Cultured Views

It 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!!!

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