrate, Amy suggested we book ourselves in for a few cosmetic treatments, I’m thinking dermal fillers in Melbourne. It was a fantastic idea, complete our makeover by having a few little things done to make us look a few years younger. I picked up the phone with glee and made two appointments. A total makeover is going to go perfectly with our new bodies. I can’t wait to see the look on the face of the people at work when we show up looking ten years younger. We’ll probably need to think about anti wrinkle injections, Melbourne ladies are no stranger to getting their fine lines sorted out. I simply could not believe the confidence that was radiating off my friend Amy. I had never seen her looking so happy and confident. I took a second to think and to my shock I also hadn’t felt this happy in a long time either. We both had a new lease on life and things were going to be different from now on. We were two smart and beautiful individuals ready to take on the world.

Dealing with a case of sadness

Melbourne hair removal treatments Lately I’ve been feeling kind of down and I can’t seem to shake it. I have been moping around my house for last week now. I even missed my usual appointment to get laser hair removal, Melbourne is just too big for me sometimes. I haven’t felt brave enough to venture out into the real world and be social. I’ve had all the curtains drawn and the lights turned off most of the time, I’ve been enjoying it. I took my friends coming over to visit and telling me that I needed to snap out of it for me make a plan. My best friend ever Liz knows how to give me a stern talking to when I need to hear it the most. She came over after hearing that I hadn’t been to work in two weeks and that none of my friends or family had heard from me. It happens every now and again, I have a few dark days or weeks. It definitely isn’t something to get very worried about. Sometimes I get stuck in a rut and can’t find my happy place, it is no big deal. I was happy to see Liz but wasn’t in the mood for her her lectures. I wanted to be covered in blankets, watching helpless romantic comedies until I fell asleep. Liz knew that it was all a lie and that I was incredibly sad. She spent the night with me in my house and her company was nice.

The next morning when we woke up Liz making me breakfast. I slowly emerged from the bedroom and Liz told me I had an appointment for anti aging injections in Melbourne. At first I was shocked, but then I couldn’t stop laughing. It was the perfect idea. This was the first I’d heard about our beauty appointments but it was nice. She smiled at me all big and beautiful and told me not to say another word on the matter. I really hope this is the start of something special between Liz and I.