Views in verse on relationships

Relationships need to be 'Win-Win'


Anyone in business will tell you that a relationship will only survive as long as it's 'win-win'. 

Unless people are willing to compromise, best to accept the inevitable and get on with something else.









A toxic relationship may survive the short term but can often destroy the combatants who are trying to make it work ...even then it may still be doomed. Such relationships are often founded in false or unrealistic objectives.

Relationships need to be Win Win! 

If this is all so second nature to us in the objective business world, why does it sometimes seem so hard to recognise in our home lives? It perhaps takes an 'objective look' in the mirror before even engaging with others.

There's no secret to it.

The Gnome's Secret

Even the gnomes are smiling
Since you came back home today
It's a tough world that we've lived in
Since the day you went away
I hi- five'd the milkman
Down at the gate
as he bounded along his way
Even the gnomes are smiling
You've come back home to stay

The cats were moody
The dog was blue
The goldfish...
he just stared
The jug and the fridge both went on strike
Unconcerned about how I fared
The 'soaps' were crap
My beer went flat
My neighbours all seemed to leer
My friends stayed away
Seemed the whole damn time
My appetite went all queer

I thought that a movie 
might brighten me up
The plot changed half way through
Instead of the usual good guy stuff
De Niro became the stooge
I went on a date
To try my luck
No substitute for you
She started heckling
And poking fun
never seen
such a maudlin fool

I went looking for you
Tried your mum's
Now that was a big mistake
She came right at me
I stumbled back
And stepped on the garden rake
It flew right up
Knocked out a tooth
See the one missing right here
Then to follow it up
Joan king-hit me 
With a mighty clip to the ear

Went to the doctor to sort things out
There must be a cure for this
I tried to express it
But he couldn't guess it
Said son I think it's the 'flu
I said Doc you're kidding
It's this life I'm living
Now I've blown fifty dollars as well
Should throw out a shingle 
Just like you
I've got advice to sell

But now 

even the gnomes are smiling
Since you've walked back in today
It's a tough world we've lived in
Since the day you went away
I hi-five'd the milkman
Down at the gate
as he bounded along his way
Even the gnomes are smiling...

Hey ...why's that cab in the lane?

from the desktop of Grahame J Flynn Views in Verse

Views in verse on Clive Palmer

Clive Palmer 'the populist'

snidely 'second guessing' the easy winners 

Wit and policy 'on the fly'

Racism - It's a hit and miss affair

Several commentators mentioned of Clive's appearance on ABC's Q&A panel the other night - where he had so cleverly picked up on the  'populist winners' as they were delivered from the audience. Easy pickings!

How he had garnered the easy points that were there and just cast them into his policy bag as he went along ...just another night at the office.

Until he delivered a colourful rant against 'Chinese Bastards' as the debate went on. This was then seen as: a side issue, to do with his company problems, more just Clive being Clive. Perhaps not.

If you roll it up with all the other populist points he tucked away during that debate ...this I suggest was just another. As soon as he sensed though how poorly timed it was, he then attempted to 'wrap it up in a blanket of concern' re: communism, "shooting their own people", buying our ports...facts instead of his summary views.

Clive Palmer, just like Pauline Hanson before him, has a mistaken belief that all Australians if given the chance will respond to a racist call. I suggest that Clive was simply 'tucking another populist point in the bag' when he second guessed himself on racism as soon as the words slipped from his mouth. The tirade that followed was then camouflage for what he had unwittingly allowed to creep into his agenda . Quick wit and 'policy making on the fly' are strange bedfellows.

But why did he then carry on so to such an extent? He knows that that he cannot afford to be compared with Hanson. She proved that Australians will think through the real issues over time and see racism calls for what they are. Bunkum!

I blogged on 'White Australia policy' in this country only five days back. It is well and truly buried and so will Clive be if he allows himself to put up side by side against Hanson. People will readily see a lot of comparisons to her that will not speak well to his judgement. Voters at the end of the day in this country, once the fanfare is done, try to seek out 'integrity'.

Perhaps the 'populist' Messiah has fallen at the first turn...

There is a chap in a social club to which I belong who regularly emails around racist rants to 'all and sundry' on our common email list. He has been admonished time and time again by return emails. But he just doesn't get it. Regardless of what continues to happen, he just keeps sending them. He believes in his heart that everyone thinks the same way he does. He will keep doing it. Somehow he filters out the reality. Sad really.

Just getting back to Clive as he delivered his rant about "Chinese bastards" ...sitting right next to him was Penny Wong . I was embarrassed for you Clive and if per chance you don't think to apologise to her ...I will right now. Sorry Ms Wong. He knows not what he does.

The Others

You took me in when I needed help

I know that you are my friend

He vouched for me also at that time 

A ready hand to lend

She too was like a sister to me

Without asking a thing in return

But it's not about them of whom I speak

It’s the others that I spurn

I didn’t mean you, when I spoke of ‘a plot’

I didn’t mean him, involved he’s not

I didn’t mean her, I’d be needlessly hurting

It’s the rest of the others to whom I’m referring

It’s all the others, who offer a threat

It’s all the others, whose intent I get

It's all about them, their motives aren't true

I know this just simply, because …I do!

from my desktop Grahame J Flynn

Views in Verse on political intransigence (and ALL that goes with it)

I watched the ABC's Q&A tonight...

A panel of big name & no-name Aussies up for comment on current issues

Conclusion - Talk is great guys but hey...

It's time to DO SOMETHING!



The Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss was there as the spokesman for the 'everything that could go wrong has gone wrong ' nearly one year in office Coalition government of Tony Abbott. Given the array of issues tabled there was little that could really stick to Mr Truss as so much seemingly needs doing. Funnily enough a great smokescreen.

But look lets get a little more focussed here. A little John West. What are things that really matter?

There was an underlying fear of unemployment in the room - fear of an economic indicator increasingly peddled currently about that has about as much statistical accuracy as odds on the horses. However the dissonance remains. The mood in of late has been peppered by such things as closure of the car industry, offshore outsourcing and a realisation that manufacturing in the traditional sense is all but gone.

However, one needs to look through the whipped up scenarios of doom... and focus on the BIG issues. What must be done ...not what can't be ...nor what probably won't ever happen.

Nevertheless, my only really galling moment watching the program was when Mr Truss offhandedly expressed the view that we simply need to focus on the right types of industries so as to ensure employment. We - who is we? More importantly - when? The time to act has come. And his timing could not been worse than today.

Mr Truss's cavalier comment came on the same day that CSL, one of our largest and most successful biotechs (one of the industries we are talking of rebuilding on), advised the media that its' manufacturing will be moving offshore along with (firstly) 500 jobs. They cited all the usual reasons (all valid by the way - tax, red-tape, inflexible labour force). Thereby, the benefits of making these products, innovatively developed here over the past decades, will be lost to its' local workers.

The addressing of all these key issues are the 80/20 things that the Government needs to be getting on with - the rest, yes - just noise.

But Mr Truss, Mr Abbott (wherever you hide these days) Joe (perhaps its all getting too hard) and the remainder of the highly mandated new Government of 2013, it is time to hit these pressing 80/20 issues and FIX THEM!

No stress ...just do what has to be done.



One day at a time

Lots a trouble in the world my friend
That's something that we all know
Seems to me that we hear it each day
But it ain't gonna stop the show
Cause dwelling on the downward spin
Only makes your misery grow...

So when people say:
"Nice to see you old mate...
how are you going today?"
Might be the sky is falling in
But I just simply say...

 I've been living my life
One day at a time
Just watching the sun
Rise and fall
Life sure is good
When all that you do
Is done for your one and all
My family and friends
Mean the world to me
I listen when I hear them call
I'm living my life
One day at a time
Winter spring summer and fall

Too much talk about
religion and war
And money that's for sure
It's all just 'cock and bull'
The glass is half empty
Seems all of the time
whenever man is it full?

So when people say:
"Nice to see you old mate...
how are you going today?"
Might be the sky is falling in
But I just simply say...

 I've been living my life
One day at a time
Just watching the sun
Rise and fall
Life sure is sure good when
All that you do
Is done for your one and all
My family and friends
Mean the world to me
I listen when I hear them call
I'm living my life
One day at a time
Winter spring summer and fall



Sent from my iPhone - Grahame J Flynn

Views in Verse on change thru renewal (Bledisloe cup - rugby)

The Wallabies came close to beating the all conquering All Blacks in Sydney last night; but by trying to beat them at their own game only came up with an energy sapping draw (12-12 all). The result was as perennial as the rain that fell for the entire duration of the match.





In order to regain the beloved Bledisloe trophy, the Australian team now need to win twice in New Zealand cities over the coming months - a mountain too far one would think. Last nights game was a must win for the Wallabies.

The Australian Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie could have taken a leaf out of the Michael Cheka book. Cheka, only a few weeks back, ended the domination of the NZ Crusaders in the Super XV competition by adopting to play an open rugby 'at all costs' mantra - to have lost last night was in effect no different to the resulting draw. It was worth the risk even in the rain. Paradigm shifts require courage not conservatism!

Kurtley Beale (#10) was a secondary player in the Waratahs make-up behind Bernard Foley; while the choice of the three Brumbies backs was rooted in the 'war of attrition style' the Brumbies play week in week out. They were not going to beat the All Blacks this way. All water under the bridge now.

McKenzie needed to look to major change in his fumbling Wallaby team - he got more of the same - sorry, the draw wasn't good enough! The best players languished on the bench. Wishful thinking only from here.

Renewal

Release
the past
It's spent
and gone
Accept
my friend
it's done!

Embrace
tomorrow
as a child
plays in rain
The future
holds promise
for some

For those
who open up
their hearts
and trust in
themselves
Good things will come
to them
as if by chance.

To lovers
who caste aside fear
the odd
chortled jeer
and boldly
march up to the floor
and dance

And to those who
take a
selfless route
in fulfilling
their pursuit
Reward will come
to them
with seeming grace...

Live to love 

the day
before wishing it away

on the past
...spent
but never
out of place!

From my I-pad - Grahame J Flynn

Views in verse on our 'OZ-strain' language

On - the Aussie and how we speak

Sometimes you do struggle to understand don't you ...?

"whatthehelldidesay?"

and are we proud of these our folklore 'stereotypes'?

or are we...just as happy to move on?






"Stone the crows - Barry's taken off for the mother-country". Australian Barry Humphries, well known throughout the world for his Dame Edna character,rarely lays claim to Barry McKenzie these days. Our Bonza Bazza incidentally spawned his (to be Dame) Auntie Edna way back there somewhere... yet Humphries seemingly left him behind. Why would he do that?

'Barry' was the ugly Aussie tourist abroad (Earl's Court London - to be exact). A product of the Humphries' vivid imagination largely founded I guess in impressions from his own father's background as a construction worker.

Bazza spoke in a rich Aussie slang - 'hit the frog and toad', 'rather eat a dog's eye','may your chickens turn into emus and kick your dunny down' and a so on. None of these unique to Humphries, mind you.

Surely fiction to the outsider ...but no, a legacy product of the Aussie at play both "in the bush" which in many ways spawned us all (see Eric Jolliffe) and into the cities. Yes, on construction sites, and in some ways in all working class homes for all us 'Baby Boomers' (as those marketeers like to refer to us these days).

To the point of today's chat - what of gen X & Y's? - what are they losing of our linguistic Ozzie heritage going forward? as these multi-cultural internet users explode on the global scene with a tighter language that has to be more or less correct English. These days,brevity too is 'the go'. And as for using colourful slang based imagery that has flowed through from our forefathers ...well,  not advised really...

I have found myself pulled up time and time again in the past decade to explain my slang which I have thrown-in to simply colour a 'yarn'. Thereby in explaining it, often losing the punch of what I was saying.

On speaking of a sportman's poor effort in game last weekend, I said to group of Gen Y's - "he dogged it" - the three looked back at me as though I was speaking another language - I guess I was. A friend only this week mentioned to her 30 yo daughter-in-law re a doctor they know "he's getting a bit long in the tooth". The d-i-l had no idea what she was talking about.

So I guess the colourful language of the 'bushie come to town', we everyday Aussies have learnt to 'hold dear' as we have urbanised ourselves these last hundred years is in truth condemned to the dustbin of history and gone the way of 'button up shoes' (whatever they were?).

Well, from there, I felt a touch of melancholy.

So I turned to the greatest Aussie poet I know, Banjo Paterson, just to get a sense of where his 'Clancy of the Overflow' would be without some expressive 'slang'. And ...much to my surprise despite the hundred years - there is no slang ...only correct English. (One clear abbreviation though... perhaps a sign of things to come)

So what do you make of this lot then?

I wonder whether people will be able to translate 'omg" in a 'hundred years to come' - our 'gen 100+ers'?

As for Barry McKenzie ...I liked his Uncle Les much better anyhow. Or ...maybe not!!!

Clancy of the Overflow

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better

  Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,

He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,

  Just ‘on spec’, addressed as follows, ‘Clancy, of The Overflow’.

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,

  (And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)

’Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:

  ‘Clancy’s gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are.’

       . . . . .

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

  Gone a-droving ‘down the Cooper’ where the Western drovers go;

As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,

  For the drover’s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him

  In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,

And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,

  And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.

       . . . . .

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy

  Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,

And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city

  Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle

  Of the tramways and the ‘buses making hurry down the street,

And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,

  Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me

  As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,

With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,

  For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy,

  Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,

While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal

But I doubt he'd suit the office our Clancy of the Overflow

- our Andrew 'Banjo' Paterson 

17 February 1864 – 5 February 1941

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo_Paterson