7 - 2013 - RodneyOlsen.net

A Random Act of Snarkiness

July 30, 2013

burger

Josefa Pete lives in Melbourne with her husband and two young sons. To satisfy her love of writing she writes a blog titled Always Josefa.

Josefa also has occasional cravings for hamburgers. During one of those cravings she discovered a little of what Oscar Wilde may have meant when he said, “No good deed goes unpunished”.

In her blog post Random Act of Kindness she wrote about a random act of kindness that produced an unusual result.

The burger wasn’t great. Disappointed and worse still, I didn’t have time for an alternative. I pulled out my phone to be distracted by my twitter feed as I kept eating what was now my lunch, but certainly not my expectation. On my second bite, a middle-aged man walked past me. He was pale, dressed in a light pair of tracksuit pants and a t-shirt, which seemed strange on such a cold Melbourne day. He started to rummage through the bin behind me. Silently, he was pulling out scraps of food and placing them in a ripped brown paper bag. I put my hamburger down and couldn’t stop watching. He sat down and ate the few scraps he had rummaged. Now my lunch tasted even worse.

Please take the time to read her post to find out what happened. It astonished me and will probably shock you too.

I spoke to Josefa on my radio program this morning so that she could tell her story. You can listen to our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

I’d like to know if you’d let someone else’s attitude stop you from carrying out a random act of kindness. Leave me a comment and tell me about a random act of kindness you’ve received or maybe when you’ve had the opportunity to lend someone else a hand.

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Finding Hope When it Hurts

July 29, 2013

by Rodney Olsen

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PhilipSiddall

Authors Professor Philip Siddall, Rebecca McCabe and Dr Robin Murray have devoted much of their lives to working with people in pain.

They’ve recently released The Pain Book – Finding Hope When it Hurts. the-pain-book

The Pain Book provides an up-to-date overview of how pain works and the best pain treatments now available. Based on the latest research, The Pain Book features information, skills and techniques that form a proven and effective step-by-step approach to treating pain.

The authors are all highly experienced in pain management. Philip Siddall is Professor in Pain Medicine at the University of Sydney with more than 30 years of clinical experience and international recognition for his work in the field of pain management. Rebecca McCabe is a physiotherapist with a particular expertise in chronic pain and many years’ experience in private practice and hospital pain management centres. Robin Murray has a PhD in clinical psychology and has also practised and taught in the field of pain management for many years.

Having devoted much of their lives to working with people in pain, the authors are lead clinicians in the HammondCare Pain Management Service at Greenwich Hospital where they run a successful pain program based on the principles in The Pain Book.

Philip Siddall joined me on the phone this morning during my radio program to talk a little bit about the book and the hope that exists for those experiencing pain. You can hear our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

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Go Ahead, Make My Day

July 22, 2013

by Rodney Olsen

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50 isn’t such a big number … until you have to start writing it on forms that ask for your age. Today I clock up half a century of living. I’m very privileged to be doing so while enjoying some ‘time out’ with my amazing family.

I’m wondering if on this day I can take the liberty of asking you to do a few things that will make my one day a year very special, while costing you ….. nothing. Well, maybe a little time but these ideas won’t put a dent in your wallet.

Like My Facebook Page

First of all, I’d love to connect with a lot more people on Facebook. I have a public Facebook page that makes that really easy. It’s what Facebook calls a ‘fan page’ but I’m not that much of an egotist that I want you to declare yourself as my ‘fan’. It’s simply just an easy way to share stuff on Facebook. Just head to my Facebook page and click ‘like’.

Share My Posts

Whenever you drop in to my blog, please, please, please feel free to use the little buttons at the bottom of each post to share my posts via Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr or Reddit. Hey, you can even click the email button to send a copy to your friends. When you share my posts in any, or all, of these ways, more people visit my blog and I smile a lot. Really I do. If you use StumbleUpon I would especially love you to Stumble my posts. You’re more than welcome to spend a few minutes going back over my recent posts and sharing a few.

Comment On My Posts

Don’t just think it …. say it. I love it when people leave comments on my posts. I don’t necessarily mena just this post. Find a post or two that you’ve enjoyed or even something you disagree with and leave a comment or three. Your comments make me smile big time.

Subscribe By Email

Did you know that you can read RodneyOlsen.net via email each day? Instead of having to visit my blog each day, it can visit you. Just click here, enter your email address, and you’ll never miss a post. You’ll get one email a day if I’ve posted on that day. It’s completely free and you can unsubscribe at any time so why not give it a go?

Thank You

So there you are. If you’d like to, and only if you’d like to, you can make me extra happy by following a few of the ideas above.

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Farewelling My Forties

July 21, 2013

by Rodney Olsen

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The sun has set. It’s gone down on a decade. The sun has gone down on my forties.

The sunset in the photo above is the one I witnessed as my family and I returned from an almost three hour long whale watching cruise. We travelled from a riverside jetty near the mouth of the Murchison River in Kalbarri, past some small waves and out into the open seas to see some humpback whales swimming off the coast.

As we made our way back to the jetty I looked behind us towards the sea. The sun was getting lower in the sky. It dropped slowly at first and then it seemed to pick up speed as it dipped into the ocean, lighting up the sky.

I realised that this would be the final time I would see a sunset while still in my forties. Tomorrow I’ll be fifty.

Tomorrow the sun will rise, just as on any other day. The world won’t change. I won’t feel dramatically different yet there is still something in those significant birthdays that cause us to look back and look ahead.

When did you last celebrate a ‘significant’ birthday? Did it feel the same as any other day or did it feel somehow different? What did you do to mark the occasion?

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Mel Smith Dead at 60

July 21, 2013

by Rodney Olsen

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I was saddened this morning to wake up to the news that Mel Smith had passed away from a heart attack at the age of just 60. He will be well and truly missed by comedy lovers around the world.

Heartbroken Griff Rhys Jones last night led tributes to his comedy partner Mel Smith, who has died of a heart attack in bed at 60.

Mel, adored by audiences for his work on sketch shows Alas Smith and Jones and Not The Nine O’Clock News, was found dead at his London home.

Griff said: “I still can’t believe this has happened. To everybody who ever met him, Mel was a force for life.

“He had a relish for it that seemed utterly inexhaustible.” – Daily Mirror

I think that it’ll be a fitting tribute for me to spend a few hours this week watching my DVDs of Not the Nine O’Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones.

Melvin Kenneth “Mel” Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, writer, film director, producer and actor. He was best known for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O’Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the UK’s largest producers of TV comedy and light entertainment programming. – wiki

Many years ago a lot of people would comment on a resemblance between Mel and me. I have a speaking suspicion that even Mel noticed it.

A friend and I went to see Mel and Griff Rhys Jones in a live Alas Smith and Jones show at the Perth Concert Hall some time in the eighties. After the show we went to the stage door in the hope of meeting my comedy heroes. I think there would have been around 15 or 20 people altogether.

After a short while the security people opened the door and let us in to wait backstage. Then, after another short wait, Mel and Griff emerged.

Both got down to the business of signing programs. They would smile at the person holding the program, then look down to sign it before handing it back with anger smile.

Then Mel came to me. Smile, look down ……. then another look up at me with a quizzical look on his face, a quick shake of the head, then he looked down again, signed my program and gave it back with a smile.

It was a very short interaction with a great talent but one I will always remember.

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Archive - July 2013