I have been in a bit of pain the last few days. On wednesday I had my seventh, yes seventh knee operation. Four on the right three on the left. It is getting better and I hope to go back to work in a couple of weeks. Looks like I may have a bit more time for chatting over the next couple of weeks.

There's a gastric-viral infection going around .  I hope nobody gets it.

I think I had something like that in yr 7
well I had
blastosomething or other

I've just discovered that all my immediate family (my side, not my husband's) are going to a restaurant tomorrow night for C'mas.  That's mum, dad, brother, niece and bf and nephew, sister and partner, niece and fiance, niece and bf and nephew.  My sister has organised it all and guess who's not been invited?  I've just spent 5 minutes trying to convince my mother that I'm not a liar and that nobody's called me about it.  Family!  Bah! Humbug!  

Oh NO, NO, NO, Paula...thats bad. And to argue with you about it, after forgetting you   instead of apologising, just adds insult to your injury....
Are you going to go to party now?

Ah yes the joy of Christmas, catching up with family  

Quoted Text

Are you going to go to party now?

No way.  

As if it was an over sight on your sister's behalf. I live 14 hours by car away from two of my sisters and my Mother, and an hour less from my sister in Orange. I don't have any kind of contact with my two sisters who live in the township I grew up in. I speak to my Mum, twice a week of late because she had a very bad fall and now has ongoing problems (no broken bones) and she was in hospital and now respite care. She will never go back to her independent living unit I also speak to my eldest sister in Orange, once a fortnight. The other two were the one's that sent their Christmas presents back to me last year. Bitches, nasty mean bitches. I live this far away for a damn good reason.  

I am cooking the turkey buffe and the small piece of pork leg right now. My BF and I made the caramel tartlet filling yesterday and it was scrumptious. Not made with condensed milk.

Paula, you have a great Christmas despite your sister's 'oversight' and your mother's insistence you must of been invited and had forgotten. It's awful to have to justify yourself and still not be believed We know you aren't a liar and don't let this silliness spoil your Christmas.   a kiss for kissmas from a friend!

Hi Paula, I really can't add much more to Suzi's thoughts on your situation.  You could always look at things in a different light.  Perhaps the picture below might help as you remember the best Christmas cheer usually comes out of a nice bottle of plonk....

OMG Anais, rofl, haha, it even looks like her as a kid.  

Thanks everyone for your support and best wishes.  I've often suspected how I stand in the family, at least now I know for sure.

Happy C'mas to all!

Of course paula isn't a liar she doesn't even download movies etc!!
merry christmas!!

Not sure if this is right thread for this...but though some of you 'animal lovers' would like to see this news video.

A Repeat Of Knut-Mania?

http://video.news.com.au/videoplayer?channel=World+News&clipId=909074

Last week on my news websites there was an uproar regarding this and several other Polar Bear Cubs at this zoo. The story was that 2 females had given birth to up to 6 cubs. The Zoo didn't know how many because their den was not under camera surveillance anyhoo.... the zoo's people said if the Mother's could not care for the cubs, the cubs would be left to die of starvation and/or neglect. People from all over Australia and the World went off. I was one of them. The zoo's reasoning was that the Mother's had to learn to be nurturing and caring. If they were in the wild and the cubs were neglected the cubs would surely die. BUT this is a Zoo and not the wild and it is a zoo's function to preserve the species. The zoo obviously bent to pressure and saw how stupid their ideals were and so we have one cub spared. Where are the others, up to 5 as far as the zoo would have you think. Some comments to the story of the Zoo letting the cubs die if it came to that were 'Send the babies to SeaWorld they would love some more Polar Bears!' sounded like a good idea to me.  

I agree with you SuziH...they should give the babies away to someone who cares.
All the animals should be monitored, especially when pregnant. I did read that some cubs may have been eaten by their mums...if the keepers knew this, then the other cubs should have been removed to a safer place. I can understand the Polar Bear Mums not having any parental skills.....we have removed them from there family groups where they would learn how to care for their young. Humans have decided keep the bears in captivity....therefore we ARE responsible for caring for them.
(Can I also add.....I get upset when film crews photograph wild animals in direr circumstances, and keep following the 'story' for days, and believe they shouldn't interfere because 'thats nature').

I watched a report on Today Tonight the other night on 'created' diamonds. They call them cultured diamonds a bit like cultured pearls. Jewellers of renown have a hard time discerning them from real diamonds that take Millennia to be created in the ground. They were spectacular and one third of the price of  'natural' diamonds. I wouldn't care where they came from, a diamond is a diamond but one guy, a gemologist who was not in agreement with the laboratory created one's said "I don't think the created diamonds have the romance attached to them as the natural one's because they don't come out of the ground having been created over thousands of years" What the? I don't care where a diamond comes from. When I look in the jewellers I don't think 'Gee how long must it of taken that diamond to become what it is before being mined etc etc' for goodness sake, I love diamonds because of the way they sparkles and look, not because of any romantic notion attached to how they came to be!