Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Blogs | Writers | Paid | My Orble | Login
 

FantomWriter

Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA


Joined April 2nd 2010

Number of Posts:
3

Number of Comments:
0

Karma:
5



Learn the rules, then break them.

About Me
A technical writer by day and a fiction writer by night.

Blogs

FantomWriter's Blogs

128 Vote(s)
0 Comment(s)
3 Post(s)

Blogs I Follow

Flick Wit
( 209 | 94 | 21 )

Friends

I have no friends :(

Recent Posts

A watched pot never boils - No kidding...

April 8th 2010 02:43
I am sometimes left to wonder at what would happen if the simplest of things in our daily lives would break down. I’m not talking about the car engine blowing up, or the TV breaking down (that’s what internet video streaming is all about)

What I’m talking about here is one of the basic electrical items in the house finally dying. (If I was a female, it would be my BOB). Even though this item has been in the house since we moved in all those years ago, it finally gave up its quest for life.

The electric kettle finally lost its long and bitter illness and is now in a much better place – the rubbish dump. The only problem is that there is no spare kettle in the house and I am currently on a few days of annual leave, which means I drink a truck load of tea and coffee. And with the lack of an electric kettle, it makes life that little bit tougher.

Now I know all of you will be upset for my inability to have a hot cuppa, but don’t despair, I have discovered the old fashioned way of boiling water. It may have taken some time, but the good lady wife dug around in the dark depths of the kitchen cupboards and found a relic of a teapot. After removing the plant that had somehow managed to have taken on new life, we had a way of boiling water.

The one thing I couldn’t understand about the teapot having something grow inside of it, is that I can’t grow flowers and shrubs to save my life. But that’s a story for another time.

So as fear slowly slid away from my already caffeine deprived body, the good lady wife filled the teapot with tap water and put it on the stove to boil. This is where the age old saying came into play ‘A watched pot never boils’. No freaking kidding… I could have sworn that the water just didn’t want to boil for me. Was it scared of where it would eventually end up??? All I wanted was another cup of coffee, but the water refused to boil.

After what seemed an eternity, I wandered back into the kitchen, walked by the stove and only glanced over at the kettle. I thought that a quick glance is not the same as watching. But, it still refused to boil.

If I lived closer to a McDonald’s store, I would have driven out and grabbed one of their so called coffees. But alas, I am a bit of a distance away and I couldn’t be stuffed driving. So I continued to wait…

The best part of this sad and sorry tale is that I am sitting here tapping away at my keyboard and sipping on a steaming hot cup of coffee.

I guess I will be heading to the mall tomorrow to buy a new kettle so I don’t have to watch water boil. That will be an adventure in itself.
41
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: FantomWriter - Category: No Category
   


No such thing as a free lunch…Or is there???

April 6th 2010 03:00
Having spent a long hot Sunday in the office with my daughter trying to catch up on some work, we decided to call it quits in early in the afternoon. With the lack of air-conditioning and another very warm Melbourne summer’s day, the office resembled the kiln used in the movie Ghost.

Having ensured that she was fed and watered before we headed back out onto the city streets, we stepped out into the even muggier outside air. There was no way I wanted to buy a $3.00 bottle of water from one of the many rip-off stores scattered throughout the CBD. Advising her to fill up the water bottle she had with her, we took off into the concrete jungle.

Our goal for the afternoon was to locate a store from which she could collect her free lip-gloss. The $7.00 magazine promised freebies to the value of $24.00. So it was the freebies she was searching for. In hindsight, the Holy Grail would have been easier to find, Indiana Jones had already discovered it and had left a trail for others to follow. But it seemed the only item she wanted was her lip-gloss.

With a long list of stockists in her hot and sweaty hand, we ventured off in her quest of glory. A quest that would see us trouncing around the city for more than ninety minutes. Store after store that we found was closed. Sunday trading may be all the rage, but the owners of the smaller stores had the right idea – stay home on Sunday…

In a last desperate attempt to obtain her freebie, we ended up in one of the many multi-level shopping centres scattered around the city. I told her that the chances of even finding the store that stocked her free lips gloss were minimal, and then the chance of it being open was just as slim.

I had to eat my words the moment we stepped foot in to the complex. The store she was after happened to be in the first complex we entered. And much to her pleasure the store she was after was the first one we saw the moment we walked into lower level of the complex. With her head held high and an ’I told you so look’ we walked up to the counter.

It seemed that Lady Luck had decided to stay home on this particular Sunday. Her luck had run out, just as the freebie lip-gloss had. With a growl at the girl behind the counter, she finally decided that it would be easier to look for the lip-gloss at a shopping complex closer to home. And with that thought in mind, we continued our stroll through the city.

As we continued to swelter in the afternoon heat, she asked if she could buy a drink as she was thirsty.

‘Drink the water you got from the office.’

‘I forgot to fill it up.’

Giving her my best ‘What did I tell you look’, she just continued to walk on.
‘Where you going?’ I asked?

‘I’m going to get a drink.’ she replied.

‘That’s going to be rather difficult, considering you’re flat broke, and I ain’t paying for one.’

‘That’s OK. I’m getting a free drink from McDonalds.’

With that said, she headed in the direction of the closest McDonalds store.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked again.

‘I’m going to get a free drink from Maccas.’

Shaking my head, I followed her, waiting for her to be rejected.

As she walked in front of me, I told her there is no such thing as a free lunch. She turned back to me, gave me another one of her looks. She may have only just turned 15, but she already has all those women looks down pat.
She stepped up to the counter of the small McDonalds store in the city station, and asked for a free water.

To my utter surprise, the young man, turned around, grabbed a cup, filled it with ice and then topped it up with water and handed it to her. All with a smile on his face.

As we walked to the train platform to head home, she sipped her ice cold water with a smug look on her face.

I hate being proven wrong, and I hate it even more when I am proven wrong by my 15 year old daughter. But she did prove t\hat that if you look hard enough and are desperate enough, you can get a free lunch, or at least a free drink.
41
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: FantomWriter - Category: No Category
   


Can beggars be choosers?

April 2nd 2010 10:15
Every one needs some variety in their lives, no matter the situation. And in saying this, I’m not talking about having sex while swinging on the chandelier dressed in a Spiderman outfit. What I am talking about is the normal day to day routine of having lunch.

As for me, I can’t really say my lunchtime eating habits change all that much. I sometimes bring in leftovers from home, that’s if the kids didn’t manage to devour everything on the table, and then there are the other times I head out of the office and grab a salad roll. Once back in the office I fill the salad roll with a tin of my favourite flavoured tuna.

So it was on one of the days that I ventured out of the office to grab a roll that I saw this homeless young man sitting on the sidewalk. His head hung low and his shoulders drooped low. The small cap lay before him held a few coins; no where near enough to buy that food that would feed him for the day.
My heart always goes out to the homeless, the reasons for them being on the streets are all different, but they are in the same boat. A boat that will sink if are not thrown a life line.

I took one more look at the man and continued on to the small bakery from which I purchased my salad roll. So as I stood in the store waiting to be served, my mind drifted back to the homeless man I had seen a few minutes earlier.

So when it was my turn to order, I asked for two salad rolls instead of one. Quickly paying for the rolls, I walked back the same way I had come. I stopped next the young bloke and for a moment, giving him enough time to look up at me. I handed him the roll, told him to enjoy his meal and headed back to the office.

Feeling a little better about myself, but also knowing that it would take more than just one salad roll to help this man get back off the streets, I sat at my desk and ate my lunch in silence.

So a few days later and no leftovers from the night before, I headed back out to grab a salad roll. Once again I passed the very same young man. He looked at me as I approached, and looked as he was about to say something to me. I stopped, bent down and waited. Perhaps he was going to thank me for the lunch I had provided him a few days earlier.

So I guess it came as a complete shock when he told me he didn’t want pepper on the next roll I gave him. I looked at him for a few speechless moments before I patted him on the back and continued down to the same bakery for my salad roll. I purchased myself a salad roll, and this time I grabbed him a plain bread roll.

I once again walked past him, handed him the bread roll and headed back to the office.

My point here, and yes, there is a point, can beggars be choosers? I have no idea on why this man was living in the streets. Had he been kicked out of home by his parents, or had he simply runaway from home and decided that it would be better to live on the streets of Melbourne.

Whatever the case may be, he was offered a meal, a free meal, and he still wanted to choose what he received. If he wanted those options, perhaps he should try and make a better life for himself. It may not be as simple as that, but there are always options, and those options are for us to choose. Right or wrong?
31
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: FantomWriter - Category: No Category
   


  

Recent Comments

I've not commented on anything yet :(