We all have our little pet peeves. Things that annoy us just that little bit more than they should. Sometimes that irritation can get to the point where, occasionally, we’re forced to stop and wonder where the problem really lies. Is the person the problem, or are we?

In this case I’m almost one hundred percent confident that I am not the problem, because my pet peeve is that I cannot freaking stand it when some asks for my advice and then blatantly ignores it. For the last six months now, my elderly mother has been constantly asking for advice over what to do about her plumber. George, a friend of my younger brother’s from high school who always seems to be on hard times, is great. He’s a really nice bloke – no really, he is. It’s just that he is also terrible at his job.

Now the problem is that I happen to know some truly excellent plumbers. Melbourne has an abundance of qualified, friendly, capable ones, and in my industry, you end up keeping touch with the good ones. So every time that she complains to me about George, or the fact that the leak in the second bedroom ensuite has sprung again, I just about bust a vein. We’ve had the ‘George-needs-to-go’ conversation a million times, but she just can’t bring herself to get rid of him. To be honest, that is one-hundred percent fine by me … but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t complain, and even get to the point where you need to call a 24 hour plumber in Melbourne because the house flooded in the middle of the night, and not do anything about the problem. That’s just not how life works. It’s rude and selfish and you can’t have it both ways. Fix it or deal with it.