Daily Archives: February 9, 2010

One Born Every Minute: interesting show, courageous women and one complete jerk of a man called ‘Steve’

newbabydadI have been watching a very interesting show called ‘One Born Every Minute’ which features various women going through the ritual of labour and childbirth. Having gone through this myself five times I knew what those women were all going through – I could feel every twinge along with them…’twinge’ being the understatement of the millenium too.

It is amazing how we women cope with the kind of pain that has no equal and how we are so often prepared to endure it time and time again, but that is how we are made and of course it is the end result that makes it all so bloody worthwhile. Let’s not forget the Dads though as without them we would not be there, a fact we remind them of in various ways while we feel as though we are being torn in two. We scream at them, swear at them, crush their fingers and tear tufts of hair from their arms but mostly they stick it out, going the distance with us knowing too that the end result will be a tiny human being that they helped to create. I often think that we should all remember that pregnancy is the one chance we ever get to actually assist God in creating a miracle.

The women on tonight’s show were as heroic as any woman is bringing a child into the world, the men supportive and anxious…with one exception – a complete and utter moron called ‘Steve’. Steve’s wife, Tracy, is having her fourth baby and throughout her labour he sits to one side of the room with their 18 year old son, Liam, and behaves like a ten year old in a biology lesson. This idiot is also – would you believe – a policeman in his spare time. While his wife gasps in the gas and air he mimics her distress, smirks, clowns and shows off to the camera with the equally immature Liam joining in – god knows why he was there as seeing your Mum giving birth is a little too much information at that age in my opinion (though quite possibly enough to put him off  sex and ensure he keeps his own trousers zipped until he is at least 30…). At one stage Steve tries to lock Tracy in the toilet as she goes into another contraction, he also flicks her with an inflated rubber glove as she desperately groans in agony…at this point in the show I was longing for the midwife to come in and clock him clean across the back of the head with a bedpan.

Luckily all goes well for all the mums and dads, and even Steve eventually stopped dragging his knuckles along the floor when it became apparent that Tracy and the baby were in severe distress and complications were presenting themselves. Personally I would like to see Steve’s reversed-vasectomy corrected…with a rusty knife and fork. Jerk.

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You would have to be desperate to want a job delivering the Manly Daily to certain streets in Mona Vale – Cumberland Newspapers should pay these people what they are worth!

stopcomplainingIt must be something to do with the place name – Mona Vale - that has something to do with the fact that there are some people there whose lives depend solely on moaning and whining about total non-issues – namely the delivery of their local newspaper. Their little dose of the northern beaches publication The Manly Daily seems to be their main focus in life, and how it is delivered can either make or break their whole day. Poor diddums…

I have an acquaintance who, along with her husband, has been trying to  make ends meet for a while now and along the way have been taking on odd-jobs here and there just to keep active and working, to pay the bills of course. You would not normally even consider the drudgery of delivering newspapers as a way to make a living but when you have to make a living you will take on near anything that comes your way. People like my friend and her husband deliver these papers – which are free and cost nothing at all to the local residents – to several hundred houses several night a week in all weathers and at the most ungodly hours (3.am in this case because people want their precious paper THERE when they get up in the morning…). They work up to two hours rolling the papers at home when they are delivered just before midnight, then anywhere up to three hours delivering them. As I said, the residents get these papers for free; my friend and her husband earn – wait for this – just $50 a week. That’s five dollars per person per night - it does not even cover your fuel costs let alone the crap that some of these residents throw at you for not leaving their paper the way they like it…

Then you have to contend with the residents themselves; moaners whose lives depend on their free newspaper and whether it is put in the letter box, left on the lawn, stuck through the door or – as my friend would have it – shoved right up their bloody noses!

Here is a selection of complaints to Cumberland Newspapers from some champion Mona-moaners in Nailon Place and Parkland Road about piddling details like:

- “the paper is too wet in the morning…”so were the people who delivered it for you at 3.am in the pouring rain!

- “their car is too noisy in the street and wakes us up…”would you prefer them to push their car along in their stockinged feet…?

- “we can hear them talking to each other and it wakes us up…” – walk down to the shop and BUY your bloody paper then!

Some people need to seriously get a life.

Those two streets now have NO papers being delivered right now because the constant pedantic whinging finally resulted in two very fed up and underpaid delivery people telling Cumberland Newspapers where to shove their papers – Cumberland Newspapers need to up the ante in a BIG way and pay these delivery folk DECENT MONEY for the work they do!

You might be wondering why such a fuss over a silly newspaper…? yep, you are right – I just hope certain residents of the above-mentioned streets are mulling that fact over right now. And from what I know it will be quite a while before that particular area will find someone else willing to take it on. I certainly would not. You are getting the papers for free – GET A LIFE YOU MOANERS!!!

 

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.