Why are people ignoring me now?

Whilst I may not be the most popular person in the world, I never seemed to be short of people greeting me within the circles I normally travel. That is until recently when I have noticed that people are just not greeting me like they used to.

After speaking to them however I found out what the problem was. It wasn’t something I said, or even something I did. It was something that I hadn’t done, that was the problem.

Right before Christmas I went on three weeks leave. Now whenever I have a holiday or even a day off when I am not doing anything, I simply stop shaving. Normally I only have a couple of weeks off and the whiskers are not worth keeping. This time after 3 weeks they didn’t look too bad so I have kept them on for a while.

So now after a month back at work I have forgotten that I have only just regrown a beard and that most people I know around here, have never seen me with a beard before and so they simply don’t recognise me until I speak to them. Where before they would greet me now I have to wait until recognition sets in.

I was delivering some stationary to a business where one of the daughters of one of my work mates work. Walking to reception I walked past her office and greeted her with my special sense of humour and she responded quite differently to previously. At first I thought she must have just been busy and preoccupied, but apparently not so. As she later rang her father and had him apologise for her, as she had simple not recognised me with the beard, until after I had left.

Now you may not have grown a beard but maybe you have changed a little since people first came to know you. Maybe they no longer recognise you as the person they remember. If so don’t be offended if they are slower to respond to you than you think they should. Give them time to get to know you again. Instead of waiting for them to make the initial approach like they used to, you start doing so. There may well be deeper problems at issue that you may need to resolve but more often than not there is no major problem or rebuff intended. So don't be quick to jump to conclusions but always make the effort to greet others first rather than wait for them to make the first move. Over to you: Walter

I was miffed.

After 3 weeks of Holidays and not shaving I had, what I thought, was a fairly impressive makings of a beard. I have had two or three over the years but this has been the most impressive after only 3 weeks and so I was quite proud of it. Well I was until people started picking on me about it. Now Know these people and I know that they were mostly joking and only having a joke, but still I could not see why they weren’t as impressed with it as much as I was.

Now some 4 weeks later, just at the point where I am seriously thinking of getting rid of it, I am starting to get comments like, "It is starting to come along good now”, and "you are starting to look distinguished now. "(A good reason to get rid of it I think!)

The thing is that not only do other people not see things the same as we do, but we often don’t see things as others do either. What looked good to me at 3 weeks obviously didn’t look as good to others. And what looks the same to me at 7 weeks as it did at 3, looks vastly superior to others.

So what is the moral of the story? Firstly not every body sees things the same as you and that doesn’t mean that they are wrong either.

Secondly, some things just take longer to mature than you think and what is acceptable to you may not be as acceptable to others. (And vice-a versa.)

Thirdly don’t always be in a hurry, sometimes it just takes longer for others to see what you see.

So the next time you feel a little miffed that others don’t see or feel what you do, just relax and give them more time, while at the same time checking that your own opinion is in fact the right one. What say you? Walter

Shrove Tuesday.

With our Wedding Anniversary 4 days earlier and our son’s birthday the day before, Valentines Day is not big in our household. However, although I am not a great Pancake eater either, I was fancying some Pancakes the other day, so I took my wife to the local “Pancake Parlour” on Valentines day. Yeah I know. A romantic I am not!

Anyway on the table was a blurb advertising Shrove Tuesday next week. I will quote:

“What is Shrove Tuesday? The word Shrove comes from the custom of being” shriven” where you present yourself to a priest for confession, penance and absolution.

Certain foods are given up for the duration of Lent such as eggs, milk, and rich buttery dishes.

On Shrove Tuesday, families ate up all the rich foods left in their pantries.

One way they used up the eggs, milk and fats in the house was to add flour to make pancakes.

In England, the popularity of pancakes caused Shrove Tuesday to be called pancake Day!”

This was followed by an add for them and on the other side was this message, which I again quote:

“A special Event for The People Of Melbourne.

Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day.

Tuesday 20 February, 2007

The Annual Pancake Tossing Race.

Each year, the city of Melbourne stops for this famous race. Watch the local ladies toss pancakes down the Bourke Street Mall. Race starts at 11.55 am.”

Now I am not a Catholic so I don’t observe Lent anyway, but I couldn’t help thinking that this is typical of the average Aussie’s reaction to a religious Festival. That is to forget the spiritual aspect of the event all together and just focus on the party. Forget the reason for the Party, just make the party the main thing.

The original reason for Shrove Tuesday was simply to use up, without wasting, what you already had in the house and to prepare and get yourself ready for the spiritual implications of the event you were celebrating. Nowadays the religious significance is mostly lost and the party becomes the main thing and something to spend up on, rather than to use up what was already in the house.

What about you? And not just on Shrove Tuesday either. Whether it be for Christmas, Easter or simply Church every Sunday? Have you become lost in the event, but lost the reason and religious significance of the event? Has it just become an occasion to meet with old friends, rather than with God?

Over to you: Walter

Lizard or Possum?

In my “Blue Tongues and Snappy dogs" item, I told how we sometimes take out dogs up to my mother’s place and how she encourages the wild Blue Tongue Lizards to stay there and even refers to them as her “Pets”. Well last week we went up there and I was again watering and again heard the dogs barking insistently at something. I again stopped what I was doing just in case. By this time my wife was coming from the other direction and I saw the dogs attacking at something. One even had it in his mouth. Well we screamed and he dropped it and they both backed off quick smart. As I was heading for that spot my wife came up the path and told me that she had found the lizard, about 20feet from where I was looking, and it looked dead. At first I thought it had to be another lizard, but not finding one where I looked I began to think that the dog must have carried it off unseen by me, although I really didn’t think that was possible.

Anyway I went over and looked at it and it sure didn’t look to healthy. Now I don’t think I am a wimp but there was no way I was going to pick it up in my bare hands! So I got a stick and gave it a couple of gentle prods, to little reaction. If it wasn’t dead , it sure looked close to it.

At this point I freaked out. Not so much at the death of the Lizard although that was bad, but at what my mother would say when we told her. Something along the lines of, “Your blanky blank dogs killed my pet.” But with more feeling and emphasis than I can put on paper.

Any way I decide that I had better remove and bury the body, so went off and got a large square mouth shovel. But when I got back, the lizard was gone. Again I thought the dogs must have somehow snuck back and took it. However glancing yup I saw movement and here was the lizard going down 4 big, high steps. At that point he saw me and started to stop but also saw the dogs in the distance so took off again and went across the path and down under an old tank where he was again safe.

No he was not dead or seriously hurt just playing Possum. That is he was acting dead until the danger past. And as soon as it was he headed out of the danger zone as fast as he could. Not fast enough to avoid detection but fast enough to avoid further attacks and possible danger.

I don’t know what you think but I think we can learn a lot from that Blue Tongue Lizard.

Yes sometimes we will need to fight back and protect ourselves but not when it will lead to our destruction. Sometimes when our enemies outnumber us or are too strong for us we simply have to “Play Dead” and get out of the trouble area as fast as we can, so that we can regroup and if necessary, fight back but on our own terms and not our enemies.

What say you? Walter

An Echidnas and two fox cubs.

We were back at Mum’s today and after lunch I took the dogs (George & Charlie) for a walk along near the creek bank in what passes for shade as it was over 33Celsius. (I don’t remember what that is in Fahrenheit. You can look it up if you like!) We didn’t chase anything! Well I most certainly didn’t. It was way too hot for that! However we did disturb a couple of Fox Cubs and I did discover another Echidna, about 200 Metres away from the house. As this one was much bigger than last weeks, I think I am safe to say that it didn’t grow that much in one week, thus is definitely a different one.

Because we are still in the grip of a long drought, these animals and others, like Kangaroos and Wombats, which you would normally only see rarely in the evenings or early mornings, are having to travel further and further out in to the open to find food and so, often rest/hide in the bushes during daylight and the heat of the day, rather than returning to their normal places of abode. That is why we are seeing more and more during daylight hours now.

With both these discoveries today, I would not have noticed them if they had not moved and given themselves away, as in both cases I wasn’t even within 60 feet of them before they moved. And in both cases I was on the other side of the creek!

Actually it was only I who saw the animals. Charlie didn’t hear or notice them at all and George only heard then, but not seeing them didn’t bother looking any further. His interests were elsewhere.

In a previous article about Rainbow Lorikeets I remarked about how much we often miss because we are not looking properly, but today I wish to discuss what happens when we, like George, don’t follow up on those things that we hear but don’t see immediately and walk away from, without properly investigating.

As there are no longer any poultry at the farm, or nearby, the presence of foxes nearby now is not a concern, but if anyone nearby did have poultry then it would be a big problem and steps would have to be taken to strengthen and protect the defences of the poultry.

What about you? Are you hearing strange noises or seeing strange movements, but not investigating properly? These strange things that come to your attention, need to be checked out immediately, even if it is just to find out they are harmless. Because if they are not harmless and you don’t report them, great harm can be caused before someone else checks them out. What say you? Walter

What to do with illegal Coins.

In a couple of earlier articles about foreign coins, I mentioned how easily they were being circulated as legal tender but that although similar to Australind Tender and easily confused as such, they eventually do get noticed. The question then, is, “What do you do with them then?

This morning I was discussing my “Five Coin test”, with one of my customers and he remarked that he was surprised that I hadn’t passed them on already to some one else. That is to recirculate them. That is what most people would do. However by doing that you are simply passing the problem on to someone else.

On the other hand, if you withdraw them from circulation, you end up carrying the loss. There in a nutshell is one of life’s big questions. Bear the loss your self; or pass it on to some other poor sucker.

Now in this case it is only a matter of a few cents and not a great loss for anyone, you or the “poor sucker”, to bear, and thus, it is not really that hard to do the right thing, or in some people’s minds, no great crime either, to pass the loss on to someone else.

However what you do with the small things indicates what you would do with the big things, so tell me what would you do?

As it now stands most of the foreign coins that come by me are Kiwi coins and I know someone who is going to New Zealand soon, and they are happy to carry the cost of conversion and take the coins off me at face value. Both to take them out of circulation, and later to spend and recirculate in their right place.

The other strange coins are strange enough for me to want to keep, and so far, I am happy to bear the cost. What would you do? Walter

Five coin Test

In my, “Three 20 cent coins, similar but totally different”, story, I told how I had obtained a Fijian and New Zealand Twenty cent piece, and how that the “Head” side of the coin was very similar to the Australian coin.

I then went on to say that “If I was to put a Fijian, a New Zealand and an Australian 20 cent coin heads up on a table, I suspect very few Aussies would be able to pick the Aussie coin without inspecting them all closely.” Well I decided to put my theory to the test.

To make it a little bit more challenging, I decided to use three Aussie coins with the two ring-ns. In picking my Australian coins I found that we too have a variety of faces on the “Tails” side but on the “heads” side we have two similar but distinctly different pictures of the Queen. On the earlier coins, she is younger. On the later Coins, she is a little older. Anyway I put my five coins face up on a table or bench and challenge people to choose the two duds.

Apart from those who cheat and read the writing on the face, most but not all, pick the Fijian Coin among their two guesses, but most again need a second go for the Kiwi coin, with a few never getting it till they come to the last coin.

Apart from being a time waster and amusing to some, what does my test prove?

It proves that mostly we don’t pay much attention to the small things, even to the point of not even being able to tell what is genuine and what is not. It seems that we don’t worry too much about the littler things but worry about the big things. Like counterfeit Fifty Dollar Notes.

Yet it has been said that if we get the little things right the big things will naturally follow. What say you? Walter