31 on the 31st!

Meg had her 31st birthday on Saturday. Some of the people did
not come and everyone was gone by 11.30 p.m. and she had booked
the hall till 1 a.m. so I think she was a little diasappointed,
especially at Kim and family.

Shirley is down from Ipswich and is looking good. She is
staying at Elsie's for the week and then going to her brother's
for a week before she goes home. She still doesn't know if she
is going to move back here. She said she will have a garage sale
and see what happens after that.

The most amazing thing is she gave me two medals that belonged
to Uncle Harry, apparently Don had them. How or why is beyond
me. The truth of the matter is that I did not even know that
they existed. They are two Lodge medals and Cliff is going to
help me find out more about them.

The kids knew nothing about them either. I asked her about the
McDougall Shield and she said that it is gone. She thought Don
Jr took it, but he said he did not, so it's possible that Uncle
Bill took it. I said to Donald that it is rightfully his as I
bought it as a birthday present for his father. As Uncle Bill
has no children it will come to Donald when he dies, but I'd
like to check to make sure he does have it.

Finally met Meg's friend, Catherine. She is a lot heavier than
I thought. She will end up looking like me when she gets older
if she doesn't keep exercising and watching what she eats.

Meg was annoyed that Catherine made no contribution to the cost
of petrol to the airport. It cost Meg nearly $100 to drive down
and pick her up and then take her back. Meg said that she gave
Catherine $30 each time to pick her up AND take her out to the
airport and it is only 1/2 hour from Catherine's home, not the
2 1/2 hours it is here. Really is cheaper going by train now but
it is getting from the city to the airport that is the bugbear.

Deb and Tony were there there are still seperated but not divorced.
Tony did not make the cake for Meg, Deb bought it from Safeway
in Morwell. It was lovely. I thought there would not be enough
to go around but there was so much over that Meg bought a couple
of slices for Ross, Cliff and I on Tuesday at lunch time, she
even took some in for the people at work.

She said that she had a good night. Most of the people left her
party to go to the Rossmore to see a particular singer and she
went with them. So they continued on from there.

The Funniest Garage Sale Ever!

Well on Saturday morning the 31st May, 2008 I reckon I went
to the funniest garage sale ever!

Of course they had the usual books, C.D's, D.V.D's, bric a
brac, clothes, furniture, crockery, silverwear, oods and ends,
but they were also selling their CAR! at $32,000 and the HOUSE
for $230,000!! but not the garage. Why not you ask? well
they never got around to building the garage. The sale was
held on the concrete slab where the garage was going to be.

Why sell everything? well it turns out the young couple are
moving to Perth in about six weeks and they are going to fly
over and so evrything MUST GO.

A true sale! just a pity there was no gagarge as that really
would have been the icing on the cake!!!

Writing

Was disapponted again as we still only dwelt with house
keeping matters.

Violeta did say that she wanted us to have a glimmer of an
idea for a short story next week. We are also to bring
TWO magazines along and give a profile on the readers based
on the adverts in them. She wants us to work out the
audience we are writing too. She said that most writers get
published in magazines that they read as they know what
those readers want. I wonder if at the end of the course
she suggests we send away our story to our chosen magazine.
Last week she said that usually 80% of her writing classes
get published. Not bad odds. She said that she wants us
to write something with a view of reading it out to the
class. Still have not written anything in class!

Kylie had rung Beryl re coming to the group and Beryl
promised to pick her up and then passed it along to me but
as I was not consulted, why should I do it? If Kylie
wanted a lift from me surely she could ring me?

Both Beryl and I received messages and phone calls during
the morning from her. So I guess she was waiting to be
picked up. She rang me later this afternoon and we
organised that I would pick her up next week.

A reasonably quite time this week.

Grandkids at Soccer

I received a survey from Val Morgan to do two pictures this
week end. I did one on Friday and as I thought it a waste
of petrol just to drive over for a survey of the ads on Satur
day I asked Beryl if she wanted to go and see "What Happens
in Vegas" with me. She said she'd check her money and let me
know. The cost was $11:50 for concession and Beryl said she
had $11 only, but I thought as she had paid for the coffee for
me last week, I would make up the difference.

But at lunch on Friday Don Jr came over from the shop, as he
had come home early to pick up his kids and told me that
Samual and Connor were playing soccer against Talhia's team
at Newborough.

I had been thinking after doing Don Jr's scrapbooking for his
soccer that it would be nice to have a first season of soccer
for the boys. Like father like son, sort of thing.

So I agreed to go and watch the game from 9.30 a.m. till
10.30 a.m.

I thought well if I'm going to be over in Newborough and
driving back through Morwell to go back to Traralgon I could
do the theatre ads without paying to watch the film. Meaning
I would have the extra money to pay for the damage done to my
mirror by
the garbage bin on Tuesday.

Before going to the RSL on Friday night I reminded myself
when Cliff and I got back to his house that I would have to
ring Beryl and let her know the change of plans.

Unfortunately the next time I thought of it was just before
going to bed at midnight. So I thought I'll ring her in the
morning but then remembered she said she was going to the
Farmers Market so I thought 'I'll ring her at 11 .a.m. when
I get home from soccer as I told her I'd be there at 11 .a.m.'

Well things started out well. I planned the route for the
garage sales but I told Cliff we had to finish no later than
8.25 a.m. as I had to go to gym before heading off to see
the game.

But we didn't finish till 8. 35 a.m. but I thought no problem
I'll just do one circuit at gym and be up to date. I arrived
at the gym at 8.45 a.m. and did the one circuit and was
leaving at 9.05 a.m. when Meg rang to ask could I drive her
over to the game.

I had thought it would take the 25 minutes to drive to the
game via my house to pick up the book for Kath and deliver
it after the game.

I drove straight to Meg's and got there at 9.20 a.m. We got
to the end of her street and she realized that she had
forgotten her sunnies so we went back. Stopped at my place
and then drove to the game getting there at 9.55 a.m. So I
will have to remember it is more like a 40 minute drive than
a 30 minute drive from Traralgon to Newborough.

But I took lots of photos of the kids playing and am hoping
that some of them turn out OK. Can't print them at the moment
as the printer is staging a coup.

Told Kath and Nathan, Cliff and I had bought a cot for them
for $30 and Darren, Cliff's friend had a matress he wanted
$50 for if they were interested.

The game had just finished and I was saying goodbye when my
mobile rang. It was Beryl wondering when I was coming. I
told her the plans for the day had changed as I was at
Newborough at the kids soccer. She got most upset and when
I said that I would come and see her on Sunday she said that
she might be busy and hung up on me.

I tried ringing her twice on Sunday, once at 11 a.m. and once
at 11.30 a.m. on her home phone but it went to mail, I also
tried her mobile at 11.15 a.m. but it was turned off, and she
has not rung me back and it is now 4 p.m. on Tuesday so she
is having a good sulk.

I went to Kath's at Yallourn Nth and did the delivery and was
home by 11.10 a.m. I brought the printer in to print out
another letter for the cinema and realized I had forgotten the
laptop! Luckily they let me in without it, as I explained I had
the one letter and had come yesterday as the company wanted
research on two of the movie ads this week end.

So it was a hectic day, but the lazy Sunday made up for it and
because I did not go to Beryl's I got all my paper journalling
up to date.

Short Story Writing

Today, Friday 23rd May was the beginning of the new short
story course at TAFE. Beryl and I drove over together in
my car.

There were a few 'old' faces there but half the class were
new people. Nice to see. We did not do any work as the
three hours were taken up with house keeping matters. So
Kylie who could not come missed nothing.

Hopefully we will start writing next week. I was disappointed
to learn that we will be writing ONE short story but
concentrating on it in depth. I had had hoped for at least
3-4 in the six month period.

But we will have to see if that changes depending on our
skills and abilities.

Centerlink (Again!)

Last week a young man rang and asked me would I like to
attend a conference about the Morwell office of Centerlink
and voice any 'concerns' I had about the service.

The forum was held at the Traralgon Convention Center.
They supplied lovely cakes for morning tea and lunch of a
hot meal which was also nice. There was coffee, tea and
orange drinks available for breakfest, morning tea and lunch.

Water was on all the tables with breath mints.

There were 12 'customers' of Centerlink and 10 staff members.

But when it came to 'voting' using our electronic keypads
the results were invalid as the man conducting the survey
asked the staff to put in their responses.

Naturally they voted in the 6+ range for themselves but I
would say the 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's and 4's came from the
'customers.'

The main point of contention was the long waiting queues
when we have to hand in our fortnightly forms as well as
the lack of 'comfortable' seating as many people putting
in forms have disabilities and it is especially hard for
them to have to stand up for half an hour to an hour.

We will just have to see what happens as a result of this
meeting.

I had to rush off straight after lunch to see Wade. As I
pulled up at Work Solutions, I heard this great loud BANG.
A garbage bin that had been leaning too far into the street
took out my passenger side mirror and nearly tore the unit
off the car.

The man (Damian) running the survey said that each 'customer'
was going to receive a $50 cheque in the mail for doing the
forum. I reckon that it will cost me a lot more than that to
get my car fixed. As they say no good deed goes unpunished.

Dick's Birthday and other news.

Stopped in at Dick's and Helga's on the way to cards and it
turned out it was Dick's birthday. I was surprised when
Helga said that he was 84 years old that day. I thought he
was about 70 - 75! He looks really good for his age! Helga
said that she is 78 years old this year. That is only two
years younger than my birth mother would be if she is alive!

Did well at cards again with 110 though I only got one 15
game. But I was third again, equal with two other players.

On Tuesday I was not late for my appointment with Wade but
he was annoyed that I had not applied for the telephone
postition and said that I have to apply even if my phone
voice is not good. What a waste of time and effort.

Decided to do a scrapbooking page on Cliff and I, as a couple
but featuring stamps as we are both collectors. Was delighted
to find an old photo of my self when I went to the ball with
Robert Zeltzer. Of course I had cut him out years ago but I
did look good. In fact I can see a resemblance to Meg.

Also found the old flag that belonged to Dad's unit. It is
rather moth eaten but I can still read it. I wonder if I can
use it to get information through the R.S.L on his unit and
war service? Worth a try. It might also clear up the question
of when the photo of my parents was taken as Dad is definitely
wearing some sort of uniform.