Family and Community day - success or failure

Sorry, stuffed up the quotes. Try:

justbands said :

> as it should be!

Errrr…why? Just ’cause some religous nutters want to go give their souls to some god or another, why should that inconvenience the rest of us?

Because it gives everyone a day off. Maybe people would be forced to discover another aspect of life.

peterh said :

justbands said :

> as it should be!

Errrr…why? Just ’cause some religous nutters want to go give their souls to some god or another, why should that inconvenience the rest of us?

Because it gives everyone a day off. Maybe people would be forced to discover another aspect of life.

I hail it a success, but thats probaly as I am one of those lucky “slackers” who was able to take rec days from fri-mon and then the tues free, my partner and I enjoyed a very wonderous 5 day holiday and arrived home and then back to work this morning feeling refreshed and relaxed.
It was a wonderful break and something we are both very pleased to have been able to take advantage of despite the two of us being the only members of our ‘family’.

It’d be a shame to lose this day as a nice, stress free treat before the madness and obligation of the next two months before Christmas, and as someone said (sorry no reference) I too had no drinking or gambling because I was away from the office, and instead indulged in outside healthy activities instead.

justbands said :

> as it should be!

Errrr…why? Just ’cause some religous nutters want to go give their souls to some god or another, why should that inconvenience the rest of us?

because the population of adelaide is mainly older australians, from ethnic backgrounds that, whilst diverse, still seem to visit church on sunday morning. Once the oldies get too old, they are shuttled to victor harbor.

adelaide has never had a poll re sunday trading. maybe it would change if it did, but it hasn’t and probably won’t change until then.

And how come churches are allowed to be open when all other businesses have to close?

> as it should be!

Errrr…why? Just ’cause some religous nutters want to go give their souls to some god or another, why should that inconvenience the rest of us?

justbands said :

Yes, try Adelaide on a Sunday morning..nothing open, nothing at all.

as it should be! though, I can still go down to the findon road takeaway for a pie on sunday, and crafers has some pubs running sunday night, but sunday morning is time for church. ain’t called city of churches for nothing….

Yes, try Adelaide on a Sunday morning..nothing open, nothing at all.

Jim Jones said :

justbands said :

when are they supposed to shop if nothing is open on weekends?

I wonder about this with a lot of businesses. Wouldn’t it make sense to close down on a monday/tuesday or whatever, and then be open on the weekend when the wage slaves are actually available to purchase your good/service? Ditto with opening hours – the 9 to 5 thing seems odd (particularly in a town full of wage slaves).

after a visit to brisbane, it hit home how much we are spoilt in the ACT. Late night shopping on a friday, some stores open till midnight, all these things are extremely foreign in QLD. It made us very careful as to the number of nappies, tins of formula etc. the 7 eleven became our late night milk & bread run place.

justbands said :

when are they supposed to shop if nothing is open on weekends?

I wonder about this with a lot of businesses. Wouldn’t it make sense to close down on a monday/tuesday or whatever, and then be open on the weekend when the wage slaves are actually available to purchase your good/service? Ditto with opening hours – the 9 to 5 thing seems odd (particularly in a town full of wage slaves).

I actually miss the spirit of cup day at work, sure there probably wasnt a lot done in some offices but in others you still got a bit done and had a fun, workplace bonding event in the afternoon. IMO thats good for productivity on every other day.

> Sadly these days everyone wants “it” right here and NOW!!!!!!!

It’s a much, much deeper issue than that. In this day & age, (most) families need two wages to survive. 9-5 Mon to Fri & a few hours on Saturday morning was perfectly fine when Mum was at home to look after the household, do banking & shopping etc. Now Mum & Dad X are both working long hours during the week…when are they supposed to shop if nothing is open on weekends?

AG Canberra said :

mmmm Berra Boy – I agree. We all need to take time to “smell the roses” on a regular basis – doing whatever floats your boat. For us yesterday it was a family bike ride round the lake – and we weren’t alone in that idea.

Having said that – I do think that Canberra having an extra public hol for Melb Cup is a joke.

I spent the day looking after the kids, whilst my wife and her friends watched the cup. I didn’t bet, I knew nothing about this year’s form, so i didn’t bother. I do miss the company sweeps, and I would have preferred to be at a work lunch, only for the chance to have some down time with my colleagues. Though, being able to spend time with the kids was a bonus.

In truth, I wish we could have a Monday public holiday AND still work on cup day …

Exactly how I feel about it.

How the hall can we be given a public holiday, then have it taken awat within a few years. That REALLY sucks!

BerraBoy68 said :

Anybody Remember when Christmas, Easter and Anzac Day (or for those of us old enough- every Sunday) meant the shops were closed all day?

Can anybody please explain why do we need 24/7/365 (or 366 in leap years) shopping?

Yeah I remember that, if you needed to buy something on a weekend you’d need to be up nice and early on saturday morning to get to the shops before they closed. (Which was 1pm, assuming they even opened), and sunday nothing was open.

Sadly these days everyone wants “it” right here and NOW!!!!!!!

They are not willing to wait for it at all, thus the idea of credit cards taking off.

Back on topic – There was a public holiday yesterday? I didn’t notice, running my own business it was business as usual (for me at least).

As a former Melbournite, I actually really miss having Cup day at work – for non-horse-racing types, we actually celebrated cup day more in Canberra than we ever did when living in Melbourne (except for the one time that we actually went to the cup – had to tick the box I suppose). I really miss cup day at work – it was the funnest day of the working year; dressing up, nice hats, chook and champers, sweeps … party spirit. That said, nobody did very much work … so I guess if we need to have an extra public holiday, cup day makes sense from a productivity perspective. In truth, I wish we could have a Monday public holiday AND still work on cup day …

mmmm Berra Boy – I agree. We all need to take time to “smell the roses” on a regular basis – doing whatever floats your boat. For us yesterday it was a family bike ride round the lake – and we weren’t alone in that idea.

Having said that – I do think that Canberra having an extra public hol for Melb Cup is a joke.

I went to the movies in the morning and snoozed through the afternoon. An outstanding public hoiliday, all things considered.

Could have something to do with the fact that people (ie. shoppers) work. Weekends & public holidays are sometimes the only time people can shop.

BerraBoy68 said :

Anybody Remember when Christmas, Easter and Anzac Day (or for those of us old enough- every Sunday) meant the shops were closed all day?

Can anybody please explain why do we need 24/7/365 (or 366 in leap years) shopping?

Because closing the shops for a day means mass panic amongst the peasants. In my days in retail (as a uni student in QLD) it always amused me to see a wall of plebs frothing at the mouth waiting to burst through the doors at 8:30 all because the shops would be closed the following day. The inability to buy milk/bread/ride-on-lawnmowers/fly auger drills for a 24 hour perion induces mass hysteria.

I spent the day with family and community, and had a great time. And less gambling and drinking than I would have done at the office Melbourne Cup celebration. A big success, in my opinion!

Having a public holiday on Melbourne Cup Day is a good idea. Nobody got any work done on Cup Day anyway, and those who take Monday off are just using up rec leave to which they’re entitled anyway. Because we’re not all spending the Cup Day afternoon at an office function, people are free to choose how they spend their time – and that means more variety than chicken & champagne lunch and betting on the race. Yesterday morning would have been a great time to go clothes shopping. The hardware store carpark looked busy as I drove past, hopefully that means a few more pergolas built or watering systems installed. I suspect the only retailers that have an excuse to complain are those that supply chicken & champagne lunches to office workers.

Anybody Remember when Christmas, Easter and Anzac Day (or for those of us old enough- every Sunday) meant the shops were closed all day?

Can anybody please explain why do we need 24/7/365 (or 366 in leap years) shopping?

“Chris Peters from the Chamber of Commerce says we don’t need another public holiday at all.”

F$ck me dead. Every time there’s a public holiday the Chamber of Commerce pop their heads up and start making up figures about how much money was ‘lost’ because of the holiday: “Well, having this so-called ‘Family and Community Day’ costs business 253 billion dollars in lost productivity.”

They’d probably try and cancel Christmas if it didn’t impact negatively on consumer growth in the fourth quarter.

Total motherlovers.

Success. I spent the day with the family and some good friends at the Cotter. Very nice.

Work isn’t everyting folks. Here’s something I’ve kept private till now. Earlier this year I had a breakdown. While this was due to agreat many factors in my past, one of them is I was spending too much time at work and not enough with my family or friends. This is a hidden problem in Canberra.

The amount of people I know that have come to me since I was open about my breakdown (read depression, anxiety and stress) admitting that they have also had breakdowns but want it kept quite is staggering. If yesterday’s holiday encourages a few people to spend some quality time with their families or friends just de-stressing, I can’t see it as being a bad thing.

I outlaid about $3 and got back a schooner of beer…

I spent the day home by myself. It was wonderfully peaceful 🙂 Oh except to head out for some shopping – nice and quiet at teh shopping centres around 3pm!

I outlaid $71 and only “won” back around $15, so, for me, the day was an abject failure. :p

Mr Stanhope has called for this public holiday to be reviewed

Sorry? Did I misunderstand this?

What an incredibly hypercritical thing to say. What Jon? It no longer suits your political agenda to have a holiday so you’ll treat the Canberra voting public with contempt?

Thumper, to make sense of the reasons for his wanting to review (not necessarily cancel) the day, you need the context around why he’s suggesting the review (none of which was included above in the original post).

I don’t have a link handy, but a web search or two should bring it up. It was discussed briefly on the other thread about this day.

I spent the day taking my son & a friend of his fishing…very family & community I thought.

I was under the impression that the entire point of the day off was to encourage people to take a sickie on Monday and then to teach their kids the value of gambling on tuesday.

Learning to bet on the GG’s teaches many valuable lifeskills and employability skills: literacy & numeracy skills in reading the form guide and figuring the odds, problem solving skills, use of technology, planning and organising, innovation and enterprise, the list goes on.

> I thought it was called “Tacit Admission This Dump Is Run By The CFMEU And Inhabited By A Bunch Of Slackarsed Public Servants So No Work Will Be Done After Lunchtime Anyway Day”.

Well, it is called “the race that stops the nation”, not “the race that stops the national capital”. ie. Canberra is not alone. Besides, if it’s such a dump…leave!

The pubs looked like they were making out like bandits.

I was cabbing yesterday afternoon and night. Had exactly no passengers going to or from Family and Community Fun Day events but many, many drunken Melbourne Cup partygoers right up till 1am.
How many people were there at Family and Community Fun Day?

I thought it was called “Tacit Admission This Dump Is Run By The CFMEU And Inhabited By A Bunch Of Slackarsed Public Servants So No Work Will Be Done After Lunchtime Anyway Day”.

I missed the race stuck in the gargantuan face-painting queue at the Family and Community Fun Day.

In fact, I spent nearly the whole three hours stuck in seemingly endless queues at the Family and Community Fun Day.

For a Melbourne Cup it made a good union picnic. For the kids anyway.

Our family enjoyed a quiet morning followed by a walk around Commonwealth Park yesterday afternoon. The park was busy so I think it was a success.

There already is a public holiday in the middle of the year – June long weekend