A Modern Day Love Story: Part 2

(read Part 1 here).

Photo: photobucket - MrHenryVanity

.......So the girl drew in a deep breath and walked towards the boy in his new business.

The boy was very surprised to see the girl.  He wasn't expecting her.  He was happy to see her it was true, but he wasn't expecting her.  After 30 minutes of small talk and chit-chat the boy asked the girl what she wanted and why she was there (very tactful the boy isn't).

It was time.  


The girl enacted the second part of the Plan (the first being to actually start it).


The girl asked him out.  On a date.  That night.  To the fireworks in the city.  Very, very brave of her.

The boy said yes.  Lucky.  The girl relaxed a whole lot.  Her Plan was going as planned.  

*************************

Later that night the boy and girl met up at the boys apartment and walked to the ferry terminal to catch the CityCat into the city to see the fireworks.  It was a lovely night for it.  As coolish as a temperate winter can be, but with a hint of spring in the air.


Midway through the evening, the girl was having a great time - talking and laughing and joking with the boy.  And the boy looked like he was having a great time too - talking and laughing and joking with the girl.  But then it changed.  He changed.  The boy stopped talking and laughing and joking with the girl.  He started walking really fast so the girl had to almost run to catch up with him (while trying to regulate her breath so not to give away how totally unfit she was).  The boy started answering the girl in almost-grunts.  The boy started smoking one cigarette after another with hardly a pause in between.

The girl was distraught.  Dismayed.  Disheartened.  It had all been going so well, so to Plan.


And now it wasn't.

The girl stealled (new word right there) her heart and and hardened her resolve and made a new Plan right then and there.  A Plan to enjoy the fireworks anyway and to talk and laugh and joke like nothing was wrong because.....because she liked fireworks and wouldn't have seen them otherwise and because crying in public is really not cool and because....well, just because.  


And then the fireworks were over.  And so it seemed was the evening.


The girls expectations by this point were completely non-existent and all she was hoping to do was to not cry until she was in her car driving home and then she could bawl like there was no tomorrow because she had so been looking forward to a successful outcome (ie snagging the boy) to her original Plan but now it was all over and the Plan had failed.  The only consolation the girl could see was that as she hadn't told anyone about the Plan, no one would ever know how dismally it had failed.  Silver lining and all.


So the boy and the girl left the fireworks.  The boy was still acting weird and standoff-ish and not responding to the girls incessant talking and joking and laughing (by this point it had an edge of hysteria to it) on the walk back into the city where they were going to split a cab back to her car.  Inside the girls mind, her internal monologue repeated over and over - what's going on?  what have I done wrong?  Have I done anything wrong?  I don't think I've done anything wrong but what else could explain the boys sudden change in behaviour?  

In the taxi the boy changed again.  (All this changing was throwing the girls emotions all over the spectrum).  This time he changed back to the boy she knew, the boy she had started the evening with.  The funny, easy-going, relaxed boy she had been flirting with for a  gazillion years over a chicken, cheese, tomato, onion and pepper take-away sandwich.  'Hooray!  Hip-hip-hooray!' went the girl's heart.

Then the boy suggested they stop off for a late-late dinner at a cafe he knew close to where the girl had parked her car because, 'you know, we didn't actually get to eat anything at the fireworks after all and you know, maybe you're hungry because you know, I am'*.  'Hip-hip-hooray! Whoopty-doo-dah! YAAAAYYYYYY' went the girl's heart.

...to be continued.....




* note:  the boy doesn't actually speak like this - the author may be exaggerating a little!

A Modern Day Love Story: Part 1

Photo: photobucket - FindStuff2

Once upon a time there was a girl who worked in a bakery selling bread and cakes and pies and making sandwiches and salad rolls.  She also happened to like eating said bread and cakes and pies and sandwiches but truly, that is another story.

Once upon a time there was also a boy who worked at a service station pumping fuel, checking tyres and oil and water and cleaning windscreens.  He didn't happen to like pumping fuel, checking tyres and oil and water and cleaning windscreens but again, that is another story.

This is the story.....

Every day, for many years, the boy would come into the girl's bakery at roughly the same time (11:30am) and the girl would make him a take-away sandwich for his lunch (chicken, cheese, tomato, onion, pepper no salt, cut into quarters).  This went on every day for years.  Years I'm telling you.  No variation to that sandwich apart from occasionally ham instead of chicken.  That's it. 

Anyhoo, one day the boy told the girl (while she was making his lunch - chicken, cheese, tomato, onion, pepper no salt) that he was leaving to start his own business and he wouldn't be coming into the bakery anymore to get his take-away sandwich.  

The girl was distraught (though she was way too cool to show it).  Years (years!!) of flirting and flashing her eyelashes in the hopes that he would take her hints and ask her out and here he was telling her he was leaving?!?!.   Leaving?!?!?! The girl didn't think so...

So she did something about it.  She made a Plan.  A Plan that involved doing something she would never have done otherwise (the girl really was a shy, retiring type when it came to boys) but took the bull by the horns she did and she did something.

The very next day (she wasn't giving herself the opportunity to back out of her newly-made Plan) she hopped in her little silver car and drove the necessary 45 minutes to the boy's new business.  As this was something very out of character for the girl, she of course told no one of her Plan.  If no one knew the Plan, no one would know the outcome should it fail.  Pessimistic thinking perhaps, or realistic....  

Unfortunately for the girl, she was in the wrong lane as she came closer to his business so she had to drive on by and do a u-turn on a busy road to get back.  Then, when she was just about there, she saw the boy outside his new business and freaked out and kept driving.  Finally, on the third trip by his new business, she pulled her little silver car over, spoke calmly and rationally to herself (not really but the language she used should not be recorded in print!), and after a few deep breaths got out of the car and walked towards the boy.....

To be continued.....

Memorium

Tomorrow it will 12 months since my dad died.

Time has gone so quickly, it's hard to believe it's already been a year.  A tough year to be sure, but it can only get easier from here.

Today I went to a memorial service at his house where a small group of family and friends joined with his widow to plant a tree and erect a plaque in his memory.  

It was a lovely service.  A bit teary at times which was to be expected but lovely none-the-less.

And it was a beautiful spot chosen as well.  Looking over the house, protecting it, guarding it, watching over it and it's occupants.  

The plaque named the site The Serenity Garden.  Dad would like that - he was a big fan of The Castle and loved its catchline, 'how's the serenity?'

RIP Dad.  I miss you.

Patience is a virtue

that I seem to be lacking.


Don't you hate it when you burn your tongue on that first mouthful.  Goddammit.  Now it's all gonna taste like crap.


At least it's not hot potato sticking to the roof of my mouth.  Now that one burns!


How old do I have to be to be old enough to know better?

SiMPly superb

The LOML has left.  He left this morning on a jet-plane.  I don't know when he'll be back again.  Well, actually, that is a lie.  I do know when he'll be back - next Tuesday morning.  But that's not how the song goes!

About now he would be waiting in KL airport, filling in a couple of hours before boarding his connecting flight to Bangkok.  He'll spend the next 5 days there buying up stock for our shop for Christmas (don't kid yourself, it really isn't that far away now) and sending it back.

To save me the major physical, mental and emotional upheaval that results from a stupidly early-morning start topped off by a stupidly long round trip which would have left me beat for the whole time he's away (as happened last week for his over-nighter to Melbourne), we last night stayed at the casino on the Gold Coast.  Nice.

We caught up with our lovely friends Mr & Mrs W for dinner and a few drinks (well, the boys had drinks - Mrs W is preggers with their first child and I wasn't in the mood - shock, horror! - we just watched the boys drink) and, because we were at the casino, a few bets and pokie spins.  I think it's the law that when you are at the casino you have to have at least one bet.  That's what the LOML tells me anyway!!

So after dinner (I had fish and chips - very nice, if small) the LOML hit the tables.  I left him to his own devices and found a quiet corner with Mrs W for a good old chin-wag.  


A couple of hours later this is what the LOML had been up to......

Quite profitable by any standard!  Thanks Jupiters Casino!  You rock!!!

My cut of the profits (because, you know, I'm part of the partnership and staying at the casino was my idea after all) went towards the purchase of this little gem this afternoon.....

14 mega pixels.  As opposed to the measly 5 in my old camera.  

I'm iMPloding with excitement!  (terrible, Muriel, just terrible!).

Now, everybody say 'cheese'.....

Hide and Find

To finish up a great Sunday (after the festival) we had a good old fashioned Aussie BBQ at our house for all the family.

Of course, when the time came to fire up the BBQ, it rained.  

How typical.

Anyway, we weren't about to let something as trivial as a bit of rain stop our dinner so we merely progressed inside and lit the fire to keep us warm while we ate!

It was a great evening with the family - lots of laughing and plenty of jokes and ribbing which is usual at our gatherings.  Kids ran riot, dogs were underfoot and the noise level at times was deafening.

When it was all said and done, everything washed up and dried, toys tidied and put away, and tired nieces and nephews packed into cars and driven home, this is what I found arranged on my dusty shelves.....

this cowboy's rifle has seen better days!

Go Nicko you little champ!  You brighten my day little man!

Festival day

Yesterday the LOML and I went to the annual Languages and Cultures Festival held in the park in the middle of town.

I didn't realise how diverse the population of this region is - people from over 120 countries live here and more than 100 different languages are spoken.   I'm blown away!  I knew we had a lot of different cultures in our town but I didn't know it was that many - fantastic!  

I am acutely aware that some of our townsfolk don't like this diversity for one reason or another and show their dislike through both subtle and blatant forms of racism (unfortunately the LOML deals with this on a daily basis - for some reason these people seem to have the view that different equals bad) but they are the ones missing out.  The festival yesterday showed that.

It was a glorious day - the sun was out, the wind was gentle and the mood was just right for a festival!  There was dancing and singing and food and performances and displays and food and stalls and workshops and more food....!  I'm telling ya, I could have eaten my way around most of the world right there if only my stomach had more room!

I can't really pick my favourite part of the day - it was all great - though the Sudanese lunch we had was divine (couldn't tell you what it was but it was very yummmm!!!) and the smiles and laughter of the Saudi students were contagious!

I can't wait til the festival next year!