Hot Chocolate Anyone ?

Oh so you got a vollie dnner tonight @Shaz51

@AdgeHappy Birthday for tomorrow

Thank you @Appleblossom The more fun, the merrier (or however that saying goes)...

What is a Vollie dinner?

Adge

Oh no not again @Adge ...a thank you to volunteers for offering their time ... dinner.

... a clutter of ladies on another thread stirred the bejezzus out of me ... serves me right.

I'll never sound Aussie ... I pick the wrong way to go casual or formal ... der ...

Oh no @Appleblossom There are naughty stirrers about?

Vollie sounds French (to me)...

I don't sound very Aussie, even though I was born here.

People ask me (now & again) "Are you English"?, when I've never been to Britain - actually I've never been outside Australia...

Adge

I am not sure where @Shaz51 and her mum are going?

The dinner I went to last night was in a large organisation with paid staff and vollie staff and separate uniforms, roles and levels of responsibility. They value our input and give thankyou "experiences" etc.

I was born here too. You said you were a horticulturalist. Where are your folk from? We are all immigrants from one time in our heritage .. its just that if people do not have common experiences it often takes more work to understand or empathise with them... I see that as contibuting to MH issues.

That's true @Appleblossom Cultural differences & difficulties in communicating effectives - can contribute to conflict, a sense of social isolation, & perhaps MH issues too.

My parents & grandparents were born in NSW & Qld. Further back, my great-grandparents came from Ireland, England, & I can't remember where else.

I'm the only one in WA (past 23 years). Relatives keep on telling me to move back to NSW, but there is nothing there for me.

I don't know that city anymore, it's too big & far too busy.

Plus the eternal hope for meaningful family relations (in NSW) is just not there.

It's not real, & it's never been realised....

Adge

Over time you learn who are family and who are not, especially if you have such distances to cover.

You are as close to dinki di as can be. @Adge I guess country life spurred your interest in growing things. Where I grew up there was so much concrete, for a long time I only distinguished between plant, mineral or vegetable.

Sounds like similar heritage to my father. I may have grown up with an Aussie mindset if he had survived. It is why I often support dad's struggling with MI.

No country life @Appleblossom It's all been cities (4).

My parents were nature-lovers, both scientists.

Dad (now gone) was a Geologist & science teacher, & Mum an Entomologist (Bug expert).

I've been a Green Thumb since I was "knee-high to a Grasshopper" (as the saying goes).

Environmental Management (Grad Dip Sc) was my specialty, but I never worked in it - instead I was in Horticulture for 12 years, & am trying hard to get back into it (with no success so far).

My job interview today was for a Gardening position, with the council's "Seniors Service".

I have much care & empathy in my current position (Disabilities) - but it has a too high emotional cost for me, due to my trauma background (CPTSD).

Adge

Hope the interview results in a job offer @Adge. An early birthday greeting for tomorrow.