Self Interest.......

I lost my temper today.....with my boss! He was too self absorbed to even notice!

He was lecturing me condescendingly about things I knew more about than he did and when I attempted to respond he spoke over me as if I wasn't even there. He even failed to notice me loudly commenting to a bystander that I was being ignored by him..........I guess he was only standing right in front of me as I said it....it was unreasonable of me to expect him to listen.

When I calmed down...after walking away from the discussion before doing something I would have regretted......I began to ponder how many people are lacking in the skill of listening.

There are a lot more of them these days.....many don't even attempt to listen or pretend that they do. It's all about them and it seem that they are the ones who get ahead....squeaky wheel and all that!

I think I rather stay as I am than become someone like that.

The real boss comes back on Monday..........what a relief!

Happy chaps....

I saw these White-Tailed Black Cockatoo's in the pine tree across the road yesterday.

They are big, clumsy, comical and very happy....they stripped the tree of cones in about 20 minutes dropping the empty husks onto the tin roofed house below.

I'm going to take a leaf out of their book.....slow, steady and happy albeit a bit messy

Laser skirmish!

Today I played laser skirmish with my little sister, her husband and a whole gang of people.......it's like paintball without the pain of projectiles!

What a hoot!

There were seven of us adults against about 10 kids.....red team versus green team in defend your fort.

We flogged them.......age and cunning will usually beat youth and speed. Well cunning and nefarious tactics.........who shot people in the back.......wasn't me!

Now to soothe the aching muscles and bones..........the one downside of age.

What's good for the goose............

As police officers we are expected to comply with many laws, rules, regulations and policies that cover everything from our manner of dress, through to the way behave and onto the manner in which we treat our customers and our own colleagues. We all know the rules and most of us try to follow them most of the time.....of course mistakes occur from time to time but we are only human!

When we deal with the public (both good and bad) we are expected to behave well and treat them with respect, compassion and fairness.......fair enough too! Even recidevist offenders have rights!

Why is it then that when Internal Affairs dealt with two former members of my office today on disciplinary matters they were provided with no support, compassion or care on any level at all! They were treated like the numbers that we all fear we have become.

These were not criminal offenders but very inexperienced officers who had made errors of judgment in behaviour in relation to a fellow officer....no crime, no malice and no intent to do harm.....just mistakes and stupidity.

I don't excuse their behavior in any way but when did we lose our right to fairness.....and what does it tell the rest of us in respect to our value to the organisation. The way in which this whole issue has been conducted is nothing short of disgusting.

The message I'm getting is not good! No wonder we are losing more members than we can replace.

I have limited my comments to a large degree as I don't really possess the appropriate vocabulary to express my full anger without resorting to crass and unseemly language........which achieves nothing!

Sick puppy........

We had a small medical emergency on Tuesday night......with Max our 'little' puppy.

It had been a pretty grim day for both the love of my life and I at our respective jobs and the evening was not looking good either (unplanned and last-minute work that was dumped on the one I care about....unfairly I might add!). I looked out the back door to see the sad face of Max.....he was drooling profusely and shaking which meant only one thing to me....poison!

As it was about 7.30pm I only had one option and that involved loading all 65 kilos of sick puppy into my 'ute' for an urgent trip to the nearest emergency vets about 30 minutes away. What a journey!!!!!!!! I was covered in dog slobber from head to toe by the time I got there and then Max decides he doesn't like the vet.......grrrrrrrrrrr/woof, etc.

In the end it looks like he either got a bee sting in the mouth or maybe a spider bite! I should mention that we have many of the really 'world-class' poisonous spiders in this country but fortunately the venom of most will not kill your dog, just you if you're unlucky....!!!!!

He was almost better by the time I got home and is fine now..........he is quite cute even if he dislikes most people and we were very worried for a while. At least it took my mind off the crap day we both had and made us realise that it could have been much worse.

Day from hell!

Today was not good.........in fact it sucked!

We lost a court case due to witnesses deciding to change their evidence with no warning....and after making the original complaint to us in the first place!

The organisation lost another court case after a jury were intimidated out of convicting several very nasty prominent thugs! Then these very scumbags claim they are hard done by......what utter crap!

Five very senior members of our organisation were relieved of duty for now in relation to an overturned conviction......this just makes us all look bad whether they have done anything wrong or not!

My current supervisor (hair plug!) has suddenly developed a rubber desk...and guess where all his work is bouncing too!

Clearly there is no God, Buddha, Krishna, Allah or other overall single cosmic deity....and as for intelligent design.....let's not go there right now, I may blow a valve!

I may go and sit in the corner and rock for a while

Winter of my discontent........

Somebody came to work recently with a bad dose of the flu......

Now I have it!

I will have to think of a suitable payback......when I feel better

The week finally ends........

Well as I promised yesterday I shall now explain (well sort of!) what make this week so torrid at work.

We had a visit from what we in Australian law enforcement call the 'toe-cutters' or 'feather-feet'....for every one else Internal Affairs. You can take that to be a bad thing....very bad.

I can't risk explaining the precise nature of the investigation however it was aimed at a number of staff starting right near the top. The allegations centered around the treatment of an officer and whether or not it was appropriately dealt with by immediate and extended management.

I will say from the outset that I take no issue with the need to conduct an investigation into the allegations or even with the manner in which that occurred. After all if true, some of the matters are quite serious......not corrupt or illegal but matters of discipline and inappropriate behaviour.

My concerns are two-fold

1. Our senior manager has not even bothered to come to our office and let the staff know that he is concerned in relation to the investigation and offer some assurances to the staff that he will support those that are blameless or have only made genuine mistakes and,

2. The person who is the 'victim' in this is making allegations in relation to events that they were not only involved in but partially or entirely instigated.

As far as the so-called 'manager' goes all I can say is that in all my 25 years in law enforcement I have never met a more self-serving, uncaring, vacuous pool of arse gravy. He has no ethics, morals or backbone and is an embarrassment to the human race. I intend to seek placement elsewhere and when I find a location to my liking I will ensure that as I depart everyone knows he is the reason.......including him!

In relation to the victim I feel a mixture of anger and sadness. I personally know some of the allegations to be untrue, some wildly embellished and others I suspect are mostly accurate. What I can't understand is why you would risk many friendships and the loss of your credibility by not sticking with the unadulterated truth. At least that would ensure the real issues were dealt with and any real transgressors punished. All that has occurred in this case is a large number of uninvolved parties are trying to justify their actions for things that they know nothing about. It is not fair and has created a wave of paranoia throughout my workplace. I feel great sadness for someone who has felt it necessary to cause that kind of damage........especially to those people who have done nothing wrong!

The investigation is winding down now and it seems that the wheat is being sorted from the chaff.....I guess we may at least get a fair outcome. Now the damage needs to be repaired and that's going to take a long time.

I don't know if this makes me feel any better but at least I haven't been directly impacted so far although I'm not going to hold my breath yet.

Think happy thoughts and on Monday we'll have to start the re-build!!!!!!!

Tempestuous week.........

It has been a turbulent week so far and it's not over yet! I will explain the situation in a day or so when the events have concluded....suffice to say it has been extremely unpleasant watching friends and colleagues being subject of what amounts to an emotional grinder for days on end.

It has to stop soon...........