Category Archives: General Ramblings

Can you post me your wife?

I found myself posting to a friend’s  husband yesterday. I suddenly realised I hadn’t “friended” her on FB, and ashamedly wondered how I’d missed her. Her hubby filled me in by telling me that she’s not on FB due to a ‘lifestyle’ choice. Hmm, interesting. Consequently, I now know why I ‘speak’ (comment, post, like, share..?) to her husband more than her.
I understand her rebellion against online posting to friends, as a means of keeping relationships more personal, but it means you have to actually personally be in touch with your friends. Which is tricky in our situation since she’s living interstate. Don’t get me wrong, we like each other and not so long ago wrote regular long and personal emails to each other, and even travel with kids to stay with each other every now and then. But now that she’s started work again (like I never work! Humph!), there’s little time for lengthy emails, and we can’t exactly meet up for coffee once a week.

I actually feel a bit sorry for her. I see and participate in FB comments, photos and conversations with her other close friends (also living interstate from her) and feel that she’s missing out on these daily / weekly updates and antics of all her friends. There’s a whole FB world out there you’re missing, sister!

A wise friend once observed that you have to put yourself out there a bit in order to make connections and get something back. So true. So while I admit that I first joined FB only as a means of seeing what my friends were posting about and how their kids were growing, I felt a bit like I was spying until I started to leave messages thanking them for sharing their stories and photos with me. I felt good for doing this and started personalising my comments to them, but would rarely get a returned comment.  I soon realised that in FB Land I was just one of the bunch, appreciating my friends’ brag book. To get any personal connections I had to personally share myself with the world – well, my friends in FB world anyway. The more I posted, shared and liked, the better it felt, and I started to wonder why I hadn’t joined this online community earlier. Now I’m possibly hooked. I receive lots of comments from my friends who’re enjoying hearing about my weekly (sometimes daily) antics, quirks observations and happy snaps, and I feel more connected with some of them than I’ve ever been. (see Alternate Ending 1)

So, dear friend’s husband, please say hello for me, and I’ll be sure to ‘like’ your next posting.

Alternate Ending 1:

However, every time I post on FB, I can’t help feeling cheated – like I’m cheating, and cheated by my friends. Like I’m taking the easy way out by posting a few updates about myself and the fam. What about my Granny who’s not on the internet, let alone FB, and family members who still complain that I haven’t called them in a month? And then there’s the one or two friends who aren’t on FB – do they just slowly drift out of my life because they’re not addicted to online communication yet?

Is the world making us lazy with our friendships? Do we just roll with it and continue to resist it in favour of good old fashioned, friendly, caring meet and chats and letter writing? Or is FB saving our friendships? What do you think? Post me a comment, below..

That other ‘great Australian dream’..

Since deciding that this year would be ‘the year’ and spreading the news far and wide, my beloved and I have heard endless impassioned variations of “we’ve always wanted to” or “we’re hoping to one day” (do the same)… etc.. etc….

No worries, I’m glad for you. But if you’ve always wanted to and you one day will, then… just do it!  Not hard.  Quit jobs, sell house, have mega garage sale, stuff all remaining belongings into storage, pull kids out of school, jump in the caravan and hit the road!

It’s certainly the reason we’re doing it – because we’ve always wanted to. That plus, we don’t want to wait out our whole youthful, energetic (err, sort of) years just to follow the grey nomad crowd and clog up the roads with oversized house-on-wheels-RV-style ‘exploring the great outdoors’.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a caravan and we like to be a little comfy – it is a whole year, we need more than a tent and two pairs of shorts each.  But not much more.  We’re also determined not to just drive from one place to the other looking out the window admiring the scenery, and only enjoying it from the comfort of our camping chairs sitting on the sturdy concrete slabs next to the toilet blocks of every caravan park with a slight beach frontage.

We’re finding it could be quite easy to fall into this trap.  Tired from driving, we spend a day checking out the town, stocking up on groceries and doing a load of washing, only to need a rest day the next day.  We see plenty of people through our travels that set up and stay for only a night or two, before hitting the road and trawling to the next seaside or outback town for another day or two. We constantly wonder what these people would be getting out of their trip. Sure, a lot of driving and R&R, but how much do they really explore their surroundings and what do they learn about the place they’re in for only a night or two?   

To avoid this trap and really explore as many aspects of travelling round the country that we can, these are the unspoken ideas we employ throughout our travels: we often stay in one place for at least a week; do as many outdoor / nature based activities as we can: bushwalks, bike trails, beach trips; avoid costly and commercialised ‘tourist attractions’; visit museums, exhibitions, local historical sites; and educate ourselves and our kids about a place and its people as much as we can.  

Have you done a similar trip yourself or are you living your dream in another way? Post your story below..

Hi, Howdy, G’day..

Congratulations! Hi, howdy, g’day, and well done.. you’re one of the first readers (perhaps the one and only reader?) of my new blog, Ragged & Rambling. Aptly named, as it’s how I feel and how I write. Hopefully not how I look (have you seen my avatar?)

Like many starting a new blog I’ve got no idea whether anyone will read this, but as I type I wear the naively confident grin of a new blogger imagining the plethora of readers laughing, nodding and sighing happily as they trawl through my posts, hungry for more and eager to add their comments to my ‘reply here’ box (umm.. see below).

If you’re still reading (hooked already, eh?), you should know that I welcome comments on any post, particularly if you’re going to say something nice, or are giving me constructive advice, sharing your own ramblings or just random comments letting me know you’re out there and saying g’day. I’d love you to let me know where in the world you are too, so make sure you let me know!

I won’t bore you with detail of my life, as you’ll pick these up along the way (keep reading my posts!!) or, you can get a quick run-down on the ‘About Me’ page. But not before you post me a comment and say g’day.. See below.. now!