We’re not going to take it anymore.

So I spent Thursday night penning another strongly worded letter to yet another Minister of the Queensland Government. This time it was the Honourable Dr Bruce Flegg MP who was in the line of fire as it is his misfortune to be the Minister for the Department of Housing and Public Works, and as such responsible for the disastrous situation that has devolved between our offensive and disruptive neighbours and our long suffering selves.

You see after the conversation I had with Mr Bob Thomspon, Housing Officer of the Capalaba Housing Office I decided I wasn’t going to take his ‘wait in line girlie, it’s not my/our fault the Wynnum Office was closed’ attitude lying down and was going to go over his head… in fact about eight levels over his head to begin with.

If you’ve read my crap before, you’ll notice that I rarely, if ever, name people using their actual names but Mr Robert ‘Bob’ Thompson of the Capalaba region, pissed me off so much that I don’t care if his friends, family, clients or prospective employers Google him and stumble on this diatribe relating to his gross incompetence and blatantly dismissive and patronizing attitude towards my ongoing concerns for my family’s safety and sanity.

The conversation I had with him basically went thusly:

‘It’s not my fault that the Wynnum Office was closed down and your case stalled’
‘I’m not stating or even implying that the Wynnum Office closure was your responsibility, but I want to know why once those cases were transferred to your office, no further action was taken on the situation’
‘It wasn’t our responsibility to follow up on the cases of the Wynnum Office as it no longer existed’
‘So you’re telling me that the Wynnum cases were not placed under your offices’ jurisdiction?’
‘No, they were transferred to our office, but it’s not our responsibility to have followed up on them’
‘So whose responsibility was it?’
‘It was not my responsibility’
‘I understand that Mr Thomson.  You’ve made it quite clear that you’re not personally responsible for anything that occurs in your jurisdiction, I want to know who was supposed to have followed up on these cases and given that nothing has occurred, what are you going to do now in order for us to move forward?’
‘It was the Department’s fault that the Wynnum Office closed and that your case wasn’t completed’

Ad infinitum… seriously, it was like talking to a fucking house brick. He was being extremely clear that he wasn’t at fault for the Notice to Leave order not being sent through to the Courts for the eviction to be enforced and his ‘I’m old enough to be your Dad’ voice was ringing through loud and clear in his tone and general demeanour. So of course I told him I’d be writing a Ministerial about the matter and that I was extremely disappointed at his unwillingness to assist us with this situation….So, even though it wasn’t his fault but I was certainly going to make it his problem

Fucktard. He’s exactly the sort of public servant who should be shafted with all this government downsizing.

Somehow I don’t think he was expecting to come to work Friday morning to be greeted with a well thought out four page Ministerial letter outlining not only the ongoing trouble with our neigbours but also the complete ineptitude of the Wynnum and Capalaba Housing Offices that has basically left my family living next door to someone who had threatened to kill us, threatened to ‘fuck us up’ (whatever that means when it’s at home), threatened us with violence, threatened to poison/kill our family dog and also threatened to burn down our home in our absence.

And I am 100% certain he wasn’t expecting to see that same piece of correspondence cc’d to every single person between him and the Minister in his Department’s chain of command –
The Office of the Director General
The Office of the Deputy Director-General, Housing Services
The Executive Director, Service Delivery and Community Housing Development
The Executive Director, Housing Programs
Area Manager, Community Housing – East Brisbane
Manager, Capalaba Housing Office
Mr Robert Thompson, Housing Officer, Capalaba Housing Office
Ms Didn’t Follow up, Housing Officer, Previously of Wynnum Housing Office

Let’s just say the words patronizing condescending, indifferent and several other choice words were laid at Mr Thompson’s feet and I dare say he had a bit of a rough day at work yesterday explaining himself… because as fortune would have it – that phone call was being recorded for training purposes and the DG, the DDG, both Exec Directors and a Liaison Office all called today saying they had read the letter, heard the phone call and were extremely apologetic for what our family had been put through at the hands of the various functionaries of their Department.

It was somewhat fortuitous, and completely coincidental, that the Courier Mail ran an editorial piece today (that I knew nothing about), outlining how the Dept of Housing’s processes and procedures are largely geared towards protecting tenants that failed to meet their obligations, and were not protecting the interests of the general public who were forced to live beside these uncivil, unemployed deadshits.

I had no idea this article was being run but it was a happy coincidence indeed for my purposes, especially given my letter ended with my intention to contact various media outlets if the Department failed to action the original eviction notice.

So it turns out that Mr BoB Thompson was WRONG… something could be done, he was just too far down the food chain to make it happen (found out later the supercilious, snide little man was an A03) . Today, the DG, DDG, and EDs put their heads together and appointed someone to take care of this mess and it was heard in front of a magistrate this morning (within hours of my letter being received) and at 3:30pm precisely, a representative of the Department of Housing and Public Works visited Daleyacunt and FuckingFuckhead in person, and informed them that their Notice to Leave had been enforced by the courts and that they would have to vacate the premises.

From my kitchen I could hear the horribly intelligent and politically expedient response from Dale to this news – he decided that yelling abuse at the Department’s representative would somehow further his cause? What a complete chicken fucking moron Dale has proven himself to be – as yale put it “I’ve had farts with a higher IQ than that dickhead.” So eloquently put.

Anyway, if they fail to leave within the next 9 days a court date has been set where we will be called to give testimony against them (some of which could put them in breech of the $1500 Peace and Good Behaviour Bond already in place) and they’ll very likely end up having to leave anyway, given they have a long standing history of being evicted from public housing for this sort of behaviour and we have no history of making neighbour hood complaints for no reason.

brisbane queensland ministerial shut up quiet please noisy neighbours

Oh, and just for good measure, today I called the City Council to lodge a complain about this weird burning off they are always doing in their back yard which is against BCC bylaws (was Bob’s idea… he asked me why I hadn’t been calling in noise complaints etc to the council, to which I replied that I had foolishly assumed that the Dept of Housing had things under control). When the BCC inspector turned up, he called me and said no one was home but that he saw the brazier and the smoke, as well as two pig dogs. He informed me that he was going to check on the state of registration for these two animals and if found to be unregistered he would be back Saturday morning with fines for the burning off in the backyard as well as fines for having unregistered whole dogs! So bonus points for that one.

All up a very exciting and exhausting day was had at Azerbaijan yesterday… and now I need to hibernate because I am fucking exhausted and determined not to be writing to any senior government officials for at least the next six months. Writing complaint letters is an art you know and it really takes it out of you!

Load up, load up, load up the raspberry bullets!

bu·reauc·ra·cy    noun, plural bu·reauc·ra·cies.

  • government by many bureaus, administrators, and petty officials.
  • the body of officials and administrators, especially of a government or government department.
  • excessive multiplication of, and concentration of power in, administrative bureaus or administrators.
  • administration characterized by excessive red tape and routine.

I have spent my entire day fighting with one bureaucracy to another.  Starting with CentreLink and the erroneous bills they’re sending me for $6,631.00, and $942.68 and then $0.00 for the 2009/2010 financial year.  AND the bills they’ve raised for $6,050.00, then $2,500 and then $0.00 for the 2010/2011 financial year.  AND then the payment they’ve raised for $2,439.85 for the 2011/2012 financial year all because some noompty decided to go back into our little Family Assistance file and put in an income estimate for me that DOESN’T EXIST!!!  I’ve been a full time student for the last few years who hasn’t had a job 🙁 in several years – ergo $0 income: zip, nil, nada.  But for some reason someone changed that for the last three years causing this plethora of bills to be generated!  WTF?  Good to know where your tax dollars are going… to messing with computer systems, generating erroneous bills and killing trees.  Yay.   😐

And after that bureaucracy I had the fun of doing the RACQ run around as I continue to try and get my car sorted after some prat ran into it in the church car park… ‘your car is undrivable’ … ‘my car IS driveable ,it’s just not legally driveable because the tail light is damaged’ … ‘we will have to tow your car to Coopers Plains because it’s listed here as not driveable’ … ‘ how about we fix the tail light and then I’ll drive it to Coopers Plains and save on towing fees?’ … ‘that’s not how we do things’  … ‘oh, I was wondering why my premiums are so expensive – bit of common sense too much to hope for?’…

Then after semi-sorting out that bit of bureaucratic bullshit, the fun really started when I got onto the Department of Housing who are delightfully refusing to accept responsibiltity for the fucktard neighbours still being in situ despite promises months ago that they’d be moved on by now.  A conversation that ended with me promising a (another!) Ministerial correspondence and contact with various media outlets about their Department’s complete and utter failure to provide protection to the public under their own Departmental Instructions and Guidelines… because at this point I’ve had it up to Here – *Here being approximately 1 foot above my head height at this point.

And to top it off… leaving the worst for last.  A phone call to Optus about a confirmation email I was supposed to have received but never did.  Arseholes.  Please press 1 now… Please press 1 now… Please press 1 now… JUST LET ME FUCKING TALK TO SOMEONE!!!

unfair government big business impersonal cutting through

So if I wake up screaming in the middle of the night tonight, it’ll be because I’m being strangled by red tape like an insidious and inescapable boa constrictor determined to squeeze the very life blood out of me!!!

Twitch. Twitch.

They’ve gone and done it again!  No explanation.  No apparent reason.  No earthly logical reason why changing the introduction music to a TV show is a cunning plan… unless of course it’s to save royalties because the original artists were starting to get greedy about it.

song changed boring temperence brennan agent booth angel

Watched Bones S08E01 tonight and got 5 minutes in only to discover that they have changed the intro music/sequence and it is now a watered down pathetic version of it’s former self.  Why?  Especially after seven successful seasons where they have indelibly imprinted the associations in our brains between that particular piece of music and their show?!?  I’m sure you can damn well get it as a ring tone for crying out loud.  To change it, well… it makes no sense!!!

I may have railed against this in the past in regards to ‘The Unit’ and ‘Veronica Mars’ amongst other shows, but I just don’t understand why (when you’re obviously on a winning formula) you decide to fuck with it?

I was quite disappointed to hear the new intro, it’s like a cheap knockoff version of itself and it no longer has the same connotations as the original Bones tune… it was all I could do not to switch it off in disgust and never come back!

 

I’m On A Bus!

Had to get from Sydney to Canberra and thought I’d brave the bus service rather than waiting around at airports and having to put friends out on either end to get me to said airports.  Normally I have an aversion to public transport… can’t quite put my finger on why. But it’s never pleasant, never comfortable and there’s other people there that you may or may not end up having to interact with which is always risky regardless of the endeavour!  😀

0845:
Bus driver approaches me, “You must be Borys”, I look around me, check I’m not wearing a name tag from last night’s conference and tentatively say “Yeess, how did you know?  Am I the only person on the bus or something?”  He replied “Just about.”  W00t, score!  Bus all to myself to sit wherever I want and no deodorant challenged youth squishing into the seat beside me.

0915:
Bus driver quote: “Pick your fucking lane you stupid woman, I can’t move this thing out of your way that easily!”  O_o   Hmm, this is going to be interesting…

0930:
Stopped barely half an hour down the road to pick up people?  What’s with that?  I thought I was getting the busy to myself.  Goddammit, why didn’t anyone tell me these things keep stopping to collect more people.

0940:
Korean tourist collected at the last stop decides to sit right behind the driver ostensibly for the leg room, but actually so he can turn bogan bus driver into impromptu tour guide by asking lots of questions about Sydney, Melbourne (his eventual destination) and Australia in general.  Upside: bus driver has to turn down his terrible pop music to hear the Korean guy.  Downside: listening to the really, really bad information being fed to the tourist.

0945:
Where’s my goddamn iPod.  🙁

1000:
Stopping again?  WTF?   Somehow we’re here 15 minutes before schedule so have to wait around for No One.  Quick sprint around the corner to search for a bottle of water and snacks.  Fail on the snacks… corn chips or shrink wrapped muffin does not an appetising breakfast make.  :S

1020:
Apparently we don’t have a no phone policy on buses here… middle aged Indian guy having argument in Hindi with unknown antagonist at volume.  Everyone looking uncomfortable even though no one can understand him!?!  Go figure.

1035:
Stop to get more people.  Bus still largely empty.  Driver decides to put on a movie but first asks the packs if anyone works for the MMPA, the AFP or the FBI… then puts on illegal .avi rip of Tower Heist’.  Love your work.

1047:
Notice I’m so bored that I’m Facebooking, Instagramming and FourSquaring at a rapid rate of knots and come to a sad realization… my phone battery can’t sustain the extended abuse and am forced to put it away and watch the movie.  Have to turn off iPod. Movie not so bad; people around me having mobile phone conversations very very bad.

1053:
Why didn’t I try harder to get on a bus service with wifi?  The 3G reception between SYD and CBR is so bad I can’t pick up anything… so the phone is just sitting there and spinning and giving me nothing. Curses for not bringing Mr K’s iPad so I could have one more battery operated device to run flat but keep me all wired in to the interwebs for the rest of this bus trip.

1116:
Skeezy Indian dude who was previously having loud argument on the phone is now breaking out what must be his second breakfast which consisted of last night’s left over curry and stinks out entire bus.  Thankfully though, because it overpowers the vague smell of feet permeating the entire vehicle.

1152:
Alarm and horror strike as I realize I need to use the so called ‘toilet’ on the bus.  I trip and fumble my way up the back of the bus and realize someone is in there… a teenage guy who I avoid making eye contact with as he leaves and I enter.  OMG  Kid must have had chilli for dinner last night.  Try to pee as quickly as possible and realize I can’t!  My lower back, abdominal and pelvic floor muscles are hanging on so tight to stop me from being thrown around in the smelly little cubicle that I literally can’t relax enough to pee!  Gargh.  Give up in disgust.

1214:
You have arrived at my destination … and thank fuck.  Disembark retrieve my bag (only one under the bus) Find a toilet that doesn’t move.  Squish comes to rescue me and returns me to humanity.

1217:
Remind myself to more strictly adhere to pre-existing ‘Number Rule 1: Avoid Public Transport at All Costs’ because, well… that’s where the public are.

1238:
Crisp dry Dirty Granny cider obtained, cheese and crackers on the board… civilization returned.

1330 (appox):
Almost entirely recovered from horrific ordeal of engaging in public transport thanks to restorative alcoholic beverages, fine cheeses and good company.

 i hate transportation bus train ferry gross public shits yuk

If you’re sick…

… don’t go to work and share it around, thereby reducing productivity and increasing your own work load when you return because all your colleagues are down with it!

… don’t get on an airplane full of strangers and cough and splutter all over the place so that your germs permeate the entire contained unit that is the plane’s air con system!

… don’t go to the cinema and hack and cough your way through an entire movie sharing your particular flu virus with maybe hundreds of unsuspecting patrons!

… don’t take public transport where you can’t help but end up touching every surface leaving behind microscopic particles of your infected sputum and snot!

… and ferfuxsake don’t go to an RHD seminar and cough all over the students in front of you who themselves are just recovering from the last time some inconsiderate bastard didn’t quarantine themselves!

If you’re sick… stay the fuck at home!

coughing spluttering other people stay home not work sick