Banjo - I very much suspect that Rouge is not a native English speaker. In which case she is doing extremely well to express herself so fluently. English is a realy hard language to master and the vagaries of grammar and punctuation can be extremely puzzling and vexatious to someone not born speaking the language.

I agree that it looks as though you had had a bad day as this forum abounds with posts that exist in defiance of all rules of grammar and punctuation...and that's from native speakers. You don't usually explode like that to such people and this is, I think, the first time Rouge has introduced a topic.

I do hope that, if things haven't been good for you lately, they soon improve.

Rouge, - sorry if I have got it wrong and you are a native English speaker. I don't mean to be patronizing: I just hope that you will continue to post threads that do not, like so many, just go over old themes over and over again.

As to where I met my BF (actually, I thought that stood for Best Friend) or hubby? Well that would be quite a few different stories and I would have gone through my Word Limit by husband number 2!

I like this thread. It fleshes out the humanity of people I only know by pseudonyms and posts on contentious topics. I hope some of the people who I only know by their expressed anger will also contribute.

She was one of 3 paying crew on a yacht in Gladstone. They had paid to sail on the thing from Sydney to Darwin. The yacht was towed into Gladstone, after getting caught in heavy weather, damaging the sails, & filling the motor up with salt water.

I sailed my yacht into Gladstone, to visit some friends. I was on my way from the Solomon Islands to Sydney. I had been sailing around the near Pacific Islands, building jetties, & fixing tractors, & bulldozers for plantations, & isolated communities. I didn't know all that much about bulldozers, but I knew more than anyone else they could get to help them, so I'd been busy for a few years, & this was my first trip home for 5 years.

I got to know her, when I sorted the yachts motor out, while a few other yachties patched their sails up for them. They were now out of money, & headed for Mooloolaba, where the yacht owner could get work.

I dropped into Mooloolaba to see some friends, & got to know her in the couple of weeks I spent there. I sailed on to Sydney, spending a couple of weeks visiting friends on the NSW coast.

When I got to sydney, I found I had been reported as missing. She had been looking for me. I blame my 5 years of single handing on the yacht for what followed.

I now, 33 years later, live on 20 acres, 50Km from the sea. I have 2 horses, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 birds, & some goldfish, left behind by our kids. I do not have a yacht. I don't think I have even seen the sea in the last year.

I do see her from time to time, as she flits from one lot of grand kids to another. She wants to move into town, to be closer to the kids, but we can't as we must keep the horses etc, in retirement out here.

My advice to sailers, avoid Gladstone. Visiting Gladstone may disrupt to your life style.

Romany

"As to where I met my BF (actually, I thought that stood for Best Friend) or hubby? Well that would be quite a few different stories and I would have gone through my Word Limit by husband number 2!"

I thought BF stood for Best Friend too. And when I first read your post, Romany, I thought it read "husband number 21"!! I did sit up and do a quick re-read!

I see your point about the possibility of Rouge having English as a second language and like your fairness and your encouraging tone. I too would like to add that it's great to have new people posting topics so hopefully, Rouge, we see a lot more of it from you.

Though I would never have made a point of commenting, I am totally with Banjo on this one. I feel lack of punctuation and unclear abbreviations do make for difficulty in reading and are likely to cause confusion. It's already very easy to jump to wrong conclusions as it is, on a written forum like OLO, without adding to the likelihood of it occurring.

I'll make no judgement here, just in case Rouge isn't a native English speaker. But from what I've observed it's a generational thing and a product of growing up in the digital age where texting shortcuts are so prevalent. It's a lazy trend though and I think Banjo is quite right to bring it to our attention. Perhaps he could have been a bit less gruff in the process! :)

As for meeting hubby, it was a less than glorious moment - late at night in a crowded pub when we'd both had too much to drink. But we had a lot in common and thirty-four years later and still together I guess you could look back and say it was an auspicious moment in its way. The pub is still there and whenever we drive through that historical city of many pubs, enroute from the airport to visit our parents, we stop and toast to old times sake!

I keep sneaking back to this thread, weighed down with guilt.

'Cos I cannot actually recall the first time I set eyes on either of my partners.

No trumpets sounded. The earth neither moved, nor stood still. If our eyes did meet across a crowded room, they didn't inform us.

Promise you won't tell on me.

Romany.
What got my goat this time is that I had to read rouge's first post a few times to grasp what she was on about. BF in my circles, is short for bushfire. I did not consider her to be a person where English is her second language. At the time I thought her as a Uni student using OLO for research on a subject she may be writing a paper on.

From her second post, it seems she is looking at various ways she may meet her 'mate'. If she does meet someone maybe she should not write to him as she came across a being a lazy and inconsiderate person. That may be fine for a 'one nighter' but not the qualities a bloke looks for in a long term relationship.

I know I should not be critical of others writing skills as my own are far from perfect, but I do try and frequently make lots of corrections. Usually, I just ignore the use of popular shorthand or sometimes the whole post. I know you are familiar with the shorthand I have used here.