keep in better touch with friends & family

There’s always room for improvement, after all.

But, I have been doing a better job at this. Not consistently, I might add. In fact, I still have some emails to which I need want to respond. Overall, though, I’m happy with my increase in correspondence.

I must admit that Facebook has helped a bit. It’s easy to poke and message people here and there, or upload a few photos. It works both ways… some people are hesitant to send too many emails to travellers, as they worry it takes up limited internet time. Or they believe that they’re not doing anything interesting enough to warrant writing about. It’s surprising how much more aware I am of the goings-on in the lives of my friends and rellies on Facebook.

I’ve been emailing back and forth with my girlfriends in Melbourne, trying to organise a catch-up evening. We’ll be seeing each other quite a bit, but because everyone is so busy, it’s always best if we have a couple of dates marked into our schedules.

All the girls are keen to meet Matty… so the other day, tongue-in-cheek, I asked:

“Do I need to find something for Matt to do whilst we’re gathering, or shall I bring him along for inspection? ;-D”

Amongst the enthusiastic replies, was this from Kt:

“You may bring him along for the first 30mins on the following schedule:

1. he must sit quietly on a stool and slowly rotate
(whilst we observe/look him up and down, point, snigger and talk in hushed voices about what we think)

2. he must fulfil some manly task like woodchopping or such
(we’ll sit and make further judgement)

3. he must buy a round of drinks without being instructed on what each of us would like in a beverage.
(let’s just hope he does good)

4. he may sit at our/the table and answer as many questions in succession as all of us have the time and energy to compile. He may not ask any questions.
(we will hope that he is able to make each of us chuckle at least once – no trying too hard as we are far too clever for that)

5. he may then leave us alone to enjoy the rest of our soiree. He may get a drink for himself.

Then, and only then Ms Jones will we know whether he is fit to have married our princess fox.

You may print this out for his preparation if you see fit.”

Hee, hee. :-D

I have a whole stack of people with whom I’ve had either no, or minimal contact, over the past few months. At home in Aus, and even here on 43T. Mind you, I tend to go through phases with this, and I haven’t exactly spent much time 43-ing of late.

Still… excuses aside, I need to play a bit of catch-up.

posted an entry for this goal yet.

My sister and nephew have travelled from Adelaide to visit my grandmother this weekend. Grandma lives in a country town, about 3 1/2 hours drive from Melbourne, and I’m heading up to see them this weekend. I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to drive there tonight or tomorrow morning… it’s now 5.30pm, and I’m still in the office. I’m going home in a few moments, and will see if I’m feeling energetic enough for a long drive tonight.

It will be good to see them all :-)