Ticketmaster, please explain

I’ve got a real problem with Ticketmaster in Australia at the moment.  Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is on soon and a swag of bands are touring.  Guess what – you can only buy their tickets from a few players, the biggest being Ticketmaster and Ticketek.

So my spending spree started and I saw just how much their “handling fees” had raised the cost of my ticket.  What was a 52 ticket hit over 60 when you add this charge plus the fee to pay by credit card.

I’ve posted something to ticketmaster to get an explanation on how they can justify up to $8 for a 2 minute (at the most) service. Working in software development myself I understand how there are influences such as research, development, infrastructure, people, security ect all add up.  I just think that the fee they are charging is excessive.  Especially when you multiply it over a year and across all their transactions.

Hearing me vent, a co worker pointed me in the direction of this article – the only thing that is missing here is hovercrafts that they use to play tag with.  It makes me feel a little better just because I laughed. I’m still angry at the fees.

Online vs real world bravery

In the real world, put a cute guy in front of me and I shut up shop in terms of my nerves. I can have a normal conversation with them, but I can’t string the words together to express how I’m feeling, whether I want to see them again (which if I’m talking to them for longer than 5 minutes, it’s a resounding YES!) for the fear of rejection.

I’ve just realised this – because I’m internet dating again. After he instigated the messages, I finally threw in the casual comment of ‘Want to get a drink at some stage?’ Well.  I’ve never received a response quicker than this mornings message.  A resounding yes, and a suggestion for this weekend.  Isn’t that nice!

So why then, when I “internet date” I’m free, no fear, no reservations and just don’t care.  Why can’t I translate this freedom and nonchalant-ness to real life. What do I need to do to become braver?

My thoughts are losing the whole “care factor”.  On the internet I really don’t care, lets apply this to real life and see what happens.

I hope it works, because quite frankly I’m over being single in the suburbs, I need to work on this problem with some gusto.

Otherwise, got any better suggestions world?

Highlights of the past week

So it’s been a week since I last posted. What’s happened during this 7 days, 168 hours, 10080 minutes and massive amount of seconds.

Monday: after suffering through an incredibly hot day (around 36 degrees) I raced off to play tennis for the first time in 5 years. Once the sun went down it was a really nice night. I’ve learnt that I still suck at tennis but it was great to have a run around again.

Tuesday: I spent the night at a yelp event with my friends. Great night. We drank these whiskey cocktails:

And ate these delicious chicken in leaves.

It made me quite sad for the fact that I’m not living in the city or remotely close anymore. It was a long train ride home.

Wednesday: caught up with some twitter friends and an interstate new twitter friend. Starting to feel a little sickly by this stage.

On the train ride home, I had my first really bad experience on the Franga line. Only 8.30 at night, two guys decided that smoking and drinking on the train were the things to do. And then by Parkdale were getting quite agitated and loud. This is when one of them proclaimed to be mentally unstable, shouldn’t be out on public and were off their medication. So this is when I hightailed it out of there and switched carriages.

Says a lot for the state of our transport system when there is nobody there to protect the commuters.

Thursday: sick, sick, sick. Throat swollen, tonsels swollen, pain, shivers, sneezing and shaking. And I had a rather important meeting. So swallow some cold and flu tablets. These switched off the symptoms long enough to get into the office, only to have my meeting cancelled 2 minutes after arriving in the office. Awesome. Pretty much turned back around and went home.

Melbourne was going through a heat wave and the storms were trying to roll in. A lack of punch made for an amazing sunset.

Thursday nights sunset though

Friday/ Saturday and Sunday.

Sick and hot. That is it. Exciting hey.

Sunday 10.58am

Just a reflection. This was Sunday 10.58am and already almost 30 degrees.

Deadly cooking

Think I need a new oven. Did this to keep the heat in and cook the salted caramel cheese cake I made.

Let twitter do the dating…

So, Melbourne is really small.  Turns out somebody I follow on twitter got wished a happy birthday by somebody I had only ever chatted to on a popular internet dating site. Who I haven’t heard from in over 2 weeks.

So, hello twitter handle of Jeremy*.  Jeremy seems to be quite the smart arse (tick), like photography and travel.  All ticks.  So well travelled I think he’d shame me given the minisule amount of travel I have done.

Very tempted to message him back and insert the twitter handle and see what happens. Sounds like fun.

I’ll sleep on that decision.

*not his real name

Monday wireless fun

Hello Bumpy!

Let twitter do the dating

I was over it last night, put myself out there again and “kissed” a guy on a popular Australian dating site and within 30 minutes – rejection. I don’t know why.  I’m a relatively successful human, I have a job, pay my bills on time, I have nice hair, manners,I am polite and I make a killer lemon tart.

So, in a moment of madness I did what any normal person would do.  I got on twitter and decided to see if there were any lovely normal men in Melbourne over 30. 

And then got promptly re tweeted to around 550 people.  Lets just see Melbourne, will it be a social networking dating experiment?

Because I am really ready to meet somebody that makes my world stop.

Indecisive summer….

Melbourne in January… The middle of the summer for us and one of the driest months on record, that was until January 31.

So far, this blog has been full of pretty beach pictures but last night’s suburban adventures involved sirens and state emergency services (SES), which happens to be conveniently located up the road.

The storm ripped through Melbourne with quite a viciousness and brought with it not only heavy rain but a killer wind. This already determined that I’m not looking forward to winter down here.

This wind brought down trees and power lines blocking off side streets all around me. If it wasn’t for the sirens I probably wouldn’t have known a thing was going on because the house didn’t lose power. WIN!

So hello February 1, wish you would warm up a little bit (thick tights and boots have made a quick appearance).

And enjoy yesterday’s storm highlights.

Flinders Street Station and Southbank shrouded in grey. This storm came on quickly and surprised many.

They call this a downpour – Flinders Street Station Platform 9

SES Emergency Services attend to fallen trees. They did NOT like me taking this photo.

Have a great Friday.