Dear Susan,

Thanks for sharing last week with me in Puerto Rico. ( I know it was Port Stephens but don't tread on my dreams OK?)

I love going away with you.I love the way we suddenly regress to the ages of about 4 and 6 and act like kids; farting without fear or favour, saying rude words like poo, bum, wee, and laughing until we wet our pants.



Remember when we went to Port Ugal (OK Port Macquarie) and we rode on a steam train, climbed Mount Everest after walking along a gay nudist beach, took a camel ride (no humps though) hit 50 golf balls out of 150 on the golf range and wondered why we couldn't walk the next day; put $10 in a poker machine and had to have Keno explained to us by a veteran of the Boer War? And laughing until we wet our pants?



Remember going to Kenya (OK Kiama) and cleaning out our handbags? It took three skip bins to get rid of the old receipts, paper clips, out-of-date condoms (I can still live in hope) hair elastics, old photos, old mobile phones, plane boarding passes from 1984, tram tickets from 1954 etc etc. And we laughed...........



I even enjoyed the time we went to the Ginseng Bath House and found out there was no Gin involved. Remember the little Asian ladies who had never seen red pubic hair before and they laughed.....



Anyway after we were exfoliated, humilated, debilitated, inebriated and broke, we didn't have the will to drive home. so we just booked a hotel room and listened to the sirens roaring up William Street, peeped at the Toms going into the strip clubs, broke up fights in the hotel corridors and lau............



Anyway back to the recent week of R n R. Deja vu as we walked into the little apartment, avoiding the dead cockroaches until we could sweep them out; the usual discussion about whose turn it was to have the double bed. Ah those beds!!! How is your back? knee? hip? neck? shoulder now? Nothing a few weeks of physio won't fix.



Glad that the little restaurant had changed hands though. More than one meal at the new, refurbished club and we might have been Ptomained for life.



But oh the water at Shoal Bay!!! What is it about that place that makes us want to chip away the ice on the surface and plunge into the freezing depths at regular 30 minute intervals? Nowhere else in the world would I swim in water that cold. Adrian wouldn't venture in even if Bo Derek was summoning him from the foam at the shoreline. Just as well he stayed at home and "tinkered" in his shed in the 40 degree heat.



And how good was the TV? one hundred and three channels available to us at home and there we managed to get a signal from channel 9 for 30 minutes on a good night. At least it allowed us to drool over Patrick Swayze (RIP) in a re re rerun of Dirty Dancing. I do worry about my pre-occupation with younger men. I think it has something to do with living in Cronulla on the Esplanade all those years; I mean the feast of firm bronzed bodies parading up and down to the big surf.... and they were just the girls. Speaking of which I was so proud of the fact that this year you graduated from "bobbing" (pretending to surf when you're just going up and down with the waves) to catching the big rollers on your boogie board. I'm sure that next year you'll be able to attach the wrist band without having to ask one of the six year olds on the beach to help you.



It was a bit different this year too. The heat meant that we had to spend all our time on the beach, so we didn't get time to go down to the plaza to the lingerie shop and have "the girls" fitted for a new bra. Remember last time? The sales lady took my old one off and threw it in the bin, safety pins and all!! And we didn't get a real chance to look at all the designer clothes in the arcade and pretend nonchalance when we saw the price tags. You are sooo good at that. I love the way your jaw just drops open and you say sooo naturally " Oh yes but feel the quality" . and when we get outside we laugh until...... We did get a chance to sit around and talk about the good old days and calculate the chances of there being some good new days. I think the chances are good.



To have a sister is a gift. To have a sister that you love being with is awesome. Don't laugh you'll ...........



Love

Janet