So You Think I’m A Barstard

Barstards abound! as a matter of fact, I worked for one of them and didn’t even know it.
Most of 2008 was a good year, I was gainfully employed, money was able to be saved and some of my niggly medical problems had been pushed into the background. November 2008 saw me wing my way across Australia and finally see one of my all time favourite sports in the flesh Red Bull Air Racing was the event that drove me this year, I had to save so I could afford to fly my wife and son over to Perth for the annual Red Bull Air Race, Hotels and flights were booked and paid for, and to top it off, this would be the first real paid holiday I had taken, with my family no less, in nearly 8 years, you see, prior to this I had been working for myself part time as well as driving trucks part time.
Perth was a blast, and to top the trip home off, as our air craft was taxing for take off, the news came over the on-board satellite TV’s in the back of the seat in front that McCain had conceded defeat in the US Presidential election, could this year get any better, Sadly not!!

Come the first day or December this year, my world was thrust headfirst into the world of utter utter barstardry. It seems that the owner of the business that I work for had decided that he didn’t need to pay rent to the owner of the building and after quite a few months of this, the owner of the building decided that maybe he should do something about it, so he sent in his crack storm troopers and seized the premises and locked us out of our work place. Like a mushroom at the bottom of a very long and very dark cave we were all told nothing and fed on a diet exclusively made up of the finest bullshit, and regardless of its pedigree, bullshit still tastes like………….well bullshit!

As barstardry goes this was small potatoes, after all they were only trying to recover, what we later learned, was a substantial 6 figure sum. one of the things we were told was that the matter was scheduled to go before the NSW Supreme court on Thursday, with the intention being that the business would be liquidated and then ran by the liquidators until the debts could be made good. Now this is where the true essence of Barstard starts to waft across the landscape, polluting the senses of all those unfortunate enough to have to endeavour into the putrid mist. The owner of the business decided that it was time to throw a spanner into the works and put the assets of the business into the hands of a receiver on the Wednesday, thus spoiling everyone’s party, mine included. You see, on Friday the liquidators went through the bank records, bills and creditors statements with the intention of re-opening the business on the Monday and trading as normal, now with the bank accounts frozen by a receiver there were no funds to run the business with, so no money to pay staff or essential bills like power and phone etc.

So this utter barstard had frozen the cash assets of the business, and as he had told the business manager, it was to protect “our” entitlements, things like out pay and holidays but what it in fact did was freeze those monies so no one could get to them and as a consequence, not one of the 35 staff have received a cent since November 28th. This small, man had then been spinning the line that he would release the funds so we could all be paid, but that was another lie as I rang the liquidators on the Monday before Christmas to find out what was happening with out pays as most of us were now living on air and love, only to be informed that the monies were NOT released but still in the hands of the receiver!!
I rang the Manager to inform him of this (as he was the one being spun tall tales by the (former) business owner) and by the time I finished talking to him, he was shaking with anger. I haven’t had time to talk to him since then to find out what he may have found out (he sent, from all accounts a very angry and strongly worded email to out former employer) but tomorrow I will be ringing the receiver to demand my pay and holiday entitlements, and I will also ring the owners of the building to see what plans they have for the building as it is purpose built.
So this may explain why the blog has been left to simmer for a while as to tell you the truth, I haave been too depressed to care about it for the past month.

I will however keep everyone posted about any outcomes while I try and feed my family on noodles and love

Garry