Perfecting the subtext.

The older I get, the more I realise just how ridiculous girls can be.  Spending the weekend with my sisters, one who has just turned 14, the other almost 18, I was reminded of the high school politics that dominate our social lives for the better part of year seven through 12. Over the weekend, as I drove my youngest sister and her band of friends around, I was invited to step into the world of the “tween” and observe their truly bizarre social rituals. Listening to their banter about boyfriends, other girls in their year, the teachers they hate the most and what’s hot at Glassons this winter, I started to silently criticise before realising that on many levels, my own friends and I have not evolved very far beyond this dynamic.  The topics might have progressed beyond “Omfg you have a crush on him!” to “Well have you slept together?”, but the heart of our conversations are essentially the same. My realisation was only heightened later that night as I sat on the phone to my friend carefully brainstorming a polite let down response to a boy who had asked her out.  His text, which was painfully casual, was the result of a typical crush developed during group hangouts that had eventuated into the inevitable offer to buy her dinner. Despite this gentleman being an absolute catch (seriously he can ask ME out whenever he’s ready) he is just not my friends type and thus we were left to carefully craft a polite, subtle way to spell “no”.  

So, here I was, having a little giggle to myself at how simply ridiculous some of the conversations my sisters friends were having, while MY friend and I, two grown women are drafting and re drafting a message that realistically only had to say “thanks but no thanks x”.  It is interesting that in a world where the exchange of information has become so instantaneous through imessage, viber, snapchat, instagram, Facebook, Facebook messenger and whatever other social media tool you can dream up (dare I say it, Tindr) this message had to be crafted so not to offend the receiver whilst completely shutting down his request. Its not easy stuff people! Ironically, it is probably our human behaviours that get us into these sticky situations. It is natural to respond positively to a little extra attention, however, clearly the ego boost is rarely worth the consequences! People enjoy sending let down texts just as much as people enjoy receiving them. So true to our ridiculousness, which seems to have been at work since a young age, we managed to draft a script that effectively turned the offer down without so much as an utterance of the word no. Hopefully, this poor bugger can decipher female subtext or we’ll be right back where we started in one week’s time.

Happy Friday readers, have a wonderful weekend.

Xo

Farewell Paris, Farewell Patrick.

Although I am a little late to address the news, I am just one of the many women across Australia mourning the death of Dr. Patrick Reid. Having fallen behind on Offspring during my travels, I dedicated my down time in Paris to catching up with all my favourite people. So much had happened to Billie, Nina, Jimmy and the crew in my absence! Sadly for me, I already knew the ill fate of Patrick thanks to bouts of emotional Facebook friends revealing the tragedy through various status updates and Instagram posts (not happy Jan).  Watching the final few episodes knowing I would have to say goodbye to Nina’s baby daddy was truly agonizing, and I am a little ashamed to admit I spent my final night in Europe sobbing over the death of a fictional character. Why did they have to kill him off? And in such a heart wrenching fashion? Honestly Channel 10 it was just awful. It got to the point where I wasn’t sure whether my distress was caused by Patricks death, or because my two month trip around Europe was drawing to a close.

My answer came on the flight home the next day. Settling into my cramped window seat, I flicked through the In-flight entertainment guide to see what Maylasia Airlines had to offer.  Funnily enough, the Asian Film category had plenty of options, while the “Old Favourites and New Releases” were neither favourites or that new. Fortunately an old faithful appeared and I watched the SATC movie for perhaps the 8^th time. With Paris and Patrick still on the mind it was confirmed that it was my tendency to become ridiculously attached to television characters that was causing me to be so sullen. Paris would be there next year, Patrick was gone forever. This notion got me thinking that it is pretty incredible how attached we can become to fictional characters. Somehow, they do not only entertain, but they manage to captivate us with their fake names, fake lives, fake loves and most significantly their fake losses (need I remind everyone about the death of Mel in season 3 of Packed to The Rafters…). As mentioned, I have seen the first Sex and The City movie almost a dozen times and I STILL got emotional watching Carrie accost Mr. Big in the street after he leaves her at the alter (so to speak). The sheer heartbreak of her standing there in her Vivienne Westwood screaming how humiliated she is, is always enough to reduce me to tears. But why? When we know it’s just a script, played out by people who we somehow feel are a part of our lives. Take Carrie and Nina Proudman for example. I know I am not alone when I say it is easy to feel as though we know these characters as our friends or even as our sisters! Perhaps in a way we do, and it’s the literary genius of the likes of Deborah Oswald that manage to integrate aspects of our friends and families into the characters of their shows, just enough to make us fall in love.

On a happier note, rumour would have it that Patrick (aka. Matthew Le Nevez) is off to Hollywood, so at least we will get to see his pretty face again. However I doubt that he will ever have the chance to play a role as charming, loveable and mysterious as the amazing Dr. Patrick Reid. May he rest in T.V. peace.

Xo.