Gossip from the Green goblin
03/04/2003 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaThe Gringotts goblins are getting ever more demanding. Really should not be here but back at the nest and slaving over a hot abacus or downloading and reading Anaconda Ltd annual reports for one of those dreaded group projects. Did take a peek but Anaconda.com was not quite the site that I expected...no nickel or cobalt but lots and lots of er... how to put it politely... trouser snakes.
Anaconda Nickel is such a basket case of a company that it is ever so useful for accounting projects. And then there was the amazing rumours years ago about the maggots in the miners lunch boxes. The ensuing strikes cost the company squillions and is just one more episode in a sad saga of incompetence.... strange how the serpent force led me last year to this absolute gem of a company....and it was a perfect excuse for a tutorial presentation to dress up in Slytherin style and encourage audience participation with free bags of glow worms and snakes for interesting contributions.
Then there was the 'Auntie $crooge Quick Ca$h Unlimited' staff training seminar in my contract law tutorial. Everyone else did boring overheads about countless cases...half of which were in font size 10 or lower... Blind as a bat Izzie was not amused at all.
Why regale the audience with boring stories about dodgy vacuum cleaner sales men when you can have your own company, inform the staff of the outrageous allegations made by the ministry of fair trade or whatever and insidiously imply that the only unconscionable behaviour your staff were guilty of was being dumb enough to get caught?
Needless to say the details of some of this behaviour bore a remarkable resemblence to the facts of the relevant cases..but it was so much more fun.
But apart from a quick squiggle to say that Iz will not be lurking so much in Secret Diary Land as she would like to ... today just happens to five years to the day that Iz became the proud owner of her own little lair. But what was so strange.. it was all so sudden and unexpected but a case of preparation meeting opportunity and making the most of it. Iz was for so long such a fuddy duddy wishy washy undecided creature and a perfectionist in the noble art of procrastination.
But a friend once said... if you need to make a decision.. think to yourself "How will I feel about this 10 years from now" And Izzie knew instantly that if she says no to such a nice nest there will be a lot of 'if only's in the foreseeable future. Especially as on the shopping list of 10 desirable traits to have in a house, which I had written 2 years previously... this one scored an amazing 9. (No west facing windows was the one box that got left unticked)
What was really interesting is the wierd way the mind works once you give it a goal to go for. Back in May 1996 Izzie figures that her job was reliable enough in both hours and income to consider buying a house and says within 5 years I will have one.
Previous to that decision, since expenditure rises to match income, Izzie had developed a rather decadent addiction to real mohair teddy bears... Unbelievable but true... but once she decided to buy them their very own bedroom, that was the end of unbearable temptations. From having too much month at the end of her money, Iz managed to save 4,000 silver sickles in her first year of the grand plan and a whopping 12,000 in the next! Not bad for a house elf job with a take home pay of about 450 per week.
Iz started to look for ways to do wonders with the nest egg and came across all sorts of interesting books and stuff. From being allergic to the stuff, Iz soon became rather fond of collecting lots of filthy lucre and watching the bank balance grow. My God... I had become just like Vernon and Petunia! But there is a difference in being a miser and a scrooge. Izzie especially loved the stories about an American couple who raised 7 children on one income and produced a wonderful newsletter called 'The Tightwad Gazette'
Pity that the name slips me.. sort of Ukrainian I think. They did all this and had lots of fun at the same time.. probably more than the neighbours all maxed out on their credit cards and spending all their time working to buy time saving gadgets to do the things they haven't got time for because most of their time is spent working to buy....
So when the perfect nest turned up sooner than expected, Iz was in a position to get her paws on it. She also discovered that counting beans was not any where near as boring as she had been led to believe. So that is when she decided that life is too short to spend slaving as a house elf... time to get educated and graduate to being a green goblin. I don't want to make lots of money and have a big car and grand presidential palace... what I really want to buy is lots of time... and have fun.
It is amazing how much money you can save by not having the need to impress the neighbours. Just trying to look rich keeps some people poor.
Izzie's most valuable material possessions are all bits and pieces of paper.... Books, books and more books. This weekend, the local Baptist College have a book sale. Iz may just innocently ask if they have any Harry Potters ;)
Well... it's time to slink off to the lair and have a little champagne party with the faithful friends.... and to hear the latest gossip from Robert Fisk who is on the radio this evening.
Anaconda Nickel is such a basket case of a company that it is ever so useful for accounting projects. And then there was the amazing rumours years ago about the maggots in the miners lunch boxes. The ensuing strikes cost the company squillions and is just one more episode in a sad saga of incompetence.... strange how the serpent force led me last year to this absolute gem of a company....and it was a perfect excuse for a tutorial presentation to dress up in Slytherin style and encourage audience participation with free bags of glow worms and snakes for interesting contributions.
Then there was the 'Auntie $crooge Quick Ca$h Unlimited' staff training seminar in my contract law tutorial. Everyone else did boring overheads about countless cases...half of which were in font size 10 or lower... Blind as a bat Izzie was not amused at all.
Why regale the audience with boring stories about dodgy vacuum cleaner sales men when you can have your own company, inform the staff of the outrageous allegations made by the ministry of fair trade or whatever and insidiously imply that the only unconscionable behaviour your staff were guilty of was being dumb enough to get caught?
Needless to say the details of some of this behaviour bore a remarkable resemblence to the facts of the relevant cases..but it was so much more fun.
But apart from a quick squiggle to say that Iz will not be lurking so much in Secret Diary Land as she would like to ... today just happens to five years to the day that Iz became the proud owner of her own little lair. But what was so strange.. it was all so sudden and unexpected but a case of preparation meeting opportunity and making the most of it. Iz was for so long such a fuddy duddy wishy washy undecided creature and a perfectionist in the noble art of procrastination.
But a friend once said... if you need to make a decision.. think to yourself "How will I feel about this 10 years from now" And Izzie knew instantly that if she says no to such a nice nest there will be a lot of 'if only's in the foreseeable future. Especially as on the shopping list of 10 desirable traits to have in a house, which I had written 2 years previously... this one scored an amazing 9. (No west facing windows was the one box that got left unticked)
What was really interesting is the wierd way the mind works once you give it a goal to go for. Back in May 1996 Izzie figures that her job was reliable enough in both hours and income to consider buying a house and says within 5 years I will have one.
Previous to that decision, since expenditure rises to match income, Izzie had developed a rather decadent addiction to real mohair teddy bears... Unbelievable but true... but once she decided to buy them their very own bedroom, that was the end of unbearable temptations. From having too much month at the end of her money, Iz managed to save 4,000 silver sickles in her first year of the grand plan and a whopping 12,000 in the next! Not bad for a house elf job with a take home pay of about 450 per week.
Iz started to look for ways to do wonders with the nest egg and came across all sorts of interesting books and stuff. From being allergic to the stuff, Iz soon became rather fond of collecting lots of filthy lucre and watching the bank balance grow. My God... I had become just like Vernon and Petunia! But there is a difference in being a miser and a scrooge. Izzie especially loved the stories about an American couple who raised 7 children on one income and produced a wonderful newsletter called 'The Tightwad Gazette'
Pity that the name slips me.. sort of Ukrainian I think. They did all this and had lots of fun at the same time.. probably more than the neighbours all maxed out on their credit cards and spending all their time working to buy time saving gadgets to do the things they haven't got time for because most of their time is spent working to buy....
So when the perfect nest turned up sooner than expected, Iz was in a position to get her paws on it. She also discovered that counting beans was not any where near as boring as she had been led to believe. So that is when she decided that life is too short to spend slaving as a house elf... time to get educated and graduate to being a green goblin. I don't want to make lots of money and have a big car and grand presidential palace... what I really want to buy is lots of time... and have fun.
It is amazing how much money you can save by not having the need to impress the neighbours. Just trying to look rich keeps some people poor.
Izzie's most valuable material possessions are all bits and pieces of paper.... Books, books and more books. This weekend, the local Baptist College have a book sale. Iz may just innocently ask if they have any Harry Potters ;)
Well... it's time to slink off to the lair and have a little champagne party with the faithful friends.... and to hear the latest gossip from Robert Fisk who is on the radio this evening.
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Congrats with the snakepit anniversary !
Date: 2003-04-03 01:12 pm (UTC)Cats could never figure out the art of managing the resources... they just spend it all on tasty mice and bright jumping balls (not to mention letting the dogs and kittens to eat from their plate ...)