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So, I am in Kunnanara. I have finished at my last employment. I enjoyed it. It was easy work.

However, I would like to say a couple of things about my travel around Northen Territory and top end Western Australia.

If you decide to go up this way with dreams in your mind about working over the dry season and earning easy cash I would have to say do not waste your time and energy. It is indeed an undeveloped culture with very poor work standards and even poorer pay rates.

Save your money, come up here with several thousand dollars in your bank account and be done with it. And by god's means do not expect good customer service. It is nigh but existing. I have seen a person tell an asian tourist to "Fuck Off!" then get a big burly man to escort them from the premises because they asked for a tax receipt.

I have enjoyed my trip but the massive fly in the ointment has indeed been dealing with the crap in the workplace, the absolutely shitty hours and even poorer pay rates and the idealism that it is ok to do as little work as you possibly can whilst still getting paid. Which really does not seem to be that hard around these parts.

On a parting note I have decided that it may be time to put a few rulings into place when it comes to my working standards on a personal as well as a professional level seeing that it is getting so easilly misinterpreted.

Background:

I come from a background of a hard working Australian family who worked from nothing to owning several of their own businesses. My father was a boss and an exceptionally hard worker and well respected part of the business team. Everyone had their own place and knew it but everyone also worked on equal term and grounding. There was no bullshit and anyone that did not pull their weight was fired because it was well known that a good business could not succeed without good workers backing it. It was like a well oiled machine. Any loose cogs and the thing would go bust and fall apart.

I have known that since I was three and carried it with me into all forms of work.

I am a very hard work and exceptionally proud of that. I know that working from nothing will gain your the revenue and means to achieve what you truly want and have taken some seriously awful jobs as means of employment and income so that I can build myself up to do what I really want to do. Money is the root of all things unfortunately, as much as we all wish to deny it. Without it you can not really achieve what you want out of life.

So I have always had the standard of: My career is a photographer. My job can range from anything. I really am a jill of all trades.

I really do get quite peeved when I see people in my work that feel it necessary to not do their job or do it as little as they possibly can whilst still flying under the radar and getting paid for their services. It annoys me no end. If you were in my business I would have fired you on the spot. It also irks me when these people tend to have positions of perceivable power and decide to tell me that I am not good at my job; all the while whilst I am holding up their positioning and doing their work as well as the work of many others. It does not always happen and of which I am very glad of because it would really tend to make me into quite a narcassistic satirical and cynical person that would be simply unreachable and unpleasant to all that come near. It can get quite close at times but so far I have not stepped over that border.

I striked out on my own when I was 24 in my own freelance photographic business and have not really looked back even when it seemed that I would never make it and all that anyone seemed to want was a piece of my arse and a free ride.

I have a few very simple rulings when it comes to my life, how I deal with other and relate to them and my own business.

1) Do not bullshit me. I do not like it and I do not respect it. You bullshit. You walk. Easy as that.

2) No primadonnas. You are not better or no lower than I am. Remember your standards and where you come from. If not, then I will remind you in quite a harsh way.

3) Respect is the key to all things. It is a give and return thing and has always served me well in life. I have achieved the things that I have achieved and received the knowledge that I have through the respect of others and their respect back of me.

4) I have a blacklist. If you are on it consider yourself on it for the rest of your life. I may not remember you but your business, your profession and any personal links to myself will be wiped out and marked by a big red "X" to any person that enquires. Refer to rule number one.

5) I am good at my job. That is not a bignote of myself but something that I have worked exceptionally hard at for a very long time. You jeapordise that and you are in for one hell of a ride. I value my photography above anything else and I know how much I am worth so if you feel it necessary to state that I am not worth what I consider for myself then I will tell you to walk. In my professional working life I also have to say that I am good at my job because I work hard at it. I may not be the "best" at the job but I will give you the very best that I am possible of. If that is not good enough then take a hike. If it is indeed a case of my own mistakes then I will eat humble pie and get over it and not do it again.

That it is really.

I feel a little sad really that I have to actually put this in writing but sometimes a big sign is what is necessary because you can not really take it for granted that people know common sense.