the week in review

Its Friday and thank god the weekend is just around the corner. Not that it's been a stressful week or anything, as just like it hasn't been for the past three months since being back home, work has been pretty down right boring. I still don't have a position and I cruise through the day trying to entertain myself. I'm happy enough to do just that if my employer is happy enough to pay me to do just that. Except that as of yesterday I could no longer log onto Myspace or Facebook. I wonder if someone has cotton onto the fact that people such as myself have been spending way too much time surfing these sites and as such have blocked them?

Our union body is ramping up its campain against changes that the Bank is trying to implement. Our union negotiated agreement expired back in December and the Bank has been avoiding all contact with the union over the past six months. Finally the Bank has approached staff about implementing a non-union agreement and boy hasn't it gone down like a lead balloon. Just prior to dropping this bomb shell the Bank cut out our staff home loans which has reduced peoples remuneration on average of around $11,000 a year, and they aren't offering any form of compensation for it. These changes have been brought about by the Australian Government forcing upon us new workplace reforms which have eroded the security for workers and have seen many unfortunate situations where families livelihoods have been torn apart. Its disgraceful and we do not want the industrial relations of places like the United States here in Australia. We have fought hard for the rights that we have and its not the governments place to strip us of those rights. The next few month or so are going to be full on with many staff ready to fighting for their rights at work.

I suppose it could be worse for me when you consider that here in Australia, a botched Brazilian wax was blamed for a Melbourne woman's life-threatening infection. The 20-year-old woman suffered excruciating pain, a fever and a rash extending to her chest, arms and neck. The injuries were so bad, doctors initially thought she had a flesh eating disease. Alarmingly, the woman was just one of 90 Victorians who went to hospital last year with waxing injuries.

I had my friend Kate over for dinner on Wednesday night. You will find Kate in photos in my Nth American blog. I went travelling with her and Andy in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Brazil. The flu is making the rounds at the moment, and she had the first symptoms of it. Since then I have had a sore throat, and this morning Kate gave me a lift to the train station and she informed me that next will come the runny nose and coughing. I don't mind getting sick as along as it's not over a weekend. I'm all for chucking a sickie during the week, but don't ruin my days off. Kate, myself and a few others have plans to paint the town red on Saturday night so I need my strength and endurance.

Tonight I'm also catching up with my good buddy Adam. I haven't had the chance to sit down and talk with him properly for about a month now. So tonight's our night for a goss session. I also need to update him on my plans to move to San Francisco. He knows its in the pipeline and has asked me to bring a list of pros and cons, which I haven't done yet. I don't think I need a list as it's something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and I'm not happy here, my job does suck and I have an opportunity to turn all that around. So we'll chat over some dinner, drink a bottle of red and then head of to the bars for beers, get semi trashed and then call each other tomorrow to laugh about the shit we got up to.


But to end the week here is the most top rated story. A CHIHUAHUA puppy with an interesting fur pattern has proven that love can beat terrorism and murder. The little chihuahua that was born in Japan with a love heart pattern in its fur. The puppy, called "Heart-kun" is not for sale.