Canuk

Tim, I agree, it is great to be able to interact with the author - also to see the "creative process" - as someone who writes ONLY for their own amusement, it is interesting to read others and how they do it, which somehow feeds its way into my own musings.... I agree with the comercial market for CAP - however I think the "tweaks" would need to be in the areas of the sometimes graphic sex. While I think such scenes could have enlivened "Thorn Birds" (sorry but I find CAP much better than that), the one gay sex scene in Up/Down Stairs (a visiting Count and a footman? tho' that sounds" Downton ABbey" like...) comes no where near Mark's writing!! And CAP with "suitable for an american public" sex??????

hellatiously = distasteful? repellant? I did wonder at what point this magnificent saga would become more trouble than reward. Sinecerely hope that you can work things out. I think in Soaps it is usually at this point there is a wedding where all and sundry get blown up - a veritable house cleaning !! does this apply to the Grainger stories as well? Thanks for all the entertainment you have provided to date, it is much appreciated despite my sometimes bitchy comments!!

at the birth of my first son..... apart from the fact that the world had another Collingwood supporter, the sheer magic of that moment brought the most amazing tears, tears of pure joy and wonder. as for my second son, he came so bloody quickly we had no time for anything!!

Nice to see you back Conner, I seemed to have missed you..... I agree that this is a truly disfunctional family and that for all their money and flash cars, parenting skills are seriously missing. I think I have mentioned elsewhere that the tensions in this family are bizarre - I have no idea why it hangs together, but then as Daddydavek mentioned - its fiction and so I take it all with a grain of salt and read it for the fun of it!!

nope strictly sav blanc, champagne, gin, vodka, kinda guy! but then my guy picked me up with a beer... so presumably if you're cute enough i drink whatever you're drinking!

I would agree with all and sundry who have posted here claiming that Tony's reaction was "normal" IF the story involving them had stopped the moment Tony woke up and realised what he's done. Yep - freaking out because you have woken up with a significantly under age guy is normal. However the story didn't finsih there. Suddenly he wanted to explain himself to Will and not just once but several times. That is NOT the reaction that I'd call normal. At this point IMHO Will's reaction (good cry, realise it's not what you thought it was but it was a great one nighter, now piss off) seems to me to be far more mature than both his behaviour in previous chps and Tony's behaviour in this one. I agree that his Dad/parents etc letting a 13/14 yo old do Jeager shots is, once again IMHO, a derelection of duty. Mind you anyone anytime doing Jeager shots is pretty icky. Never liked the stuff or its smell on others.... This however does fit in Brad's view of parenting as being "best buds".

well well well... who bloody knew! Tony needs SERIOUS help. Very well written - so unexpected, but so "in character" when it happened. Not a bad job Mr Arbour , congrats...again

I'm just as boring: QANTAS (ttrying to find a cheap flight to melbourne) Couple of job applications email GA - I check out the stories I like then was in the Soapbox (for probably the last time!) now here!

really delayed response to this post - while I have two boys (24 & 28) and I love them dearly, I was in a similar situation to what Tet describes except I was on a flight Melbourne to Athens (via Singapore) 20 hours. The brat behind me starts firts kicking my chair then bouncing on the fold-out table. 30 minutes into the flight I ask the mother to deal with it and received the same shrug Tet received. so I turned to the ~4 year old and said it what was probably ( ) a menacing voice "I eat children like you" . the child stopped instantly, the mother's face looked horrified and I had a peaceful flight!! I am just glad I wasn't up for the 10 years of child counselling the brat probably needed!! As far as my boys I had them when I was 21 & 25 and I really enjoyed it. so I suppose it just takes all types......

Here in the tropics we have basically two seasons: The Wet, and The Dry. Some would add a third : The Build-up - but that's really the wet without rain (which sort-of makes it dry, but it isn't!!!) To me whereas one is good the other is better. I have done Winnipeg - the cold is clear and sunny - but it's bloody cold. I have done Toronto & Washington DC - wet, miserable cold, snow is a blessed relief - summer is miserably humid. I have done Victoria BC - gray loooooong winters. Melbourne's pretty good all round - some cold days in winter, some hot days in summer, autumn and spring completely unpredictable!! but the tropics - sheer heaven!!

I must admit to never watching cooking shows - not the "best chef" variety anyway - I can't stand the brutal competitiveness and the spurious reasons people get thrown off the show. In addition while I love well cooked and inventive food, eating to me is as much about the social occaison as it is about the food and drink.

i logged in to check for a new chapter 8 minutes after you uploaded it!! sad part is that it's that much longer to wait before the next one!!! Great chapter. teh sense of releif as they all start to "get it" re Bridget et al, but the tension of the consequences of the press and what in the hell the assassin is oing, its really well put together - a sort of balance between tension and reslution... v well written. Congrats again!

brought back 1st year university..... addition of punctuation into Latin helps no end!!

very well done. I could feel the tension.... way too well really..... embarrassingly well..... congrats..

i was beginning to wonder if we'd lost Sir George all togther! he is turning into quite an adept politician the way he delt with the Spanish "offenders". I have some trouble understanding his concern for Ramsay - the bloke was out to destroy him and well on his way to doing so.... that he was driven to suicide is awful, but in the cold hard light of day , it certainly has made things easier for our hero. Nice also to see that our boy is getting his end in so to speak. relief all round, I'd say!

while I agree with "Talk to him" do not forget in the process to listen to him you will find out far more by listening to him than by talking at him, hoever badly you feel... Best of luck

exactly! what would have been on my list 15 years ago: tanned, athletic, physical, dark, ying-to-my-yang, blokey, outdoorsey what I have lived with and loved for the last dozen years: red-hair, pale skin, bilingual Proust reading artist and arts administrator who'd a thunk!

excellant chapter. I agree that the Ned/Shane issue does seem to imply more than has been revealed...... I can't imagine it's sexual.... but then what else would produce such passion??? I am glad the reporter didn't prove to be an utter bastard - it would have been too easy to make him a bad guy. Having him work with pure self-interest at heart rings true and also helps move the story along. great work. looking forward to next installment, as ever!

from your last post it looks like you are trying to resolve too many issues at once. hopefully your therapist will help resolve that. if you split from your wife, life will go on, it will be difficult but it doesn't sound like "easy" is the current descriptor you'd use for your marital situation. Commentators who said "you got married too young"; ignore them. The age at which a person marries has NO bearing on the likelihood of a happy marriage. Personally I was married at 21 and had 15+ great years. I now have children in their late 20's and that's blood marvellous. I can see that you feel you made a "wrong" decision" and you're now fearful of making another - all you can do is do what you did when you made that first decision: with what you currently know what is the best decision I can make now? remember hindsight is always 20/20 and never have regrets - they just waste time.

done

if ass= arse what do north americans call the small donkey-like animal? i.e that animal that in Australian/New Zealand/UK english is called an ass - the animal that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on ( I know he rode in on his arse - but his arse was on an ass)

OK, there was a previous string where someone asked "when did you feel you were "old". Well it just hit me ( unfortunately not for the first time). I saw the title to this post - "Why do so many people hate twilight". my first thought - and this didn't cahnge until I had read the first few entries - was why on earth would people not like the period just before and after sunset? That said as I have never seen the twilight that obviously involves cute boys and werewolves, I can't comment. But I do like watching the (very brief, inthe tropics) twilight each night......

I am SO glad that somehow my schooling wasn't this complex..... I'd have been a cot case! Where do you conjure these evil women from? I hope like hell it's not based on personal history! congrats

This is the most stressful story I have read!! who needs cliffhangers when the entire bloody story is one loooooong cliffy!!! CJ you packed an awful lot into this one chapter. certainly built tension and opened up so many possibilities, not many of them good! Great read. Thanks

well done - great chapter. Nice to see how you slowly pull all the pieces together. With the assassin coming from the north and with a range of 800 and the boys sailing south - with luck they'll miss and the assassin will spend days/weeks searching the coast and Shark Bay..... we can but hope.....