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and last updated July 12th.,1998.
Well, I am still here in Atlanta, having celebrated America's birthday in this Southern city.....
That makes one Queen's Birthday, and one nation's birthday in one unplanned holiday...
Not bad for impromptu timing??
(BUT can I make it home in time for Number One Son's first child's actual BIRTH day?
One thing about this trip, it is making me realise not ALL my Post-Grad., in Psycholingusitics is being wasted....
seems I absorbed enough to assist me in quickly picking up the cadences and subtleties of each accent and
recreating them ...
(Especially when Dave's family have just treated me to a Pork-Barbecue Restaurant meal, where I have drunk
two glasses of American designer-beer!)
I had a lot of fun on line after that sending all my EMails and ICQ messages in phonetic Georgian,one of the
nicest sounds I know, particularly the softer male voices!
But, Sylvia Silver, I never expected anyone to answer in kind,,
and so fluently, and so quickly!!
And how very nice to hear from you again!!
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Miz Rawbn, Ah wez mahty purleesed to git yaw email this mornin so's Ah thawrt Ah'd reeplah raht aways........
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My family will be surprised to find that Dave and Atlanta managed to achieve something even London didn't...
When Dave said he thought we should take Marta when we went into the city centre, I figured Marta was his sister
and wondered why she hadn't shown up when he came to collect me. And even when he had parked the car and
guided me through the station, the penny still didn't really drop...
But I have actually been on PUBLIC TRANSPORT here, and have a MARTA token in my purse
to prove it!
So Dave showed me his city downtown, and we went through the Underground, where I bought postcards and some
yummy Georgian spreads and sauces, and then he took me through the Coca Cola Museum, which, for Dave whose
forefather designed the Coke logo, is a part of his family heritage...
I hadn't realised Coke started in Atlanta, and in a pharmacy at that, when the pharmacist made a mistake in his dispensing.....
Dave took me around some of the places he buys comic-books to study, and I saw some of the few places
in Atlanta that have resisted the developer's dictates..places where time has stayed still if not exactly run
backwards..
HE says that's how he will remember me in America...reading comics in HIS shops in HIS parts of town!
The thing is, I DID find it interesting, because, when I used to teach the A.L.A.I.A Registration Examination Course
one of the final year subjects was 407: Readers And Reading, and one part of that syllabus dealt with the
Mass Media, so for a couple of weeks each year my students were REQUIRED to collect comics for perusal in
class!
(Of course, the next section included Pornographic Publications, an, er, interesting part of the studies!)
Anyway, at one store, they had one copy of The New Yorker, which I almost bought, then put it down again, deciding there
didn't seem to be much in it for such a famous magazine...
And when I reached home, there on the radio was the news that there would be no more New Yorker magazines,
not like that one, since Tina Brown had just resigned, and that the issue I had been handling would become a collectors' item....
But I didn't know that when the usual warning of 30% chance of thunderstorm decided, for once to
become 100%, and so we headed into a Takeaway Place..a bit like KFC, I suppose, and there behind the
counter, working in the kitchen, was the OLDEST lady I have seen still employed.....
Though I have been here three weeks now, I still can't get used to the sight of seriously OLD men and women still
gainfully and cheerfully and productively employed!!
I guess that is what they call GRAY POWER
Now I know they call them French Fries and the Belgians say they were invented in Belgium, but I call
them CHIPS, and I hadn't eaten any since leaving home, so I ordered the chicken and Fries option, and
it came with three sauces...ketchup, barbecue sauce AND the special honey-lemon sauce, so I tasted each sauce
and then poured all of them over everything, and dipped the chips into into the sauce AND the slaw, and
found out I really was HUNGRY, and that this was one of the best meals I had ever eaten, and even Dave
decided three sauces really ARE better than one,and we stood at a window bench and watched the storm and the
traffic...and when this INCREDIBLE panel van with the most amazing embellishments turned at the lights,
the kind of vehicle you say prayers will never park outside YOUR house,and that your daughter will NEVER
drive in,Dave said that it was a fine example of the First Amendment, but that he thought the owner might be taking
his rights just a little too far...
And if Dave remembers my visit here at all, I personally think he will remember me
best in supermarkets...not a few of which I have dragged him through on unit-kitchen-stocking expeditions...
He will probably never again pass through the automatic doors without feeling ominous shooting pains in back, arms and legs ...
and plastic bags and long hotel hallways will be the substance of nightmares for quite some time!
But I figure once he tastes my lamb chops with ratatoille and lemon-pepper mushrooms he will forgive the
hours spent pushing the supermarket trolley!
And the pulled muscles lugging it all upstairs!
Cooking here at this unit will be a bit of a comedown after Rudco's kitchen, but two hotplates and a small
microwave will do the job!
The 'frig is a bit feral, though..makes great icecubes but it quickfroze the vegetables in no time flat, so the
ratatoille is NOT going to be quite as crisp as usual..
Don't think Dave is a connoisseur of Ratatoille, though....think this could be a legrope situation...
And I can't buy any CHUX here, not anywhere...but the zip-top bags have REAL ZIPPERS!!
It was interesting, too, to see that my effect on the weather in every country I have entered tranlates readily to
a supermarket!
Without fail, each time I approached the greengrocery section, even when I returned for the forgotten leeks,
all the spraymists would immediately start......raining!
But this was actually my second larder-stocking excursion....there had been an earlier one, and I had needed
summer clothes for this climate, and and though David is younger than either of my sons, his two sisters have trained him well,so he found an
American KMart for me, and waited patiently while I worked out sizes and tried things on...
and I came away with lots of marked-down shorts and TShirts,some of which I had to take back because they
were too big....apparently SOMETHING is getting smaller in America!!
And a few days later, I actually managed some Neiman Marcus shorts and pants!
But all attempts to find a lipstick sealer, without which I can live but not drink coffee or kiss, were doomed to
failure, the Great American Dream system of the pharmacy in the supermarket breeding Checkout Chicks but
not badged trained Cosmetic Advisers...
And when I DID walk to Phipps Plaza, and consulted several cosmetic advisers, they, too, professed a total
ignorance of anything used to seal lipstick..(though I DID find out there was to be an Australian wine-tasting at the
winebar there on Wednesday....)
And, strangest of all to an Australian, in this land of Equal Opportunity, they have MEN working as cosmetic
advisers...especially at some of the exclusive agency counters..!!
And, at a rough guess, the black/white ratio of workers in the shops, especially at the checkouts is around six
or eight to one..
So I had to wait until I took the hotel shuttle over to Lenox Plaza before the elusive lipstick-sealer materialized.
And even then, I started out with an under-lipstick sealer from the Chanel collection, before the Estee Lauder girl
told me she was pretty sure the Body Shop keeps a sealer.....and they do...so I bought two, just to make sure...
(So kisses and coffee are back on the menu, folks!)
And then, because I was finally shopping without MEN, I tried on at least a thousand bathing suits in Rich's
and actually bought one...eggplant purple with gold trim!
And after, to counter the depression that accompanies prolonged viewing of oneself in an allways/allover mirror,
I had a pizza and salad lunch before hitting Macy's, where the grandmother in me took over and bought a pink
thingy for the expected sixth grandchild, who is rapidly acquiring an international wardrobe as I travel.
About makeup, it seems some people have quite the wrong idea about me...
A friend from Pennsylvania says he doesn't want to meet me here in America, (and will wait for me to invite him
to Australia), because he wants to see me without makeup and being natural in my home environment...
Hmm...think some of my other friends should tell him how they have helped me send my formal Australian
clothes home, and supervised the buying of casual holiday gear...
how they have seen me go straight from the swimming pool and out to dinner having borrowed only a lipstick...
and that my hair works just fine in the American climate with just a comb between swims, thanks to that cut
from Thomas Hardy at Headrow, Leeds....
In fact, I am calling on all my friends who have seen me without makeup in the last six weeks to EMail this
much-mistaken-male and advise him of his misconception
that I am some kind of painted dolly-bird, with everything artificial!
And if you have seen me in PJs, without makeup, send it IN CAPITALS!!
Sorry, W.G., not a facelift scar in sight, and not a lot of makeup, either, as those American friends with the courage
to initiate face-to-face contact will attest.....
And..hey!.... THEY are the ones who will get the Aussie invitations!!
And it is seriously warm here, though the sky is still not as blue as in
Australia,being kept paler, we decided, by the higher humidity..and everything is green, green, green, and lush
(And, yes, Jody, I CAN see why you and your friends were so homesick for the TREES of Georgia during your tour of duty in
Kuwait!)
Yes, I CAN see why you would be so conscious of the change in vegetation!!
Although some things seem to be pretty much the same the world over...
At least that's what I was thinking as both Daves, father and son, took me to a Computer Users' Group, right
across town, with the universal male-competitive-driving spirit lurking somewhere there beneath the polite
surface....
and who should be there, and saving seats for us but the Very Old Netfriend who had behaved so STRANGELY;
in so, well, HOSTILE and CONDESCENDING a fashion at the weekend....
And when he gave me the Microsoft TShirt he had won in the Lucky Number draw, I couldn't help wondering
if the fact he wasn't accompanied at THIS meeting by his wife and mother- in- law might be what was making
such a DIFFERENCE to the way he was reacting to my presence ...
Interesting, that, the idea that some American men seem to be AFRAID of their womenfolk!
I met another netfriend, who chats as "Iron Eagle" when he
made the two-hour drive from his home south of here. He had quite some trouble getting anywhere near me...he had completely
forgotten my surname, and knows me mainly as AQ, so the hotel staff were a bit reluctant to locate me
or my unit for him...told him he would need a NAME, which was on his computer back home, of course....
So the poor guy had to drive about looking for a friend still awake with his computer running, who
would let him log onto ICQ in the hope I might still be online and awake enough to remember my roomnumber...
and my other name....
And do you know the WORST thing about being woken from a sound sleep to open the door to someone one
has never met offline?
It is the discovery that the 50 year old one thought would be at least as Used-looking as oneself does, in fact
look to be in his late twenties or early thirties, and that he is thinking of partying on through the night like
someone of that vintage..
Dave says perhaps we should all listen to Iron Eagle's claims for a particular herbal preparation he uses...
.he says any guy who looks as young as that must be doing SOMETHING right!
Iron Eagle said he was surprised that I get about
so well..he had pictured me as moving rather slower!
Hmm..lucky for HIM he didn't bring his TENNIS SHOES....we would SEE who moves slowly then!!
But Iron Eagle thinks I am rather unwise to be thinking of driving down south and
around Florida..
But Dave was given the casting vote and he felt I should make the effort, at least, so I
finally made the decision and organized a hirecar AND Dave gathered up his courage and agreed to
tutor me till I AM safe on the road, ( and everyone is safe from me), AND he actually came out into the daylight,
in the MORNING, (NOT his best time), to go collect the car with me....
And I must admit, the fact that this hotel unit was rebooked for me after I'd been told I'd need to move is making
the idea less attractive...
The vision of a week or ten days of poolside reading, swimming, internet access and good music and company,
if I need it, makes gallivanting about on busy roads seem like someone else's idea of a good time..
So we were a bit stunned to receive 'the upgrade other folks would kill for', a brand new, silver Rodeo being, apparently,, a popular vehicle here, though I had no idea what a Sports Utility was, or why the
manager would be wanting to take it home for the weekend..
But when I realized I would actually be much SAFER in it every time I should collide with something American, I agreed to try to drive it.....and did for two hours or so...
And David was very brave, and very patient!..though you could see he thought we really should warn those folk who have their
mailboxes right on the side of the road that said boxes are in GRAVE DANGER!
But I only did two really bad things and corrected at once, before I could do any damage...
Of course, it is a long haul yet to the point where I am capable of driving alone and unassisted on freeways
around the country...but I have managed to do some unaccompanied supermarket shopping, in an
unidentified suburb..
With Iron Eagle driving for more than two hours just to make possible a meeting,, and Lady J and Beth driving more
than four hours from Massachusetts to Vermont, I suppose I AM a bit sad about the reaction of someone I
really did want to meet...someone who put the idea of this trip into MY mind and into the mind of my son,
which is how it all got started...
Now I know this person is horrifically busy in his job, and stresses at a faster rate than I do, but his suggestion
that my timing is a bit unfortunate made me wonder how far I would have to come, and how much notice I
would have to give, before my unexpected, ( HE says, though I sent regular location EMails) materialization might
bring a smile in the voice... and not that irritated tone..
I mean, it isn't as though I have just popped in unexpectedly from
around the corner, with a better time easily available...
Guess my son should have consulted that particular time-management authority on a convenient date for his
wedding so that his mother would only be let loose at a suitable time...
Course, could be another case of the petrified American male syndrome..
He MIGHT be petrified that I'll start ringing the HOUSE....*grin*
I mean, would I do that???
And to those of you still asking, 'Are you still coming home early?', the
answer is "er....NO!!".
I have started to enjoy myself, and this driving thing will take time, and some friends I was trying to contact have surfaced, which is nice....
(Pity I sent their presents back home,thinking they were playing Shrinking Violet!)!
BUT I hadn't scheduled my time so severely that changes couldn't be made, and I seem to be
thriving on the warmer weather ,and I have the larder stocked up nicely, so I am actually staying
longer than planned in Georgia, though whether I have the courage to embark on my original plan of driving south and
right around Florida remains to be seen....
And, what with the fire situation there, they aren't exactly looking for toutists on their roads, in Florida, right now..
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