John Linton ....and other irrational reasons.
I attended the Accom annual awards dinner last night as a guest of AAPT. I almost never go to such events as, over the years, I continue to see no point in spending any amount of time in environments where it is difficult to hear anything said by someone who is not less than 20 centimeters away from one of your ears and where the wine is from a vineyard of which you have never heard and will take the enamel off your teeth if you are foolish enough to drink it and the food will remind you for the best part of the following day why you shouldn't have tried to eat it. I sometimes wonder where the 'wine' served at events such as these comes from. My mind conjures up some toxic waste disposal plant in the back blocks of Taiwan recycling industrial effluent in a bootleg still and putting it in wine bottles and slapping some fake Australian vineyard description on it. How else do they produce an odour (I can't use the normal word - 'bouquet') of a combination of paint stripper and a long time blocked toilet?
In this particular case there was the overwhelmingly unfortunate juxtaposition of a jazz combo that played continuously, very loudly to render the whole scenario impossible. Because AAPT had the premium tables (being the major sponsor of the event) right next to the podium next to which the band was playing - it was impossible to hear what anyone with whom you might have liked to have a conversation was attempting to say. I had hoped to speak with AAPT's new CEO and with the GM of AAPT Wholesale but that proved to be impossible - on the two occasions I/they made an attempt to talk neither of us could really hear what the other was saying although we were almost shouting. This was disappointing because it was the only reason I had broken my custom of never attending such functions.
The only time it was possible to hear was when the band didn't play which was when the event MC was using a microphone to make the award announcements or when the 'special guest' (Stupid Stephen) was making one of his even more stupid 'speeches' than usual. Even if I hadn't already developed a vicious headache from the incredible noise that four hundred or so people who had drunk too much in too short a time and an amplified band confined in a space barely allowing passage between the tables Stupid Stephen's address was so anodyne and delivered in his quasi illiterate vocal style (that combines an atrocious ocker accent with aggressive thuggery topped off with a poor choice of vocabulary and syntax) as to be totally forgettable. So when my headache reached real discomfort I made my apologies and left.
It should have been a much more useful event and, presumably, for the majority of the attendees it was - judging by the ever increasing noise levels and the amount of laughter. Perhaps it was just an unfortunate time of year coming at the end of a very tough year and the beginning of a new year when people like me are exhausted from the demands of those two 'events'...and I would have thought other people were too. Perhaps that is just not the case and, like so many things lately, I cannot play any useful part in events and circumstances that comprise today's communications industry.
As it turned put there was an upside to the evening. Being someone who is always punctual I arrived at the event at five to six for the proclaimed 6.00 pm start although I knew there would be no point in doing that. I contented myself with picking up my name tag and then finding the bar where I cold while away the hour or so before the dinner began. It was a pleasant surprise to run into an old acquaintance whom I hadn't seen or spoken to for the best part of 20 years and we reminisced about the 'good old days' over a couple of Taliskers each until it was time to attend the event. He reminded me of some things I had almost completely forgotten which I do something about next week.
The new financial year is now a week 'old' and I am going to celebrate that event by taking half a day off and going to the Blue Mountains for the weekend to celebrate a significant wedding anniversary with Annette. We would normally be departing on our annual 4 week holiday at this time but events have made that impossible this year so an elongated weekend will have to suffice until circumstances change.
I desperately need a break.
Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2011
ABN 350 979 865 46
19 - The percentage of US citizens that favour Obama's need to raise the US debt ceiling. How do the other 81% think the US is going to pay its bills?