The plot is your typical one – young girl heads off to college and tries to join a Sorority and is victimised by the Queen of the Sorority who just has it in for her.  I know, I know, ho hum – boring – but I didn’t think so…

Sydney White is not your typical, pack following teen girl – having been raised by her Dad since she was 9 (her Mum has passed away), Sydney can only be described as ‘tom boy’.  Her wish to join the sorority is simply so she can follow in Mum’s footsteps and be closer to her.  Having been ‘allowed’ to ‘pledge’ (all these terms we pick up from these movies), Sydney does not necessarily conform – doesn’t eat only rabbit food, but exhibits a strong healthy appetite that was great to see.  Sydney’s greagrious, care free nature soon makes her a favourite with the other Sorority Sisters and pledges – but intesifies the dislike of the Sorority Queen…. and results in her being refused entry to the Sorority.

After her unceremonious ejection from the Sorority, Sydney is befriended by 7, very nerdy (or dorky) guys.  These guys are the sort that will spend Saturday afternoon playing online role playing games, then re-enacting them – I’m sure you get the picture….

I won’t spoil the movie – I’ve given enough away for now – I recommend that you grab a copy today and watch it.

The movie is a great testimony to the power of positive thinking, persistence and a lot ingenuity – and it’s just plain fun.  A strong 8 out 10 stars for this one!

I’m sure others will think it weak and cheesey, but I liked the simplicity and relative cleaness of the movie.

Have you seen the movie? What did you think?

Grab your own copies – In Australia or America:

Sydney White - Region 4 DVD

Sydney White - Region 1 DVD

She spends a lot of time laying on my couch, relaxing….

Scandal Looks Comfortable

Oh, and yes – this is quite normal for her.

Of course, the ‘big party’ is this weekend, so maybe I’ll feel a little different next Sunday!

What was really nice was all the wonderful Birthday wishes I received – thank you to everyone who sent me a Birthday wish or thought.  My Facebook Wall has never been so busy!

My parents and hubbie took me out for Dinner and a Show.  There’s a running joke in our house, that Dinner and a Show means takeway and a drive-in movie (for those of us who are old enough to remember what a drive-in is).  The joke comes from my Dad asking Mum out, when they were ‘courting’, to a dinner and show – he bought her fish and chips and went to a movie!

However, Dinner and a Show this time really was Dinner and a Show – The Patsy Cline Review show starring  Barbara Thompson.  Barbara is a very talented lady and her voice totally floored me.  Her partner, Mark Day, is equally as a talented and did a memorable job of Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers (among others).  The costumes Barbara wore were stunning as well.  Altogether, it was a well put together show and highly entertaining.  I really enjoyed it.

Of course, at the end of the show, Mark and Barbara met the Patrons – very down to earth and amusing couple!  If you get the chance to see these two live, it’s worthwhile – visit Barabara Thompon’s and Mark Day’s website to see where they will be.

Charly and Barbara Thompson

The Mark Of The Druid is a book that Rhonda has written, and then converted into a serialized POD cast.  Whilst I would prefer to read a book, I really wanted to listen to Rhondas book, so I downloaded the POD casts and loaded up my iRiver.  I intend to buy the book as well.

The Mark of The Druid is a fantasy novel that explores a past life of the two main characters, Eve McCormick and Andrea McMurray – where they are Druids in an ancient celtic clan.

However, the story is not just set 1000’s of years ago and our main characters reliving it.  Rhonda skillfully weaves their present day activities with their past live experiences.

There are at least 2 other sub plots that flow through the story that by the end of the story are neatly tied up.

I love historical fantasy novels and I am a big fan of Marion Zimmer Bradleys’ Avalon series.

Rhonda has done a great job with I was really impressed with the seeming authenticity of the herbal remedies and the celebration of the Pagan Festivals.  I say seeming authenticity because although I have some knowledge of the era, I’m not greatly familiar with it – but Rhonda describes herbs and plants that the Druids and Druidessess would have use, the clothing they would wear and the various rites that are practised for the festivals (without the more gruesome bits, which I have read in other books).

This book gets a 4 Star (out of 5) from me and is highly recommended.  Listen to the Promo for the book below:

Interested in listening to the book – grab it from Podibooks as a POD Cast or purchase The Mark Of A Druid from Amazon.com.

Then, on Tuesday the 17th of March, my Mum suffered a heart attack – at the heart specialist.  I still wonder which Angel was looking over her shoulder that day – the staff were wonderful, called my Dad to come in and arranged to get her admitted to hospital.  It took most of Tuesday to stabilize her.  In the following days, tests were conducted which revealed the stent that was in place had kept the arteries opened but her Aortic valve was damaged.  Open heart surgery was scheduled, and conducted, on March 26.

That operation took about 6 hours, and I spent a number of hours in ICU with my Dad as Mum ‘came out’ of the anesthetic.  While there is still a way to go for Mum’s full recovery, she is improving gradually although we’ve experienced some setbacks along the way.  After today, her specialist decided that she will need a pacemaker to keep her heart beating correctly.

For me, that not only means regular visits to the hospital – that to me is a major part of being part of a family, it also means helping out with the Electrical business Stuart and my Dad run.  Things have become a little tighter time wise – but I’m happy to do it.

All that said, I was very dismayed today when I read an email exchange through the one of our enquiry addresses.  Through all of this, an enquiry was received from a customer asking about availability and delivery times.  This email was received with a number of other URGENT service calls, between visits to the hospital for myself, Stuart and my Dad.  Dad replied to the email 5 days later letting the customer advising of the anticipated delivery times.  The response we received was quite pointed about the delay and how this was “already 4 days behind”.  Given this reply, Dad adviced the customer that his wife had had a heart attack, which took priority, and that they would be better finding another supplier.  Here is the response we received, no salutation, no signoff, this is the entire text of the reply:

No worries – I’d rather order from a more reliable source.
Making up stories doesn’t help your diminishing reputation either.

Well, Ms or Mr Crazy K9’s (no, you won’t get the benefit of a link from me) let me correct your misconception.  My mother has indeed suffered attack – my father has no need to “make up stories” – and she has undergone open heart surgery to replace an aortic valve.    Personally, I think you attitude stinks – and I hope that when you are faced with a similar situation, that you receive more compassion and understanding than what you’ve shown today.

In this day and age, what does a little compassion cost anyone?  We understand that people have business to do, that is one reason why we recommended this client find another supplier.  We could have taken the order and then taken our time to deliver it – but we decided not to.  One of our guiding philosophies is “Family comes first, business second” – if we don’t think we can deliver within a customers expectations, we will decline the business.

On a more positive note, I MUST thank my customers and friends and the AES customers and suppliers who have shown such marvelous support over the last few weeks.  I am always so grateful when I receive an email, SMS or phone call checking up to see how things are… it reminds me that this really is a world of people – not a world of business.  So THANK YOU!

The suppliers – we could deal with.  In fact, according to our calculations, if we sold everything, sent back stock etc, we would cover the supplier debts and our business loans.  What really scared us, was the Leases on the shops.  We still had 18 months and 2 1/2 years to go on our leases and the provisions were pretty stringent.

Guarantees

We were required to have a bank guarantee equivalent to 3 months rent… these guarantees were required at the start of the lease, based on our rent in 2003, not the current rent as at 2007.  Regardless, the guarantees were about $24K each… so we had $48K of our money tied up in a guarantee with the bank….

Guarantee to pay…

Under the terms of the leases, we as Directors had given personal guarantees that the rent would be paid.  If the businesses failed to pay the rent, then the Centre’s could chase us personally for the arrears…and for continuing payment until the shop spaces were re-let at a similar price or the leases expired.

At the time of departing the retail scene, we were paying approximately $10K in rent a month, per store.

Sure, the $24K per store in bank guarantees would cover some of that, but not all.

Yes, maybe we wouldn’t be held responsible for anything more than 3 months… but we really didn’t want to take the chance.

My point being, is that even if we closed the stores — we were still faced with a $20K bill each month… worst case… for 18 months or 2 1/2 years… Not an appealing prospect.

So… when I saw Stuart post about this EBay Ad – I understood immediately where the Franchisee was coming from…

Seriously… I feel for this Franchisee.  This is a terrible situation to be in.  This Franchisee has put blood, sweat and tears into their business; the Franchisor has not done the right thing by them and they have received legal recourse for that; and now they are faced with the fact that, according to their EBay Ad, due to poor management by the Franchisor they now can’t get stock.  If they can’t get stock, they don’t make sales — NO INCOME!  However, the Franchisor went into receivership – they are no longer responsible for the ruling made by the court.  The business was bought out by another Company – who is not bound by the same agreement.

So, this Franchisee is now holding a store that can’t get stock, so there is no income. They have a commercial lease, which is $14.5K a month.

Even if they decided to ‘crash’ the store… they are still faced with the prospect of covering that lease until its expiry.

Given the recent closure of the two Canberra EzyDVD stores, one wonders what the new Franchisor (FEG) is actually doing to help these guys who spent a lot of time and energy making the EzyDVD brand what it is today.

To whoever the Franchisee is… You have my thoughts and my energy for a successful outcome for you.  I am so glad that regardless of our terrible financial situation today, we got out when we did – it could be a whole lot worse.

EzyDVD Retail Franchise Business For Sale

Well, Stuart and I have and we are enthralled.

We heard about Twilight, the first book in the series, from Morgan – who had been trying (unsuccessfully) for months to borrow the book from our local public library.

It was only at Dymocks VIP shopping night in December, that I was ‘made aware or’ or ‘alerted to’ just how good this book was.  I had no idea that there were 4 books in the series or what it was about.  Stuart and I ended up buying Morgan a copy of the book for Christmas, on the recommendation of others.

I saw several updates on Facebook, from several people I admired about the book.  On Christmas day, I asked Morgan if I could read his copy of Twilight.

It took me about 6 hours – and I was entranced.  We went to Dymocks on the next trading day and asked them to order the next three books – they had sold out!  It was worth the wait for the remaining books.

The Twilight series is the story of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen… no, I won’t give any spoilers here.  I hate spoilers and the rule in my family is that until everyone has read a book, or seen a movie – no one gives away the plot.

I do provide a review of the Twilight Book on my Squidoo lens though, so feel free to have a read.

I’m not too keen to see the Twilight movie though… I can’t see how a book that has so many facets can be reproduced into a movie and do it justice.

I didn’t even have the same misgivings over Harry Potter – and I really loved that series.  I could see how, with JK Rowlings input, the book could be reproduced into a movie.

Today, I’ll reserve my judgment on the conversion to a movie of Twilight.

All of my family, including my Dad, have read Twilight.  Admittedly, Dad didn’t like it so much – but the rest of us have.  Morgan and I have read all four books, Rhiannon is reading the series and Stuart is waiting for her  to finish so he can catch up.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I really won’t say anything about what you’ll find except to say that the books are appropriate for 14 upwards (for all four books) and Twilight and New Moon would be appropriate for 12 to 14 year olds.

My synopsis on Twilight can be read at:

Everything Twilight

Twilight DVD

Twilight Poster
Buy at AllPosters.com

On February 7th 2009, bushfires raged out of control in Victoria, located in the south east corner of Australia.  Reports so far indicate there have been approximately 200 deaths and over 500 people with fire-related injuries.

Over 1,800 homes have been destroyed and it is thought that many thousands more have been damaged.  Worse, entire townships have been completely ‘wiped out’ — no houses left standing.  These townships include Kinglake, Marysville, Narbethong, Strathewen and Flowerdale.

At the moment, it appears that over 7500 people are left homeless.

I get chills as I write this.  The effects are mindblowing and it is difficult to even start to imagine the level of damage being reported.

What is possibly even more terrifying is that at least some of these fires appear to be deliberately lit!  I just can’t understand the mindset that would do such an awful thing!

However, the effects are more far reaching than even those directly affected by the fires.  Thought must be given to those people and businesses that are still operational.  One of my colleagues, Kathie Thomas writes on her blog VADirectory:

But it wasn’t till today that I’d given thought to those indirectly affected and this is also something that needs to be highlighted.  The businesses and communities that will suffer loss – extreme loss, if nothing is done – due to the drop in tourism because people are either scared or incorrectly assumed other towns have been wiped out.  One of those is Beechworth and because a member of my VA team lives and works there, it is something I want to highlight here.

So, to echo Kathies’ sentiments… please provide support to those areas in Victoria that will suffer from any downturn in tourism etc.

Having experienced the Canberra Bushfires 2003 first hand – thankfully we were a number of suburbs away from the fire front, my heart goes out to those that are affected now – to those that have lost family and loved ones and to those who are affected.  The experience, for me, was lifechanging – I certainly decided to enjoy life and my loved ones more as a result.

I’ve shared Stuarts and my experience of the Canberra Bushfires 2003 and will donate 100% of earnings from that page to the Victorian Redcross appeal.

I really don’t get it!  Tonight, we received the 2nd phone call in as many nights offering us a ‘FREE’ nokia mobile phone.

My hubbie, who is far more tolerant than me, took the first call and just hung up them. You would think they got the message!  Alas, no…. tonight at 8.45pm… just in time for the household to be winding down, children to be heading to bed and hubbies and wives trying to steal some valuable alone time… the phone rings!!!! and they’re trying to ’sell’ me something.

My approach is possibly a little more direct.  This time, I asked which number they rang (I have two phone numbers on the one line), what company they were from, their name and a contact number.  I really laughed when they said “You want our number?”.  Well… doesn’t it make sense?  They rang me, shouldn’t I be able to call them?

The number provided was a 10 digit number, perfect for Australia, and started with 60.  Not being familiar with a 60 area code, I asked what state they were calling from.  I was told I could “work it out” — I was a little insistent about the state….

Kudos to the operator – they lasted this long.  My next question “How do you spell your company name” elicited the required response… “I have to go now”.  My response of, “Do you have to? You’ve interrupted my evening already and I want to talk” was not taken well, I think.

The Australian “Do Not Call Register” is somewhat of a joke in the face of these calls.  Under the Australian legislation, we need to get a name, Company Name and phone number.

In fact, the legislation states that soliciting companies MUST display their number to their targets.  Given that, when I receive a call that has a ‘number available’ or ‘private number’ I am immediately suspicious…..

So, I endeavour to collect as much information as I can, so that I can report these companies through.  Do I believe the information they provide me is legit?  Nope…

In October 2008, Dodo copped a record fine for ‘flaunting’ the Do Not Call legislation. What did they do?  They thought that because their call centre was located ‘off shore’ the laws didn’t apply to them.  Think again…. Dodo copped a $147,000 fine.

An admirable start, but as any Australian homeowner will tell you – we receive at least one call a week from some other mobile phone network offering great deals to upgrade.  That we are on the Do Not Call register does not seem to register with these people.

Yes, I will continue to report these people.  Yes, I will continue to be so hard to deal with that we get a black mark against our name and they don’t call back (it’s worked so far), but will the Australian Government realize that the legislation is somewhat of a toothless tiger and provide us, their tax payers, with better recourse?

What say you?

Hot off the Internet Presses is the announcement that EzyDVD has been purchased by the Franchise Entertainment Group.

From ABC News – EzyDVD Jobs To Go

Receivers say 30 South Australian jobs will be lost through the sale of Australia’s largest online DVD and entertainment retailer, EzyDVD.

The company went into recievership last month with debts of more than $3 million.

Receivers Ferrier Hodgson say the company has been sold to the Franchise Entertainment Group.

The jobs will go with the closure of the head office and warehouse of EzyDVD at Torrensville in Adelaide’s west within the next three months.

The Franchise Entertainment Group (FEG) operates both the BLOCKBUSTER® and Video Ezy brands in Australia and New Zealand.  The group operates approximately 1,000 stores, most of which are franchised, and have gross revenues exceeding $700 Million per annum.

With multiple Video Ezy, Blockbuster and EzyDVD in close proximity within shopping districts, I can only predict that this move will put more pressure on, what must be, the already beleagured EzyDVD Franchisees.

It’s a shame  really.  Franchisors are not required under Australian Franchise laws to divulge their financial standing or performance. The only time a Franchisor is required to provide financial statements is if they are a Publically Listed company.

It is exactly this issue that has led many, unsuspecting, franchisees to invest their money into a system – as they are ’sold the dream’ with little evidence to support the claims.

I feel for the existing EzyDVD franchisees and wait in quiet anticipation as the full repercussions of the EzyDVD sale to the Franchise Entertainment Group become clear.