No fucking way, I think you should do it. In fact, I can't think of one good reason why you shouldn't. Travel is an experience you will never regret, and like you said, when else are you going to have this opportunity. Fucking go for it man.

jinx has me convinced too. remembering the TOUR days.....i draw on that experience all the time. I was in a place where i had no obligations, no dependents, and no reason NOT to. sounds like that's where you are.

Oh yea. Dooo it. Do it. :)

Oh now, I'm all confused.
I do have an invite to Kenya in January, which will work out a lot cheaper than the States...

And I am saying to myself - when will I get the chance again?
Currently all on hold til I talk to Mum about moving in, but peversely she'd probably put me up just so I could go - she always wishes she's travelled more when she was younger - by my age she had 3 kids and was having annual camping holidays in Wales and Dorset. Lovely places, except when you can't see them for the rain.

We'll see. I'll get over the hurdle of getting the money I'm owed first, then broach moving back home, then check dates and flight costs against my friend's schedule, and then make a decision based on what I feel I should do.

It's still ever so lovely dreaming, I can tell you!
I should have a PhD in it by now.

Am at Mum & Dad's all week while they're house-sitting (they leave tomorrow). Diz is being well looked after at home by my landlady's cat loving son. And I get to watch widescreen satellite TV and walk around naked. Win win. (I'm also looking after my parents' elderly cat, who started to show signs of illness yesterday, too late for them to cancel house-sitting, so they are pleased I'm here)

I think you should go to Kenya for a holiday. The experience and stimulation will do you a lot of good, and will look good in future job-hunting.

Mum talked this morning about seeing my sister at Mass last night.
Apparently she sounded genuinely upset for me (if you knew my sister, you'd understnd why Mum and I are so pleased with this reaction).

Apparently L said something along the lines of, "Well there's no reason for her to stay in East London now is there?" which got Mum thinking. After introducing the subject she immediately came up with two reasons why I couldn't move back, but one of them is easily surmountable and at least the topic is broached. I said nothing (she was on a roll anyway) but I will now be able to come back to it.

It helps that a lot of people here tried to get in on the housing boom, and bought at or near the top of the market. Mum is of the opinion that there are quite a few "young executives" (her words) that now can't afford their two bedroom flats & houses, and there are more people looking to rent out rooms than there are people selling. Who knows, I may end up renting in Aylesbury after all.

But it certainly looks like my plan to get 2 jobs in Ayles and save up by living at home is viable. Now the evil part, don't read if you think I'm a nice person, I just have to hope their cat Mia drops dead in the next couple of weeks, so that I can move Diz in - he's the only sticking point left.

I never turn down a chance to travel when I am able to swing it. Travel is worthwhile. ("Travel" here does not mean driving up 95 on Thanksgiving weekend to visit relatives.) So I'd encourage you to travel if you think you can, SG.

What's making me happy today is credit card fraud detection. They thought that ordering $75 worth of pizza from Pizza Hut was enough of an anomaly for me that they called me to ask about it. They were right, and we were able to cancel our cards before there was any further damage.

I'm not sure why it was flagged. We never eat at Pizza Hut, but aren't zealots about it. Maybe it was the time or the location. Since the charge was only pending and hadn't gone through yet I don't know those details. $75 of pizza in Alaska, for example, would be very unusual.

For what it's worth, I think a worker at Make Magazine stole my number. There was a big confusing thing with them about my credit card last week, and I ended up e-mailing their customer service my information because my other attempts to straighten it out were in vain.

Lots of beautiful rain to fill up our tanks and water my plants. :) Oh, and NO hail thank goodness.

Finished my poetry essay! Whoo-hoo! 1,947 words bay-bee!

SG, you would be crazy not to do all you could to get to Kenya. It may be a life changing event. Something you just may need. I sense it.

Pictures???

What, so you can stalk me? :worried:
I'm in Arizona right now, but I'll get something posted after the first of December.

Well. You're nobody until you've got a stalker. :cool:

But unfortunately, I'm really busy right now.

SG ... travel. Whichever way you go, just go ....

:haha: :biglaugha :jig: :rollhappy :notworthy :rotflol: :thankyou:

kenya, SG. states will always be here, silly to waste that financial cushion on it, awesome though we all are.... but Kenya.......

not sure I can forgive you for the evil thought, though

Mum's back from hospital. She came out yesterday evening. The previous night at 1am, the doctors decided they had to slice the top off (sort of like lancing it) because the infection was gathering to a head and was swelling to the point of cutting off the circulation to the hand. She had her last IV antibiotics at 5pm and came home armed with a big bottle of superstrong anti-biotic tablets...and instructions to rest...

She drover herself home. I'd been washng and drying clean bedding for her, and the sheet wasn't quite dry as she came in, so I left making her bed until later...or rather, that was my plan. She very sneakily went and made her bed whilst I was making a coffee... in what way is making a bed resting?

*smiles* anyway she seems pretty chipper overall and her hand doesnt look half as swollen this morning:)

oh...fly in the ointment: I stubbed my toe (two in from little toe) on the stone pantry step and it's well fucking sore. Still hurts this morning and can't wear my leather boots because they press on it. Have to wear laceup baseball boots even though it's a freezing cold Yorkshire morning. Oh well :P serve me right for being a clumsy cow!

Glad your mom is doing well, DanaC!

We have Bambi-burger for the freezer. On his first hunt in many years, Mr. Sweetwater killed a deer. Most of my happiness is because I know he is happy, and the shot was a clean and quick (so if the deer could express himself, it would be/have been happy, too).

.....I seriously doubt that...

It's only 9 days till Dazza gets home...and then no more trips till after Xmas. :)

Well probably happier than if it'd had to suffer at least... ;)

Are you a vego?

Well I was depressed about Thanksgiving coming up and having no one to cook for, and being alone and all that...

As it turns out, one of my friends from the coffee shop is thinking of doing a pot-luck for all us orphans at his house. I can cook a Turkey, yea!!


:)

um....watchingTV.

lol...funny one Pico.

No tv was mentioned, but I bet I could annoy them with stuff I don't even watch. God I hope they don't want to hang out and watch the game.

*shakes head* nope.

Actually, here's something about animal rights.

Hmmm...on second thought, I'm going to put it in the parenting forum. I think it's appropriate there. :)

Very pleased about your Mum, Dani. I told my Mum about it and she'll be pleased to hear it as well. As a former Auxiliary Nurse, she knew all about the Death Lines. I also agree with you that the deer would prefer not to be dead, but accept if you had to choose a death apart from old age, a single shot from nowhere would be reasonable. I'd prefer barbituates and brandy in a situation of my choosing, but there's a sad bias against ruminants in pharmacies and liquor stores these days.

I am now thinking about perhaps buying a moped instead of going to Kenya. This considerably widens my pool of job opportunities, and latens my time of rising when I get a job. My parents live a mile from the centre of town, and further from the industrial areas, which are on the outskirts on the other side. I'm still looking and thinking.

Sundae, I like the scooter/moped idea. It would give you so much more mobility and freedom, and open up new opportunities. Just be careful - a huge percentage of the people in your area drive on the wrong side of the road.

HLJ - not to worry. I don't know where you got your information, but I can assure you you everyone here drives/ rides on the correct side of the road. As laid down by God when he endowed England with the title of God's own country.

Hey...that's Australia's title, not Englands!

Oh goody! Finally! An Austro-Brit fight! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

lol...obviously you've not seen some of the things monster and I have had to say to one another...or doesn't she count?

Anyway, at least we drive on the right side of the road too. ;)

no! I never did! Who won? (j/k!!)

:)

My mistake. I thought you drove on the left.

lol...me of course. it's all about me ;)

Yes that's the right side. :)

In an only marginally-related anecdote, a gay friend in high school used to insist that we all use the word "forward" when giving directions, because he wouldn't go "straight."

Sigh. When I was in high school we used to say "lemon" for left and "roarer" (another nickname for a 714?) for right.


we were very stupid.

I have successfully upgraded the hard disk in my laptop to 320GB. (Clonezilla did a great job.)

My lezza barmaid friend bought me a t-shirt that said, "Straight but not Narrow"

Unfortunately it was way too large - she said she would have been really embarrassed if it was too tight (having tiny bosoms herself she was unable to estimate well). She remodelled herself as a bisexual by going out with one of the most chauvanistic builders in the pub. I threw it away in my own form of protest.

Protest? Why? Is she kicked out of the club for liking a bit o' the cock?

Reminds me of one of the gay waiters at the old bar we worked at. When he'd get good and liquored up he'd become obsessed with breasticles and he'd try to pick up women. Loads of fun. Loads of fun.

Ah, protest isn't fair I suppose.

But she was really anti-men before she met him - which I certainly wasn't - and I got my fair share of stick for the respectful men I dated.

She had two lovely girlfriends before him, and I was honestly shocked that when she appeared to change sexual preference, she did it for a complete misogynist (I knew him before I knew her).

He was a real shit.

My ex-boyfriend said that too, but not because he was gay, LOL! To him "straight" meant "not on dope." :right:

Daughter and I refer to gay men as "happy people."

It's sort of a code in case someone overhears us (not very well veiled, but still - hey, she's 12.) We say, "He's a happy guy, isn't he?" or, "How happy is he?" meaning how *blatantly* gay does he behave?

Being in cheer, she meets them every now and then. :) Like the oh, so very happy UCA choreographer.

I know a guy in the military who uses "forward" instead of "straight" when giving directions. He gave his reason for it by saying that the road may not be straight in the direction of travel, so "forward" is more accurate. It makes sense when he explains it.

I had a friend, way back when, who said "go forward, not straight" but she meant straight as in drug and alcohol free. ;)

Happy:

Ignerence is being insulted with the wrong werd. Hoooooooooooooooo :notworthy:

I'm happy because the big gum tree next door didn't fall on my house last night.

Wow...you just reminded me of that old kid's song

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Eating all the gumdrops he can see
Laugh Kookaburra laugh Kookaburra
Save some....

Don't remember the rest but I bet when I sang it as a kid I had no idea from where it originated.

Cool!

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kookaburra laugh Kookaburra
kookaburra laugh your day is long.

That's the only verse I know. I guess we could google it?

I saw a tv interview with a little old lady who said she wrote that song as a girl-guides activity when she was about 14.

We used to sing three verses:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
That's the life for me.

Kookaburra sits in the gumdrop tree
Eating all the gumdrops he can see
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
Save some there for me.

Kookaburra sits on the railroad tracks
Along comes a train and squashes him flat
Poor Kookaburra, poor Kookaburra
That's the end of that.

We never sang that song when I was in school. The only reason I know it is because mum had a tape with lots of short kids tunes on it. That was one of them.

I guess it was our equivalent of The Wiggles back then. lol Oh no, that was romper room.

That song made it over here too.

We sang it as Brownies.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
Gay your life must be (ha ha ha)

The ha ha's are part of the song, not me laughing at the word gay.
We'd sing it in a round, like London Bridge is Falling Down.

Until Clod wrote it out, I never thought about the second line and the fact it was an Australian song. In my mind it was always, "Merry merry king of the bushes, he." Funny how you accept things as a child rather than question them.

Sweet!

Accepting things as a child: the alphabet, to me, contained the letter "elemenno." It just did. I finally figured it out a few years ago.

"London Bridge is falling down"? I always thought it was "London britches falling down."

I am stoked. I have clotted up 160GB of hard drive and I ordered another 750 form newegg yesterday afternoon. I just checked the tracking number and it is on the local ups truck for delivery toady. Nice. now back to scanning.

I am done with fall quarter!