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Old 21-07-2008, 02:31 PM posted to aus.gardens
FarmI FarmI is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2007
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Default Potatoes

"Chookie" wrote in message "FarmI"
ask@itshall be given wrote:

One story I tell about my issue with the Sydney mindset is: for my
sister's
big 50th, I bought her the complete Oxford in Micrographic form (cost
about
$300 - she's a bibliophile). Her husband bought her a $50,000 diamond
ring
a humungeous and very ugly single diamond solitaire.


Ahhhh OK... that is definitely NOT the kind of circle I move in -- not as
far
as the rock goes anyway. The book thing I *can* imagine!


Thought you might :-)). When it came for my big 50th, guess what I asked
for and got in return? I use it a LOT.

I have met younger members of the northwest nouveaux riches; they would
put a
$5000 diamond on their credit cards, but they would not go to $50K because
their mortgages are starting to hurt now.


:-)) I've stopped wearing all rings, they interfered with getting my garden
gloves on.

I am guessing that your sister
lives Mosman way or Vaucluse way, or possibly Northern Beaches.


Nah, she's in Sutherland Shire.

I have heard
of a couple of women up that way who spend their time getting pedicures,
and
whose only work is hostessing for their husbands' business dinners -- not
even
charitable work, and certainly not raising their children -- that's what
nannies are for.


Strewth - my sister is nothing like that, thankfully.

I haven't met them. I have met their employees and their
(significantly poorer) relatives. I think it is rare to find people who
are a
total waste of space, though -- a lot of the glitterati do actually help
out
with Variety Club and other charities, as do the Old Money types.

The closest I have got to prestige is that good friends of ours (not
listed on
the page below) helped in the endowment of the John Lions Chair in
Operating
Systems:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/JohnLions/

If I were to move in more rarefied circles, I'd pick the
academia-and-classical-music group, not the Variety Club Bash types. But
I
would be much more likely to join the Mighty Duck River Restoration
Collective
than help endow a chair.


Much too useful to society. :-)) I guess you don't want to hear the story
of the photo of a Eastern suburbs dwelling brother in law (not my sister's
husband) with his arm around Pamela Anderson?