May Day or Mayday???

Greetings & Salutations to one and all, wherever you may be. What a funny old month it’s been. In the true tradition of the eternal life trifecta “Hatch, Match & Dispatches”, otherwise known as Births, Deaths and Marriages, I’ve got a bit of news to share.

Firstly the Hatches – A couple of really good mates of mine, she - a medical professional and he - my Caldwell Night Rodeo adult beverage sampling partner. Both of whom are extremely good peoples and shall remain somewhat anonymous, in that I shall only use their first initials - Jax and Ian Atkinson, are expecting.

Now for those of you who were wondering, no, that was not the reason I left town and headed back to Australia after my visit in mid last year. Although it may have been the reason after I found out the neighbour is also up the spout, but that’s a whole different matter. It’d give a whole new meaning to enjoying some Cherry pie. But I digress.

Good for them I say and I hope/wish/pray that we get to greet another White Russian drinking, gun toting, well balanced, rat bag, lunatic larrikin (such as our good selves) in the not too distant future. It’s already been agreed that the bub will NOT be named after me, as profanities are not allowed on birth certificates. ;-)

On the Matches front, well fuck me swinging & sideways if I’m lying but......... Mike and Rebecca have finally decided to wreck a perfectly good relationship by going out and announcing a wedding date.

Now, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think it’s taken a little time. Global Empires have fallen, Egyptian pyramids have crumbled, man has taken flight, glaciers have produced beachfront acreages and I may have mellowed in the time that Mike has taken to pop the question. They reckon good things come to those who wait, but fair suck of the sav Mike, we already knew Rebecca primo!!! Being a bloke whose had his “trainer” marriage (no offence to my former better half Struth coz she’s a good ‘un) but I reckon Mike had to make sure and let the warranty run out first. ;-)

They’ve picked a wedding date of August 8th, 2008. I could only imagine it was Mike who picked that date – easy to remember. It’s the starting day of the Olympics in China, or could it be all he can ate (eights) or simply the day his American Association of Retired Persons membership kicks in??? Who cares – good onya to the pair of them.

With the Dispatches, this one was kind of tough as it also falls into the “it’s not what is seems” category as well.

I had been chatting online with a local nurse, Tam was her name, who’s a 38 year old single mum with an 8 year old boy. We’d go back and forth with emails, IM’s (instant messages) and phone calls over a month or so. We decided on a Sunday brunch over on the beachfront area of town called The Strand. We chatted for a couple of hours and both thought we hit it off pretty well. We left with Tam saying she’d give me a call later in the week as she had a tight work/kid/study schedule. By Friday and having received no contact at all, I thought that she just blew me off and was doing her own thing.

As with every Saturday morning, I grab a paper, a coffee and a bacon & egg sanger and sit down to relax and peruse the local rag. On page three is a large photo of Tams – I’m like wow, I know her. I read the full page article and am horrified to learn that on the Tuesday she was driving 8 hours South to the town of Rockhampton and rolled her car a half an hour outside of her destination, killing her instantly. What a waste.

My shame went through me, like caustic acid, that I thought she didn’t call, because she was blowing me off. Rather sobering and not one of my proudest moments, as it was a hard lesson learnt in “it’s not what is seems”. Food for thought???

On that sombre note, I’ll move on to the Poverty Palace Part III. Not a lot has gone on as I’m in the planning stages of a remodel of the downstairs. I’ve got a plan of attack worked out in which I’ll be relocating the laundry, removing a couple of concrete support posts, installing two 6 inch by 16 foot steel beams to open the area up. Then it’s onto the framing up and fitting out of a new huge bedroom (making it four in total for the house) and adding an ensuite shower and bathroom. A couple more cash jobs on the side will see me through with construction costs, so hopefully it won’t be long before my roomy will be the king of his own domain.

The excitement is building for my trip to Scotland and Ireland at the end of August. It’s only 3 months away now and I’m really looking forward to a break for a few weeks. A bit of rugby, a spot of rubber necking and the spreading of good cheer and merriment would be the only routine I’m interested in. Should be a lot of fun.

Anyways, I’ve bent your ears for enough this go round.

Stay Happy ;-)

Fitzy