Ritualistic puffery

Isn’t it annoying when people make broad generalisations about nationalities or professions because of the good or bad experiences they may have with just a few?

Well let me warn you, I'm about to do just that and commit the dreaded generalisation sin.

Here goes.

I find tradespeople to be more transparent and less complicated than your average white collar professional.
Mechanics, builders, plumbers, painters. You name it. I have never had a bad experience with any of them.

Sure, you might get those who want to charge you more than they should, but usually they engage in the negotiation process in a more ethical and straightforward way than many other professions. I so like a person who calls a spade a spade and can have a laugh without the presence of strategic mind games.

Over the last week I've been helping my sister, who has Parkinson’s disease, move house. In doing so, I've been observing how different people she's come into contact with have treated her during her move. From real estate agents, banks to phone companies and removalists.

Not surprising to me, it was the big burly removalists who were the most sensitive and caring. They were three young guys, well over 6 feet tall, with tattoos up and down their arms, who were not so particular about their ps and qs but who couldn’t do enough for her.

Even though it wasn’t in their remit, they wanted to unpack for her and rearrange the furniture. If they saw her lift anything they fell over each other to go and help her.

They moved more than the quote indicated they should and gave me a wink when I mentioned it.

It made my heart smile. Sometimes the gift is not always in the packaging we expect is it?

Tomorrow I finally sit down to a meeting with some of those white collar professionals. The same Bank I told you about months ago. Yes, it’s taken some time for a meeting hasn't it? They don’t respond as fast as a plumber might. Or speak the same language in fact.

I will just have to remember what an old plumber told me when he came to fix my leaking taps years ago. “You just remember girl, bullshit baffles brains,” he said, as he was trying to teach me how to see through the line of patter that often gets dished out by anyone selling services or products or protecting their interests.

So I guess I will watch out for the bullshit. Ritualistic puffery is not my language of choice (apart from on my blog!). Particularly when it's delivered by people in suits who have allowed a leaking tap to drip unattended for a long, long time.

I do not have the patience to dance around the obvious when it is just as easy to cut to the quick. It will be a collision of the practical and the theoretical I fear.

Send some positive thoughts out into the universe for me.

I wonder if my generalisations about bankers are going to change any.

We shall see.

Have a great week everyone!

Women run the World

I went for a jog and nearly died.

When I recover,

I might be able to gather my thoughts and post something spectacular that will take your breath away.

I'm sure I even frightened the neighbours today.

So much so they probably locked their kids and pets inside.

"Deep throat in runners coming your way, lock your doors and windows people".
I sounded like I was two lungs short and needed emergency treatment by an oxygen tank.

That's not good is it? Gasping for air like that.

Well granted, not if you drop dead in the middle of the road it's not, but I made it home..... before I collapsed.

Health is everything.

Middle age makes you think differently. Granted, its usually about where the closest bathroom stop is. However today I also started to think about who in the neighborhood would know CPR if I collapsed while out jogging.

I ran even faster when I remembered that the creepy guy who lives around the corner is an ex paramedic who's always on his balcony no matter what time of day I walk, run or drive by.

"Hiya", he says, "lovely day for it." CPR or jogging, I wonder?

Note to self: Must remember to change jogging route. Just in case of collapse.

In between grappling for air, and focusing on stride length, foot strike, posture, core, arm swing hip movement and that bottle of wine, I also try and solve the world's problems.

I know, I know, you can thank me later when I've achieved my dreams and yours too.

Occasionally, the lack of oxygen means my thoughts are very, very creative but a bit of lateral thinking never hurt anyone, did it?

Take today. I thought about the US health care reform package.

I know. What a worldly, interested individual I am.

I care even when I'm gasping for air.

You don't get people much better than that.

Well OK, who am I kidding, you know me already. I'm not that civic minded.

I feel for you Americans and all but I have way bigger concerns over this issue.

The truth of the matter is Michelle and the kids are not coming to visit us now because Obama is still trying to push through the Health care reforms and had to delay his trip.

Damn Health Care Bill. What's the matter with it? Why won't it fit? Can't they just shove it in?

I feel cheated. What is a President without his First Lady?

I am seriously disappointed. And it goes without saying she must be too.

So now, Obama is coming to town for 24 hours, on his own.

Well nearly on his own.

There's also the 500 others coming with him.

Who do you imagine these 500 people can be?

Secret Service? Fox News? Who exactly?

I feel I should do something to welcome him to our city.

I need to jog some more and focus on some possibilities.

How to welcome the leader of the Free World.
I may do a jog past and take a picture.

I bet those Secret Service agents know a thing or two about CPR.

Deep throat in runners, that should give them all something to think about.

Oh and my solution today? Women should run the world. We are experts at multi-tasking. Hillary would have made that health care package fit. And I reckon Michelle could have too.

I'll keep doing my best.

Jogging and solving the world's problems. It makes me breathless just thinking about all the possibilities.

PS. Happy St Patrick's Day. To the spammers in internetland, you are driving me crazy with your comments. Go away. Now. And, for the rest of you lovely folk, I shall be around to catch up on all my blog reading in the next day or so. I need to lie down for a while first ...oh yeah, and if you have problems you are looking for a unique solution for, I am happy to give some attention to them in an oxygen deprived state while out running.

What's in a name?

A lot I think.

After all, we have to live with the branding for a long time.

My Scottish friend Helena rang me tonight to tell me she had a baby boy.

This is boy number four and they're all under six

He is healthy and beautiful but still has no name.

She wanted Carlos but her husband thought the name sounded like a Spanish porn star.

So it was now a toss up, she said, between Fabiano or Gitano.

"Which one do you think?" she asked.

Ohhhh...............names are such a personal thing aren't they?

I didn't want to offend and say neither (because to me these names sound like Italian porn stars).
But, as we are good friends and she did ask, I said, "Definitely not Fabiano, it reminds me of Fabio from the covers of Mills & Boon books. At least with Gitano you can say he was named after a great Italian football player."

Helena and her husband are not Italian but they love Italian names. Their other sons are named Marco, Gianluca, and Paolo.

And if their current numbers are anything to go by, they will be able to field their own Italian football team one day soon.

It's funny how names come about.

I had four babies names picked out by the time I was 17 for the two boys and two girls I planned to have.

As it happens, I only used one of these names and fortunately for me, her Dad liked the name too.

I also recall how Des got confused and thought that his first grandchild had been named after a river. When relatives asked about her name soon after her birth, he told them her name was "Nile, as in the Nile River, or something like that".

This is probably why, when she was christened Jordan, and the Jordan River was mentioned in the reading, everyone got the giggles and couldn't stop.

My name came from my grandmother.

I like that. She looms large in my life for many reasons.

However, the most unusual name I have heard in recent times was from a family with the surname Bridge. They named their baby girl Sydney Harbour....Bridge. Why oh why?

What about you? Is there an interesting story to your name (even your anonymous blogger name if you use one), or of someone you know?

Succinct, salacious and short I am not

Dear Facebook
I never realised how special you were.

Until now.

It was only last week that I was telling a group of people that you and I weren't even acquaintances, let alone friends.

They all looked at each other in undisguised shock and laughed.

“No way”, they said, "you don't use Facebook?"




"Um, no".
I felt like the lone wall flower at the school dance.

It wasn't as if I had announced that I'd never used a toothbrush or worn underwear or paid taxes. Yet, I still felt I was committing some kind of terrible Social Sin.

I know that we are now defined by our social media presence but who really has time for Blogging, Twitter and you too?

I tried twittering but I got sick of the short, staccato, sentence speak. I am not succinct and salacious enough. And the only people that wanted to follow me belonged on XXX sites.
And you? Well, forgive me for saying this, but you always seemed a tad sleazy and stalkerish to me.

Why? Well think about all the information people give you. Not just their name, age and where they live, but the results of all those amusing little ‘which Twilight cast member are you most like?’ personality tests, details of their private life and all sorts of other information about who they are, what they do and where they spend their time.

A 'private' company with all that information. You could rule the world you know, you great big Media Giant.

However, as the world turns, it just so happens that I learnt some positive things about you this week that sent shivers down my spine.

First, I read in the newspaper about your war involvement.

Because of you, the Israel Army was forced to call off a raid on the West Bank after one of its soldiers mentioned it to you and you told the whole world. The soldier updated his page with, “On Wednesday we are cleaning Qantanna, and on Thursday, God willing, Going home”. The army had to cancel the raid. His page contained details of his unit and the exact time and location of the planned sweep. He was jailed unfortunately for his stupid blabbermouth mistake but no-one got bombed at least.

Then yesterday, my daughter emailed me.

A week ago, she was finally finishing her unpacking after moving to a new city. She found letters that an ex boyfriend had written her when she was a young teenager. She put a message on her Facebook page asking if anyone knew what happened to this guy. None of her friends knew and he wasn't a friend of yours either. No Facebook page.

But reconnection is your middle name, isn't it?

Yesterday, at 7.30am, my daughter was presenting some ‘Legal Eagle straight over my head type of talk’ at a breakfast seminar.

And guess what?

She looked out into the audience and her teenage boyfriend was sitting there, smack bang in the front row.

Co-incidence? I think not. Facebook you are seriously freaky. How did you do that? You really do reconnect old friends online and offline and deliver it faster than the Universe or Oprah could manage.

Maybe I will change my mind about you after all. How can I mistrust you when all you want to do is make friends and stop wars.

Your 'possible' new friend


Lilly

Do you have any freakish Facebook stories, good or bad to share? And let me know if you are on Facebook, I really want to know how much of a social outcast I really am.

Funny or Die

Have strong feelings about the greed of some of our financial institutions?

Watch this clever video directed by award winning Director Ron Howard called, Heidi Montag says no to plastic.



Here is another video from Funny or Die with a similar message featuring a whole host of famous faces.




And speaking of ex Presidents, someone sent me this quote a few weeks ago given my own problems with a Bank.

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up round the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continents their fathers conquered."

Thomas Jefferson said this in 1802. Imagine.

The more things change in the World the more they stay the same. Maybe we need to go back into the archives and find out what else Jefferson had to say...he clearly knew what he was talking about.

However, what holds true I guess is that no matter what year we are living in or where we happen to be, we, 'the people', have the power when we use it wisely, courageously, proactively and with one voice. We just need to start saying, 'No, that is not acceptable', a bit more loudly and more often in our daily lives. A wonderful example of this is the latest post on Gappa.

Wednesday is bright and sunny for me, a gorgeous Autumn day hope you have a great one where you are.

It's a dog's world

WOOF!

Alright, so Jane's talking about having Warren Beatty over for lunch on her blog and Roseanne's ranting about the horrors of being gay in the Mormon Church on hers and Oprah 's talking about going to Oscar Parties and so now all I’ve got to talk about on my blog is ...dogs in drag.

I started out with such good blog intentions. I opened up the computer this morning in anticipation for some interesting news only to see this major headline – Football star in Sex Romp. B-O-R-I-N-G.

Sex scandals have been done to death! Over them. Nothing new to report on there.

Moving on, I had to bypass the post Oscar headlines about the surprises, spats, and styles before finding something that really caught my eye.

It was probably the word 'make-up' in the headline.

Except it wasn't quite what I expected.

It was actually a story about a dog show in the UK which has had to warn dog owners not to break its rules amid concerns that some are resorting to make-up, hair dye and other beauty treatments for their animals.

Yes, we are talking makeup for four legged creatures.

Competition rules do not specifically ban cosmetics and other treatments such as hair removing creams, but they do forbid anything that alters an animal's appearance.

Who knew? Apparently you can buy nose paint, dyes for a dog's coat, hairspray and make-up. Lipstick and eyeliner are also used on some dogs, and some owners employ depilatory cream to neaten the appearance of hairless breeds. Brazilians for dogs, why I never.

It got me thinking, how many people subject their pets to this type of stuff?

How far do you go to keep your pet(s) well groomed and gorgeous? C'mon fess up.

And if you tell me false eyelashes, hair dye, spray tan and botox, well I might have to ban you from my blog. Sorry, there's no way I would want a pet looking better than me - there's only room for one dog in the family…

And as for me, well my gold fish are treated luxuriously, I let them have a long bath but.... that's the extent of their spa treatments.

Have a fun Tuesday people and if you ever need your pooch done up like a tart, just woof and I'll be there with my bag of makeup tricks.

Oh I have to share this, the wonderfully talented Ugich from the Gappa blog has made up the same pooch Indian style - using the Paint program - perhaps there is something about dressing our pets after all, lol! Anyone else want to have a go?

What is your favourite Oscar moment?

For me, it would have to be when Australian Geoffrey Rush won the Best Actor Award for Shine in 1996.

Geoffrey was neither young or handsome in the way many leading actors are. In fact he was a struggling stage actor.

And of course, like the best of Cinderella stories, the Oscar changed everything for him.

As of November 2009, he is one of 22 people to have won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and an Emmy Award, and has also won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Australian Film Institute awards

Over the years we have had many Australians nominated and many who have won - Nicole, Mel, Cate, Russell, Heath, Peter Finch. We have even had those who have tried to pass themselves off as Australians. I was just reading this site which has some interesting Oscar facts and learnt that Merle Oberon who was nominated for an Oscar in 1935 said she was Australian. However it turned out that this was what the studio and Oberon herself perpetuated to hide the fact that she was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, to unmarried parents (an Anglo-Sri Lankan mother and an unknown father).



So what about you, do you have a favourite Oscar moment?

Is Google going to hell and us with it?

It’s been officially months since I did it.

Looked at my Google Analytics that is.

It makes me laugh.

I like looking at the key words and questions people type into Google which leads them to my blog.

Now I’ve told you this before. My most popular searches other than my blog name are, how to have sex on a motorcycle, how to making icing lillys and how to forgive and forget. Clearly there are a whole lot of people across the world asking Google how to forgive their cheating partners who were off doing fancy acrobatics on their motor bikes with someone else while they were home baking cupcakes.

As a blogger, I do feel some responsibility to help the people of the Internet try and find answers to their most pressing questions. I mean Google has sure helped me. And besides, it’s Friday and time to have a little fun.

Here is a pic of yours truly taken moments ago. Shock, horror! I am looking awfully surprised right? That's because there were a few things I read in Analytics that shocked my sensitive soul and would no doubt scare away some of my equally sensitive readers if I repeated them here. In fact it's pretty safe to say there are some scary people out there in internetland and I am not really sure that letting hard core prisoners have internet access is such a good idea. But, I will share a few of the more palatable and funnier search questions.

By the way, before you even ask why I look like a deer in headlights, here is a litle tip I am willing to share as long as you keep it to yourselves. I've discovered that if I keep my eyebrows raised, stare straight ahead, turn my head on an angle and adopt a stupid grin it’s exactly the same effect as having had multiple jabs of Botox (but way cheaper).

I know you will thank me for that little pearl but hey thats what we bloggers do for one another. No comments please about the orange looking hair or the pink liptsick that decidedly clashes, that's a whole other story about a home dye job gone wrong and one that can wait (orange and hot pink are my favourite decorator colours of the moment, it's just that I really do not fancy them on my head).And please before I get on with answering the 'googler questions', can you do something for me? Anyone with Google Analytics - please go check your key words and let me know the funniest thing you can find. There will be a prize for the funniest search terms.

Dear Lilly
Here goes,

1. How can Madonna see someone so much younger?
Because she now wears bi-focals.

2. What can you say about your mother?Not a great deal, she reads my blog. I will say this much though, Моя мать - самая замечательная женщина в целом широком мире. Она шикарна, умна и добра.

3. What is a tweep?If you send a message on twitter you tweep. Or alternatively, it’s an expression of incredible angst that Lilly uses when reading stupid questions from twats.

4. Do you ever say God I’m hot?Hell yes - all the time. It’s the confidence that comes with middle-age I think. It usually happens in the middle of the night when I am in the throes of what I think is called 'a night sweat'. Yeah middle-age....nothing like it! We middle-aged women are all HOT!

5. Can you get arrested for taking a bath with your grandchildren?This is a disturbing question. The fact you have to ask this question of Google, means YES YOU CAN! AND SOON!

6. Can your parents get you arrested for being too fat?It all depends on who has the control of the fridge, you or them. Rest assured, your parents are to blame for everything wrong in your life. That’s just the way God made the world. It's the same for all of us and has kept many a psychiatrist in their fancy hill top mansions. Chill out. Just nowhere near the fridge if you wouldn't mind.

7. Why is George Clooney not hot anymore?He’s a cold case, that’s why.

 8. George and lily marry in las vegasDamn George, this ain’t Hollywood. All your dreams don’t come true. An Oscar is about all you can hope to get at this point.

9. Do I have to be comfortable to be arrested?Well, personally I always like to slip into something more comfortable before the police knock on my door and drag me away. I also have a bag packed for moments just like this. That way I can change in the back of the police car if needs be. Problem is they are wont to make you put on the ugly prison wardrobe. It scratches like hell and unfortunately is not the least bit comfortable. I hope you can, at least, take some comfort from my experiences. Crime pays but is very uncomfortable.

10. Is love blind?And deaf, dumb and stupid too. Oh yes....and still it doesn't stop us..... 

11. How do I get a hairless body style?This is tricky and depends on how hirsute you happen to be. Are you going for the total body Brazillian? If so, I suggest you have a bath in a hot tub of boiling wax. That should do the trick. The pain will be worth the silky smoothness of your skin. As they say, no pain, no gain. And the red burnt look fades eventually....trust me on that one.

12. Help, I met my soul mate and he’s 30 years younger than me.Madonna, stop bragging, I am busy helping those who really need it.

13. How do I find Brad Pitt’s schedule?I guess, like me, you would find Brad's schedule particulary exhausting. All those kids, films, premieres, planes, boats, papparazzi etc. Oh, I see, you don't mean that? You want to know how to stalk Brad from day to day? I guess you could ask Angie or hang out at airports, anywhere, or childcare centres. And for the record… I really truly, deeply, hope and pray to every single god, goddess, deity, clothing manufacturer – Buddhist and otherwise – that Brad & Angie never ever ever break-up, and that they adopt me NEXT.

14. How do I look beautiful in 2 weeks?If I could answer that I would be a millionaire. I will tell you what works for me. Put on the largest pair of sunglasses that you can find and whatever you do don’t take them off. Oh, and raise your eyebrows and stare with a stupid grin on your face. It will get you attention even if not the right kind. There comes a point in a girl's life where any attention is good enough.

15. I have lied about my age, what should I do?The world already knows Madonna, you clearly do not read News of the World.

16. I love him but he doesn’t know he loves me too.I told you Madonna I have real people with real problems who need my help. We get it, everyone is in love with you. You are special, now go away.

17. Is Lilly’s head really bald?
Why would you say something like that? What the hell makes you think that? To set the record straight, I have a full head of now orange looking hair and let me tell you that's way worse than being bald.

18. Lilly, I’ve been thinking.Congratulations, that’s encouraging. I’ll be waiting...and when that first thought pops into your head.......let me know. Don't think I'll be holding my breath waiting somehow.
 

19. Why do Australians never sound Australian when they blog?Fair dinkum, this is the weirdest question I have ever heard. Once an Aussie blogger camped by a billabong with Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett. And they ate kangaroo and drank a few cans of Fosters before joining raucously in a chorus of Waltzing Matilda. There, does that sound Aussie enough for you mate? We write in English, and just have an Australian accent.

20. Can I forgive boyfriend for cocaine addiction and multiple
sex partners?NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo! Let me repeat that N.O.
 

21. Is everyone lying when they say lemon juice gets rid of freckles?You betcha, they are. I see you read that Nicole Kidman interview in Vanity Fair too. It’s a lemon alright. Listen up. Two words for you. Plastic Surgeon.

22. How can I find some jokes about menopause?If you value your life, don't even go there.....there’s nothing freaking funny about it and yes, that’s a knife in my hand. A Crocodile Dundee (Paul Hogan) type of knife.

23. How do I get a well trained husband?Apart from a several month secondment to a zoo, I suggest paying careful attention to his mother, preferably before you make any commitment. It is my belief that mothers train their sons on how to treat women. Otherwise, if all else fails, hire Cesar Millan (famous dog trainer).

Phew! And if you made it all the way to the end, have a great weekend and don’t forget to read your Google Analytics. It will make you feel better about your own life even though you may despair moreso for the world at large.

When in Rome....

J: (recently moved to a new city) Oh Mum, I just can't get used to the rudeness of people who push and shove their way past everyone else to get on the tram. Someone is going to get hurt. People don't seem to care just as long as they get a seat. It's survival of the fittest, I am telling you.
Me: Oh no, that sounds terrible. So does that mean you have to stand all the way to work?

J: Are you kidding? Of course not. I always get a seat.

She always was a fast learner.

So if you see a young, dark haired girl at your tram stop, with a look of steely eyed determination, and a stiletto shoe in one hand coming straight at you, I'd get out of the way.......... fast.

Bless.

And as I said to her it could be worse, imagine catching public transport in this city......tinned sardines spring to mind.

Food for Thought

Every Friday, I walked past the trestle tables of bakery goods, drinks and a large pot of soup and didn't pay much attention.

It was all part of the scenery in the busy city Centre, which over time becomes a blur.

One day I noticed through the crowds of people milling around the tables, a tiny woman ladling soup into cups. You could barely see her over the extremely large pot of soup.

Who was she, I wondered.
I became very curious and I started to pay more attention when I would walk by, deliberately slowing down to catch sight of her. She was there every Friday and seemed very feisty and opinionated.

One day I decided to stop and speak to her.

I soon realised that if you hang round this lady for even a few seconds she will either put you to work or make you try her soup.

Stasia Dabrowski doesn’t think there is anything special about what she does. She is 84 years old and for the last 28 years she has been feeding the hungry and disadvantaged every Friday in the city centre.

She helped her son start the Soup Kitchen after he beat his heroin addiction and then after he went to Europe to live she just kept it going.

She gets up at 4am on Fridays to chop and peel 150kg of vegetables to make the “best soup in the world”. She uses a lot of her own money to do so.

“It’s just veges, veges, veges”, she said “because meat is poison. Go to Europe and you will find out, animals eat grass for their own energy and you eat what is left of it”.

This lady is one of life's characters.

Stasia was born in the southern mountains of Poland in 1926. During the occupation of Poland in WWII her family's lives were devastated — she lost everything and was driven into forced labour. After WWII she worked as a nurse and matron before moving to Australia with her husband and young family.

As her qualifications were not recognised in Australia she did voluntary house cleaning and emergency services for the Red Cross, looking after the bedridden and needy. She started cooking and providing essentials for the needy in the late 1970s, the start of the Soup Kitchen.

When I asked her why she does it, week after week, she said, “You don’t do it because you enjoy it, it’s because it’s your responsibility. You are doing what is right. Enjoyment is not enough”.

“People have forgotten their responsibility that’s why we have so many problems today,” she said gesturing around.

“They don’t understand, death, caring and compassion.

“You must love one another, help one another, never judging. If you know right from wrong, put it into practice.”

It’s simple, isn’t it?

Sometimes it’s worth opening your eyes to the lessons that are right there in front of you.

But like I did for years, so often we just walk on by.
Have a beautiful Wednesday everyone. And A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my baby sister Anne-Maree!

The light is back on

Ogling two pretty young things in a bar, the Mad Men TV series' ad executive Roger Sterling bemoans, "It's like they hit 30 and somebody puts out a light."

The 60s. I love the fashions but the attitudes, woah! Can you believe it? They were the days when a woman was expected to look her age, with her life expectancy a paltry 74, a decade lower than today.

Just yesterday my 20 something daughter told me that she was looking forward to her 30s. How times have changed. There was a time, which just seems like yesterday, that I wanted to remain 25 forever because I thought I was on a rapid decline from there.

My views on aging, changed somewhat when I went to southern Italy. Age seems irrelevant. Women of all ages are admired, watched and paid attention to. And its been my favourite destination for this and many other reasons ever since.

Thank goodness that somewhere amid our eternal youth obsession, the rest of the world is catching up. It's now older women who have become the ones to watch. They have style and substance. The new fashion icons -from Helen Mirren to Michelle Obama - prove that maturity has its own powerful allure.

Perceptions of beauty have always been as changeable as beauty itself and redefined on a whim. It's no longer youth we revere but substance. Experience over a fresh face, wisdom over innocence. A pert mind is more appealing than, well ...

We've all heard 40 is the new 20, 50 the new 30, and at last it seems we mean it. Far from fading into oblivion, women over 40 are no longer invisible.

What do you think, is society's obsession with youth changing? Or maybe where you come from, the elderly have always been highly revered.

Tomorrow's post: Stasia Dabrowski an 84 year old Polish woman who is a local hero of mine and who taught me to love people and use things as opposed to love things and use people.

X plus Y = Z

Apparently an anonymous reader thinks they have found the solution as to why I am finding it so hard to blog these days. Calculating hey. All good in theory but I am way more complex that that. Although how funny would it be to present your life as a set of linear equations. It would be way easier to solve life's problems this way. When one pair of coefficients are negatives of one another, add the equations vertically, and that unknown will cancel. We will then have one equation in one unknown, which we can solve. Simple and straightforward. Shame I was always so lousy at algebra. However, it has given me an idea for a blog series, thank you.
Yes, I am sort of over my few months of distractions, involving police, banks and exes and I would love to blog about all those but would need to let you see it by password alone for fear of getting sued. My life is way juicier than I even care to read but at some point I am going to share and perhaps password only posts are the way to go.

I'm going to be blogging every day this month because I need to get back into writing and find my sense of humor again. There's lots happening this month with Shelle and Barry coming to town. Yes, the President and First Lady are bringing the kids down under just to say G'day. I guess the city will be overrun by Secret Service and the city will be shut down so there's not much chance I will be getting any photo ops I daresay. However, I'm sure I will find a scoop to bring you on Lilly's Life even if I have to cause a scene myself and create some drama. I'm positive they'll like our Aussie Bush anyway. And given it's beach weather here it will make a nice change for them. I just have my fingers crossed that our journalists don't ask the one question they ask everyone who lands here....... as soon someone sets foot on the tarmac they ask, "So, what do you think of Australia?" Duh! Cringeworthy..... See you tomorrow, have a sweet Monday!

First day of Autumn here......and first day of Spring there....enjoy.