“Having three celebration dinners in Singapore and flying to Sydney for another function would please most people on their 80th birthday,” says Tony Moo of Lane Cove. “I’m very blessed indeed to have relatives who care. Yet, the one present that surpassed all others was my daughter’s compilation of my letters and Column 8 contributions since 2010. It will remain in my library. Not a bad idea really.”
While John Kouvelis of Neutral Bay thinks “darnce” (C8) may have come from South Australia, fellow north sider, Peter Neufeld of Mosman says that “If you want a laugh regarding the way Melburnians pronounce certain words, get one of them to say ‘reservoir’. A whole new vowel.”
Ferg Brand of Lane Cove asks: “Am I a bad person because I have not told my cat daylight saving (C8) has started, just so I can stay in bed an hour longer?”
“I need the Column 8 brains trust to come up with a less cumbersome, warmer term to describe our children’s in-laws, with whom we are great friends,” says Antoinette Farrow of Lane Cove. “It’s painful making introductions such as ‘my daughter-in-law’s mother’ or ‘my daughter’s mother-in-law’. Surely we can shorten this. Maybe other languages have a better word or phrase?”
Calculation was the winner on the day: “I suppose only the mathematically inclined noticed that the three games of rugby league played on Grand Final day were won by margins of two, two squared and two cubed?” posits George Zivkovic of Northmead.
“Jennie Curtin (C8) possibly didn’t proudly keep her Datsun 180B for long enough for the rust issues to emerge,” writes Seppo Ranki of Glenhaven. “As a Datsun owner from that era, I remember the Datsun 200B being described as being the same as the 180B, except with 20 more faults.”
More on the plastic plight from Wendy Mitchell of Kariong: “Travelling in the USA in 1969 on a three-month Greyhound bus ticket, my husband and I had an experience similar to that of Peter Buckley (C8) when trying to hire a car for one day. We offered an excessive deposit with cash or traveller’s cheques to no avail and there was total disbelief that Australians didn’t use credit cards. In my wallet happened to be my David Jones monthly account card. This piece of plastic proved we were trustworthy. Took the car with no deposit and paid cash on return.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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