Fringe benefits and fog
Mar. 29th, 2006 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyThere is nothing - nothing - in the world that is simultaneously sadder and funnier than a group of accountants talking about tax. I was at a Fringe Benefits Tax* update in Melbourne today, and when the topic at hand was novated leases** one of the other participants said his company bought its cars through a new reverse novated lease, and the accountant taking the workshop said, "Ooh". So many emotions invested in that one little word: interest, excitement, wonderment, curiosity, envy. He followed it up with a sincere and gossipy, "Do tell."
As I was going to work the other day, the sea turned on one of its creeping morning mists and blanketed the city, so that driving by St Joseph's Church all I could see was the spire rising out of the drifts. I thought at the time it would have made a lovely photo, but I didn't have a camera with me and I take terrible photos anyway, so you'll just have to imagine it instead. I forgot all about that until this morning, when the train to Melbourne travelled in sunshine, then turned a corner to find paddocks covered with low-lying mist with sheep emerging, grey and blinking. Again, no camera, so you'll have to imagine that too. A bit later on we passed a farmhouse that had three cars lined up out the back, which couldn't be seen from anywhere but the train; they were all the same make, small cars of the kind that people had when I was little, one lemon yellow, one lime with an orange door and one blue, all in row like a work of art. And I thought, I really should buy a digital camera and keep it with me.
After the FBT (as those in the know call it) workshop, I had time to kill before my flight home, so I filled in a good five minutes trying to get out of the building, having forgotten where the lifts were. I filled in the next fifty minutes walking from the venue near Albert Park to the city centre, including a five-minute picnic to eat lunch near the Shrine of Remembrance, and then successfully remembered how to get to Lincraft to buy some silver sadi thread***. The woman in front of me was buying three-metre-long white metal pipes - at Lincraft! What sort of craft involves long metal pipes? - and wanted them all taped together because she was going to take them home by tram. She accidentally poked someone with them on her way out.
On the flight home, Melbourne was covered by light clouds, except for a small golden circle of sunshine just north of the MCG. Richmond: the Chosen Land. An hour later, the sea had turned on one of its creeping evening mists and blanketed the City by the Sea, and driving home all I could see of St Joseph's was the spire rising out of the drifts.
* For anyone wondering what Fringe Benefits Tax is: it's the work of Satan. Beyond that, trust me, you really don't want to know.
** For anyone wondering what novated leases are: I simply cannot tell you. I zoned out at that point because I have neither need nor desire to learn about them.
*** I don't really know what this is either. My mother wanted it. It looks kind of... sproingy.
As I was going to work the other day, the sea turned on one of its creeping morning mists and blanketed the city, so that driving by St Joseph's Church all I could see was the spire rising out of the drifts. I thought at the time it would have made a lovely photo, but I didn't have a camera with me and I take terrible photos anyway, so you'll just have to imagine it instead. I forgot all about that until this morning, when the train to Melbourne travelled in sunshine, then turned a corner to find paddocks covered with low-lying mist with sheep emerging, grey and blinking. Again, no camera, so you'll have to imagine that too. A bit later on we passed a farmhouse that had three cars lined up out the back, which couldn't be seen from anywhere but the train; they were all the same make, small cars of the kind that people had when I was little, one lemon yellow, one lime with an orange door and one blue, all in row like a work of art. And I thought, I really should buy a digital camera and keep it with me.
After the FBT (as those in the know call it) workshop, I had time to kill before my flight home, so I filled in a good five minutes trying to get out of the building, having forgotten where the lifts were. I filled in the next fifty minutes walking from the venue near Albert Park to the city centre, including a five-minute picnic to eat lunch near the Shrine of Remembrance, and then successfully remembered how to get to Lincraft to buy some silver sadi thread***. The woman in front of me was buying three-metre-long white metal pipes - at Lincraft! What sort of craft involves long metal pipes? - and wanted them all taped together because she was going to take them home by tram. She accidentally poked someone with them on her way out.
On the flight home, Melbourne was covered by light clouds, except for a small golden circle of sunshine just north of the MCG. Richmond: the Chosen Land. An hour later, the sea had turned on one of its creeping evening mists and blanketed the City by the Sea, and driving home all I could see of St Joseph's was the spire rising out of the drifts.
* For anyone wondering what Fringe Benefits Tax is: it's the work of Satan. Beyond that, trust me, you really don't want to know.
** For anyone wondering what novated leases are: I simply cannot tell you. I zoned out at that point because I have neither need nor desire to learn about them.
*** I don't really know what this is either. My mother wanted it. It looks kind of... sproingy.
