Umbrellas: Weapons of Mass Hinderence

Wet weather gets us all. It is the bringer of life and the destroyer of stress-free commuting. Umbrellas are a necessary evil, unless you want to wear a poncho and be open to ridicule from your friends, which require a level of self-awareness when operating one.

To the naked eye, umbrellas are harmless and easy to operate. However there are some inept people who manage to turn umbrellas into weapons of mass destruction due to a lack of care and social awareness, just itching to take out an eye where possible. Yours truly happens to be slightly above average height and during wet weather, the footpath becomes a battle field with extreme vigilance required to ensure I can continue to see clearly out of both eyes.

Self-awareness is a trait that isn't bestowed in people but it can be learned. When walking in the rain with an umbrella, remember to keep aware of who is around you and move when appropriate. I'll cut you a deal; keep your umbrella out of my face and I won't need to send your umbrella flying!

Scary trend: how to look out for your loved ones in hospital

Before commencing this blog I would like to acknowledge that nurses have a difficult job, and are often stretched beyond capacity. The story I'm going to share with you is a result of a system failing rather than an issue with specific individuals.

It is rather personal and therefore hard to write about, however I think it's really important as many people learn from our experience as possible so they can look out for the well being of any loved ones, particularly the elderly, that may end up in hospital.

The back story is that my Grandfather was admitted to hospital just over three weeks ago. I was visiting with my mother when we noticed he wasn't in good shape and needed medical attention. After a trip in an ambulance and  four hour wait in emergency while they stablised him there was nothing more we could do we went home and returned the next day and noticed that he wasn't able to eat or drink anything. Disappointingly it doesn't seem to routine to make sure a patient is getting enough fluid or nutrients and he'd gone a whole day without anything to eat or drink. After we raised concerns he was moved onto thickened fluids and blended foods which seemed to go down well at first. His initial diagnosis was a chest infection, which was treated with IV antibiotics, and congestive heart failure which was hoped to resolve once the chest infection was cleared.

He was making good progress and was transferred to another hospital and was moved from IV antibiotics to oral antibiotics. It was at this point he started to decline again with his chest infection returning and rapid weight loss. Its believed at this point he's had a series of mini strokes affecting his ability to swallow. To our horror we discovered he hadn't been able to swallow his antibiotics and couldn't take any food or fluids in any form. Rather than taking action to get him back onto IV antibiotics he'd been marked as refusing to take them leaving him open for the infection to return.

After talking to the doctor my mum has organised to have him on IV fluids and antibiotics which have perked him up again. He is due to have a feeder tube into his stomach which should get him the nutrients he so desperately needs to recover.

It really scares me that if he didn't have family checking on him regularly there's a good chance he could have died from dehydration or starvation. A number of conversations with medical staff throughout his stay have implied we should let nature take its course rather than doing everything possible to save him because of his age. When my Grandad says he doesn't want to fall asleep because he's worried he'll stop breathing I don't see that as any indication he wants to give up the fight, so neither should we.

Apparently this scenario is scarily common. It breaks my heart to think how many elderly people have been let go simply because there was no one there to fight for them to get the right basic care they need. It seems like a very cruel form of enforced euthanasia. While I am in full support of euthanasia, whenever someone decides they don't want to suffer anymore they should be able to elect to go under their terms. If someone wants to keep fighting and living they should be given every chance society can afford them.

Fridge rules: almost finished food/drinks

One of my pet hates is a useless amount of something left in the fridge. Today's example is soft drink shown in figure a. I just don't understand the frequency of such useless amounts being left behind. It's such a let down after seeing the bottle and thinking yay lemonade only to be left unsatisfied as a mouthful just doesn't cut it. Compounding the irritation of the almost empty container taking up all that space. A tidy fridge is a happy fridge.

Resolution: if you're pouring a drink and there's a trivial amount left just drink a bit then empty the bottle into your cup. Use your logic with left over food. You may just save someone close to you feeling bitterly disappointed. If you are on the receiving end have an adult conversation about it. Failing that tipping soft drink on their head will get the message across.

Figure a

Social media advice: Vaguebooking

Social media advice: Vaguebooking

The gist of it
Many of you will agree how frustrating it is when someone posts something really vague on Facebook:

Example a:
Vaguebooker: sigh today just couldn't get any worse

1. Enabler: :( that sucks you deserve so much better
2. KindOfCares: what's wrong??!?!?
3. Vaguebooker: "oh you know just one of those days. It's a bit difficult to explain
4. OneUp: Yeah it sucks my goldfish died cause I sat on it :(
5. Troll: I just found a video of you....

Example b:

Vaguebooker: Arrrrghh some people XD

1. Enabler: I hope whoever has wronged you rots in hell
2. KindOfCares: who has upset you?
3. Vaguebooker: Just some people really let you down :(
4. OneUp: yeah I know tell me about it. Like today this lady told me I couldn't put my handbag on the train seat. I mean seriously doesn't she know Gucci when she sees it?
5. Troll: I didn't know it was talk like a pirate day?

Example c:

Vaguebooker: so much for my life plans

1. Enabler: i hope u find them again
2. KindOfCares: what's happened? did you loose your job?
3. Vaguebooker: Just some people really let you down :(
4. OneUp: OMG TELLL ME ABOUT IT!!! So I thought I got this new job so I brought myself these sweet ride and then I realised I read the letter wrong. IM SO SILLY :D
5. Troll: I didn't know you had any

What it really means

I have a theory that these kinds of posts are targeted a specific person or small group of people.

If you ever find yourself wanting to go there step back and ask yourself do you really want to be that person? Try talking to a good friend about whatever is bothering you instead. Get their advice and remember real friends don't let friends vaguebook. If this doesn't do it for you try talking to whoever you have the issue with and resolve the issue once and for all. Failing that and you REALLY have to vague book make a custom list of just the people you want to see it. That way no one else will think you're lame :)

Some more specific examples of motivators with advice:

• Your "Good" friends are out on the town without you
• Advice: Perhaps if you stopped being whiny and a proactive friend people will want to invite you places. You have to earn being in someone inner circle, if you've tried and it hasn't worked move on to people who are worth your time. 
• You got rejected  dumped by some guy/girl
• Advice: What do you seriously think will happen here? They'll turn around and realise in fact you're their dream partner because you complain on FaceBook? More than likely they'll breath a sigh of relief knowing they've dodged a whole host of vaugebooks about them. Suck it up princess and move on.
• You were stood up
• Advice: Just reschedule like nothing happened and say you have a present for them! Don't show up and they'll have the gift of knowing being stood up sucks. And you're smarter than them.
• Your ex is parading their new partner around
• Advice: Chances are they have moved on won't even notice you're upset because they're too pre-occupied getting busy with their new biatch. Cut your loses and move on.  Don't whatever you do hire yourself a good looking escort and share your selfie's with the world with a few good "we're so hot", "best couple everrr" or "we're so awesome" comments thrown in for good measure. Your ex probably still won't care and it will get expensive keeping up the act.
• You had a bad day at work and want your boss to feel bad
• Advice: You get paid to be at work so it's expected that it will be hard from time to time. If you have a genuine issue with work speak to your manager about it. Either that or send them something random in the post like some socks. The ensuing drama of deducing where it came from will keep you amused for hours.

Public transport advice: Pole edition.

Public transport advice: Pole edition.

As a frequent user of public transport people leaning on poles is one of the many things that never fails to irritate me. What gives someone the princely right to prevent 5 or so other people having something to stop them falling over? Sure there are handles but for the vertically challenged these aren't really an option as the result is an awkwardly stretched arm/ripped shirts and depending on location the thrusting of cleavage into an unsuspecting victim's face.

Worse still are the nimrods who lean on a pole you are ALREADY holding onto. Surely this can never happen you say? Well I'm sorry but the world isn't such a lovely place. One day a generously proportioned lady proceeded to crush my hand while I was making my way into work. For the normal person this would be uncomfortable to have a fist in your back, but for the socially unaware/overly padded this seems to be a non-issue. I tried to get my revenge by digging my ring into her back but she still didn't notice or she was a masochist and was enjoying it -_-

Moral of the story: be aware of your fellow travelers needs, don't be selfish it's ok to share your pole with other people. Together we can make the world a nicer place :) If you don't I may, in my self-appointed social justice agent role, trip you over as you leave the train.

Mission statement: reduce and eliminate socially inappropriate behavior. No jerk is safe.

This blog has been created to educate modern citizens on what is and isn't socially appropriate, with an overall objective of equipping them with the self awareness required to maintain their street cred.

Our team of bloggers will provide real life case studies and lessons to coach and mentor people to better themselves to avoid unsavory labels such as space invader, giglet, harlot, creep and douche-bag.