A double-life can be harmful for your career life . . . . but why?

David Campbell the NSW TRANSPORT and Roads Minister has resigned after he was caught on tape driving his ministerial car to a gay sex club. 

I don't see what the fuss is all about, meaning the gay sex club thingie. So far, most people I 'talked" to seem sympathetic, they simply don't give a toss about a politician's private life (okay, except as goz over a cuppa) as long as their public duty are performed to and/or above the mark. 

All the hoopla about "double-life in private" = "untrustworthiness in public" is simply balderdash. A double-life in the sexual sense is at best a coping mechanism and is a private matter between Campbell and his family. His wife might want to lob off his nuts and chuck him out onto the streets, but that's another story. Us? We should arrest our faux self-righteousness and let the man be.

If any witch-hunt is to be conducted, it should be for the bloody cowardly snitch/es who tipped the media on to Campbell's activities on that fateful night. 

Non je ne regrette nien Janey

Need I say more? A retired cleaner channeling Edith Piaf always makes my day. Oh okay, go ahead, poke fun at her "huh?" when asked her name but trust me, Janey might just become the next pin-up girl for men out there who are let's just say, of a certain age. There's something about that bloody non je ne regrette nien song that stirs your innards whenever you hear it, every time. 

Janey, you go girl!

Mom's the word

Occasionally, the NSW State do get it right. The Story Time Program, a pioneering program in Emu Plains Correctional Centre, is attempting to bring the voices of female inmates into the bedrooms of their children. Audio recordings of the inmates reading stories are pressed onto CDs with professional assistance and subsequently delivered to their children as a way to maintain the bond between mother and child. 

This program while groundbreaking in NSW, has been used elsewhere in the world, e.g. in USA as far back as 1997, so what took it so long to reach here is something worth mulling over. 

We would like to think the NSW Correctional Services Minister Phil Costa got this gem of an idea on one of his tax-payer funded trips overseas, wouldn't we? Alright, it was a cheap shot and I take it back. Every step forward is a step forward and Mr Costa has my applause for backing the program. AND I don't often get the chance to clap these days . . . so here goes - *clap, clap*

In case you are asking, yes it can and should be done for dads as well.

Saving face for $25,000

The board of trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW has decided not to revoke the $25,000 Wynne Prize from the winning artist Sam Leach despite public outcry after it came to light Leach "appropriate" his entry from a 16th century Dutch work.

Apparently the board's decision was unanimous and while they noted Leach's painting had the "light and air" of a Dutch 17th-century landscape, they also recognised "its quality and its mysterious implications of the natural world . . . in that sense it is an idealised landscape, one where time and place are indistinct." . . . . never mind that the Wynne Prize is awarded for "the best landscape painting of Australian scenery oils or watercolours or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists completed during the 12 months preceding the [closing] date ..."

I don't know. I think the whole thing stinks of "saving face" and while I concede the trustee boards' decision is final, I greatly doubt if they have earned the trust of the public in the process.

Good luck to them.

I need a stiff drink . . .

I don't know why this is (even) considered newsworthy and even more puzzled why I am posting about it except to say, "Kate sweetie, there are much bigger problems out there in the world, really I kid you not, so grow up! Asides, you are marrying into royalty, small price to pay for the right to wear a tiara so why the feck care where you will be married in as long as you are married to the right clown crown."

Would you hit it?

No, I am not calling Tom Williams it, the "it" actually refers to that gross crop of freakish nuclear-waste green/turquoise (?) fringe sitting on top of his head. 

And you know what? This young freak creep unsuccessful Australian Idol contestant is currently in Sydney promoting his debut single LOL despite a fractured eye-socket sustained from an assault by six men, an incident he squarely blamed on the organisers of AI for not "providing contestants with adequate support after the show."

I do wonder what sort of support Williams is harping on about.

Bodyguards?
Better parents?
What?

If Williams is at all worried about the exposure why go on AI at all? And is he not going to blame the Daily Telegraph people for "exposing" him in this crap article accompanied with an equally crap image, displaying that 欠打 (kiam pak - in hokkien meaning "due for a thrashing") face fringe?

Really, some people will say anything to grab a sales.

Without comprise . . . something's missing at Minh

If you like Vietnamese food in a cheap and cheerful home-prepared kinda way, Minh will appeal to you, in buckets-load.

The menu (circa 2006) is extensive, the prices non-expensive but I thought the portions can do with a bit of increase in size, especially like in our case where there's four to dine. The service is attentive without being invasive although they are quite insistent on clearing our plates once our cutlery cease moving.

Don't get me wrong, the flavours are not bad (but also not great) and I would stay away from the prawn crackers which was soft, chewy and has a strange bitter bite to it. Perhaps we should have ordered the goat curry and "ba ba ba" (333 beer) but we didn't so let's just say I wasn't completely seize by my Minh experience.

Oh alright, we will go back for another go. Will let you know if when that happens.

Minh - our own style of Vietnamese food.

Our table number, handwritten by the waiter when we sat down.

There were four of us to dinner, and we got exactly four pieces of prawn cracker. At least the waiter could count.

Fresh prawn roll

Beef with betel leaf

Green curry chicken

Chilli prawn

Roast duck salad

Fresh cut chillies in fish sauce

You can see why I say the menu is circa 2006, can't you?

ON a different track. except for the "something's missing" bit, I saw the following signage along Oxford Street one arvo . . . . 

"Construction without comprise" Comprise or . . .

. . . . Compromise? 

As you can see, some pedantic pedestrian attempted to correct the situation.

Well, the owner of the signage has a better idea. Like all mistakes, all "comprise" got was a whitewash. Sadly, it wasn't even a proper job . . .

Minh 

506 Marrickville Road

Dulwich Hill 2203 NSW

tel: +61 (02) 9560 0465