Happy talking talking talking talk

Nope. I'm not about to head off to Bali, although it is tempting to do so. A different kind of talking today.

Dora amd Mike Aitken and I met by post in 1980, when her younger sister and I married. Since then I think we've only met 4 or 5 times in the flesh for periods of a few days each. That's hardly a "close" connection, is it? And yet, today has been such an easy day in human terms. Mike went off to do his one morning a week at the hospital, Dora bullied me into taking a dinky purple umbrella on my walk down to Toowong Village. Don't tell her that I was grateful for it when a squall hit me in mid-traffic island. If you're going to be run over, do it in purple. Iain, their first born and now 36ish, and Jet, Iain and Alia's daughter who will be *little pudgy hand extending 4 fingers* early next month met me on the pavement and took me to their home up *pointing vaguely leftish* there on the ridge. A little later, Karen (the middle Aitken) and her two lasses, Sophie and Freya, joined us and we all headed off to Wedding Lawn#2 in the Botanic Gardens.

These Aussies do things well, especially Botanic Gardens with huge, fascinating trees, drum cacti, ginger plants and forget-me-nots. Crows that chase and bully scrub turkeys, scrub turkeys that bully visitors from Botswana, magpies that bully them all. The three girls (and a very realistic, graceful Iain butterfly) dancing across the lawns where Karen and Matt were married.

A good day. A simple day. A human day. Technically, we're no longer "family" but all those years of letter writing have kept us sufficiently in touch to not only be pleased to see each other but also not to have to spend too much time "catching up"; we know roughly who has been doing what and when. I think there's something very nice about that.

Facebook does, to a very great extent, substitute for all the blue aerograms, envelopes stuffed with foolscap (yup, before A4), cards and photos. To a great extent but ... I like letters.

D
PS: of course that's a hint.