Graeme

It's dishonest if there the people paying the bills have been deliberately mislead regarding payments. For example, my company typically charges meals and accommodation back to the customer at cost. It would be fraudulent of us to charge the customer for such expenses if they were never actually paid by my company in the first place. In the scenario I have, if "Instinct" has been lead to believe that the amount they are being charged for meals and accommodation are being passed onto the roadies, and they aren't, then that is dishonest, even if the setup may allow it to be legal. Of course, there is still the possibility that the conduct of Gabe is illegal if the roadies are direct employees/contractors of Instinct. We'll probably find out in the next chapter. That would be nice. Of course, Brandon has been explicitly told NOT to go back to his room so if he went back he'd have Helen to answer to....

I agree. Once you've settled into a particular style of living, it's hard to realise that others don't live that way. The boys would've just naturally assumed that Brandon understood the way things worked -- something even more obvious when you realise that they were thinking he was also staying in a hotel. Oh, and most of your quotes should've been attributed to Bondwriter, not me One thing that occurred to me last night was that Helen is their manager, not their accountant. As such, she may not appreciate the finer details of the situation. Industrial law and workplace reform is a big topic here in Australia at the moment, with a federal election looming sometime in the next few months. As a consequence, I came up with a scenario where what Gabe (and anyone else involved) is doing is completely legal, even if ethically dishonest. Consider the following: 1. The company "Instinct" needs to hire roadies. 2. A company "Instinct Roadies" is formed by Gabe (and others?) to provide the roadies that "Instinct" needs. 3. They negotiate a deal where "Instinct" pays "Instinct Roadies" a per diem rate to cover accommodation and meals, in addition to an above minimum wage rate. 4. "Instinct Roadies" hires roadies. 5. "Instinct Roadies" then provide the roadies to "Instinct" Please note that the pay and conditions under which "Instinct Roadies" hires their roadies can be completely different to the deal negotiated between "Instinct" and "Instinct Roadies". "Instinct" is paying a per diem rate for meals and accommodation, but "Instinct Roadies" is under no obligation to pass that on to its employees. Using a probably very conservative figure of $50 a day to cover meals and accommodation, and assuming 10 roadies (probably small for a band of four), that's $500 per day that "Instinct Roadies" makes, just on this part. Paying it's employees minimum wage while charging "Instinct" an above minimum wage is another source of income. It doesn't take much to realised that "Instinct Roadies" can make over $100,000 (and probably WELL over that figure) a year -- without doing anything except suppling roadies to "Instinct". Assuming appropriate contracts, all of this would be legal (if distasteful) in Australia, and presumably in the USA. Helen, being a manager rather than an accountant, may think what is going on is illegal, but it may not be.

I read it as he thought he still had to work. He didn't expect any money for fronting the band until after the concert, so he still needed an income. The idea of asking for an advance seems alien to him -- even when the idea came up, he still came over as not sure it was the right thing to do. A lot depends on Helen's actual position. She indicated she does NOT have the authority to investigate the financial books of the crew -- she needed permission to do so. It sounds like the way the position was structured is that she has very firm lines around what she is allowed to do. Yes, she's their manager, but it looks like the contracts were done by the boys' father, and he's been very cautious about allowing someone else to control the boys in any way. One other thing that I've thought of. It could be that I'm stereotyping our esteemed goat, but I think we'll find that Gabe is some sort of significant player in a criminal organisation. Besides not being a nice man, he appears to be involved in embezzling at the least. Given the prologue, I wouldn't be surprised if he also has a sideline of building nuclear weapons.... I'm voting for travel show host....

I think individual chapter threads is worth doing. It helps those who are coming in late -- they can read old chapter threads without getting spoilers on the later chapters. Oh, you mean about chapter 4? Why didn't you say so? Nice chapter Brandon's still confused, but in a good way. I really like the way that even though he was given an obvious lead to become a freeloader on the band, he never even thought about taking it and won't take money that he hasn't earnt. He's got a very good work ethic and that should mean good news for the band.

Happy Birthday, Fran

Happy Birthday, India!

I do have another one, but I can't remember a lot of the aftermath (the reason of which will soon become obvious). I would've been around nine, I think. My family was heavily into Little Athletics, even though I wasn't any good at it (apart from the 800m walk -- I could walk 800m almost as fast as I could run it). What I preferred to do was read books. This was great for education, and I learnt lots of things. At one particular training session, we were doing shot put. Pick up that weight (they had slightly lighter metal balls for the youngsters like me), put it to the side of your neck, and then heave it as far as you could. Sounds simple enough, though I could never seem to get it to go very far. However, I had been reading that if you throw an object up at an angle, you can achieve a longer overall distance. The instructor had been teaching us to push the shot put "out". ie. almost straight away from the body. I had the brilliant idea of pushing the ball "up" at an angle, and achieving a greater distance that way. I was a scrawny young kid, so I push the ball with all my might, and then looked around to see how far I'd thrown the shot put. I can remember looking around. I can remember not seeing the ball. I can remember something landing on the top of my head. I can remember blood. I wasn't seriously hurt (obviously there was nothing inside the skull to be damaged) and I can't remember if they took me to an ER, but I can still remember that moment of enthusiasm as I looked around to see how far I'd thrown the shot put... following by a thud as the shot put landed on my head.

Congratulations, Kevin! :king: :king: :king: :king: :king: I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more stories from you in the future. Keep up the good work and keep writing!

Happy Birthday, Stefan!

G'day, syd! Welcome to GA. This is a great place so have fun poking around and if you want to join in, feel free Cheers! Graeme

Naturally, I'd love to be published, but realistically I don't expect it to happen. If I really wanted it, I'd have to work at it -- and there is a lot of work to be done before I'd get to the editing phase. Many publishers only take manuscripts from agents, which means you first have to find an agent that is willing to take the story. Most of us write in a genre that is not where publishing houses tend to make a lot of money. This is an additional complication -- as the publishers will want to maximise the target audience to maximise their chance at profits. This gets to the heart of Comie's question -- how far would I go in making changes? Honestly, it's hard to say. I'm not wedded to my words. As long as I think the story still holds up, I'm happy to make changes. The buzz of being in print would make it easy for me to say "yeah, I'll make that change". It is only if I think the story is no longer of good quality that I think I'd balk. I would prefer not to be published, rather than having a story published that I'm not happy to put my name against.

Happy Independence Day! Thanks, BeaStKid, too -- it's nice to be reminded about celebrations in other parts of the world from time to time.

Pardon? Are we talking about Eric? The young man who murdered his uncle, stole his father's car, ran off with a suitcase full of money and forced our heroes (Chris and Steve) into a criminal act (aiding and abetting a fugitive) -- and that's just in the last two chapters! (I say two, because I'm sure someone will point out that technically, Eric murdered his uncle in chapter 37, not 38). I think this last chapter shows exactly how bad he really is. As for the epilogue -- he is obviously a man who follows in the footsteps of his father, and we know exactly what sort of criminal he turned out to be. I think these last two chapters prove beyond reasonable doubt that Eric is not a nice person.

You are SO unlucky. When my youngest boy was taken to the hospital via ambulance because of respiratory problems, and then transferred from our local hospital to the Royal Children's Hospital, they put the siren on for him, even though it wasn't necessary. Of course, he was four years old, and I suppose they make a special effort for their VIP customers.... (every four year old is a VIP, as I understand it).

You got everything right except the candlestick, so don't feel too bad.

I have been to ER twice with a dislocated jaw. The first I was at university and a friend took me over. The second time I can't remember, but I think I went by myself (even if I wasn't able to talk). I now know how to fix it myself -- they had warned me that because it had happened once, it was more likely to happen again, and it does (regularly). The embarrassing part is how I dislocated my jaw in the first place....

Congratulations, again I'm looking forward to seeing out LTMP turns out -- you did a great job with FTL.

Congratulations, CJ! You've wrapped up the story well.

Congratulations, C James! It's a well deserved promotion and I look forward to reading your stories for many, many years to come :king: :king: :king: :king: :king:

Happy Birthday, Carl! Best wishes and good health

Are the planes in the USA slow or something? Melbourne/Sydney is either an hour flight or a fourteen hour drive. Even allowing for the rigmarole of checking in, etc., it is several hours quicker to fly than to drive, and I think (from memory) Melbourne and Sydney are only about 800 miles apart. As for the get together, I'm definitely not going, though I would've liked to have been able to make it.

I think the question of whether he mounts or not is a personal matter that doesn't need to be brought up in a public forum....

Kevin, I didn't fall in love until I was older than you are. In both cases I've been in love, it was a slow thing that evolved over time. I've never had the "instant attraction" that some people have experienced. In my case it has been friendship first that slowly changed into something more. Take your time -- you've got plenty. My best online friend didn't find anyone until he was 30 and that relationship lasted less than a year. It was another seven years before he fell in love again and that relationship looks like it'll last a long time (at least I hope so). Just keep the door open and soon or later the appropriate person will show their face

I believe I'm the sum of all the decisions and events that I've experienced. There are some that I wish I hadn't experienced, but I can't think of any that don't have some good side to them. WHile there are many things I wish I'd done differently, if I had done them differently, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

I agree with you about the school. Not allowing parents to find out who their kids teacher is? Handing over kids to someone who the teacher doesn't know -- that all you have to do is say you're the parent? Expecting five year olds to know which class room they are supposed to go to after only one day? I can accept older kids knowing the right room, but please... at that age my boys were just as likely to forget what they had for breakfast, let alone a place they visited the day before. Congratulations that he's doing well It's always a buzz when you hear things like that.