Well, I would Margo - only I did a therapy contract in the women's prison a few years ago and that is some scary place now! Hey, when I worked in that system many years ago the women's prison was a nightmare because of boredom and over-supervision - now you are as likely as not to get yourself killed or seriously re-arranged!
Sooooo - even if I KNEW who stole me car they would be as sisters and brothers to me in terms of touching 'em. I think I might kinda rely on the traditional judicial leniency around Christmas and pay my fine on the 26th - I can always say that the mail was slow because of Christmas......
You could try the "unsigned cheque" trick - give yourself a few days! Who's gunna chase it up until January? :wink:
Hmmmmmmmmmmm - had a friend who tried that one - they bunged $30 onto her fine for lateness!
Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Speeding fines is how they run the place here - since the bank collapsed in the 80's - now the huge US electricity company they sold our electricity trust to when they privatised it (to eliminate risk to the state, they said - and to make power cheaper) - and which was about to put our costs up by 25% - has gone belly up. For some reason that will cost us around $140,000, 000...... by a weird series of financial legerdemeins that I do not fully grasp - odd when you say you do something to eliminate risk.....so I guess I will have to give up speeding 'cos I imagine the fines will now go up by enough to pay off this new debt.....maybe $100 per kilometre over the limit? That would have made the fine I am paying now about $1,400. Makes you think, doesn't it? Man - how I hate 40 k zones!
oh, how i sympathize with ya, deb. when i was a kid, i'd get written up for, say, 75 mph (120 km/h) in a 40 mph (65 km/h) zone, and i considered that fair.
my most recent ticket, though, was for 30 mph in a 20 mph zone. 30 mph! that is just plain mean.
Hmmm - but just think how I feel when they is now't but measly li'l KILOMETRES!
I hear ya, I do. But they're also measly li'l Australian dollars! hahahahahaha!
Watch it patio-pup - or you will have humped your last leg in this town!!!!!
AND - that is such a misleading thing to say.
Our dollar is perfectly strong and serviceable - in Australia - it is only when it goes to the USA or the UK that it flags and becomes anoxic and weak.....
Deb, your tasteless comment about knocking seams on the avatar thread has not gone unnoticed. However, I have refrained from posting what is below on that thread out of respect for its monosubjectiveness -- and so have brought it over here...
It was, if I remember this story rightly, illegal to be an unemployed woman in Seattle at the turn of the last century (when the city was young), and each year, at tax time or whatever, someone (the tax man, perhaps?) would come around and ask your occupation.
Which, if your occupation is "prostitute," puts you in a bit of a pickle, for it is also illegal to be a prostitute. As there were a great many prostitutes in this gateway to the Yukon Gold Rush, it became standard practice for prostitutes to declare their occupation as "seamstress." This also necessitated the purchase of a sewing machine, since one can hardly work at a job without the tools of the trade.
So, I suppose if you wanted a lay-for-pay, you'd head out to the nearest sewing room. Nowadays, you could even avoid lying (as the John) if you declared that you were going to a sweat shop. Eh? Eh???
(when I go overseas, my dollars just get senile and wander off. i hope someone has found them all and taken them in.)
Hmmmmmmmmm.......teehee.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I worked with offenders - some of whom were prostitutes - poor darlin's. Many had suffered severe sexul abuse and sometimes, when therapy for this went well, they would decide to leave the profession.
Now, in order to qualify for an unemployment benefit you had to have been fired - and wait six weeks....... difficult..... so there was a wonderful man in the local Social Security Office who could somehow manage to find a plausible professional affiliation and a helpful date of termination of employment for these women... (and the odd guy). An example of wonderful mercy in a hard world - which helped people get on their feet successfully and get over their drug habits.... would never happen now....sigh....
I feel all swot and heaty..... and I am late for me non-seamstress job....
Well, let me be obnoxiously smug here--in Canadia, my dollars buy Canajun dollars at 2 to 3, put a hunnert dollars US down, and git $150 Canajun . . . and to make the picture even better, food is marked at about the same price. So, a sammich or latke which costs $3 US is $3 Can, an' therefore, only $2 US. Course there are drawbacks. Last speeding fine i paid in Ahia cost me 'bout $90. When that guy pulled me over in Hamilton, Ontario ("All you clowns out here are running 130 or more--you were doin' 138, so YOU get the ticket!") it cost me $290 Canajun, which worked out to almost $190 US--my god, an i was only 38 K over the limit . . .
Couldn't think where to put this, so I ran all the way back to my first A2k home to tell the old folks here!
I do hope someone cares!
I have figured out how to solve my balcony problem.
Now- I have a thinnish, longish balcony - enclosed by walls on three sides, with an opening facing west.
I have wanted it to have a Zennish feel - and it is, indeed, developing this ambiance.
However - it is still a "business" balcony, as it holds my cats' outside "Boodaloo", and the detached lid thereof, which is LARGE and is resting and sweetening from its duties as the inside Boodaloo lid. It also holds some "resting" pots - (which are awaiting their consignment either to flower pot heaven, or to a new life as inside pots) - the balcony broom and watering can, some tools and, sometimes, the big green garbag which is filled with little bags of garbage and used cat litter, awaiting its trip down to the basement carpark and the bins there.
Now - none of these things is pretty, and I have long sought a place to conceal them that would suit the feel of the balcony.
I saw, yesterday, in a home magazine - (my secret vice, or one of them!) - a beautifully natural and Zennish willow stick screen! Perfect for concealing a corner of the balcony in which I can put the ugly necessities of life, and which will enhance the atmosphere of my little urban oasis!!
Now I just have to order and pay - and get it despatched here! Yay! I love the feel of a solved problem.
We now return you to your normal program...
Another day in the life of Oz.
c.i.
I think I am the only Ozzian excited about this one - and it is bamboo, I find - how the memory plays tricks!
Of course we care deb!
Now if we could just solve my balcony problem - it's the world's smallest balcony. I've lived here 2 months and it's still empty. (It had a couple of Xmas decorations briefly.) I'm waiting for spring to get inspired and buy some itty-bitty furniture to put out there, I guess...
Oooooooooooh! What orientation? How small? Looks out from where? Ooooooooooooh - BALCONIES...luv 'em!
Mine is from hell - there is even an Abuzz thread on it from way back - but I am mastering it!
Maybe 10 feet by 5 feet. I promise to measure it tomorrow. (It's 1:30 am now.
)
It faces south. Mostly the view is of the bank of apartments across the way, but off to the right (southwest) there's a nice patch of trees and grass. I set up the furniture in the living room so I can look out at that from the sofa. And lots of sky of course.
I actually moved in December just so I could have the balcony! It was the one thing I wished for in the last apartment.
Hmmmmm - south- is it dark? Does it get sun from the other directions?
Lots of sun this time of year - all day. I can't tell you what it's going to be like in summer! But summers here are unbearably hot - I'll probably only use it after dark...
Hmmmm - some evergreens - a graceful small fir? Or a lovely little weeping mulberry in a beautiful pot? Perhaps a couple pots of herbs, and/or a large pot for things like tomatoes, lettuces - whatever you want to grow - and a wee water feature? I have a lovely one which can be attached to a wall, or one under your little tree? They add such a gentle spirit and refreshment.
Would a wooden daybed along one wall be nice?
What colour are the walls and the balustrade - how is it done? A creeper along the main wall? A scented one - like honeysuckle?
I LOVE designing these things!
