Mate, are you serious!?

According to recent news, health workers in northern New South Wales have recently been slapped with a ban on referring to patients as 'mate', along with other terms of endearment such as 'honey', 'sweetheart' and 'darling'.

Apparently, this was a response to complaints from a few patients which prompted a request from staff to maintain a more 'professional' relationship with patients.

Ok, I will admit it now, but Big Bad Bernd gets nervous whenever he has to visit a doctor or a hospital, even when he is not a patient. I don't know why - I guess I just have trust issues seeing as how doctors are only human and therefore are capable of making mistakes and let's face it, being told that there is something wrong with you or that you'll need to be knocked out and then sliced and diced so that they can rectify whatever it is that is causing you grief is not exactly fun. Therefore, whenever I go to the doctor it would make me feel more at ease if they called me 'mate' or 'buddy' just to show that they mean well and that everything will be ok. It's a lot more comfortable than being given an ice-cold stare and a monotonous voice outlining what is wrong with you and what they are going to do to you to correct the problem. You might as well be sitting in a courtroom before a judge and told that you will be locked up for a long time or worse.

Ok, I understand that there are some people who don't take too kindly to such terms. They may find them immature or downright condescending. Therefore, don't use the term on them right away. Get to know the person first and establish some sort of rapport before you try to befriend them. That way, you'll know whether or not they want the 'friendly' doctor or the 'ice-cold' doctor.

So, to those out there who sent that memo, Bernd understands perfectly where you are coming from, but he thinks it is a little too extreme to ban all health workers from trying to be friendlier and approachable towards their patients. I'm sure that not all patients are against it, heck I'm sure that most of them quite like it. So rather than impose a ban why not just encourage them to choose their audience carefully. That seems a lot less tyrannical.

In other words, 'take it easy, mate!'

Quick take:

When Taylor Swift burst into the public eye some three years ago, I had nothing but high praise for her. It would've been an overstatement to call me a fan, but I thought she was cool. I mean, she writes songs that come from the heart, has a decent voice, loves her fans and projected a wholesome, down-to-earth image.

Unfortunately, that was then and this is now.

I don't know about you, but her whole 'I date boys, break up with them and then write songs about them' shtick is not only getting old, but it is getting quite irritating. It has gone to the point that I am starting to wonder if maybe the problem in her relationships is her and not the poor guy who is being shamed in her increasingly-annoying 'he-was-this-and-that-and-so-it-couldn't-last' songs.

Anyway, she was in the news recently over allegations that her relationship with UK boy band One Direction's Harry Styles is tearing him and his bandmates apart.
It all began when Styles ditched his bandmates to fly from New York to London on Swift's private jet. The rest of his band had to fly separately, were then mobbed by fans upon arrival at Heathrow airport (during which one of them was injured as a result of the chaos) while he and Swift arrived unnoticed and got away unharmed.
Since then, a rift has formed between Styles and his bandmates and fans are now branding Swift the new 'Yoko Ono'.

Well, what quite a turnaround for poor Taylor, isn't it? Three years ago she was the darling of the pop music genre (I'm sorry, but she never struck me as a 'country artist', she always seemed more 'pop' to me) and now, she starting to ruffle feathers. Oh boy, could she soon be headed towards the same, dreaded 'everyone's darling today, everyone's figure of hate' place in which Delta Goodrem now unhappily resides?

I guess we'll find out soon enough. Taylor, you have been warned.