ajft

Here's hoping that 2009 is better than 2008 for movies! Seem to be more DVDs and fewer trips to the cinema ... much like the rest of the Australian public I guess.

2009-Jan-12 Quantum of Solace — loud and boring
2009-Jan-13 El Mariachi (DVD)
2009-Jan-30 Desperado (DVD)
2009-Feb-03 Once Upon a Time in Mexico (DVD)
2009-Feb-29 WALL-E (DVD)
2009-Mar-04 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (DVD)
2009-Mar-13 Willow (DVD)
2009-Mar-19 The Last King of Scotland (DVD)
2009-Apr-26 Seven Samurai (DVD)
2009-Aug-08 Jean de Florette (DVD)
2009-Nov-23 Transformers (DVD)
2009-Nov-25 La Petite Lili
2009-Dec-11 Mary and Max

“Assemble at 11:50 for the noon bus” we were exhorted, “Be on time!” I had my reservations about catching the bus to the function, being reliant on the corporate transport meant being held hostage if it rained or turned out to be a dud or I simply got bored and wanted to escape….

Will I or won't I? Around in my head all morning, but finally I decided that yes I'd be the good corporate boy and catch the corporate transport to the corporate Christmas function.

So out we all trooped and then stood around and waited from 11:55 to 12:15 for the supposed 12:00 bus, more and more people passing in their cars, managers' cars, on-call cars. Finally at quarter past I gave up, went back to the office, got my bike shoes and helmet, went and unlocked the bike and rode the eight and a half kilometres to Jells park. I'd managed to lock the bike up and got half way through my first beer at around 12:35 before the bus finally turned up!

The function itself? Who are all these people? We're spread out over three buildings and I've no idea what entire sections do, let alone who individual staff are.

Catered barbecue and drinks in a marquee, good food — they learnt their lesson from a few years' back — Alan's farewell speeches and presentation, lucky door prizes, and so it went.

Left around 15:50 and was back at my desk by 16:25, the only hassles on the way back being riding up Ferntree Gully road after a large lunch, and the four or five carloads of ITS staff who thought they were being friendly by tooting on the horn — deafening loud blasts indistinguishable from the bogans' prelude to a screamed “GERROFFDAFUGGINROAD!”

Thank you for holding

Your call is very important to us. So important, in fact, we'll continue to keep you on hold so that by the time you reach a real person your mood will have become as foul and black as satan's stool sample.

Cribbed from http://theoatmeal.com/comics/customer_service