Code of Conduct and how you treat people is extremely important in the public sector and rightly so. I went to a compulsory training course on this very subject with several other people including a senior Scottish director.
The training lady was telling us about acceptance of others from different backgrounds and how it was gross misconduct to treat various groups differently. The Scottish director then joked 'Yes, please try to understand my accent" to which training lady replied "Yes, we should all make an effort to communicate with non-english speaking people". FUNNY!
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Friday, 17 August 2007
By Ekka luv, that were good.
The Ekka, The Exhibition or the Royal Queensland Show. What ever people prefer to call it the Ekka is a ten day show that is as weird as it is wonderful and about as varied as anything I’ve ever seen before. So big is the show, all of the districts of Queensland are given one of the ten days as a public holiday. You just get a day off, just like that. If you go to the show - great. If not - fair enough!
Billed as the event where the City meets the country, it’s the only event I’ve been to where you can have a fashion parade next to a best looking cow competition. The only real difference between the two would be that occasionally one set would randomly poo on the floor….naughty models.
It's an exhibition, a fete, a festival and a fair all rolled into one. Set in the Brisbane show grounds, the event takes some time to navigate around, let alone actually walk round. We decided to avoid the fair, which looked a bit like the one at Milton Keynes at it's chavvy best. We took a walk around some of the events and demonstrations to see Queenslands best in action. We first saw the wood choppers, which involved woodsmen making their way up a totem pole and then chopping off the top. That was excellent. Then we watched districts from Queensland Rail compete for the silver nail. Two competing teams had to race each other in laying track and then getting a rail pump truck (I have no idea what they're actually called) from one end to the other, in a railway version of the Royal Tournament. That was great.
Next we move to a demonstration which still has me rather lost for words. As we got there, the 'event' had already started. The MC, who kind of reminded me of a slack jawed yokel from America's deep south, got proceedings under way. The first words I heard him speak summed up the following demonstration to a tee. In a very proud tone he announced "Do we sit there and ask questions? NO! 'Cause we're Australian!!" He then fetched two volunteers from the audience. Two mates aged in their late teens came to the fore. What they were about to do, neither had ever done before (Thankfully I guess!). They were each given large leather coats that went from neck to toe and then, quite curiously, a fencing helmet each. The MC then proceeded to give them each a WHIP. Clare and I looked at each other, both thinking that there was no way that this was about to happen. It was. "3-2-1" was the count down, and then they went for it and proceeded to whip each other as hard as their little arms could. Apparently the winner was decided by striking his opponent BETWEEN THE EYES! There's nothing else I can add to that apart from I know what at lot of you lot are like back home - SO HERE IT IS ON VIDEO - : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8s7s9A2wi8 (I like the Eye of the Tiger background)
I ask several people if this was a traditional Australian activity. They looked at the video, they looked at me and their faces confirmed that this was not a traditional activity.......it was just weird.
The rest of the day was watching more events, visiting the animal section which was a bit like being on the farm, show jumping, wine tasting, eating lots (A Dagwood Dog is a strangely tasty piece of show ground delight) and watching the animal parade in the main arena. In the parade, first came the horses and circled the parameter, then the cows, the goats etc until the whole arena start to fill with animals. Every animal type had a person in front of it with a large plaque with the title of what the animal was, sort of like the opening ceremony of the Olympics when the different countries come in. Also, when I say title of each animal, I don't mean a plaque saying 'HORSE' and 'COW' but the name of the type, like Friesian cow and Shetland pony etc. Just thought I'd clear that up.
Then horse drawn carts came in pulling carts demonstrating local trades like the Brewery (God bless them). Then, quite bizzarly, six men walked in with two small bowls. They both had one fish in them. Six men, two fish. Now, I'm not a big expert on fish and the kind of attention they require, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take six men to look after two fish. These six men paraded their two little fish around the arena. Maybe they were surrogate fathers? Who know's!
After six hours there we were done - A great day.
Billed as the event where the City meets the country, it’s the only event I’ve been to where you can have a fashion parade next to a best looking cow competition. The only real difference between the two would be that occasionally one set would randomly poo on the floor….naughty models.
It's an exhibition, a fete, a festival and a fair all rolled into one. Set in the Brisbane show grounds, the event takes some time to navigate around, let alone actually walk round. We decided to avoid the fair, which looked a bit like the one at Milton Keynes at it's chavvy best. We took a walk around some of the events and demonstrations to see Queenslands best in action. We first saw the wood choppers, which involved woodsmen making their way up a totem pole and then chopping off the top. That was excellent. Then we watched districts from Queensland Rail compete for the silver nail. Two competing teams had to race each other in laying track and then getting a rail pump truck (I have no idea what they're actually called) from one end to the other, in a railway version of the Royal Tournament. That was great.
Next we move to a demonstration which still has me rather lost for words. As we got there, the 'event' had already started. The MC, who kind of reminded me of a slack jawed yokel from America's deep south, got proceedings under way. The first words I heard him speak summed up the following demonstration to a tee. In a very proud tone he announced "Do we sit there and ask questions? NO! 'Cause we're Australian!!" He then fetched two volunteers from the audience. Two mates aged in their late teens came to the fore. What they were about to do, neither had ever done before (Thankfully I guess!). They were each given large leather coats that went from neck to toe and then, quite curiously, a fencing helmet each. The MC then proceeded to give them each a WHIP. Clare and I looked at each other, both thinking that there was no way that this was about to happen. It was. "3-2-1" was the count down, and then they went for it and proceeded to whip each other as hard as their little arms could. Apparently the winner was decided by striking his opponent BETWEEN THE EYES! There's nothing else I can add to that apart from I know what at lot of you lot are like back home - SO HERE IT IS ON VIDEO - : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8s7s9A2wi8 (I like the Eye of the Tiger background)
I ask several people if this was a traditional Australian activity. They looked at the video, they looked at me and their faces confirmed that this was not a traditional activity.......it was just weird.
The rest of the day was watching more events, visiting the animal section which was a bit like being on the farm, show jumping, wine tasting, eating lots (A Dagwood Dog is a strangely tasty piece of show ground delight) and watching the animal parade in the main arena. In the parade, first came the horses and circled the parameter, then the cows, the goats etc until the whole arena start to fill with animals. Every animal type had a person in front of it with a large plaque with the title of what the animal was, sort of like the opening ceremony of the Olympics when the different countries come in. Also, when I say title of each animal, I don't mean a plaque saying 'HORSE' and 'COW' but the name of the type, like Friesian cow and Shetland pony etc. Just thought I'd clear that up.
Then horse drawn carts came in pulling carts demonstrating local trades like the Brewery (God bless them). Then, quite bizzarly, six men walked in with two small bowls. They both had one fish in them. Six men, two fish. Now, I'm not a big expert on fish and the kind of attention they require, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take six men to look after two fish. These six men paraded their two little fish around the arena. Maybe they were surrogate fathers? Who know's!
After six hours there we were done - A great day.
Monday, 6 August 2007
It's tasty tasty, very very tasty.
A couple of miles outside of Brisbane is a shop that sells traditional British food and is one that my Aussie English boss has frequented on several occasions. Last week she made a series of attempts to further educate our Aussie counterparts in British cuisine by bringing in samples for them to eat. She decided that for three days she would bring in different examples and encourage other members of staff to try.
Monday ‑ Porkpie. This thing was huge. It was actually only half a porkpie but it was still the size of a dinner plate. It also had a hardboiled egg in the middle ‑ Very authentic. Having tried some of the pie, I can confirm that it was extremely good and I was convinced that after the fruitcake with cheese debacle, this would help restore the British reputation for food. Now, it is here that I must highlight a huge cultural difference between Aussie's and the Brits when it comes to pies. Pies in Oz are always served hot. Uh ohhhhh.
Once given a slice, one colleague headed straight to the microwave to nuke it for a minute or two. She had to be physically restrained from doing so. When we explained that Porkpies had to be served cold, there was a look of horror and confusion. The others shared her disbelief, and eating the pie had just been taken to a brand new level. We doubted whether the pie would actually be edible served warm especially with the jelly in there, let alone the hard boiled egg. The general consensus on the pie was mixed with the 'no heating' part being a real bone of contention. We had not started well.
Tuesday ‑ Haggis. Now, after Monday's reaction, I thought it was possibly a tad early to be introducing the famous Scottish dish. We tried to be politely vague about some of the contents of the haggis and told them it was basically a meat based dish. Embarrassingly, it had taken me travelling to the other side of the world for my first ever taste and I really enjoyed it. One native Scotsman said it was one of the best he'd had in a long time. We knew the product was good.
Getting people into the staff room in the first place was a challenge, so Boss took the decision 'if the people won't come to the haggis, the haggis will come to the people'. I saw her chase at least two people around the office trying to convince them to try. It was a taste test taken to the extremes! The general feeling was actually rather more positive to the Haggis than the porkpie...until we mentioned the sheeps general contribution in putting this dish together. Sudden bouts of queasiness were suddenly rife through the department.
Unfortunately we didn't get to Wednesday's taster as boss was forced to reveal what was on the menu. I've never seen so many jaws hit the floor.
It would appear that some people don't react well to the possibility of trying Faggot followed by Spotted Dick.
Monday ‑ Porkpie. This thing was huge. It was actually only half a porkpie but it was still the size of a dinner plate. It also had a hardboiled egg in the middle ‑ Very authentic. Having tried some of the pie, I can confirm that it was extremely good and I was convinced that after the fruitcake with cheese debacle, this would help restore the British reputation for food. Now, it is here that I must highlight a huge cultural difference between Aussie's and the Brits when it comes to pies. Pies in Oz are always served hot. Uh ohhhhh.
Once given a slice, one colleague headed straight to the microwave to nuke it for a minute or two. She had to be physically restrained from doing so. When we explained that Porkpies had to be served cold, there was a look of horror and confusion. The others shared her disbelief, and eating the pie had just been taken to a brand new level. We doubted whether the pie would actually be edible served warm especially with the jelly in there, let alone the hard boiled egg. The general consensus on the pie was mixed with the 'no heating' part being a real bone of contention. We had not started well.
Tuesday ‑ Haggis. Now, after Monday's reaction, I thought it was possibly a tad early to be introducing the famous Scottish dish. We tried to be politely vague about some of the contents of the haggis and told them it was basically a meat based dish. Embarrassingly, it had taken me travelling to the other side of the world for my first ever taste and I really enjoyed it. One native Scotsman said it was one of the best he'd had in a long time. We knew the product was good.
Getting people into the staff room in the first place was a challenge, so Boss took the decision 'if the people won't come to the haggis, the haggis will come to the people'. I saw her chase at least two people around the office trying to convince them to try. It was a taste test taken to the extremes! The general feeling was actually rather more positive to the Haggis than the porkpie...until we mentioned the sheeps general contribution in putting this dish together. Sudden bouts of queasiness were suddenly rife through the department.
Unfortunately we didn't get to Wednesday's taster as boss was forced to reveal what was on the menu. I've never seen so many jaws hit the floor.
It would appear that some people don't react well to the possibility of trying Faggot followed by Spotted Dick.
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