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| Wednesday, January 24, 2007 |
| Ata and the Dog |
Or, Ata and the Stupid Annoying Supervisor Person.
You know the honesty boxes one sometimes sees, where you are expected to take lollies and leave payment in a little box on the side? They are often charity support fundraisers. Well, for a time, Ata had a job convincing business owners to let her put them in their businesses.
It was not one of Ata's greatest successes. She was paid $5 per box placed. On her first day, she went out with a supervisor who showed her the ropes. It was not complicated. Ata did well, and after half a day of box-placing, the two of them went back to the Office with glowing reports of Ata's box-placing abilities. A short while later, Ata was rostered on to go out by herself. For a whole day of walking up and down the street, Ata placed 6 boxes. She was expected to place 15-20. Her arm hurt (from carrying the fricking things on her hip as she marched up pavements and into businesses), her feet hurt (in an effort to appear more presentable, she had not considered that she would be walking all day and had chosen heeled shoes), and her ego had taken a severe battering. It was decided she needed more training.
This became the pattern of it. Ata would go out with the Supervisor, and do exceptionally well. The next week, Ata would go out on her own, and barely cover her fuel costs in commissions earned.
To make matters worse, Ata detested the Supervisor. At one premises - a small alfalfa-packing business, I think - they pulled up in the van outside the business, and Ata was dispatched inside carrying a box. A high cyclone-wire fence surrounded the premises, and as Ata approached, a dog appeared inside the fence.
Now, Ata is not afraid of dogs. Ata grew up in communities where snarling, fighting, mating, urinating camp dogs were constantly present. Usually mangey, scarred and fearful. Ata learned early on how to stare down cowardly curs, to steer well clear of Dogs One Does Not Know, and that most dogs can eventually be bought with food. The only dog her family ever kept once almost took a chunk from Ata's cheek - apparently in sheer high spirits whilst walking back from the shops one day, he leapt into the air and snapped at Ata's face. In Alice Springs, she would occasionally babysit for the neighbours, who kept a large German Shepherd called Kain. Kain had a kink in his tail - a keepsake from a previous, abusive owner - and defended his territory with enthusiasm and bared teeth. If one was inside the house, he was gentle as a lamb so Ata insisted that Kain was brought inside before she came over to babysit. While Ata was standing in the house chatting to the mother as she prepared to go out one night, Kain stepped quietly up beside Ata and took her hand in his jaws. Carefully but firmly, he pressed his great teeth into her skin and looked at her as if waiting to see what would happen. Ata looked down at the big dog and (fearing injury if she tried to pull away) also waited to see what would happen. The mother and her boyfriend noticed, and Kain was summarily detached from Ata's hand with no damage other than teeth-prints. Later that evening, Ata watched TV with Ruby the chihauhua on her lap and Kain's huge head on her knee. Ata is not afraid of dogs, but she does know that they can be... unpredictable.
Anyway, as I was saying. The dog inside the fence was a big dog of the guard variety - German Shepherd or Dobermann, one forgets which. Ata paused at the open gate and spoke softly to the animal. It was barking and snarling, warning that Ata was about to enter it's home ground. Ata stood still for a moment so the dog could see she intended no particular threat. From behind her, then, came another bark. Ata turned slightly. It was the Supervisor. He barked at Ata and laughed and shouted comments about being afraid of liddle doggies. Ata looked back at the actual dog. It curled back it's lips to show all the teeth down the sides of the jaw, and made that gutteral snarling noise that suggests more bite than bark. Ata stepped forward slowly and calmly, two steps, avoiding eye contact and keeping her hands still. The dog backed away and relaxed, and Ata went inside.
On return to the van, Ata got a lecture about Being Afraid of Dogs and how All Dogs Are Cowards and the like.
Ata DETESTED that man. |
posted by Ata @ 4:40 pm  |
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| Friday, January 19, 2007 |
| Cartoons |
I love Dr Katz.
I really love Dr Katz.
And I think I've lost the tape Mr Ata made for me, so finding this made me happy, even if there's only 6.
http://cartoons.peekvid.com/
Admittedly I never LOOKED for Dr Katz before, so there's probably more online.
Heheheh. The guy talking about failing his driving test - "They said, what do you do at red lights? And I said, I don't know, listen to the radio, look around..." |
| posted by Ata @ 9:51 pm |
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| Friday, January 12, 2007 |
| Would anyone like some pictures? |
It feels as though I have been away for months.
Anyway. On to the pictures. I was carefully collecting photos to add to the Hobbling-A-Day group, but now I can't remember which pic was for which day, some are on my sister's camera, and I don't have the energy to sort it out - so, here's an assortment of Atapics from the last couple of weeks.
What I Did on My Birthday. I drove to Ballarat.
 It looks more or less like that for the whole seven hours from Adelaide to Ballarat. And yes, we are in the midst of a drought, but it usually looks much like that at this time of year anyway - although the roadside trees were suffering from much more mistletoe than usual.
This is much more definitive evidence of drought - this is Green Lake. My camera went flat after this shot, otherwise I would have framed up a picture that showed the shrubs growing in the middle.
In Melbourne we stayed with Ata's Mother's Brother and His Wife (that would be Ata's Uncle & Aunt!). And Tilly. I do hope one can make out Tilly's painted toenails.
But what of my own pampered beasties, I hear you ask? Well, here we have Bosco showing off his Christmas Present. BIL#1 called him "Bond Cat" and kept up a monologue along the lines of "I'm sure I saw a casino around here somewhere, and has anyone got a cigar?" for a fair portion of Christmas afternoon as Bosco investigated wrapping paper.
And here we have Reclining Bosco, with hat. His elbow has slipped out of the sleeve a little, but he carries it off with panache nonetheless. But where is Roswell? Roswell does not like having her picture taken. No sirree! And Ata must not forget her Marvellous Raspberry Miroire. These are the remnants. So, having covered Christmas, I should now turn my focus to New Year's. We spent New Year's Eve reclining in these: And watching this: Well, obviously we played a movie on it. Watching the Pioneer label (even though they do make a very reliable DVD player) would not make for an ideal night.
Hopefully everyone is having a pleasant January. Catch yas all layda.
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| posted by Ata @ 5:55 pm |
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| Tuesday, January 02, 2007 |
| Ata's Year |
Given that I have not posted since before Christmas, I thought I should squeeze in a quick 2006 recap post before taking my mother to have her hair cut. Given that I will be Away from a computer from tomorrow for a week.
Let's See...
Books.
I didn't keep a list, and I can't remember what I read. I didn't read as much last year as I would like to. It gets very hard to keep books in the house as I get through them too quickly and then can't be bothered going back to the library and they send me nasty letters. I read The Tenderness of Wolves last week, which was good. Not great, but good. It seemed to end in a bit of a hurry, though, with stories unfinished, and that always bothers me.
Movies.
I watched a LOT of movies. This is partly the reason I didn't read so many books, and I blame it largely on Mr Ata. Jindabyne was excellent. Umm... The Guardian was also surprisingly excellent. But I have a very poor memory for film titles also. Oh well.
Events.
Well. 2006 was largely uneventful, apart from heralding what I expect to be the final decline of my grandparents. And the almost-move that nearly happened when Mr Ata lost his job. Let's think... there was the carrot issue, which I don't suppose matters now - Ata auditioned for a principal role in a locally-made feature film - she got all the way to the final round but they gave her part to someone else. I know the woman who got the role, and she is a Nice Lady so I can't begrudge it to her. Besides, I ran into the cast & crew of the film at a local film industry drinks night just before Christmas, and had two crew members congratulate me on getting a part before they realised I hadn't gotten a part. The second one did it while I was talking with the director of the film in question - I accepted his congratulations with gratitude and watched with great satisfaction as he realised the error, and both he and the director turned a most entertaining shade of pink... there's nothing like watching someone apologise profusely for something you weren't offended by. Heheheheh. On the whole it was an interesting experience, mostly for the surprise of how much I wanted it... that I did not expect.
Jobs.
Ata did many jobs, all of which really only cemented the fact that I hate answering phones. Nicest was probably the two weeks in the fundraising department at the Women's and Childrens' Hospital, where people dropped in on a daily basis to give us things and I read Howl's Moving Castle during my lunch breaks because I found it in the spare presents cupboard.
I love Howl's Moving Castle. I should have put that in the movies section, too, because I loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
Where was I? Jobs. Yes. Additionally, having done so many reception/administration/data entry roles, my touch-typing truly is now touch-typing, and I can even do it while talking. My keypad skills are still lagging a little, although they have improved. And I have learned to effectively use mail merge and automatic tables in documents, which is an impressive trick to pull out at parties.
Other Stuff.
Despite Mr Ata's best efforts, I still don't like beer or wine. However, I have discovered that I don't mind just a little bit of vodka - and by a little bit I mean a very little bit. The Backyard Paving got done, although I still need to do a great deal of planting before I can call the project finished. The theatre room got built, although I am now trying to convince Mr Ata to leave it behind and go overseas next year... possibly I should have thought of that before agreeing to the installation.
Anyhow, I must be off. Have a lovely 2007, everyone! |
| posted by Ata @ 3:28 pm |
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