A new job is a new challenge, a new lease on life and certainly new opportunities. You know when you have had enough, you know the time to leave and I think I worked a year longer than I should have. Having to work with these people is the issue, you don’t let them get on top of you, naturally, you give them more stress than they give you.

After 13 years in the same job I am ready for a new challenge, I am ready to leave behind all the issues that plagued that job I force myself to show up every morning. I don’t want to begin my new employment with ongoing issues from my previous employment, but this is exactly what will happen. I am so looking forward to leaving these people and this job, the new challenges are what really excites me. I am so looking forward to working with professional people, positive people with positive attitudes.

I can’t work here anymore, I am leaving at possibly the perfect time but it could be argued that I went a year or possibly two longer than I should have. That being said, I knew I would return from leave after the Christmas break for just a week, or maybe two of work before I begin my new employment – that’s enough.

 

I cannot believe how my former colleague was treated on his final work day, he will be on leave for the next two months before he actually retires but he won’t be working another day – this was his last day of actual work. Another one received an earful of abuse, this is not how you treat people and it was difficult to listen to.

I always believe you should firstly secure your next employment before you relinquish your position. Fortunately, I was able to do precisely that and now I have the Christmas/New Year’s period to get set up for my next role. So now I am off to pre-employment medicals, immunisations and sorting out tax details. I feel better already, the stress I was feeling lifted and the overall feeling of relief is just amazing.

The shocking video of the Danish and Norwegian women murdered in Morocco has emerged online. The question then needs to asked, do you seek it out and watch it or do you ignore it?

This is a question one just ask oneself, why do you want to view this video? I decided to view the video for purposes of research for my blog and to try to understand the phenomenon of radical Islam. I will not describe the scenes I saw in this video, this is not the purpose of this post. I seek to understand the underlying issues behind the forces that has turned the religion of Islam into a satanic cult.

I have watched the video a number of times looking for details into how long Ms Jespersen’s life ended. Without being too descriptive, you are able to see the point when the knife was placed against the throat of Ms Jespersen who was lying face down. I believe she wasn’t aware of what was going to happen to her and she let put an audible yelp with the first movement of the knife blade against her throat.

She was then rolled over with further slicing at her throat. I carefully watched her arm movements for when they stopped. When you know she had gone past the point of no return, you just wish for a fast end to minimise the extreme fear and pain. I am appalled by the barbarism of these men and their blind adherence to this pathetic cult of radical Islam. This is no religion, this is a pathetic perverted ideology followed by the uneducated and mentally weak seeking to return the world to a point in time where unlawfulness ruled.

There are calls to execute these pathetic losers, generally I am against execution and the death penalty but when you watch this footage and see these imbeciles spitting on this woman as they murder her, I am willing to admit my views to the death penalty is wrong. I gained no further understanding of their radical views – such a waste of two young lives.

I hate my job but this wasn’t always the case. I used to enjoy getting up in the morning and heading off to work, the job itself hasn’t fundamentally changed so what happened? I used to be first in and last to leave, I am still not the last in, but I do try to leave the moment the clock ticks over past knock-off time but that only lasted a couple of weeks and I was back to my old routine.

I am very ambitious and seek to do the job to the best of my ability, yet why I do I now care little about the job and the people I work with? The short answer is corruption and the politics of corruption. I am not the only one affected by this, some of the older guys are openly discussing retiring early and others not so close to retirement are considering employment elsewhere.

This is a terrible outcome for everybody; well, that is everybody except the select few who are benefitting from the efforts of everyone else. So where to from here, I am setting about exposing the corruption and will hopefully reverse the team stress instead redirecting the anguish to the members of the crony club shielding the effective team members from the corruptive forces engulfing my workplace.

Will I leave my current employment? The answer is probably yes, but certain conditions will need to be met. I will not just leave and become unemployed, now that I am protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003, I will lose my protection if I leave. I have a passion for work, I am motivated and I want to make a difference, so I will not just be a guy who clocks in and out every day – I want to make a difference.

The most pathetic insult I have witnessed in my working career is the snub of my former colleague on the last day of his employment. After 47 years of service he didn’t rate a mention at our Christmas party despite a gift and speech for another retiree who was retiring with less service than me.

I couldn’t believe it, I am gobsmacked, all the old retirees were there yet they couldn’t even spare a word for a guy on his retirement day after 47 years of service. Technically he hasn’t yet retired, he has started leave for the next two months and won’t be returning to work, this was his last day of work. This was also my last day of work, I was embarrassed and I won’t ever forget this snub – this was the ultimate insult.

After a nasty experience overseas with flies crawling all over food, I ask myself, how do flies actually spread disease? We all kind of know this and spend our time shooing flies off food and drinks.

This is what I love about writing a blog, it gives me the opportunity to research a wide range of topics. I am researching this after another nasty bout of gastroenteritis; had attended a Balinese wedding where the flies had to been seen to be believed. It was like we were in a tent designed to keep the flies in with the flies contacting everything.

So my research tells me flies collect pathogens on both their legs and mouths carrying the diseases on the small hairs or bristles on their legs and bodies. So the next question is, what is a pathogen? A pathogen is an infectious agent that may also be described as a biological agent causing disease and illness. We have all seen flies land on objects and rub their rear legs together so this makes sense. By rubbing its legs together, the fly is able to scrape of some of the material that has gathered on its bristles contaminating the area it has just landed on.

The diseases they carry include typhoid, cholera and dysentery – all diseases that will mess you up big time. More diseases, such as salmonella, anthrax and tuberculosis are carried by flies – but I’m guessing these diseases are less likely. Flies feed on feces and as were on a Balinese farm, they had a rich food source as the farm was unclean, you could smell it.

The farm really reeked of the foul stench of animal faces so I’m guessing they were not big on cleaning the animal stalls. The local population seemed none too bothered by all this and with all the rubbish including plastic around the area were not big on hygiene at all. I don’t want to be a rich westerner looking down at poor people in developing nations; you can be poor and work hard to clean up where you live.

Due to their sponge type mouths, flies feed on liquids requiring them to liquefy their food through regurgitation. Flies eat by throwing up their stomach contents on their food source with the digestive juices breaking the solid matter into smaller chunks. Flies then use their proboscis to recover the stomach contents by drinking the digestive juices and dissolved food source.

Fortunately, despite the feeling of wanting to continually vomit and crap your pants with explosive diarrhea, the effects seem to wear off after a couple of days although diarrhea and dysentery is a leading cause of deaths in developing countries. In my case it wrecked Christmas day and a three-day trip to Rottnest Island on my return home.

Known as feminist street outrage group, Femen are receiving plenty of media coverage with their topless protests. Going topless in public isn’t a new strategy for Femen, this has been their their strategy for a while now.

So some research as required, they are a radical Ukrainian protesting against the sexual exploitation of women. Apparently they began protesting the sex tourism trade in the country with their slogan ‘Ukraine is not a brothel’ advocating against the legalisation of prostitution when moves were instigated to legalise prostitution prior to the 2012 Euro 12 championships.

The origins of the group seem to date back to 2008 when Ukraine was engulfed in the post-Soviet collapse mobster economy where public were sold off for minimal amounts described as necrocapitalism destroying the base of the society as infrastructure collapsed. One suspects many women were forced into prostitution to feed families, but really I’m just speculating here. Their current round of protests seem to revolve around an anti-Islam context and their treatment of women so let’s see where that goes.

It’s Christmas day and I’m on a flight home, my pre-Christmas break is over and I’m on a morning flight back to Perth.

I’m going straight from the airport to the family lunch after spending the week before Christmas in Bali. The majority is heading in the other direction, Bali is now in peak season and I am glad to be out. I prefer the lead up to the peak, every day more people are arriving. The first part of the week was spent in Ubud staying in the Batu Empug Cottages before heading down to Kuta for a couple of days staying the the Jayakarta Hotel. Sure Ubud is quiet, but that is exactly what I wanted and the pace did pick up in Kuta somewhat. My Christmas Day is going to be pretty good, I hope everyone has a great day, a merry Christmas to all.

When I first came across Grab Taxi in the Philippines, taxi drivers were using this popular app to book rides increasing their clientele base. For 40 pesos, you could book a taxi from your smartphone guaranteeing yourself a ride. I have always found the Grab drivers very polite and helpful, I couldn’t say the same about Manila taxi drivers who were always trying to scam you.

On subsequent trips to the Philippines, Grab has expanded to private ride sharing utilising mostly part-time drivers. This has greatly expanded the reach of Grab and become a rival to Uber. I have never seen Uber operating in the Philippines; but since I have never supported this business, I have not sought them out either.

The first thing I noticed was the quality of the private vehicles that Grab offers, Manila cabs are pretty run down and the drivers take every opportunity to take advantage of a foreigner, the locals don’t fare much better either. Grab has fixed rates that are very competitive, you are set the rate before departure so no chance to go the long way or driving in circles exists.

My preference is now Grab, I no longer have fights with taxi drivers unwilling to turn the meter on and quoting, I mean demanding outrageous fixed fares. Nor do I have drivers tell me it is too busy and they won’t drive me to my destination citing heavy traffic. Taxis still get paid by the kilometer and have a charge for sitting in traffic so they don’t lose. If Manila taxi drivers provided a better service then I would be happy to support them.

I refuse to use Uber in Perth because they have devastated the livelihoods of the taxi industry who were required to purchase highly expensive licenses from the state government to operate. The taxi board run by the state government limited taxi licences keeping prices high ensuring the inflation of taxi costs in a manner that only a government department could design.

These parameters defy the basic economic principles of supply and demand and they certainly don’t create productivity increases or efficiencies. Grab on the other hand worked together with existing taxi drivers increasing their revenue and service, so I am more than happy to support this business. This is a better version of a taxi app than is currently used, I will refuse to use Uber, the drivers are not supported and this business model is plain horrible.

As Jetstar flight JQ110 descends into Ngurah Rai International Airport I can sense the excitement building, there was lots of kids on this flight and their energy was evident. I look out the window to see waves breaking on Kuta Beach with boats lined up on the reef. I have dubbed the flight to Bali from Perth the Bali bogan flight, this morning wasn’t the case, this was a good flight. Young families with kids was this clientele, there was no excessive alcohol consumption, no loud swearing, no loutish behavior and no abuse of airline staff.

Sure, there was a passage of flight where every young child was crying and a few screaming. Parents were scrambling to to quieter children, keep them occupied and calm. I don’t mind that, parents are doing their best, children are unpredictable it doesn’t last forever – kids are kids. This trip started off well, I think it will be a fun and relaxing time. Being in Bali with families is better than the drunken louts fighting, arguing and generally making a nuisance of themselves. It also helps I will be heading up to Ubud for six days, I am expecting couples and families with kids, a nice time.