Contador Harrison

A Danish friend is no longer good friends with her neighbours. Gone are the  days when everyone used to know their neighbours.As my mom told me as a tween, anyone can hand pick friends or family and be frank with them but it’s not always so easy with a problematic neighbour as my Danish friend  found out.But it’s not all bad. With a little bit of communication and healthy dose of understanding, the neighbour of her nightmares has become a pleasant acquaintance.It all stemmed from a 3am chainsaw work, the bloke was working on.In simple terms, close proximity living brings people closer but not the case with the two.We all know that noise has a knack for travelling through walls, around fences and often directly into the bedroom  but the Danish female friend whom I consider a restless sleeper was left wondering how her son is possibly going to get through work tomorrow in his sleep deprived state.The first option that came to her mind was to  communicate open and ...

Today marks the 40th wedding anniversary of a couple in Shepparton, floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Melbourne. The two have defied the odds of modern society to successfully and faithfully stuck  together through thick and thin. Husband was my high school teacher and wife my elementary teacher, thats how I’m closely connected to them as a person in addition for them being family friends. So when they dropped me an email a fortnight ago inviting me for the occasion, I was gutted as I knew it wasn’t possible to attend but took time since then to engage them and finding out how they’ve survived all these years. While they know that not everyone who has tied the knot is successful, the wife acknowledged marriage is like a rocky road at times so a married man or woman need the appropriate mental, physical skills to be tolerance, empathy, similar moral  and ethical values and filled with lashings of kindness.They have got a lovely marriage and it is not easy at times, p...

Eclipse’s song  Makes Me Love You released twenty years ago in 1998 was playing on my stream device when a filly in the neck of the woods stopped me to check on how the nabe’s most sibylline bachelor is faring on.That  opened an opportunity to share her tribulations after being dumped by her boyfriend.Apparently its been six months since they broke up and oh boy, the filly is in miserable state. Although I have never experienced break ups of relationships in my life, I do understand that breakups are supposed to be  difficult and painful. As she narrated her ordeals, heartbreak of the break is a feeling she truly didn’t know until it happened to her. In her view, the love hurts, a well known romantic abstraction, is reality that has dawned on her after spending weeks in her crib crying.Initially, she thought that the worst days will be the immediate aftermath days, that she will feel progressively  better with time.Sadly as she has learnt thats not the case.Seeing yo...

My mom told me as a tween that life is promenade of broken dreams but she said the most important thing is to remember that failing doesn’t make someone a failure. Failing in life can put a pretty big dent in self-confidence and even though it’s a huge disappointment, it’s worth keeping it all in perspective. Recognizing that failing in relationships, marriages, education, friendships or even business has little to do with talents and abilities as an individual, is the first step in rebuilding personal confidence. She inculcated in me the culture of self-acceptance, the ability to acknowledge my flaws while appreciating my strengths. Those words accompany me day and night as I face internal and external threats to my very targets in life. To be successful in relationships whether business or personal, it’s a matter of working out how to balance it all. The key is to decide what priorities are, to manage time, and to know when to step back and say no. Recently, an organization with glob...

Crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as ice is ripping apart the life of an adulthood friend.Described as highly addictive, she has been consuming the drug that can be turned out in makeshift laboratories and which has been having a devastating effects on her.If it wasn't for her mother’s love, she would possibly still be in the grips of an ice addiction.The drug gained her a criminal record and cost her relationships and more than $500,000 worth of contract and it wasn't until her mother made the heart-breaking decision to remove her daughter from her care that she hit dead end."I was less than a daughter at the time, I was off my life,” the Brisbane naive told me.She said she felt gutted and ashamed, like a low-life, like the worst kind of daughter that could exist in this planet and was really at a  cross-roads in her life, where she could either continue to use or accept that the problem she had was bigger than herself and seek professional help.She said spending ti...

Trying  to escape the drudgeries of life in the city isn’t a cakewalk, doesn’t matter who you are, rich or poor, living in cities is cold-hearted.At times it feels unbelievably fast, at other times it is painfully slow. My time in cities around the world have been thrilling, emotional, difficult and amazing, pretty much take any emotion and chances are, I’ve experienced it.As a tween, my mom told me that cities have their own definition of poverty describing it as a clean measure of income and ability to participate in life and make choices, she insisted that my future was dependent on choices I’ll make.I shared those words with a friend when he first proposed the idea of moving to Melbourne from Pilbara.I can’t say he was thrilled about the  prospect of living in Melbourne as there are so many cities around Australia that he would have wanted to live in and Melbourne just wasn’t at the top of the list.But living in another state has been a longtime dream of his, and eventuall...

When Australian Border Police investigators noticed his crime syndicates was adopting new ways to import drugs rather than just concealing substances in shipping containers, he knew his luxurious lifestyle was coming to a juddering halt.  Born 31 years ago in Newcastle, a harbour city in the Australian state of New South Wales, his rise and fall is one hell of a story.When he was just 13, he joined a gang in Stockton and began using and dealing on the streets and he was earning around $7,000 a week before he  landed in jail at the age of 18. When he was released, he told me how meeting one of his former fellow gang member led him to slip back into the life he was in before arrest. “I was a drug dealer for five years. My best friend died when he was 15 years old. At 18, I was almost gunned down. "Things just went from bad to worse, and, by the age of 23, I had eight elementary school friends dead." His arrest case as there was a new breed of  drugs on the streets of N...

They are two gates away from my place, but a couple in the neck of the woods have got one hell of a fight on their hands. Rammy is a part of  relationships whether married or temporary. My mom told me as a teenager that when two individuals merge their lives, clashes are bound to happen. She was explaining why a female professor friend of hers was always having  a shiner every now and then. The husband was a typical 19th century male chauvinist, if he were alive today, he’d end up in jail. As neighboring couples need to learn, the key is how their existing conflicts is handled going forward. Last year, they went for a vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico and all looked rosy. Grapevine in the hood has it that the female partner does not want to have children for various reasons which according to those  close to her say is career-motivated. Others claim she lacks maternal feelings and has a concern for population growth's impact on the environment which she has carefully co...

After being divorced last summer, a wifie has seen her self-discovery and happiness reach an all time high. She is a fellow millennial whom we went to same elementary school, plenty of childhood memories ended up with  her tumultuous life of marriage that spanned four years. What struck me was how contemplating leaving her marriage was based on evidence that justified absolutely it was the right decision for her. The list of stressful life events that took place were devastating in same length an breadth death of  a loved one, jailing or illness can be. Gorgeous as ever, the single mother of a two year old song witnessed an alarming decrease in mental and physical health, financial problems and emotional torment all put together while she was ending the marriage.Little did she know that her divorce would end empowering and liberating her. Being a single mom, I can tell you Contador  Harrison I have even been abused and had stories made about me for being a single mother a...

A neck of the woods paisan disclosed his philandering versatility which left me astounded. In his own words, there is an acceptable minimum number of average sex partners a male species should have at any given time and  same applies to female species.To him, dating multiple women is the greatest option he’s had in this world as he seem to have feelings for more than one woman, his wife. While having a chinwag on his carpet knight life,  shared some important thoughts he should consider including brushing up on what’s important in a relationship and how to deal with the green-eyed monster called jealousy when his wife comes to learn of his behavior. His  response that its been primary objective whenever he hooks up with a girl to be open and honest with her on his marriage but doesn’t discuss about his other girlfriends involved. In your life Contador Harrison, hasn’t anyone ever asked you what your figure is? It’s something that happens to all men whether married or sing...

In April, 1995, exactly today, my mom told me to forget outdated enrichment classes like learning how to play the piano, playing squash, swimming and encouraged me as a tween to get focused on programming. She told me that in decades to come, computer programmers will become a  hot commodity in the work force and that the kids who will learn to code are poised to have a great future.Back then, I was among the few children who  were being sent for computational thinking and coding lessons as my mom increasingly saw the value in starting me early in a manpower-hungry industry. On the other hand, my father, keen reader and buyer of newspapers and magazines, supported the idea that technological skills will  be highly sought after. In a nutshell, I was lucky to have parents who understood the importance of programming and they wanted me to be prepared for the future.My parents recognized that coding was useful and  important, as the world and future will be driven by mor...

Contador Harrison is a proud millennial but that doesn’t seem to be the case with a geezer who resides in the neck of the wood.His paroxysm on my generation left me gobsmacked, he claimed that millennials are notorious for expressing very little loyalty to their employers and that we are all about personal fulfillment, joy and quest for purpose. The convulsion continued claiming us millennials money is important and we enjoy making it but majority of us long to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Before he proceeded, I sought to know his source of vexation, plainly it was clear some millennial who were working for him have call it quits and didn’t like it and now his company is on the lookout for IT engineers, computer science engineers, and artificial intelligence engineers, but has found the breeding  grounds for tech talent well and truly tapped, he can’t even have me work for him. Explained to geezer that my generation know our work matters and need to see how our effor...

I was sitting in a neck of the wood coffee shop when a familiar face came to  say  hello wearing a grey top and dark leggings and white Nike sneakers. She had no make-up on her baby face and her hair was drawn back in a ponytail. It was almost four years since we last met with her and hubby and she appeared to be very calm and confident. However her sign of emotion as she  sat across were clearly opposite of the person i knew back then. Of cause just like all female friends do, her first question was whether I’ve gotten someone to keep me warm or I’m in the process of processing a damsel for eternal companionship. Well, I reminded her that I’m a million times more  controvert about relationships and marriages than ever before. That made her ask what are the secrets of maintaining such life and what she could do to live like me….couldn’t help but laugh. Politely, i asked why would a  married woman seek such path and visibly, her beautifully manicured hands trembl...

Lovebirds in our nabe have taken love to another level, in nowadays largely  superficial dating scene, the thought of romance has become uncool. That’s not the case with whippersnappers in the hood who occasionally have shown all they want to be swept off their feet.To them, the fear of wearing their hearts on their sleeves which in turn prohibits dating from turning up the romance, doesn’t exist. One of them told me dating is easy but finding the one is hard.As the hood’s most widely know casanova, he says that  finding or maintaining a successful relationship comes down to trust, communication, and compromise. According to him, some of the biggest  mistakes that youngsters dating make on first dates happen during the getting to know you conversation. Most of his fellow casanovas are too  eager to talk about their past, break-ups, work in detail and then want to probe potential partners deeply on their past relationships and finances. All this during a would-be...

Grossly fat women and men will have to live with fat shaming, a term used to describe how obese people are often ridiculed and humiliated for being overweight, and just like we identify ourselves with different races, our weight levels are determining how we are viewed and treated.In my entire  life, I’ve never had a problem with weight but some close friends especially females have for years had to put up with body shaming. There is no doubt all of us want to appear good, live long lives, feel great and look fit.Those of us that manage our weight with healthy eating and regular exercise recognize that the responsibility for our own personal health and the way we look to others rests on our own shoulders. On the other hand, poor nutrition and growing levels of obesity are taking a toll on the health of most people as an increasing number consume fast food and lead sedentary lifestyles.Almost all of them end up being obese and are usually ashamed of their how they look, leading into...

Subscription video on-demand (SVOD) services are on cause to overtake pay television in the next three years with the likes of Amazon and Netflix leading the charge globally as well as geo-location based growing niche players whose primary focus is domestic and regional markets .As an industry insider in terms of streaming technology, compared to five years ago, online video streaming platforms have been expanding into emerging markets with localized content and user-friendly subscription methods offering many consumers entertainment alternatives including subscribing to streaming media and video on-demand services.I also think the appetite for paid content is increasing across the population and a confluence of forces is driving that .Dropping smartphone prices and improved 4G coverage have also contributed to heighten smartphone penetration and to a growth in Subscription Video on Demand services in different parts of the world.In a confidential research conducted by a major European...

When a childhood friend told me in Aussie summer of 2017 that he will be leaving his banking career in Sydney to take up an upscale adult entertainment business job , I was stupefied. He shared a vision where both male and female patrons will enjoy the venue and its style of entertainment like no other place. I’m not a saint and have no reason to be judgmental of his decision to quit banking for strip club but there’s a certain anxiety that comes with being associated with a strip club. As a nephalist who likes to be away from social places I’m not exactly the target market for my friend’s business. Well, at least that’s what I thought until few days ago when we had a chinwag.He laboriously tried to explain how modern strip clubs have dropped their public image as seedy establishments on the fringes of mainstream life and according to his narrative they are places that people are joyfully entering and hardly anyone gets ashamed to admit they go to. His view is that best way to do that ...

Appetite for cocaine has seen dramatic labefaction of a bint that I have known for decades. We were at the same elementary school and afterwards she joined a Catholic school education while she lived in Adelaide with her uncle.It is a place where her cocaine use started and with time regularized it. With some income and pocket money from uncle she found the drug cocaine more accessible and affordable than in Melbourne . Sadly for her, journey of life ruination began and picked up pace. “A day consumption could cost me $100 to $140," she said. Recollecting on her introduction to the drug, she revealed at the time smoking cocaine seemed socially acceptable, but it led to a life-changing journey of intravenous cocaine use and jail.Cocaine she said can be taken in several ways including smoking, snorting and injecting but her preference was smoking. The use of cocaine stripped the dignity in her, confidence, self-esteem and it tore away her family, friends and destroyed her person...

Excessive booze is having a devastating impact on a filly’s life and her struggles are gut wrenching, she has a story of love, hate, co-dependency and entrapment. The pain in her life is palpable.If only she would acknowledge that she can do something about the problem by tackling the availability of alcohol. Recently, filly narrated how she was verbally abused by a bloke they were drinking together and just two months ago was physically hurt after being exposed to violence as a result of her abusing alcohol.The incidents include her being severely injured as a consequence of violence against her by particular drinkers in the friends she hangs out with and despite being in a well paying job, she is likely to suffer long-term problems including a lack of success at her career and social problems.Whether it’s an indifferent attitude to the excess consumption of alcohol, or her ignorance when it comes to the effect it has on her body, filly’s socially accepted drug is indeed destroying h...