SPEAKERS
LILY (the daughter), JENNY (the mother)
This episode contains explicit language and is not suitable for younger audiences
JENNY
so I got that in today, tonight. Oh closes. And yeah, it's the last week of school term. So just keeping an eye on those things
LILY
as in so, when's the thing?
JENNY
Lit Fest in Wellington, which we are doing a Bad Diaries Salon at. And this is the fourth year that we've done it there.
LILY
That's cool.
JENNY
Yeah. Tracy's curating that, well, Tracy's emceeing and the festival director has been inviting readers.
LILY
Cool
JENNY
It's all unannounced. But...
LILY
Cool
JENNY
So that's that. Yeah. What else have I done? Nothing. What about you?
LILY
Yeah. And yeah, they're essentially wanting to get rid of her. Apparently, she's a real... has real narcissistic, sociopath, tendencies
JENNY
So she's just, she's presenter?
LILY
Participant
JENNY
Wow. Yeah. As part of a group or she was doing a one on one,
LILY
As part of her group, which is the real concern cause how she's impacting everyone else in the group and kind of
JENNY
so what's she doing? What sort of stuff?
LILY
She's been incredibly like, just is not happy with anything. And there have been issues and mistakes. I completely understand frustration over that. But it's just like, nothing's right. The portal isn't right, the portal should be like this. It's so hard to use. So like, nothing is right. You know, when people just don't do the normal social conventions, they're gonna come at you with their negative feedback in front of a group. And you're trying to, and they're not doing that thing where they start to back down, or they start to say, okay, or, you know, , a lot of people will have maybe the confidence or whatever to kind of come on and a head-first attack maybe once, and then once it kind of becomes a bit of a back and forth, they'll tend to lessen it and kinda
JENNY
Yeah, once they've gotten out that initial burst. Whatever the energy is, that's exactly, yeah. Then moderate a bit more.
LILY
Yeah, yeah. And it becomes a lot harder if someone then turns around and says, Okay, I hear your feedback. But these are the reasons. Yeah, the most average person will then turn around and say, okay, yeah, maybe, you know, maybe I interpreted it wrong. You know, they'll tend to make concessions, but she just did not. And so yeah, and apparently her, because they do psychometric testing. And we actually had the coach, email us saying, I've never seen someone like this
JENNY
She's off the charts. [Laughter]
LILY
Yeah, I've never seen such low levels of empathy, of understanding, of awareness. So this got flagged like, a month or so ago with that
JENNY
It's kind of breaking confidentiality a bit, isn't it? Or no, that's the purpose of psychometric, I mean, that's the purpose of the tests.
LILY
Well, we didn't see the report, we haven't you know, I mean, and we will never have access to well, actually, I do have access to them so I could you know, but it is confidential between her and coach, but the coach was like, I'm just weighing in out of what I feel is like a duty of care to the other participants in the
JENNY
wow
LILY
that this person is quite dangerous.
JENNY
Jeez. People like that, you never win. Number one, you can never win an argument with them and engaging just encourages them, so it's hard for you because you're in a professional capacity. You can't just ignore but people like that become stalkers. And real headaches, so be careful of yourself in terms of that. Alright, shall we get into it?
LILY
Yeah, let's do it.
JENNY
Dead xilence, what they hate on radio.
LILY
Yeah, dead air just static.
JENNY
Yeah. Okay. So we're up to, I read some of these sheets didn't I?
LILY
Yes, you transition to the sheets because you're running out of paper.
JENNY
Alright, so I know where we got up to. When I got home. 11th of January 1981. Sunday. Here I am. And this is all in capitals. HERE I AM sitting at my own little desk in my own little room in our own little house in Ashburton. After two weeks, 15 days actually of camping, we are welcomed home to comfort once again. Pretty soon after we got home to Ashburton, we went to visit _______ who had her 40th birthday yesterday. So this is, you know her as ______.
LILY
I do. So what was her name change?
JENNY
Because she didn't like ______ she was _______ for obviously 40 years, and then decided she wanted to be _____.
LILY
Right. So her name is actually _______
JENNY
Yes.
LILY
Just what? ________
JENNY
Yeah,
LILY
Not short. Not short for anything?
JENNY
No.
LILY
Really?
JENNY
Yeah, no. So mum grew up, they all grew up, whatever. And she until she became obviously in her 40s somewhere
LILY
Interesting. Okay, we might have to bleep this, but I don't really trust people who change their names
JENNY
Me either.
LILY
Okay, cool.
JENNY
Like, there's something
LILY
Inherently you're trying to edit yourself, or you're trying to change? I don't know. And I understand people not liking their name. So plenty of people have names they don't like and you just kind of get on with it.
JENNY
Yeah. Like, I think there's something about people wanting to reinvent, change their names. It's yeah, I, I've got a funny thing about it as well
LILY
it's like, I've never really even thought about ... [stomping in background]
JENNY
Who's that? [Stomping] Who is it?
LILY
Oh probably _______. God, we are a house of stompers. But that's on anotherlevel.
JENNY
Yeah it is. So who? Who have you known? Do you know anyone?
LILY
Not really, actually, but I don't know, it is just a bit of a red flag for me. Just, I just think like, I've never particularly like overly identified with Lily as my name. Obviously, I've got a lot of name confusion. So that's probably why 'What name do I use?'
JENNY
Other people have gender confusion or sexual, you have name confusion
LILY
There's just too many to choose, too many variations. I'm just nameless
JENNY
I mean like, you've got the double barrel surname,
LILY
so a double barrel surname. And then I've got two first names. And neither of those first names is what I actually use, which is Lily, which I guess is kind of a shortened of Lilika, which is my second first name.
JENNY
So it's just you've got a middle name as well
LILY
I've got a middle name as well. So it's just there's a lot in the mix. A lot of possibilities. And I feel like I've been called different things. By like, you've always called me Lily and my family have. Baba, used to call me Lilika. And then has transitioned when I've been in Turkey to Melike, more referencing me and which I don't like because I don't like that name really at all.
JENNY
What do you mean me like me-like,
LILY
The other day, ______ was like, oh, it's Me- Like- Lilika. Yeah. Good. Um, yeah. I don't know. And even with all of that, I haven't felt the need to, like, come up with a whole new name or change or vary or anything from what people are kind of calling me. So I'm just kind of like, I don't know. It makes me really? I don't know. To me. It's definitely like an identity crisis thing or an identity thig that people have.
JENNY
Yeah, but. And your father would call you Lilo, Lilo as well.
LILY
Oh yeah, he would, which I liked, that was nice, when I was younger.
JENNY
Yeah. To me, it's something weird. Like, it's almost as if, okay, I think I know what it is. For me. It's like, they think that if they change the name, then it will take care of a whole lot of whatever the feelings are that they're feeling, but they don't do the work, or they don't- so to me, it's like flagging: I'm really unhappy with myself, and I'm really unhappy with everything. And my name is a kind of symbol of all of that. So it's kind of flagging insecurity, it's flagging something weak. [Laughter] But they're,then don't have the strength. It's like a shortcut. I'm just gonna change my name. And they might be doing behind the scenes work. But I don't know. In Japan, there was this, the senior teacher. And her name, I think was Jay JAY. But we came back from holiday and she had some Indian name she'd been to
LILY
To me that's very cultish.
JENNY
I think she'd been to like a yoga retreat or something like that. So it wasn't actually an Indian name, but it was a like yeah, Indian yoga ish. Spiritual name. And she wanted us all to use that and it was like, so weird after 12 months of calling her Jay. I can't remember the other name. It'll come up in the the journal probably,
LILY
Wow, that's just so interesting. I just don't I just don't know how you could like, I don't know, be comfortable using a different name. Not like that. And suddenly just be like, Oh, that's it for me. Yeah, like I'm not sure. Have you ever had any strong feelings about Jenny or Jennifer?
JENNY
Just that I, you know, haven't really been particularly? I mean, it's probably not a name I would have chosen for myself, but it's me. So I've never kind of it's been, it's fine I've never had negative feelings about it
LILY
It's fine. I think that's the thing. It's like, I think majority people don't even think about this, it's so neutral. And then it's like, it's fine. Even if you've got a, like, what is a good name? What is a bad name, you know. It's like, you're so much more than that.
JENNY
The name becomes the person, you know. So it's not even really about the name. So this is the other thing, they're not attacking the name, they're attacking themselves.
LILY
And that's the thing, we all have things that we like, I guess, yeah, want to change or improve. It's just interesting. When it's someone's name, it's like, they've obviously got an ideal, or a concept that they're working towards, and then the name starts to represent that for them. You know?
JENNY
Right. So ______'s 40th birthday. When I was at the Victorian Market, early on, in the holidays, I came across a pottery garden gnome, who had the sweetest, most innocent expression on his face, which far outshone any others I have seen, and as I knew that ______ collected gnomes, among other things, eg hats, etc. I instantly thought perfect. I bought him and had him in my drawer, awaiting the opportunity to give him to her. Which is weird. Why would I hide him in my drawer when she would never come into my bedroom?
LILY
Well, maybe from the rest of the family?
JENNY
Oh, yeah, maybe a surprise or something.
LILY
I think that's how it starts for a lot of people, it's collecting stuff. And then it's just that kind of collecting mentality that gets kind of put towards any kind of object. And it doesn't matter whether that object has value or whatever. It's that collecting things still kind of triggered?
JENNY
Yeah, yeah. True. And the value is applied. Not necessarily obvious to another person
LILY
Yes. Yeah.
JENNY
Because I mean, sometimes it'll just be rubbish stuff. And food wrappers.
LILY
Yeah. Like plastic containers. There's, yeah, that idea of like, collecting them, you know, having them. You might need them one day. So I don't know.
JENNY
There's a book out at the moment. There's a novel out at the moment. That covers it. I haven't read it. Love Objects by Emily McGuire. Oh, interesting. Plug for an Allen & Unwin book.
LILY
Oh there you go. So you have to start getting kickbacks from them, you know, doing sponsored content.
JENNY
That's right. So she was so pleased she ran over and hugged me saying thank you, thank you. She immediately went to her greenhouse and placed him in the centre of her other gnomes. He looked so bewildered, just stood there walking stick in hand, not knowing what to say or do. His name's Wilfred, I've put in a note from a couple of months later. 'His name's Wilfred and he's doing quite well now.' Then we left and came back to have our dinner, roast chicken at 10:30pm what's more. That's crazy.
LILY
That is very late. Wild.
JENNY
I'm surprised that we were there. I don't remember being there.
LILY
Why was it a bit loose?
JENNY
No, I do. Remember I've got memories. I've got memories of a bunch of people being in her bathroom and drawing, writing on the tiles in like in permanent marker.
LILY
Oh, Lord.
JENNY
Yeah, but she was encouraging it. That was all fine. And it was there for years afterwards. All this sort of graffiti and happy birthday messages and stuff like that. All my clothes are either packed away or in the dirty linen basket so I can now completely relax. Also, my next edition of TENNIS Magazine was here on my desk. So I have that waiting to be read. So funny that I subscribed to TENNIS Magazine. I did like tennis. I played it and I did like it. Around this time. I loved it. Okay, yeah. As you saw me overcome Great Expectations, now you can witness my defeat of Pride and Prejudice, my newest challenge. So these are obviously Year 12 texts. This is my last sheet. I think I will pack it in and go to my nice lovely bed which is beckoning me. I will succumb. Good night. J. Then the 13th of January Tuesday. Well for the first time in 15 days, yes, folks 15 days, I have skipped writing in my journal. That was yesterday. Nothing much happened anyway, so I thought I might as well leave it to do tonight. The only point of interest or main event which happened yesterday was an outing to South Melbourne beach. We had slept in fairly late and did lots of silly things before eventually getting to the beach. I don't know what the silly things were.
LILY
Probably just mucked about, faffed around a little.
JENNY
Yeah, we didn't stay very long anyway, then we went to McDonald's for dinner so that was it. McDonald's. I know that's unusual too. Must have been such a treat.
LILY
I guess you're on holidays as well. She's like: I fed them the 10 o'clock chicken. Got nothing else left in me.
JENNY
Yeah. Now for today after considerably late night last night. 2am. We slept in yet again. So who's the we
LILY
Must be the kids, like you and ______
JENNY
But we watched three movies. Turn of the Screw. Only child one. And housewife prostitute one.
LILY
What's this?
JENNY
Housewife prostitute one. That's obviously not the title of it.
LILY
Oh, that's what the story was.
JENNY
Yeah, it's about a housewives prostitute. And then the other one was an only child one, one about an only child. Talk about high standard entertainment. I had previously arranged with ______ (my cousin) to go to the pictures with him. And he was picking me up at 1:15pm. ______ arrived early adorned in black footy shorts and black T shirt complete with black hairy legs and bare feet. We burned off-
LILY
Bare feet? God. To go to the cinema?
JENNY
No no no. We burned off to Toorak so ______ could change. He he emerged in AMCO riders, suede boots and a shirt.
LILY
I see .So just wait, he would have been around about your age?
JENNY
He was, you know, a couple years older, a couple years older. So maybe 18, 19? He moved up to town from ________ and was living at his grandmother's. And he didn't, I remember something of this. He didn't know anyone. So you know, I said, We'll go to a film or whatever, if you want to go out, you know, I'm happy to. So this was under that kind of thing. We didn't hang out one on one. They'd have parties down there. We'd go down there or whatever. Yeah, so that's what this is about. And I think it only happened once. We then burned off to town and bought our tickets, and to fill in a few minutes we hit Flashback and ______ tested his skill on the slot machines. So Flashback was obviously a games parlour-
LILY
What?
JENNY
They don't exist anymore.
LILY
Like Pokies?
JENNY
Do you know what a game parlour is? No, but not gambling.
LILY
Oh, like an arcade?
JENNY
Yes, yeah, arcade games.
LILY
Right right like pinball machines and stuff.
JENNY
Yeah, yeah. And driving games and you know, the different, I never really hung out there because it was a guy thing and _______ would go a lot with his friends around 15, 16. And I stood there and played the part of the passive partner and watched. After that we went back to the cinema to receive our well-regulated minutes of torture: the travel shorts before the main feature. FUN. BORING. And interval we-
LILY
The travel shorts? Like ads to go places?
JENNY
Yeah, it must have been, probably travel ads.
LILY
Like cruise ships [laughter]
JENNY
Probably. I don't know. At interval we went and stocked up: Twisties and ice cream. The movie was quite good Flying High. It was a comedy satirising movies about airports or plane disasters eg Airport 74, Airport 75, Airport 76, Airports 77, Airport 78, Airport 79. Airport 80 not sure about that one, get the picture? Anyway, in just about all these airport movies there is a girl or a boy who's being transferred to another city to undergo heart transplant etc. Always people go down with food poisoning and the pilots are usually affected too. So one of the air hostesses has to land the plane or an inexperienced passenger has to fly the plane under guidance by men in the traffic control tower. Stereotype what! Anyway this film just incorporated all these ideas but with a humorous side to them, quite amusing. Anyway then after the movie went to Toorak Village to a record shop so ______ could buy a record through a voucher. Remember TOK H from previously?
LILY
Oh yes. The TOK H.
JENNY
The Toorak Hotel?
LILY
The Toorak Hotel. Nice
JENNY
For a quick drink tomato juice that is and had a look at all the trendy plastic
LILY
What's plastic?
JENNY
I think I'm referring to people
LILY
Maybe because Toorak and everyone's a bit, you know,
JENNY
it wasn't too busy and we didn't stay long. Then we came back to Ashburton, ______ stayed for tea. ____ was also here. _____ from mum's work _________ had asked us to her place for a swim. So we went, it was quite a nice house out in Waverley. With an inground swimming pool. Lovely, she's trying to sell it. Guess!
LILY
How much
JENNY
it's three bedrooms, brick, double garage, nice front yard and a pool in Waverley. I don't know whether it's Glen or Mount Waverley Guess how much?
LILY
I don't know, like, back then maybe like half a million?
JENNY
$53,000
LILY
WHAT? That's so wild to me, like, it's it's... God I can't do maths, but that's like triple bajillion times more now. Well, like a house like that would be at least more,
JENNY
If it's ten times more it's 530, 20 times more it's a million
LILY
So it's like 20 times more now.
JENNY
Oh if not, if not many times.
LILY
and yes, it's it's been 40 years, but that's crazy.
JENNY
And when you think about it, salaries haven't gone up.
LILY
Yeah, salaries aren't 30 times more now than they used to be. No, they're a bit more but not 30 times.
JENNY
No, they're not and they're not much more
LILY
No, they're not even double I would say necessarily and also everything else is more expensive, inflation's happened, like cost of living is higher so
JENNY
yeah and there's GST now on everything
LILY
Fucking all the boomers with their negative gearing just literally fucking us over
JENNY
Well it's the boomers but it's also all the tradeys-
LILY
Internations
JENNY
and internationals as well
LILY
and the internationals huge amount of like foreign investment now, huge amount. So cool. Love that for us. So I saw _____ the other day and she was like, because just that she's like, you know, a little bit just a bit like jaded about everything, about being able to invest in any kind of property, and she was like, I probably wouldn't even be able to like have the money to do my apocalypse plan which is like last resort, you know, buy a block of land and a bunker. She's like: I wouldn't even have the money to be able to do that [laughter] and it's like, cool. Like yeah
JENNY
Well she could do a van, van life. Like I'm thinking about van life.
LILY
But like, worst case scenario,
JENNY
Yeah, like if it couldn't do land, that it would be a van.
LILY
Yeah, I think I'd feel very sad if my mother was living in a van and I really, I'm really, I'm gonna, you know, work hard. Even if you're not driving around, getting kicked off, you know, sides of roads or anything. Actually, I did see a stat today that 40% of older women.
JENNY
Yeah, it's the largest growing-
LILY
older single women are living in poverty and having economic stress
JENNY
homeless. It's the largest growing demographic of homelessness in this
LILY
Like. Okay, I hate to say but all for independence and women's rights and feminism but at the end of the day. The reality of how the world is structured is if you don't have a man, you're kind of fucked at times. Yeah.
JENNY
Well, it just increases your risk, you know? And look, you didn't end up finishing watching Nomadland, did you.
LILY
Like not really
JENNY
I watched it and it just made me exhilarated, like, empowered, but other people watched it and kind of went fuck, that's so depressing.
LILY
Whereas you're like, I'mma get a van like hers! [Laughter]
JENNY
Well I was! [Laughter] It was like: YEAH!!!
LILY
Cool. She can do it. If Frances can do it, I can do it!
JENNY
A little bit, a little bit.
LILY
Yeah, fair enough. Well, that's good. I guess. Like, you know, to, to you know that there are options, you know, and maybe van life is not terrible. Yeah. But, um, again, don't want it to be Plan A
JENNY
No, no, it would just be Well, I mean, it either be a last resort or a choice.
LILY
Or true. And, you know, you know, it's like your movable cave, so it might suit you very well,
JENNY
I think. I mean, I think the fact that I'm not terrified by the idea of it, the imagining of it shows-
LILY
It'd be very cosy.
JENNY
You know that I it's not it wouldn't be the worst thing. And it could be a good thing. But anyway, that's a way off. I have The Age crossword sitting here waiting for me to do so I think I'll go and attempt to do it. I have yet to finish one. Also, I started Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) last night. It's another Sixth Form novel I have to read, it's quite good so far. Must go. Good night. That's the end of Volume One. So
LILY
Wow.
JENNY
I'm gonna step away from the mic and find Volume Two.
LILY
Yeah, let's do let's do that.
JENNY
Yeah, why don't you just chat on about something.
LILY
Okay, dead air [laughter]
JENNY
Okay, I'll keep my headphones on.
LILY
How? All right. I thought you were like leaving the room. We have this power just keeps going in and out. What are people doing? I'm gonna try to get to the studio in a little bit. Yeah. So trying to figure out what to do with _____ on Wednesday, zero ideas. And now the other girls are coming. So it's like, I don't want to do anything too far. You know what I mean? Like too far for the whole group to like, go. If it was just me and her it's a little bit easier. But if there's four of us, we can't catch Ubers, it's a whole thing!
JENNY
Yeah. All right. Back to this.
LILY
[Laughter]
JENNY
Have a look. I've done all this fancy English writing.
LILY
That's cool. Did you have a stencil for that? You've always been quite good at calligraphy. Like Meghan Markel. [Laughter]
JENNY
[Laughter]. It's not a stencil. I reckon I copied it from somewhere. We'll put it in the show notes: Volume Two [laughter]
LILY
Show notes! [Laughter]. These mythical show notes that we never do [laughter]
JENNY
But we will do them!
LILY
I know I just find it funny. I think it'd be funnier if we just never do show notes.
JENNY
That's funny. Yeah. Okay. What's the date? 14th of January 1981. So, sorry. So, the next day, okay. Yeah. Today is a Wednesday and I have the utmost pleasure of writing in my new journal, which I purchased for $3.95 on this day. It's a bit difficult writing without printed lines, but I wanted blank pages so I could paint or sketch on them if I felt like it. This book is going to hold many anxieties and pleasures in the next 12 months through what is going to be a test of courage and fortitude. Oh, sick. By that phrase. I mean that I expect to have to work hard this year at school and not get behind with it all. Today is hot. I am sitting in the dining room sit sipping Taurina Spa
LILY
What's that?
JENNY
L'eau de minerale ie mineral water. Taurina, TAURINA. I have no memory of it.
LILY
Never even heard of it.
JENNY
No. Obviously that was the brand. Taurina. Mum, ____ and I have just come back from the beach where we sweltered in the 42 degree heat for an hour or so.
LILY
So what would have been your local beach
JENNY
From Ashburton? Well, no local beach so we would have gone to St Kilda or Brighton. It was lovely. One funny thing that did happen was when Mum was at the toilet changing, ______ was in the water, and I was baking on the beach. All of a sudden sand was being blasted everywhere and umbrellas were flying. Belongings of different people were being tossed for yards, an airborne beach umbrella hit and knocked over a little boy who was running screaming into the water. Then in the blink of an eye it was over, the whirlwind had passed, odds and ends were strewn over the beach like flotsam and jetsam. Sunglasses, towels, hats, thongs and bottles of suntan lotion were found half buried under sand, and people ran to recover their belongings. Children cried tears of fear and excitement as they were comforted by confused and shaken parents. And that was that.
LILY
You really are a writer. Like I've never doubted it but really seeing it at such a young age and certainly the need to describe and really-
JENNY
Yeah it is funny. It's interesting.
LILY
I don't have, I have a need to document
JENNY
Yeah, as you've said
LILY
but not not create that really visceral image which is yeah, it's it's well, thank God we're reading your journals, it's probably a lot more interesting and kind of, you know a better narrative you know,
JENNY
Tonight we may be going for a swim seeing as it's so hot. I'll go now, bye. 15th of January, Thursday. This is how I feel at the moment and I've got this scribble look.
LILY
Okay, yeah.
JENNY
We'll put it in the show notes. Now that I have that out of the way, I will say why. Because I feel cramped and crowded in my bedroom. I feel I need room to express myself. And it's somewhat difficult when I am in a tiny room with bunks, a wardrobe, a desk, a chest of drawers, bookshelves bedside table, and an overhead light. It's just impossible. I can't quite see what the overhead light is prohibiting me from doing
LILY
Or how you wanted to express yourself like through dance. [Laughter] What kind of space do you need to do this? You know, so you would have been sharing with ____ so yeah, and so did you guys have bunk beds?
JENNY
WYeah.
LILY
Oh god. Were you top bunk?
JENNY
I was top bunk.
LILY
That to me that-
JENNY
which I wanted to be, I wanted to be.
LILY
Yeah, well, I'm sure you yeah as alfa choose which bunk you get. That's so interesting. I think that's one of the biggest changes that was
JENNY
So here I was. Yeah, Year 12, I've got my kid sister who was in Year 7.
LILY
I would never. I would- I would, I would if I if my - and this is, you know, definitely a privilege thing - but if my children were sharing rooms, I would feel like a failure. And I'd feel that we were living in poverty, which I know is so much you know, like, it's just such so different how
JENNY
it's changed so much. But that is capitalism, that has made everyone think
LILY
Expand
JENNY
I'm a failure as a parent if my kids don't get their own bedroom.
LILY
And now it's getting to the point. It's like kids have en suites, kids have walk-in wardrobes. I mean, it's yeah
JENNY
just crazy.
LILY
Or they were all sharing one bathroom that you don't have, you know? A bathroom for the kids.
JENNY
Yeah, we shared one bathroom. One toilet? Yeah. There was a family of five until Dad left. Yeah. That's changed a lot. And I remember watching American TV shows and whatnot. And if a kid had a phone in their bedroom, that was just like the ultimate luxury. And how lucky was that kid and a spoiled kid. And the good thing about the Brady Bunch is that there were two bedrooms, the girl bedroom, the boy bedroom, they would share three and three, the boys had a set of bunks for Bobby and Peter and Greg had his own bed. But in the girl's bedroom, they all had single beds. There were no bunks.
LILY
Oh, it's very dormitory of them very kind of, you know? Yeah, like girls' boarding school.
JENNY
And that would have been a big house because then there was the parents' bedroom. But then downstairs, there was the maid's room that we never saw. But Alice, obviously, I mean, she lived there. But there was this room off the kitchen. That was the laundry. But I think her lodgings were somewhere in there. Through that door off the kitchen,
LILY
which is so interesting, because like, obviously like they had money. And yeah, you didn't have everyone having their own bedroom.
JENNY
Exactly. But then if you think about it, I mean, it was the times, it was the 70s. But also televisually, you didn't want a kid in their own room
LILY
No, but see, by comparison, in a way you've got say Cheaper by the Dozen, which was I don't know that Steve Martin movie where they've got 12 originally?
JENNY
Well, yeah, yeah, that was a remake.
LILY
But sure, sure. But then I remember in that movie, they moved to this house. And there's this massive house and all the kids get a room except for maybe the twins.
JENNY
Right.
LILY
Like, you know, I don't know. It's interesting.
JENNY
And I remember Greg. Actually, there was a Brady Bunch episode where Greg was getting really shitty and teenagery. And so I think he moved up into the attic. I think he made a kind of room up in the attic.
LILY
that's classic
JENNY
It is so classic, isn't it?
LILY
Yeah. The attic moving to the attic.
JENNY
Yeah. Are you on your phone?
LILY
Sorry. Yes.
JENNY
And who is it?
LILY
It's _____
JENNY
Eh! Tell him we're recording our podcast. Okay, so complaining about my cluttered, my crowded room. Another annoying thing is that I have to share with _____ and we're literally living on top of one another
LILY
Yeah, on bloody bunk beds! [Laughter]
JENNY
I dread to think what's what it's going to be like when I have lots of work at school this year. Guess what? Today, Graeme ______ rang. It was great to hear from him. And then I've got some explanatory brackets. (We met Graeme at Waratah Bay. About four or five years ago, when we used to camp by the beach. We had some really great times with him. And I really like him. He's ______'s age.) I talked to him on the phone. And he sounds pretty much the same except his voice is a bit deeper. He's going away to visit his brother in New South Wales for two weeks. And he said he'd get in touch with us when he got back. It was so good to hear from him. That's kind of, four or five years like and kids don't do that. Like we were kids. When we met. Well, what was I was 11 or 12 or 13. He was was _____'s age which made him nine or 10. It's kind of weird for him to get in touch.
LILY
So have you not seen him in five years?
JENNY
No. That is odd.
LILY
Yeah, really odd.
JENNY
We obviously exchanged phone numbers.
LILY
But why would you do that years later?
JENNY
I don't know. It's interesting.
LILY
It's very strange
JENNY
It is. Pretty well straight after I wrote a letter to _____ who I'd lost contact with the past few years. So she was also one of the families that we became friendly with at Waratah Bay. I hope she writes back. Today we got Bon clipped 'the professional way' and then took her to the vet. So Bon was our mad cocker spaniel. And then took her to the vet because the clipper thought she might have had infected nipples or otherwise been pregnant. He thought there was the-
LILY
Being pregnant!
JENNY
There was the possibility of the pups, if any, being very sick or even dead. So off to the vet, we went
LILY
As in she's pregnant, or you've, or there's some-
JENNY
He said, thought she might have had infected nipples or otherwise been pregnant. He thought there was the possibility of the pups, if any, being very sick or even dead.
LILY
But the pups were born
JENNY
no inside of her. Oh, jesus. So off to the vet we went and we got some medicine, etc. So Bon should be okay. I mean, she would have been speyed. She would have been speyed by now, but maybe she wasn't speyed yet.
LILY
We also didn't confirm whether she was pregnant or not. You said we got some medicine. [Laughter] Where are the puppies!?
JENNY
Topical ointment for her possibly infected nipples. I don't know. Weird. Mum just came in to say good night and I noticed how tired she looked. We are practically living in the halls here and her room is stuffed with unwanted leftover junk. It's not fair on her either. It's unhealthy for us to be living on top of each other I'm sure. Maybe not physically, but mentally. I just want to say that I'm, I'm exaggerating here. It was not like you might be visualising, that you don't really remember _______. Do you? So maybe one thing got moved into the hallway because she had you know, wanted, cause she was also probably studying. She would have put a desk in her room, moved a chest of drawers into the hallway. And I'm just kind of like all shitty and teenagery.
LILY
You're like: I need my open plan living [laughter] my feng shui!
JENNY
Yeah. Anyway, I think I'd better get back to reading Pride and Prejudice. And after, and I'm feeling a little less upset. Now after having relieved some of my anxieties. I feel more and then I've done another diagram.
LILY
Nice. Oh, just up a little bit more. Yeah, there we go.
JENNY
But not yet. And then, but not yet that.
LILY
I like the visual. I'm gonna start drawing how I'm feeling.
JENNY
That's what I'm working towards doing. 'Keep smiling, Bud!' Like giving myself a little
LILY
pat on the back
JENNY
some encouragement
LILY
Oh, well, you need to sometimes in life, hey?
JENNY
How you going for time?
LILY
Um,probably finish up if that's okay, because I do want to get to the studio.
JENNY
Ah yeah. Okay.
LILY
And I have to walk over because my car is at ______ which I'll get after.
JENNY
Right. Okay. Sure. All right. I'll put my bookmark in. I'm glad we're onto Volume Two.
LILY
Yeah, me too. I think it's going well.
JENNY
Good! Anyway, we won't walk tomorrow, you have a nice walk, I hope the weather will be nice.
LILY
I think it's gonna be nice and sunny again. So that's, she suggested either tomorrow or Saturday and Saturday, it's like raining all day. Really not good. I was like: let's not do that. So yeah, that'll be good.
JENNY
OK well I hope that's nice.
LILY
Yeah, I'm excited to do some drawing. Yeah, it's gonna be good.
JENNY
And then you're going to _____'s tonight, you're going to get you car
LILY
Yeah, well, my car's on the street. So I'll just get it. Yeah. So um, yeah, that's nice. She's cooking like a Moroccan soup and her mum dropped around a bunch of seafood yesterday. So we're gonna have that and it will be good. She's really happy because I got her a pillar candle. Because I felt like that was witchy and she like messaged me being like, Oh my God. Yeah, I've been needing one and I can't like go out to the shops and the supermarket's don't have them.
JENNY
What did you call it?
LILY
A pillar.
JENNY
A pillar candle?
LILY
Kind of like those like big white ones that are like thick and kind of curved at the top and quite witchy
JENNY
You can witch it up tonight
LILY
And I'm excited to do my Tarot, see what the Tarot says [laughter] ____'s like: Oh, no. After the last Tarot reading.
JENNY
Did you ask him what his was, because you weren't concentrating on his. Can you ask him what his was about?
LILY
He said he doesn't remember. [Laughter] Because we were so drunk. He thinks it was like work stuff. Yeah, I'm certain, but I reckon if I was listening, I'd I'd be able to interpret things.
JENNY
Well, that's the whole thing about interpretation.
LILY
Yeah, exactly. I'm excited for our psychic in a few weeks.
JENNY
Yeah, that'll be good. And I'm reading co-star really closely every day too
LILY
Oh, let me check mine.
JENNY
The retrograde finishes tomorrow. Thank fuck, it's been really-
LILY
God. It has been, mine's not been good.
JENNY
No.
LILY
It just hasn't been, like this whole period ever since the eclipse has just been a bit all over
JENNY
Since? or before as well?
LILY
I would say before, but I didn't feel- I felt that ramp up and been more intense now in the last say month than the previous months.
JENNY
Yeah. Well, that makes sense, because two weeks before and two weeks after are going to be the most
LILY
Yeah.
JENNY
Okay, darling. Well enjoy the studio.
LILY
I will. I'm excited, I will go do that. Okay. Love you. Please hit the subscribe button so you won't miss out on any of our bad content. Don't forget to rate us at least one star and leave your scathing reviews wherever you find your podcasts. That way we can bring out bad content to the rest of the world. Thanks for listening. And please don't sue us.
JENNY
Thanks for listening. And please don't sue us.
LILY
Yeah, don't sue us. Please. Rude