my father called the other morning.

“what are you doing?”

“working…”

“oh, that’s good!”

“hmm. you say it’s good, but you don’t know that the work is stupid, and the pay could be better.”

“then you are undercharging. you need to charge more.”

“but when you work for a non-profit organisation, you can’t charge normal, commercial rates.”

“then you can’t always work for non-profit organisations. don’t you want to work for a real company?”

“wellll. if i worked in a commercial setup i wouldn’t be able to stay home and look after a kid all day.”

“ah. you have a point,” he said, then, “where is the kid?”

“she’s gone on holidays.”

“what!? so why aren’t you there with her?”

“um, because i have to work?”

“but don’t you miss her?”

“no.”

“what!? why not!?”

“because, when you spend 24 hours a day looking after someone…”

“ah. i see.”

“and i have so much work to do. i mean, it is tricky to balance the work, and the kid –”

“that’s what life is all about, finding the balance.”

hungh.

another ridiculous thing i encountered earlier this week are the all-round party spoons from jamie oliver’s “easy entertaining” range for royal worcester, marked down at the david jones easter sale from $30 to $15. for six “oriental spoons” in a box. the catalogue pictures shows nine, which means a box and a half. (why do people serve food in these soup spoons anyway? why don’t they stop??)

don’t they know you can go to any chinatown supermarket, walk down the kitchenware aisle, and avail yourself of as many of these spoons as you care to, for about 70c a piece? maybe a dollar for one with a finer finish. the trendy homeware stores do the same trick with bamboo steamers: $30 for something that will cost you $5 at a neighbourhood “ethnic” shop. what has multiculturalism achieved, if not to bring affordable cooking utensils to the general populace?

ri.di.culo.us.