Elsewhere . . .
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http://twitter.com/judefa
cloggo: Must try and post something sensible soon, something deep and philosophical like Jude does. Still if I did folk would think someone had hacked my blog.
How about we swap passwords and blogs for a day, Cloggo, to get a real appreciation of each other’s “work” on here? I would find it almost impossible to be you; in fact I’d never pull it off … so vive la difference, as the Normans used to say.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TINDINK!
Wishing you a great year ahead and hoping it will include another trip to Oz.
lots of love Jude xoxo
“Card” is best viewed large (choose your size)
Tindink flew out of Australia last night after her second long stay, with only eight
months at home in the UK in between.
While back in the (to her) miserable, cold, wet and gloomy UK she had longed to
be here in the sun and among cheerier people – and back she came!
In spite of frustration at times with internet connections and losing contact with
people she loves, she did absolutely blossom here!
She will blanch when she reads these words in a day or two, wondering
what’s coming next and I do like to keep her guessing … so what am I
going to tell them about you, Dink?
OK, this photo taken by Greg (Peciacake) shows our readers what a sweetheart and sweet heart you are,
and what an impish smile you have; no need to mention that.
I’m going to talk to them about other things, so avert your eyes.
Through Dink I have met some fantastic people, such as her daughter,
son-in-law and grandson, and our friends Greg and Dianne.
Actually, Dink and I only met G and D on this trip but the four of us bonded like
Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, since we shared a hotel suite on our first
two nights together!
Greg was just a good internet friend until we all met up last October, but
since then he and his wife and Dink and I have loved getting
together and I smile when I remember how good Greg was in bed.
And out of it!
What I really meant to say is that Greg has a great bedside manner, but
you’ve got to get the suggestion of sex into it to hold people’s attentions
on these networks, I find; especially the young ones.
Fact is, Dink and I were given a queen bed on that first night “together” (on this
trip) and she absolutely put her foot down about it!
I am not sleeping with you, she said, and rang hotel reception.
Separate beds were arranged and we have never shared more than a hug since.
She does like a big hug though.
But I am not going to tell you anything private and personal about Tindink
except that she is more than the sum of her parts as shown in her internet
play spaces here and there, and she is popular, both online and IRL, because she is genuinely benevolent and
also a very attentive friend.
If you weren’t hearing from her personally as much as usual over the last five months, rest assured it was only because her
lifestyle was different here. She was busy with family, or on the move — but never stopped asking me how
various SU friends were and what she was missing.
When she gets home she has a lot of people to catch up
with, 700 photos to go through and a bunch of forms to fill out.
Greg has already decided she must live in Miranda, in the
southern suburbs of Sydney, and I can point her to a craft and scrapbooking
shop there too. The arrangement seems perfect.
Distances in Australia, and even Sydney, are large.
It was a two-hour trip yesterday, for example, from near the centre of the city, where I live, to Cronulla
Beach, where we spent our last day. It’s not like my old home city in NZ
where 20 minutes is a long commute.
Neither Dink nor I drive (at least I haven’t for 20 years), but Greg stepped into the breach a few
times these past couple of months and got us about.
But he didn’t just get us about, he got us laughing, talking and listening as well.
I have to tell you he has been a treasure!
I laugh thinking of his goofy grin, and at his wry and mischievous humour; but am
also fascinated with his stories of a completely different experience of life than my own.
He is quite unusual for an Aussie guy in being – er sorry, average Aussie guys – interesting, intelligent and well-read, although like them in being very friendly and unpretentious.
Dink was and is a national Treasure with a cap T – so nicknamed by our Cloggo, who thinks the world of her — but Greg and his sweetheart of a wife were fabulous new “finds” for me as well from these last few months.
So great to see snapshots and anecdotes about your life in Indonesia, Mike.
I just thought: how HUMAN.
… I was never allowed to forget as over the years the story of our first unfortunate introduction grew from me asking her age - which I only partially admit to - to me asking her age, spilling food on her new tablecloth and making inquiry as to how long she had been a widow …
Red’s other home, or new home, will take shape here at Tumblr (click pic to inspect). This is great news, as there’s a love story involved and some real nest-building going on but nothing to barf at like babies, I don’t think.
This gal, with the gorgeous smokey southern drawl, is also the most hospitable of hosts and what we call a consummate story-teller, as her StumbleUpon readers know very well.
Non-stumblers passing by these words might like to click this and check out her other well-appointed home as well.
Enjoyed seeing Heatdunn (of SU)’s pix from a recent trip.
Venice is unlike any other city; utterly my favourite in the world.
I have been there several times but last time (a few years ago) didn’t take one photo. I just didn’t know where to start, what to choose.
Instead I just tried all the harder to eyeball everything.
It was almost as though if I stuck a camera up to my eye I might miss something.
(Crazy) 
Graham has a very active and physical life away from the computer, and what he brings to us from that is what makes him so interesting.
He lives in Namibia and explores the desert a lot; it’s a place he loves and understands.
And whenever he’s been on a trip he comes back with pix and yarns for us, of people, animals, the road, towns and wildlife.
Since V4 his SU blog has been reduced to skeletal form just for contact purposes, but SU’s loss there was Tumblr’s gain and this site has become part of my daily rounds.
However his main site is on Blogspot, and it’s a substantial one.
There you will find pix and stories about a unique life and lifestyle, including this winner about the monkey who has been his soul-mate for the last 24 years:
… the instant Stoffel set eyes on me, she jumped straight into my arms and began smacking her lips and grooming me; thus began a profoundly strange, intense and at times, frustrating friendship.
She regards me as her alpha monkey “husband”, she’s insanely jealous and gets very uptight if anyone,(especially a woman), approaches me.
She would, I believe, defend me to the death against any attacker and has, on occasion, saved my butt by alerting me to the presence of snakes.
When she was about eight months old she climbed a power pylon and was electrocuted.
The vet managed to save her, but had to amputate her left arm and tail.
Her disability has not affected her zest for life or her agility.
I suspect though, that being tailless gives her more reason to think she’s human.
Her accident probably triggered a protective response in me and caused me to give her a lot more attention than I otherwise might have …
More
Now Graham’s explained why he will likely be absent again for a while but I know his friends will be waiting to hear from him, and willing the best for him.
Most people try and do something a bit different on their birthdays but not our Dink.
She’s going shopping.
I suppose she figured that everyone else would be too fed up with shopping at this stage to buy her a present.
So do at least send her a hug. She’s still our Tindink and she’s still in La La Land — she takes
it wherever she goes.
;=)
xoxo
Reality check ..
1. He hits a little ball about a field. Thats all he does. This is a game. This is not important. This is the absolute definition of utter triviality. Whether he hits a little ball about a field or he doesn’t .. so what ?
2. His particular sexual preferences and activities are personal matters. Whether he’s a faithful husband or a womanizer has got nothing to do with anyone else but him and his family. There is no question of ‘legitimate public interest’. Its smutty, sniggering, intrusive curiosity peddled as ‘news’. If this guy, who hits a little ball about for a living, has sex with somebody .. so what ?
With you there, Ellie, as in just about everything
except SU Version Fuck, in which you always saw something I couldn’t, can’t and won’t
;=)
know your cow butts
it used to be that one could select a good dairy cow based upon the shape of the hairs on its thighs. nowadays: growth hormones.
__
