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This page hosted by and last updated October 7th., 2002.

WELCOME TO MY DAY..

IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...

Well folks, sometimes I wonder why I share any of the "this is what's going to happen" stuff with y'all, since it wouldn't be MY life if things went to schedule!
To begin with, Dr B didn't arrive. First he said he was leaving on September 7th, and going to stop off in New Zealand for a few days en route. And then his announced Tullamarine deplaning date of September 15th, arrived, and passed--without any real news of his intent. Then he did get a message through to say that his father's condition was causing some concern, preventing his departure. Well it might, since it seemed, apart from physical frailty, the Dad had managed to almost burn the house down twice,once with a microwave, on the same day flooding it by going to bed without turning off his shower....and had a habit of servicing the pesticide dispenser within eleven feet of the well supplying the household water!
Nor had the Dad accepted the ban on his driving demanded by both Dr B and the Insurance company!!
Not surprisingly, Dr B feels he can't safely leave either his father or the house just now and asked if I would like to go there, instead.

Which would be a great idea except that I'm not sure things are so much better here.
I mean, I work VERY hard at getting all our Staff's Group Certificates out on June 30th each year. This year, I even organized my hospital booking for the colostomy -reversal surgery, to allow me sufficient recovery time before balancing the financial books!
So I was kinda aghast, this week, to find , undisturbed, on the shelf above my desk , the two copies of each quadruplicate, the two we divide up, keeping one for ourselves and sending one to the Tax Office before August 14th each year, on pain of a hefty fine.
We have had staff to pay since the 1970's, yet the husband made like he had never heard of this idea of sending those forms into the Tax Office. AAgghh!!
As for being dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age..well, the husband still has daily battles with the pharmacy printers--battles which leave the dispensary floor littered with torn off silicon-coated backing paper, and shellshocked staff and patients tiptoeing around trying to look the other way.
And then, there is the new problem that, so very often lately, when I go the washing machine or the dryer, I find it filled with an assortment of forgotten, sometimes quite mouldy laundry, laundry which I would not dream of asking or expecting (or wanting) him to do!!.
As I snarl at him, "Anyone can put the damned laundry IN and even a monkey can push the buttons!!!
Except that for this husband,, i tis pushing the RIGHT buttons that is the problem. For him, sheets will always be "whites", so he puts my precious drip-dry Yves St Laurent sheets into near-boiling wash, with the towels. In fact, he has never come close to mastering the idea of "drip-dry",even when I programmed in a "favourites" cycle, set to do a spinless wash, for my uniforms. He used to insist on interrupting pre-set programs to set new spin speeds or water levels, claiming all kinds of benefits, quite often totally wrecking some of my wash and wear clothes in the process, so I have always discouraged his obsession with "doing the washing!"..
It always seemd to me that there is plenty of "Mans' Work" around and outside the house...quite enough to keep him fully occupied! But it seems there is never enough time for that!
I kind of dread what I would come home to, if long away!

And on the family-relations front, things have gotten kinda complicated, here, too.
OUR granny is still hanging on, mostly remote and unreachable in her nursing-home bed, but, lately, responding sometimes, just a little. And I have been severely taken to task by a niece of my husband's, a forty-something yuppie who has never liked me much, but who, it seems, reads this page at her place of work, since she used her employers' disclaimer-printed, headed computer printout, (This email is intended for YOU only..if received in error contact us, type of thing, followed by ALL their names), to email me some increasingly caustic advice:

Hi Robin, I just called the Hostel to enquire about Gran's stroke - AS REPORTED ON YOUR WEBSITE !! They tell me she hasn't had a stroke just continuing to detoriate due to her old age. Can you please refrain from exaggeration or whatever it was that compelled you to write that Gran had had a stroke. It gave Dad and I quite a shock to say the least.

...................I called the Hostel and spoke to the Sister concerned to confirm if Gran had had a stroke - after all they'd know wouldn't they and if Gran had had a stroke perhaps Doug should have informed the rest of the "family" rather than us having to read about it on your website along with the rest of the world ! The only thing upsetting is that we have to find out about Gran in this manner. PS - and Don't flatter yourself.

We all know she has gone "down hill" Robin, after all she is 96 years old and I don't expect to see her doing cartwheels in the hostel carpark. However, my FATHER as you call him, didn't say anything about a STROKE - just a general deterioration in condition, which of course at 96 yo is to be expected. As for your website, I frankly don't give two hoots what you write about. The objection I have is that I read about gran's "stroke" and nobody has informed us of the fact that she had had a stroke - do you get it??

Well folks, I don't tell write anything not true here. To begin with, too many of those who read it already KNOW the facts for me to get away with any truth- manipulation.
And the old lady is actually 98, not 96, but who's counting?
And I resisted the temptation to accept her bosses' invitation to send the mail right back, to THEM, if I thought I had received it in error!
But the exchange of emails, with both of us at work, became most unpleasant, though still tinged with a touch of the surreal . I mean, the irate lady concerned hadn't bothered to make contact all the time I had been sick, or show any concern whatsoever for OUR family's peace of mind, and we only ever see her at Xmas, so I felt no guilt at finally using the "block sender" facility of the email program to put an end to the correspondence and leave it all for my husband to sort it all out in his own good time. It is HIS mother, after all.
But I guess there is a family feud underway now, so I am not about to attend the Gran's funeral, when the time comes, if it is going to be marred by similar outbursts, which is going to be hard on my husband, the only remaining child.

Then our own family began afeudin' and afussin' towards the end of the Abu Dhabi branch's visit home, with some things being reported to me that I felt obliged to speak to my elder son about--and he took my good intentions rather badly, in his usual defensive way, and now we have a big family break with the siblings not speaking to each other and the daughter-in-law not speaking to anyone!.
Which which means it might be risky to let her select new bedroom wallpaper for our house, as we had planned.
Hard, now, to imagine that, just two diaries ago, I was writing this:
In fact, it always surprises me, coming, as I do, from a not-at-all-loving family, to find how much my own kids enjoy getting together

But the visit was a success in most other ways; Harun, the little boy from Abu Dhabi is a sweet, friendly little chap who learned to walk in our house,obliging Claudia, his littlest Aussie cousin, to copy him---and if his sister, Sahar, traditionally unfriendly, didn't exactly warm to us, at least she would talk to us by the visit's end.

We started granddaughter Stephanie in the shop on Saturday mornings and holidays, mainly so she would have some chance of paying for her much-used mobile phone, thinking she would be working with her sister for a long and happy partnership.

But Maddie has found working as waitress at the Leopold Sportsman's Club, Brad's latest partnered venture, much more to her taste, and is apparently doing very well there, so Stephanie was our sole gofer till we enlisted Jenny's little sister to come work, too!
I mean, kids work best in pairs, right?

And on one memorable day, memorable for its traumatic qualities, those two little girls and 19 yearold Jenny were our whole staff, (and Jenny was busy with the PhotoLab), as one senior suffered a family bereavement, another was missing after a relationship breakdown,and another went home sick.

And then two seniors wanted to reduce their working hours.
And another suffered so much illhealth we decided she could never catch up the owed sickleave and had better change back to casual status..
And we were getting busier and busier, with the new toyshop really taking off, and though I seemed to be constantly involved in buying, I seemed, too, to be always moving things to cover gaps on shelves, and having to order more , and people were always asking for something the day after we had sold the last one.
And it was about then that the husband, always reluctant to hire or buy new if the old could be recycled, began pressuring me to get more stock and more staff .

So, at the time I should have been tripping around one country, or another, I was right in the thick of sending and receiving orders, changing status, altering payrates, compiling sickleave and holiday leave, interviewing and advertising and , finally selecting!
And getting them all uniformed and badged and behind the counters!!

And then notifying the unsuccesful applicants (and fielding the phonecalls from their disgruntled mothers and husbands)..
Which made travel plans a bit iffy to say the least!

But around then, too, perhaps as the ultimate irony, my old friend, Art, from those happy days of my ICQ ChatRoom, AQ's Place-- the innocent years before sex and advertising took over the chatrooms, ... Art, in California, , who had been partially responsible for setting my feet on the 1998 travel-trail, (but who left me cooling my heels for weeks in his home state while he tried to cure his own cold feet), turned up alive and reasonably well and online again, having been made suddenly redundant from the job he had made his life.
I'd like to say that picking up the threads again with him, having him, once again, page for chat-- being able to listen, again, to his complaints about his aches and pains, and his houseguests, is just like having 1996 back all over again.
But not so, folks.I am a very different person from the horrifyingly inexperienced, inhibited lady I was then.
Travel broadens the mind; six years broadens the waistline, broken hearts breed cynicism -- and a neardeath experience alters ones perspectives and priorities!
And I know a lot more about people in general, and men, in particular, now.
In fact, Art is probably a little bewildered by the new me, but we will take things slowly, having agreed to start all over .
It will be interesting, to say the least!

WANT TO LOOK BACK.. AT SOME EARLIER PAGES ABOUT LIFE IN AUSTRALIA? August 25th., 2002. June 24th., 2002. April 28th., 2002. February 17th., 2002. December 12th., 2001. September 17th., 2001. July 30th., 2001. July 7th., 2001. May 21st., 2001. May 13th., 2001. April 25th., 2001. March 31st., 2001. February 7th., 2001. January 2nd., 2001. December 23rd ., 2000: December 3rd ., 2000: November 20th ., 2000: November 7th ., 2000: October 23rd ., 2000: October 6th ., 2000: September 19th ., 2000:

WANT TO SHARE MY TRIPS WITH ME? 1998 GREAT BRITAIN June 4th: June 5th: June 11th: June 13th: June 16th: BELGIUM June 19th: U.S.A. WILLISTON, VT. June23rd: June27th: ATLANTA, GA. July 4th: July 7th: July 9th: July 13th: July 18th: LOS ANGELES, CA. July 28th: August 2nd: SAN FRANCISCO, CA. August 9th: August 15th: CHICO, CA. August 22nd: RENO, NEVADA. August 27th: LOS ANGELES, CA. August 28th: September 8th:

1999 BUNDALONG, VICTORIA March 22nd: U.S.A. EL SEGUNDO, CA. July 18th: ATLANTA, GA. July 24th: July 25th: BILOXI, MS. July 31st: August 7th: HATTIESBURG, MS August 9th: August 25th: September 2nd: September 15th:

2000 U.S.A. NEW ORLEANS, LA. April 7th: April 9th: April 10th: April 14th: April 15th: April 18th: OLYMPIC GAMES, SYDNEY 2000 September 19th: October 6th:

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