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My daughter just got her first pay cheque - her new employer pays by the month. To celebrate we're going shopping on this sunny, Sydney Saturday. Not necessarily to buy anything much, but because she now can. And it's going to be her buying me lunch, a significant act of freedom after months in the wilderness. Yeah, okay that's mixing metaphors - but it's a joyous thing.

:-6

Also, we've been told retail therapy protects you against swine flu - but I haven't any learned footnotes to post in support of that...

Hi Pam! Wow, I can remember my first pay day ! I felt so important, independent , excited. A wonderful feeling! Your daughter must be feeling on top off the world!

:yh_clap:yh_dance:guitarist:yh_party:D:-6

Hey Pam!

ahhhhhhhhh yes, that very first pay cheque, it means so much!:guitarist:guitarist

She really sounds excited.:guitarist:guitarist

That sounds great. A paycheck is a welcome liberator. I believe it about protecting against the swine flu. I can ask my daughter, the microbiologist, if you'd like, but she'll probably say 'yes'.

Hi Pam:-6 lovely to see you posting and i hope alls ok in your world:-4

Lovely news, Pammie..wishing you both a beautiful day :-6 :-4

Hello (((((((((((((((((Pam))))))))))))))))))))



Oh, I'm so happy about daughter's great, great news. Glad you had a mum/daughter day together, especially when daughter pays:wah:



Your new apartment is lovely. I must pick up a house warming pressie when I'm out shopping today:p

Kathy Ellen;1217931 wrote: Hello (((((((((((((((((Pam))))))))))))))))))))



Oh, I'm so happy about daughter's great, great news. Glad you had a mum/daughter day together, especially when daughter pays:wah:



Your new apartment is lovely. I must pick up a house warming pressie when I'm out shopping today:p


and some food!:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

Great news Pam. It is indeed a wonderous feeling to get that first pay check.

I think i can vouch for the fact that shopping does indeed prevent swine flu. I have come down with a very nasty cold and was convinced it was going to develop into swine flu. I popped out toay to buy some cute little boxes. Why, i don't know, but the symptoms of swine flu went almost immediately.

I staggered in last night with no feet left, but a big grin on my face!! Hi Gilly, Odie, Zapata, Kaz, Theia, Kathy and Oscar!!

We started early yesterday, catching a ferry called the Scarborough to Darling Harbour where Romy wanted to begin. Of course we had to stop first for coffee... and I never thought any child of mine would betray me in such a terrible way - Theia I blame your evil influence - Romy actually ordered chai latte!!! Can you imagine that.. she could have chosen a decent cup of black nectar.. instead some strange cinnamon laced brew smelling like cupcakes... erk.

Anyway, we detoured to the Maritime Museum, not to see any jolly sailors (although..... :sneaky:) but to check out an exhibition on the history of the swimming costume!! Yup. We got to see Brigitte Bardot's bikini, Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in Dr No, and even the skimpy daks of the last James Bond whose name escapes me.. Daniel Craig?? Awesome.

Then the shopping. We went to EVERY SHOP!! Checking out the music playing before we went in - amazing how much MJ is still on! To digress - for next week Romy's been working on playlists for MTV of the top 50 Broken Heart Songs, the top 50 best ever women singers sort of thing..

When we'd 'done' Darling Harbour we got the monorail to the Chinese markets and got lost there.. eventually emerging for a Vietnamese lunch. This part of Sydney is completely Asian, so it's total immersion. Awesome food. And Romy paid. (I think the Vietnamese thing was influenced by Romy's brother, Mik, who we think has just gone to Vietnam with a few film mates but with him, who knows, he could be anywhere and probably is.)

After that I kind of lost track. I think we just shopped on. Dresses, boots dresses, cardies (not brown) etc etc. And everything at sale prices, and in bargain areas anyway. For what I'd probably have paid for one item, Romy got ten!!! And got a cab home, we were both exhaused.

She left me to meet up with Him-Indoors to go to the Harry Potter movie. Romy just wanted a spa bath and to try on her goodies in peace and quiet while blaring music then curl around a taped horror movie.

I went to Harry Potter... You know.. this one really is fragmented. Sort of all over the place. Dropping in stray bits which never seem to connect. But great anyway. Love Alan Rickman. He's deliciously evil. Ditto, Draco. Why do I prefer baddies>>

I think there's champers somewhere on ice here, and Kathy's got Klees to cater eats (thanks Hon!!)... Glad you all like the apartment. We seem to have avoided swine flu... touch wood (apparently 3 of Romy's co workers have been diagnosed with it but are all doing okay)

Oscar's little boxes!!! That song, originally by Pete Seeger I think is back in

YouTube - Rise Against - Little Boxes [ Lyrics ] Weeds Intro

Sounds lovely. And tiring! I think I, too would have loved to curl up and watch a horror movie, after trying on all my new goodies. I LOVE sale items!

Pam and Zap...left a message for you in my cyber over to Donegal thread...

Paid once a month, wow. Thats a long stretch. I know you have expensive tastes, fancy smelly cheese and all that. Be nice and get something cheap on the menu.

sounds lovely Pam, my feet would have been crying!:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

Nomad;1218112 wrote: Paid once a month, wow. Thats a long stretch. I know you have expensive tastes, fancy smelly cheese and all that. Be nice and get something cheap on the menu.


I like simplicity, Nomad. Smelly cheese here is not considered fancy. Nor is real coffee. And Asian food is the norm and costs about the same as a trip to McDonalds.

Being paid by the month is not that usual here. It's more often by the fortnight. Hard when you start a job though, as you have a long wait for that first pay check. Still, Romy had some savings, and she's living with me till she can afford to rent on her own. So no overheads. I still pack her a daily school type lunch and little lunch, which we both laugh our heads off over. She's 25!!! (She still checks her lunch box at the door to see which crazy goodies I've sneaked in - like a bunch of snow peas, or a cut up mushroom, or a cold corn cob or a nutella tim tam) :sneaky:

Will go visit your place shortly, Kathy - then, it being a sunny Sydney Sunday - I'm off to the beach at Manly.

Odie - my feet have recovered. Romy is limping a bit.

Its nice to have your daughter living with you now, seems you to are really close and have so much fun together.

now you can rub her sore feet.:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

ah Pam,, sounds like you had a wonderful day! Eating Shopping,, and all with your daughter,,, nothing could be better:D:-6

Monday - and all feet are functional again, and there's a heavy mist - the kind of swirling fog mist you got in old films like Gaslight - before the dastardly villain loomed out to strike down the decoratively terrified heroine.. kinda thing, except this is Sydney harbour not some cobbled twisting London alley.

I think my son is actually in Vietnam today, with a couple of film colleagues. I've never been there. He'll visit Cambodia too, and maybe see the temple of Ankor Wat (? spelling)

Has anyone seen the new Harry Potter film?

I'm reading a fantastic book at the moment called "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". You know when people say a book is so good you just can't put it down. Well this one is so good you do have to keep putting it down. I have to take it in small bites, and then savour each bit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/books ... mes-t.html

Anyway, the fog is now swirling gold and red and orange dawn light, and I guess it's time I skidded onto the thin ice of this new day.

Thought du jour

Life can be better when you disconnect all your telephones

Attached files

good evening Pam!:guitarist:guitarist:guitarist

Odie;1218442 wrote: good evening Pam!:guitarist:guitarist:guitarist


hello?:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

AP, you write such interesting things. It's a joy to read what's happening in your world. but tell me, when it's 8:15 pm here, what time is it where you are?

Odie - Thank you for your two greetings and for the emails.

Ah shucks, Zapata... blush.. :sneaky: My 8:15 this morning (20 July), by the way, was 3:15 your yesterday, so to speak - well 3:15, your 19 July. Time is very weird. When I fly to San Francisco or LA from Sydney, I always arrive just before I set out in the first place. And when I fly back home, I routinely lose a whole day of my life.

AussiePam;1218518 wrote: Odie - Thank you for your two greetings and for the emails.

Ah shucks, Zapata... blush.. :sneaky: My 8:15 this morning (20 July), by the way, was 3:15 your yesterday, so to speak - well 3:15, your 19 July. Time is very weird. When I fly to San Francisco or LA from Sydney, I always arrive just before I set out in the first place. And when I fly back home, I routinely lose a whole day of my life.


your welcome! just wondered where you were today, so I bumped it up.:yh_rotfl



The way I have figured out your times are roughly 14 hours ahead of me (in Sydney), so if its 11am here Monday, it should be 3pm there Tuesday.

Odie;1218519 wrote: your welcome! just wondered where you were today, so I bumped it up.:yh_rotfl



The way I have figured out your times are roughly 14 hours ahead of me (in Sydney), so if its 11am here Monday, it should be 3pm there Tuesday.


Thanks, Pam & Odie. So, I'm 3 hours behind Odie and 17 hours behind Pam? So, now it's 4:10 pm for Odie and 6:10 am Tuesday for Pam?

Zapata;1218733 wrote: Thanks, Pam & Odie. So, I'm 3 hours behind Odie and 17 hours behind Pam? So, now it's 4:10 pm for Odie and 6:10 am Tuesday for Pam?


yes.......now its 5pm here, so its 2pm for you, and its around 7am Pam's time tomorrow...........I fink!:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

She should just be getting up.:guitarist:guitarist

best way for you is just to google, what time is it in Australia.

Zapata;1218733 wrote: Thanks, Pam & Odie. So, I'm 3 hours behind Odie and 17 hours behind Pam? So, now it's 4:10 pm for Odie and 6:10 am Tuesday for Pam?


if you click on Home,,, then top left hand side under site navigation click on world time chart. That tells you what time it is in other places right now:D

Hi Kaz, Odie, Zapata!

If I tell you I sat in the local public library re-reading bits of Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time', you'll think I'm even more eccentric than I actually am if that's possible, so I won't tell you. It's a bit like delving into James Joyce's 'Ulysses' with tea and madeleine cakes instead of guinness and guinness. :sneaky:

Don't tell Theia I even mentioned the tea word - in fact it's kind of awful that Monsieur Proust - in the land of good coffee - actually considered tea not just respectable but almost mystical in its powers of evocation.

I need a coffee just contemplating all that - and it's probably too late in the evening to drink one.

There's a good snippet in this evening's rag about a zoo in Bristol. I might post a separate thread on it, if no-one's done it already. A great yarn.

Got a message from my son Mik - he's in Saigon. The food's fantastic, he reports, but the rain is bucketing down.

Sopes reckons the Bristol Car Park yarn is an urban myth... Pity. I liked it.

snopes.com: Bristol Zoo Carpark Attendant

I'll be on the road again for a bit.. will pop in here when I get a chance. :sneaky:

AussiePam;1219303 wrote: I'll be on the road again for a bit.. will pop in here when I get a chance. :sneaky:


have a great time!:guitarist:guitarist

Thanks Odie - some work, some play. If the work goes well, the play will include a few days skiing!! Yodelayiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooooooooo

AussiePam;1219329 wrote: Thanks Odie - some work, some play. If the work goes well, the play will include a few days skiing!! Yodelayiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooooooooo


alright, your favorite, enjoy!:guitarist:guitarist

I have no idea what that means, Odie, or why the double guitar player - don't think there will be music in the business meetings but who knows. As fer on the slopes, the scarier, rockier and steeper - the more I sing. Sometimes mega manically -usually Irish stuff if in extremis - with the occasional yodel of primal angst. But thanks!!!

AussiePam;1219369 wrote: I have no idea what that means, Odie, or why the double guitar player - don't think there will be music in the business meetings but who knows. As fer on the slopes, the scarier, rockier and steeper - the more I sing. Sometimes mega manically -usually Irish stuff if in extremis - with the occasional yodel of primal angst. But thanks!!!


it meant because I know you love skiing, and this guy just magnifies the fun!:guitarist:guitarist

Stay safe Pam:-6

Have a great time Pam,,, play plenty and work little:D:-4

I guess it's afternoon for Pam..so good afternoon Pam:-6

welcome home!:guitarist:guitarist

Thanks Odie!

AussiePam;1224276 wrote: Thanks Odie!


looks like you had a great time skiing!

Pam, I bumped into a friend of yours...he wants your phone number:wah:

He's so persistent, Duckie!! Men !!! Like, why can't they take no for an answer. We might have made beautiful music together way back when, but it's so over !!! Move on, Snookums!!!



As fer making beautiful music, my son got back yesterday and found his first piano...

Attached files

Good morning Pam:-4



Mic looks lovely playing the piano....must be good to have him home for a bit:-6

Me thinks Pam is enjoying have her kids around:guitarist:guitarist:-4

AussiePam;1226363 wrote: He's so persistent, Duckie!! Men !!! Like, why can't they take no for an answer. We might have made beautiful music together way back when, but it's so over !!! Move on, Snookums!!!



As fer making beautiful music, my son got back yesterday and found his first piano...


fabulous, so glad he's home Pam!

Hi Odie, Duckie, Kathy - yes it's fantastic to have Mik back home. And he's glad to be back too. We're all doing lots of catching up!!

AussiePam;1229292 wrote: Hi Odie, Duckie, Kathy - yes it's fantastic to have Mik back home. And he's glad to be back too. We're all doing lots of catching up!!


I'll bet he's glad to be back home.......enjoy.

good morning Pam!

Nice Snoopy. Thanks, Odie!!

AussiePam;1241615 wrote: Nice Snoopy. Thanks, Odie!!


that was cute.