Month: May 2012

Post #51: A Cultural Disconnect

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I feel like I give a lot of myself to people and I don’t feel like I am getting what I need back from them. Partly, I believe the disconnect is cultural. It is hard for me as an Australian to say directly to someone, “Hey mate, I want this [from you]”. We Australians do this dance where we try to be as explicit as possible without actually saying the words. And then we get disappointed when we don’t get what we need or want. It makes no sense, but it’s just what we do. As an Australians in business over here in the US, it can make for some pretty arresting experiences. Aussies have many more similarities with the English in the way in which we conduct our business, and that’s to be expected. But people here in the US can be so… forthright. And even after a few years, I still find it confronting. Americans, generally, come across as being more arrogant than the biggest knobs you know down the pub. But you …

Post #50: Thank You!

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    So this is the 50th post of the Great Writing Challenge 2012. For those of you who are regulars to this site, you will have noticed that I’ve been stuck on the 49th post for about a fortnight. Had a bit of a freak out about it, but then I realized that I freak out about numbers and failing and whole host of other strange nonsense, and so I just stopped procrastinating and moved on. Fifty posts. It’s an achievement and I am going to bask in the sunshine of the achievement for a moment. Ah, that’s brilliant. I want to acknowledge just how much of a focus the Great Writing project 2012 has given me and how much I put into writing these posts. So many people have encouraged me along the way – even people I don’t personally know – and I am truly grateful for your support. I am also proud of achieving something I set out to do. I love writing, and it’s my life. [Source] Since the meltdown …

Post #49: Only in San Francisco…

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Ah, San Francisco. You’re a city of such contrasts. Riding BART to work last week, I noticed a woman buttoning up her jeans as she stood next to me. As you do. She had make-shift grillz and asked me for money. I gave her my usual response. She pushed on to the next carriage and left a parting gift of urine that snaked its way down the carriage floor to pool at my feet. On Sunday, the Canadian and I were afforded one of the most ‘San Francisco’ days either of us have ever experienced. Dottie’s True Blue Cafe is renown as the best brekkie in town and lines are usually over an hour long. They recently moved from the Tenderloin, to SoMa. And SoMa is obviously short for ‘So Much Worse than the Tenderloin’. So there we were outside Dottie’s new location on Sixth, minding our business camouflaged in a line of about thirty hipsters. Residents in the SRO opposite kept chucking trash out the windows at us. Local types camped out on the …