VODAFONE
I DON’T HAVE WORDS FOR THIS. WE TRIED CHILLI BROADBAND AND WE TRIED BIG AIR. THEN WE CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT WE HAD BEST STICK WITH THE BIG COMPANIES AND VODAFONE HAD SERVED WELL WITH THE MOBILE. SEEMED TO WORK WELL WITH THE NEW MOBILE BROADBAND . WORKED WELL FOR MONTHS. WELL IT WORKED WELL AT BILAMBIL AND IT WORKED WELL IN GRAFTON AND ARMIDALE. IT WORKED QUITE WELL IN BRISBANE AND MOST LIKELY WOULD DOWN IN COOLANGATTA OR SYDNEY.
IT DID NOT WORK AT ALL IN KALANG, BELLINGEN OR URUNGA BUT – WE ALLOWED FOR THAT. THEY’RE RURAL AND I SO DID NOT WANT TO REVISIT THE 2007 ENTANGLEMENT WITH TELSTRA AND THE HASSLES WHICH LED TO THE PETITION AND TOWN RALLY.
THEN – A COUPLE OF MONTHS BACK – VODAFONE MOBILE BEGINS TO FAIL OUT HERE IN THE COTTAGE. DROPS OUT. FAILURE TO CONNECT. FAILURE TO OPEN A PAGE. WHATEVER COULD GO WRONG – IT WENT WRONG. SO I BEGAN THE FAMILIAR COMPLAINING PROCESS AND MET THE FAMILIAR HURDLES. VODAFONE HAVE THE ADDED ELEMENT OF LARA THE PRETEND HUMAN ON THE OTHER END OF THE PHONE AND THE FAMILIAR STAGES TO REACH HUMAN ASSISTANCE – PATENTLY NOT BASED IN AUSTRALIA NOR UNDERSTANDING ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT THE LOCALE OR THE SITUATION HERE. THEN WE CONTINUJED WITH THE HAVOC. POLITE AS PER USUAL. OBSTRUCTIVE AS PER USUAL.
AS PER USUAL – THEY ALSO SPOKE IN INHOUSE TERMINOLOGY WHICH THEY UNDERSTOOD (SEEMINGLY) BUT WHICH I DID NOT. DURING THE PROCESS – AS PER USUAL – WE CONTINUED TO PAY THE BILL WHILST UNABLE TO ACCESS THE SERVICE FOR WHICH WE WERE PAYING.
WAY INTO THE WEEKS OF THINKING PERHAPS IT WAS A TEMPORARY ABERRATION – THAT IT WOULD WORK AGAIN – THAT SOMEBODY WOULD REMEDY IT – THE KNOWLEDGE AGAIN CAME WHISPERING THAT VODAFONE WAS OPERATING AS EFFICIENTLY AS THE LESSER KNOWN CHILLI AND BIG AIR .
SO ONTO THE OMBUDSMAN AND A HIGHER LEVEL OF VODAFONE INTERVENTION. SO AS IT STANDS AND LEAVING OUT THE DETAILS FROM SHEER WEARINESS OF SPIRIT – VODAFONE OFFERS TO RELEASE US FROM OUR CONTRACT HAVING INTIMATED THAT WE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE HONEST PEOPLE AND NOT JUST TRYING TO ESCAPE THE CONTRACT- FOR GOD’S SAKE VODAFONE – WE CHOSE IT BECAUSE WE WANTED IT. WE ACTUALLY WANT IT TO WORK !!!!!!! BUT IT DOESN’T . WE HAVE BEEN PUT BACK ONTO GPRS, REFUNDED ONE MONTH’S BILL OF $80 – PROMISED THAT IT WOULD BE INVESTIGATED AND THEY WOULD GET BACK TO US . THEY HAVE NOT GOT BACK TO US. IT DOES NOT WORK. WE WILL NOT BE COMPENSATED . WE CAN EXIT THE CONTRACT IS ALL.
POORLY DONE VODAFONE. THEY TELL US ITS A NETWORK PROBLEM. CONFLICT BETWEEN 3G AND WHATEVER. NOT GOOD ENOUGH AT ALL !
SUNDAY NIGHT
LYNNE truly cannot see why all of us who love one another don’t live within easy reach of one another. On that thought I shall look at old fotos for comfort.
This is Kati B with her FIRST CAR. Her mother’s first car was a British Racing Green Mini . She got it in 1970 to go teaching in Rosewood near Tumbarumba. Kati has hers to go working in Bellingen.
DISTURBING THE COMFORTABLE AND COMFORTING THE DISTURBED.
REHEARSING WITH GABI BLISS
THURSDAY AFTERNOON and we are in the COTTAGE. THEY are rehearsing for GABI BLISS on SATURDAY.
THAT’S the poster. Been out sticking them up all over the place. Down at Panorama Plaza in the place of Rejection – Chick stuck ‘em up and in bus shelters and on backs of loo doors because this weekend is the launch of REFLEXIONS. GABI BLISS is on the loose. Out on the FRONT PORCH with Evan on Lead, Izzy on bass and kazoo and Mike Fisher on drums. The Cottage sits on top of the Hill with the BILAMBIL VALLEY down there – amphitheatre like. Up here the new PA is set up. The DOS is out at lunch for the day. The Electric guitars are plugged in. Mike Fisher is here with his drums and the Final Rehearsal is on.
SATURDAY – BUDDHA BELLY CAFE AT UKI.
SEE YOU THERE.
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SUNDAY ON THE HILL
With winds accompanying and some Rolheiser in me – about the choosing of loneliness. Quoting Nouwen and others. I am immersed still in the NATIONAL LIBRARY AUSTRALIA HISTORIC NEWSPAPERS. Doing a KENDALL search of 3300 articles which is boring despite locating further Kendallian crimes a la BASIL.
Today we are to lunch out down near TROPICAL FRUIT WORLD.
Now for a foto from the CD drawer on the right hand side of my desk and some from my WD PASSPORT. My spare hard drive of 80 gig.
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Here is a Jamieson’s restaurant meal before Michael left. If you are in Burrum Heads near Hervey Bay – try the Bowling Club there. Say Hello to this very nice man and lovely cook. I was extraordinarily fond of his vegie curries as were my friends. They are GONE from Jamoze now AS ARE WE. |
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August 2005 we were in Armidale for Robert’s 50th birthday party. Cold up there so it is. Wee Robbie tried out the Golden Ukelele that the Mad O’Brians sent . Thats my bed on the floor. I slept on floors quite a lot at one time. Nowadays when I travel to The Kids – They provide me with luxurious beds in spare rooms. Rather nice. |
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I travel mostly with Izzy in the Star Wagon nowadays – but for years was accustomed to the KEANS COACHES and the $2.50 COUTNRYLINK mode of transportation. Keans take me from Bellingen to Armidale in 2 simple hours with accompanying video.
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WE ALL COME FROM A SMALL TOWN
Been on my mind all week that saying has.
21 YEARS OLD
WELL the day has come and thankfully darkness has come and I am inside. Cavernous. Hibernation. For me it was one of those days. THOSE days. Sitting on a hillside looking out to sea.
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Resurrexit in Deo. My midnight Vigils are no more Cold sleep and Peace succeed ; THE pains of Death are passed and o’er, My wounds no longer bleed. But when my murderers appear Before Jehovah’s Throne, Mine will it be to vanquish there - And theirs t’endure alone. |
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Then again this is one anniversary which brings me often to a deeper grieving because I DO wish it had been otherwise. One of those times when ONLY a SUFFERING GOD WILL DO. Or an open air one. Something anyways which makes it tolerable to have left two small children alone. Something which makes sense of non-sensical. |
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I was to chair the morning meeting but simply lacked the wherewithal. In fact I lacked the wherewithal to do anything so we went to see DARK KNIGHT at Coolangatta in the Showcase. The bizarre nature of that shook me out of some doldrums but I am not yet out of the woods. |
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MURDER AND MAYHEM
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A MISCELLANY OF MURDER AND MAYHEM IN THE 19TH CENTURY IN THE COLONY |
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| 1803 | http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article625757 |
most barbarous and dreadful MURDER |
BELLINGER NOTES FROM THE NLA NEWSPAPERS
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article692605
SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE : COASTERS IN 1847.
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BELLINGER CEDAR IN 1847
NORTHERN CEDAR.-On Monday last we noticed the arrival of some extraordinarily large logs of cedar, by the new schooner built at the Bellinger River for Mr. John Robertson, Market Wharf: Since then we have learnt that one-half the cargo (30,000 feet cedar) is the produce of only one tree, the parent of the immense logs first noticed. This interesting specimen of Bellinger produce yielded about 15,000 feet sawn timber, and realised in Sydney upwards of one hundred guineas. The purchase, we believe, has been made for the China market; and as the quality of this cedar is correspondent with its magnitude, it will tend, we trust, to increase the growing repute of Australian cedar with the Celestials.-S. M. Herald, August 19. 1847
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article692605
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http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article680322
MURDERS BY THE BLACKS.- Intelligence was received yesterday, in Sydney, from the Bellinger River, dated the 17th inst. stating
that Daniel Devlin, His wife, and Dennis Cheyne, all living on John Robertson’s cedar cutting station, had been inhumanly murdered by the blacks. The same letter also states that a civilized black, who had been living for a considerable time with Commissioner Massie, had been decoyed away and murdered by the Maitland tribe on the M’Leay River. The white population of these districts are said to be out in pursuit of tbe savages. The particulars may be expected in Sydney in a few days. Mrs. Devlin has left a child nine months old. Her parents
reside at the Five Islands.-Herald, Mar. 30. 1846
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more tales of BELLINGEN and the 19th Century in the Colony on :
http://melindakendall.wordpress.com/
http://lynnesheritage.wordpress.com/
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SUNDAY AGAIN IN BILAMBIL AGAIN
Sometimes Paradise is a prison of its very own. I have therefore included another August foto. This one is Kerry at Prindable Park in Bilambil. Kerry took very good care of me through some very hard times. She and her man brought me sustenance and helped move me from under the House at Tumbulgum where the spiders were as big as baby kittens and the flood waters rose.
We argued over two milkshakes at the New Leaf in Murwillumbah and haven’t been close since . Neither of us drank the milkshake either. I have the tapestry she made me right here beside me at my window in the Cottage. We did go to Prindable Park which was named after the family a Marian. The wee lady who loved me in the 1980s. I knew her in Sydney and she lived in Neutral Bay. Years later a I followed the threads of life I came to this place. Turned out to be her childhood home. Back when the ferry crossed the river and her father drove them sober in a cart with horses to Tumbulgum to shop and they drove him home drunk.
CASSANDRA POMROY IN AUGUST
Another thing which happens in AUGUST is the birthday of CASSANDRA POMROY. She was born in MT TOM PRICE W.A in 1978. August 23rd.
That means that this year she is 30
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CASSANDRA AT HOME WITH HER FAMILY AND AT HER GRANDPARENT’S GOLDEN WEDDING . |
CASSANDRA WITH HER COUSIN KATE ANOTHER 1978 BABY. AT SOUTH ARM VIA BELLINGEN & URUNGA. |
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 CASSI WITH ME. |
AUSTRALIA NATIONAL LIBRARY NEWSPAPERS
This is my discovery of the month. Amongst the NSW STATE LIBRARY newspapers. Paradise unlimited for me. And for Kati B who says it is much like her job at MEDIA MONITORS where she worked before returning to the country and taking up employment at the IGA Deli and the BOILING BILLY now known as the BLACK BEAR.
FOR MORE NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS TAKE A LOOK AT
MY FAMILY HERITAGE WEBSITE
RAMBLING RESEARCH INTO THE LIFE AND WRITING OF MELINDA KENDALL
| http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1651031 This one is a wee story about a lost watch in Bellingen. Izzy has a song about a lost watch and a song could well be writ about this one. WATCH. FOUND AFTER 8 YEARS. An inscribed gold watch which was to have been presented by the citizens of Bellingen (N.S.W in 1900 to Thomas Byrnes the postmaster in Bellingen mysteriously disappeared before the presentation. It was found on Sunday in a rubbish tip by Joe White, a boy born since the watch was lost. The watch is still in good order, and will be publicly presented to Mr Byrnes. Saturday 22 September 1917 THE ARGUS |
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THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN AUGUST
Last year, in August, Izzy had a cardiac incident which put him in the BRISBANE WOMENS AND CHILDRENS HOSPITAL. Was once called the GENERAL – so the taxi cab driver told me. He told me also of living in Europe in a room with a landlady and having access to city lanes and cafes and cobblestoned life. That appeals to me.
In August of 2006, I took a drive up to POINT DANGER to watch the dredge PORT FREDERICK coming in at the mouth of the TWEED RIVER. I am done with this area so I am and wish myself gone to the next good place. But for the moment , I am here so I RE-COLLECT.
Re-collect and gather my thoughts and memories as Izzy and I come to decision-making about our next moves. Izzy had a brutal SMS during the week – it left me once the wild winds had settled with one message : THIS IS A SMALL TOWN AND WE WERE HERE FIRST.
Ah now there’s a loving thought.
Not a very small town. i am used to very small towns or the heart of very large cities.
My Old GentleMan was bringing me lunch on the lawn of the Gallery in August of 2006. Neither of us knowing what was behind my being given those days of Art Gallery work. He has taken very good care of me and I am very fond of him as I am of my wee daughter in law.
Now what happened in August 2005 ?
We all went West and up the mountains for the 50th Birthday of Kate and Mad O’Brians father. That was cold. Armidale IS cold. Jolene said snow was predicted yesterday for her birthday. Here in Bilambil we were in singlets and jeans and only one sleeping bag for bedding. Mind you it is one fine sleeping bag purchased for Izzy’s wintermoon experience. I am staying here for 16 days to watch the Olympics and read old newspapers and then I plan the next ARMIDALE experience. it could be the $2.50 train ride or it could be a CHARADE ride. I would prefer the STAR WAGON but finances might prevent that. I am waiting for September and signs of SPRINGTIME unless one of the job applications comes in first.
My mother JOYCE BELL SANDERS passed away in August. August 28th 2001. 74 years old. Suddenly in Coffs harbour hospital. I got clean in August . August 12th 1987.
My sister Susan Sanders married MARK POMROY a long time ago at the end of August. At Bellingen Courthouse.
I,myself, was married in August at the Church near the Roundabout and then had a reception at BELLINGEN BOWLING CLUB – there are some low points in one’s life. AUGUST seems the wrong word for this month to me. Usually Dis-Gust-ing.
FOTOS AND THOUGHTS ON FIRST DAY OF BEIJING OLYMPICS
We found this painting in the Antique shop in DORRIGO NSW between the Kids in ARMIDALE and Kati B and IMM in KALANG. A vast old shop which has 3 previous influences on my life. The painting is of the 2nd Scots Church in Sydney in the 19th Century. Melinda and Basil Kendall married in the 2nd Scots Church but we think it was a month or so before this building was completed and likely they were in the courthouse or another nearby building.
The previous three influences of this corner shop in Dorrigo on me were :-
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When I was a newly formed adolescent, we did our once a year holiday in Urunga , one day trip to Dorrigo and in the corner shop in Dorrigo which then operated as a massive general store, I was looking at 2 piece costumes when the lady assistant made it clear that a size 32 top was not the size to be considering the wearing of a 2 piece costume. It did the combined effect on me of a) shattering my fragile self image and b) inspiring a militant I WILL SHOW YOU attitude which contributed to my later wearing a black bikini on Manly Beach which did not conform with the Council By-Laws.
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When Tony Bahles and I had the WHITE ROSE TRADING COMPANY in URUNGA in the early 1970s the REFORMATION had begun and we went to the corner shop in Dorrigo as they ripped out the fittings and sold out such things as the CASH REGISTER and the cedar shop counter. We bought odds and ends from them and donated some to Urunga Museum before they were all discarded lightly.
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The third impactful time for me is not so much the corner shop other than getting of the Keans Coach from Urunga to Armidale and standing beside it before the present owner restored it to a state of wonderment – I stood there on the corner of what seemed a cold and bleak wasteland, and thought back on the 1960s and 1970s ans was rather sad. Then I took myself into a cafe and it turned out to be Lynne Beverige’s cafe and in the 4 minutes I had before the Keans Coach took off – she told me how she had come to be with the partner she was then with and I knew one day it would come in useful in my life and so it has.
HILLBILLIES AT BRUNSWICK AND OLYMPICS IN BEIJING
the 8-8-08 was a big day.
- JOLENE’S BIRTHDAY
- HILLBILLY BLUES BANDITS AT BRUNSWICK HEADS
- OLYMPICS OPENING IN BEIJING
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We had a good deal of trouble wrapping her gift in a manner which AUSTRALIA POST found acceptable and I think it didn’t get there in on the correct date as a result. I am sorry for that because I like my little daughter in law very much and would give her far more if I could.
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The weather was mild and starlit and The Bandits were at Brunswick Heads Hotel which has very good food , good atmosphere and good people. We met up with a lady by the name of Pam Burnard from the UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE and did some PhD talking. The crowd loved the Bandits and PJ did a fine drumming to Scrubby’s Train songs. Down on the corner I saw a sign saying astronomy event here today and a large telescope set up with a van beside it which appeared have a video of the astronomy event showing but by the time I did a circuit of the block and returned to take a look – the scope and the van were gone. |
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A grand night all round with dancers from wee children to cartwheelers , skiffling 20 year olds , lovers from Cambridge University and a couple just slightly older than Iz and me , all on their feet and singing along. They are threatening to cut out live music due to the complainers. What sense does it make to stop the families dancing ? |
Just to bring it into the category of ” THIS IS A NIGHT I CAN ADD TO MY NIGHTS I REMEMBER WELL” , Dave brought down the big screens and I seated myself in a carved wooden seat near the big gas burners while the lads packed the gear away and I watched the OLYMPICS OPENING IN BEIJING. |
RETIREMENTS AND BOB DYLAN
Well – I don’t know whether those two concepts juxtapose easily and it don’t matter. We spent yesterday afternoon up McAllister’s Road for David’s retirement party. 40 years of teaching.
After a week in the world of percussive emotional distress, it was a pleasure to be eating drinking and chatting in a home overlooking the Gold Coast , amongst fruit trees and families. Talking of The Gold Coast Symphony Orchestra doing Pink Floyd and the Public Service in Canberra in the 1970s. Eating a fine cheesecake with true cream.
AUGUST IN BILAMBIL
Which means warming weather and sunshine. An eclipse or two. It means radical re-arrangements in my life – well it has often done so. with a most unpleasant run up to the 12th August. I was married on the 12th August which sounds good and wasn’t all bad but was surrounded with trauma and “Issues”. Then again – August saw me rock bottoming totally in drug addiction and alcoholism – again on August 12th – a long time ago now.
I know these two incidents weren’t the only ones but they are potent significators. This year I sit on The Hill – sun shining. Parrots squarking. Izzy embroiled in his own volcanic emotional situation and as for me – well I am shimmering less and beginning to see the 12 AUGUST light at the end of the Augustine Tunnel.
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I moved the Big Buddy and the wee table to face out over the Valley. Perhaps it will have some soothing effect on distresses and sorrows and foolish resentments.
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Its Jo’s birthday this week and the Olympics begin in Beijing. The one eclipse has passed and another is to come. Soon Armidale will be warm enough for me to pay another visit. Kati B has her baby chickens and they all have plenty of work and study. We don’t. Well we have the PhD and I have the Bell Sanders Family. I have as much work as I like to have which is none. Izzy doesn’t like not having work and now his music is seriously damaged as well so things are rocking somewhat. |
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I do have Rolheiser to turn to : http://www.ronrolheiser.com/ |
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Back to a simple Sunday in August 2008. I hadn’t actually expected to still be alive in 2008 so that’s a way to say Good Day. I am also saying – after the manner of a song I particularly like :
Ms Sanders-Braithwaite regrets , she’s unable to dine today. She has taken her coat and is thinking of Home far away.
WE HAVE BEEN TO AUSTRALIA FAIR
That is a statement in itself. A situation intense enough to drive me to taking my lunch in a corner of the Coffee Club – an experience I have never succumbed to before – other than sitting with Reggie before he died at Coolangatta Coffee Club and doing early morning meetings in Brisbane CBD. But I have never been DRIVEN to eat their food or sit quietly in the designer created corner – but I did today having tried Robina Town Centre first and finding that They had removed the Centre. Which was a shame because I had it in mind to try to hit the golf ball into the middle of the lake but I couldn’t find the lake or the Golf Balls.
So we went on to Australia Fair – Kati B had called en route to Robina to tell us her chiken had had babies. Two babies and Kati B and IMM had built an A Frame for them to live in. What she actually said when she called was – You are a grandmother – news that startled me.
Then on to A.F in Southport. Iz thought we might have been taking the picturesque road into Southport from the M1. HaHa. Picturesque ! Ah well. Southport it was and I wasn’t holding out much hope but I like to take some time and see places. There has to be reason - sound reason for people liking places and it tantalises me when I can’t see the reason. Once before I went to Southport and found a shop which sold tie dyed baby clothes and that endeared me a little. the other times I have been to Southport have involved traumas of various kinds so today was an emotionally neutral research expedition and it was interesting. Not interesting enough to take any fotos – but interesting.
Today’s foto wich was NOT taken today is – from early August 2007 – one year ago. We were then living in Red Hill in Brisbane.
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We had encountered IKEA at LOGAN. We were truly IKEA virgins and haven’t been back for a second encounter. We purchased a bed and a lounge and odds and ends which we assembled as per instructions and set up in the Glassey Gully flat. Note the Tuscan influence in the tiled floors. “Tuscan influence ” was a frequently used expression in the Brisbane real estate rentals sector. WHY ? |
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I think Izzy was recovering by then from his cardiac incident , working at Austlit and playing music in Bilambil on weekends. Now he is NOT. The lounge is on the front porch of the Cottage and we live together due to being PARTNERED. |
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This was the driveway of Glassey Gully. Steep. The street was so steep we struggled to walk out. Struggled to drive out. The driveway was likewise. And it was a block of brick flats. I am not well suited to brick flats despite living for 5 years in Department of Housing in South Coogee. |
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Nevertheless we had some good times down in the Gully and in Paddington and Red Hill. I had never known Brisbane before and I fell in love with it. I stayed in love with Brisbane , so I did. The Jasmine bloomed on the brick walls and the scrub turkeys roamed the streets only a few kilometres from the City Centre. |
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