Listening To: Clawfinger : Clawfinger

Current Horn Factor :

Horn Factor = Blue Balls

How was your weekend guys ? Mine officially started about 17:30 on Friday afternoon, after a hardcore 1 hour+, two person ‘panel’ interview at work for a ‘Client Service Executive’ role. The latter is a job I used to seriously covet - pretty much ever since I first started working here almost 2 years ago. The reasons were mainly to do with the wages (bound to be better than pitiful rate I started on initialy, and defenitely bound to be better than the crappy (expired) contract I’m now on), the chance for more people interraction and less staring at a PC all day … and if I’m honest, the chance to work in the only area of our business which actually features some quality female ‘glamours’.

Given I’ve been happily seeing the fabulous IG (glamma78) for almost 8 months now, and we got engaged a while back (more on that to follow in another post), that particular motivation for the job has well and truly evaporated. I’m also getting somewhat sick of working for this company/in FMCG’s again (which is the reason I left the first time around), and given the appalling trends with regards to payrates in the rest of the business, I’m quickly reaching the bitter conclusion even the CSE roles are bound to be woefully underpaid compared to industry norms. To top it all off, I was informed on Friday that the interview process to secure one of these roles is going to be especially long and convoluted, and may involved up to four or five separate rounds of interviews and presentations on my part - so after a weekend of introspection I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion I’m not overly thrilled about this prospective role. Methinks it’s time I kick looking for work elsewhere up another few notches !

OK, all that aside - as I said, my weekend started about half past five on Friday arvo, after my hardcore interview. Had a brief chat with my fiancé on the phone before leaving work, and rocked up @ her place (after going home to change) around 19:45. I’d told her to dress in something “funky & casual” without telling her where we were going, and she didn’t disappoint - coming downstairs from her apartment a vision of beauty in a sexy red dress, long black coat and knee high leather boots. The Funky Monkey Taxi Service as represented by yours truly then proceeded to drive her to the city, where I took my baby out for dinner after only a mere 20 minutes of looking for parking. We went for tapas at a popular restaurant in the Spanish quarter - our lack of table booking circumvented by the clever ruse of sneaking in while the lights were dimmed for the staff performing a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to one of their patrons. The food was great, and followed it up with a brief spell of pseudo-salsa (salsa on IG’s part, pseudo on mine) dancing when we cut in on the birthday revellers’ dancefloor. Fantastic night out, really ! :)

Saturday day was a bit of a write-off as far as I’m concerned. IG went to go see her grandma in the morning, and a Bollywood Dancing class with her mate Erin in the early arvo, while I had to drop my car off at mums place and various handyman things (change lightbulbs, flyscreens etc) to perform while there. I ended up spending more time there than I’d planned, but at least I got storage sorted for the impending move to IG’s, so it wasn’t too bad. Got back to Bondi in the evening, and settled down to a ‘quiet’ night at home watching tele, listening to music, sipping on some yummy wine and other fun things you can do with your fiancé ;)
Sunday morning was a bit of a lazy one, then just before lunchtime IG and I went to buy her a new outfit for the afternoons impending action. Said afternoons ‘action’ consisted of a singing competition at PJ Gallaghers Hotel @ Parramatta in which IG was entered, and which is the reason for the title of this post. Y’see gang, as usual Lisa gave a stellar performance, singing her heart out with the songs she’d been practising all week and looking a million dollars in the sexy outfit she’d picked up for a few well spent quid in Bondi Junction. In fact, if it wasn’t an arrestable offence (and I wasn’t a bit squeemish about fűcking in front of a room full of strangers) I would have liked to have my wicked way with her right there on the stage - that’s how good she looked ! True - in terms of singing alone she had some pretty stiff (pardon the pun) competition - but her combination of looks, talent and determination should have earnt her at least third place, and for a while there it was looking like a serious possibility.

That is, until they brought out the 11 year old. Now I don’t know about you, but I always thought eleven year old kids had their own talent quests ! People who aren’t old enough to drink in a pub shouldn’t be allowed to sing in competitions there either. Logical, right ? Not in this case, it seems. The pre-pubescent was wheeled out on stage complete with a DX-7 (brilliant old-school Yamaha synth), and proceeded to ‘enthrall’ the audience with a composition of her own devising which sounded like a bitter-sweet Delta Goodrem number. Hello … 11 year olds singing about the pain of a broken relationship … is it just me, or is this just wrong ? To make matters worse, this particular eleven year old happened to be the niece of one of the contest judges. Given this, my heart sank as I realised at least one of the winning places was sure to be hers. I wasn’t wrong either !

When the results were finally announced, the top two places went to a couple of genuinly talented ’semi-professional’ singers from some local cover bands. The third spot went to an old guy called Jimmy, who’d ‘entertained’ us with a crap rendition of ‘Singin in The Rain’. Not surprisingly, I’d also spotted him outside earlier talking to the MC of the competition, and it was clear they were old mates or also possibly related. The ‘audience vote’ ostensibly went to … yep … you guessed it … Mini-Delta … erstwhile niece of the guy judging the competition. Alltogether now …. riiiiipped ooooorf !

Understandably, IG was a little upset. We talked about a night of wine, massage and other skin-on-skin contact to soothe the nerves after such a disappointing loss as we drove to my place to pick up some of my work clothes. We hung out there for a little while and got some dinner, then I gave her a few early birthday presents and we headed back to Bondi. We ended up crashing in front of the TV though when we got there, wine & massage kinda fell by the wayside, and eventually we just went to sleep after a double dose of Goran on Criminal Intent. Not a bad weekend all in all, but that bloody 11 year old should be barred from competing in her uncles singing comps !!!