Good to see that WhaleOil has exposed our rant published last year about the social engineering being inflicted by Youth Transition Services upon unwieldy teenagers that can't be arsed going to school.
WhaleOil writes:
"Motella back in October last year did a post about what he thought was the “nice to have” Youth Transition Service that in his opinion “are enabling and encouraging a swelling underclass believe that they are special by not being arsed to front up at school”.
It looks like this post has now been discovered by a Youth Transition Service staff member doing a Google vanity search and a link to the post appears to have been emailed to other YTS offices throughout the country.
From the patsy comments made on the post this morning, the YTS folk are earnestly qualifying their existence by adding some of their hand-picked unique perspectives.
I have to wonder though if Youth Transition Services isn’t just a fancy title for puberty?"
The self-serving, illiterate, coordinated patsy comments from publicly-funded YTS staff are amusing to read and it is great to see that a few of the vast army of VRWC readers of WhaleOil's Blog have kindly added a few comments to our original post in order to give these stooges a reality check.
Having a difficult time of it lately? Is the multi-media exposure to natural disasters, shocking news stories and the endless tales of economic woe getting you down?
Take time out and consider that there are always folk worse off than you.
Set the scene - It's a wonderful Summer's day. A gorgeous young woman is cruising the streets of Monaco in a shinny new $470,000 Bentley, the sunlight is making the adornment of her jewellery glitter and her blonde locks are gracefully waving in the breeze.
We can only contemplate that the driver of the Bentley may have been distracted from looking at her reflection as she effortlessly flashed past designer shop front windows. Whatever the reason for the moments lack of attention, it all suddenly ended in the most horrible fashion.
We can imagine the chilling metallic sound as the Bentley abruptly ended its journey as it scraped against a $140,000 Mercedes S class and proceeded to ram into a $260,000 black Ferrari F430, a Porsche 911 worth $150,000 and a $265,000 Aston Martin Rapide.
Oh the horror!
Sorta puts life into perspective...
One of the common traits of guests that moteliers soon become aware of is that many tend to leave their brains behind when away from their usual environment. Once arriving at a motel, apparent simple tasks such as car parking, unlocking doors, turning on a TV or using the telephone can challenge many intrepid travellers.
Along with increasing levels of stupidity, some guests will also lose their usual levels of inhibition and are more willing to throw caution to the wind. Restraints of acceptable behavior are tossed aside and a worrying trend of exhibitionism can take over.
One of the greatest achievements of this digital age is that holiday antics can be easily captured and shared. What goes on tour can be uploaded and viewed by millions within a nano-second.
We've already covered the trend of Bed Jumping where people snap aeriel photos of themselves jumping on motel/hotel beds. We have also covered Balcony diving that involves capturing video of guests jumping from multi-floor motel/hotel balconies into a swimming pool.
We are aware that planking is also a trend that takes place while on holiday and deserves a mention, however this is soooo last week.
We have discovered a new worldwide trend that is taking off at a phenomenal rate: “Leisure Diving.” Thanks to the website LeisureDive.com, travellers around the world can upload their most creative poolside leisure persona complete with props.
The authoritative LeisureDive.com website defines a Leisure Dive as:
“...a jump into a body of water (or at least something soft), striking a ‘leisure pose’ in mid-air. Ideally, a photographer captures the moment when the diver has reached peak height above water, when his or her hips are parallel to the waterline. If successful, the result is an airborne Corona commercial you can post to your preferred social networking platform, or mantle, if you’re old school."
One of the necessities of a successful Leisure Dive photo is the "Leisure Face" that can be described as "a facial expressions that says, ‘I am just relaxing and enjoying this refreshing cocktail’. Not a smile, not blue steel. Just straight leisure."
OK, so it's appreciated that this latest trend could be somewhat restricted as New Zealand experiences the sting of winter, however I can see Leisure Diving becoming a fair-weather fad this summer in motel and hotel pools.
For inspiration, here's some of my favourites:
There is a burning question that many corporate travellers frequenting motel rooms have often asked themselves: Does a sex accident that occurs in a motel while on a business trip count as a work accident?"
Finally we may be able to answer that age old question.
Across the ditch in Australia (also aptly known as "The Lucky Country") the Federal Court will soon rule if a public servant that was injured during a night of passion in a motel while on a work trip will be eligible for "work place" compensation.
"The federal government employee, who cannot be identified, was injured when a glass light fitting came away from the wall above the bed as she was having sex with a man in 2007.
The light struck her in the face, leaving her with injuries to her nose, mouth and a tooth, as well as "a consequent psychiatric injury".
Regardless of the court's decision, as a health and safety measure I will be spending today ensuring that all over bed light fixtures within easy reach are firmly affixed to the walls of my motel rooms.
"Yesterday saw the most widespread snow since 1995, with snow driven by a cold southerly falling from the southern tip of the South Island to Waikato, including in unusual spots such as Nelson, Palmerston North and the Kaimai Ranges near Tauranga...."
JetBlue seems to have set themselves up for another PR disaster by allegedly throwing a woman off a flight after accusing her of going commando.
We wonder if the accommodation industry should be following JetBlue's vigilance by imposing spot checks on guests that may not be wearing undergarments.
You can be assured that I will be following this developing story as it further exposes itself...
If you receive indifferent service in the travel industry, TripAdvisor is the most popular consumer go-to website to rant, however the production of a viral YouTube video appears to be hard to beat to get revenge and rapid resolution.
I've never heard of country music singer Dale Watson from Texas, however his Tiger Airways-has-done-me-wrong-song has proven a social media hit and has achieved getting resolution to his consumer complaint (and in the process has enhanced his professional profile).
Watson's hard-luck story was being stung a $500 excess baggage fee for a box of 120 CDs for a flight from Melbourne to Sydney that the airline lost and failed to pay him compensation.
After investing four months trying to get a resolution, Watson created a music video mocking the budget airline as “We Don’t Careways” in a bid to get an apology and compensation.
And it worked...
So a marketing team at Tui Breweries after a long boozy lunch came up with the idea of embedding a few pithy spiral grooves within the interior of the neck of bottles containing Tui Blond Larger.
What were they thinking? Surely a 40 something cutting edge accommodation provider wouldn't be silly enough to be drawn into the inane marketing and actually believe that the grooves somehow "invigorates" the beer as it flows through it?
Ooops!
We have been recuperating from being victims of a one-man crime wave at our motel.
Under the cover of darkness a local scumbag was routinely entering our property and stealing pot plants belonging to my motel managers.
OK, so maybe flogging pot plants isn't the crime of the century, however it's a wee bit concerning having a low-life sneaky-thief lurking around in the middle of the night and I'm aware that petty pot plant crime can quickly escalate to something a little more sinister if left unchecked...
Anyway, this was an ongoing problem over several weeks and my managers were getting justifiably upset, especially as one of their nicked pot plants was reasonably sentimental - so they decided to try and catch him in the act. And they did!
After seeing a likely shadowy figure in the early hours fiddling amongst potted foliage, one of my managers discretely followed the sneaky-thief as he lugged one of their large pot plants from the motel to a house just a few doors away.
Having identified the sneaky-thief's lair, the police were called the next day and luckily it must have been a very slow crime-week as 3 cops turned up a few days later armed with a search warrant.
My manager enthusiastically accompanied the cops for the "raid" and was able to identify his 10 pot plants amongst an enormous collection that were probably amassed from late night trespassing other local haunts.
I wonder if the shock treatment of being awoken in the early afternoon and snaptured by 3 cops will really deter our illiterate sneaky-thief with a pot plant fetish from any future misdemeanours?
