TQO – What the?

I’m sorry, but whoever thought that abbreviating the word “The” was acceptable deserves to lose their job. Not sure what I’m talking about? Ok. In Brisbane, we now have one main symphony orchestra, The Queensland Orchestra. It’s a silly name, given that it was previously called The Queensland Symphony Orchestra - a much more appropriate name I believe but some idiot thought to change it. Yes, yes, I know. The name change occurred as a result of the amalgamation of two orchestras, but the end result was an orchestra that performs the same functions as the Queensland Symphony Orchestra always did, so what’s the difference, apart, obviously, from some new players?? Anyway, for the years the orchestra held its previous title, it was commonly called the QSO. Presumably when the orchestra’s name changed they wanted something just as catchy as the QSO, but the QO doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. So what did they do? They called it the TQO. The The Queensland Orchestra. Just like a Personal Identification Number Number (PIN number) or an Automatic Teller Machine Machine (ATM machine). Very clever people…. Not only did you totally unnecessarily change the orchestra’s name, under which it had thrived and built its reputation for 54 years, but you also stooped so low as to now be on a par with financial institutions in stupid acronym stakes. What were you thinking? Classical musicians are supposed to be intelligent!

P.S. On a brighter note, if you’re interested… The lovely lady smack bang in the middle of the front row is my Nanna

Renters – Second Class Citizens?

Ok, let me get this straight. Real estate agents charge astronomical amounts of rent for often pathetic properties, and do whatever they can to make one’s life a misery while renting from them. No hoop is to be left “unjumped”, whether it’s signing this form in duplicate or that form in triplicate. Just recently we had to renew our lease, and despite the fact that we were basically agreeing to all of the same terms as in the previous twelve months (apart of course from the rent increasing – that went without saying) we had to sign the paperwork no less than 15 times. Each. I almost considered offering them my first born instead, but feared they’d take her! Anyway, we signed the forms, and believe it or not that was the least painful of our real estate dealings. We had just spent the week in the company of a real estate employed tradesman who managed to break several parts during his visit, and then had to be called back to our home on no less than three more occasions to replace all of the parts again, as they were either so cheap & nasty or so poorly installed (or both) that they broke within days of each other. Oh and then he effectively implied that we must having been tampering with them. What part of having a four month old baby does he not understand? The moment he left the house, I thought to myself, “I know, let’s just leave the baby sitting in her dirty nappy for another five minutes. I’ll just get the screwdriver and have a fiddle with the shower head instead. Yes, that sounds like fun!” Hmmm… I think I have better things to do with my time somehow. My point is, we work hard, we pay our astronomical rent bills like clockwork, we ask for any maintenance to be done only if absolutely necessary, and we look after the place. I would have thought that earned us some respect. This is sadly not the case. Why? Because we rent. If we were in the market to buy, we would be treated differently but as we are not, we seem to be viewed as second class citizens. This, when we live in a world where these same real estate agents have done everything in their power to increase property “values” to ridiculous levels, meaning that one must be earning a fortune to even consider a mortgage. They make it impossible for so many people to buy a home, then they treat people poorly when they have to resort to renting. It’s just not good enough. Just because I happen to be young, blonde, and currently not working (duh… I’m looking after a baby) does not mean that I am stupid or subhuman. I have two degrees! Or maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered to get any degrees at all because they enabled me to see the bullshit for what it really is.

Do you think I’m being too harsh? I’d love to know.