Paladin

Naivety reigns supreme and keeps them apart! It's like watching virgin teenagers negotiating 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours'. Amusing to watch but excruciating if you are one of the teenagers.

Quote: ‘So, here’s to Kieran and Charlie,’ my father said. ‘For their showing us the way. For showing us that we don’t always have to conform to the old standards, or traditions. And for showing us that love always wins. ’ This is one of the poignant moments in this chapter. Standards and Traditions help keep us grounded in our culture and family but they can also hold us back from societal change and understanding. As Kieran's father points out we don't have to conform to old standards and traditions when they are not relevant. Unfortunately, as optimistic as he is, even now love does not always win.

Such a club could be regarded as a Ladies Revenge Club aimed at establishment clubs that refuse to accept women members.

I love the idea of the Phoenix's rebirth being because of a dragon's fire.

Having meaningfully said I love you and getting to say goodbye are so important for good grief.

A very romantic chapter @Mark Ponyboy Peters with the two of them becoming more comfortable with each other and Tony opening up and unburdening himself to Aaron. Tony still has other things he has to sort out, or help sort out, starting with Jess. Seems I was wrong, Harry's visit will be more significant than lounging on the beach.

It's good to know that the spirits are supporting the boys in their quest to reclaim the family land. The dream sequence was beautifully "real". Kota is becoming more and more part of this loving family. How will he respond to being told his real family name? Waiting to find out.

Yes @empath, Daniel is alive. Well spotted! ❤️

Thank you @Philippe. The image of paedophiles all being gay is all too prevalent in the community and media, even while the evidence is to the contrary. The vast majority of paedophiles are heterosexual and concentrating on gay paedophiles takes the focus away from them. That is not to condone gay paedophilia but to focus on dealing with all paedophilia.

To be frank @Summerabbacat, Frank may not be as popular as Jason, but frankly there's more than one frank country cop called Frank.

Too right @Mark Ponyboy Peters, they are amazing. They know that have a job to do but also know they need to be respected while doing it.

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Things are starting to come together for the police and they are getting ready to swoop. As I commented to @Flip-Flop more on the search for Daniel in the next chapter. Remember that Vanessa has always liked Joshua and she and Adrian tried to get custody of Joshua and Daniel after the parents' death.

Yes @Flip-Flop, even though Joshua didn't plan it, dumping his card sent those searching for him on a wild goose chase and has given the police time to plan. More on the search for Daniel in the next chapter. He's been in hiding for a few years so the question is how keen is he to be found?

Unfortunately @Ticklishboy30 most negative accusations against people are done without real knowledge of the prople or the situation. On the other hand it's interesting how often real paedophiles are not accused because they are "good people" who "wouldn't do that".

@Summerabbacat you gave Vanessa the role of grandmother in your first comment.

Thank you,@Summerabbacat, Yes, Vanessa has changed. At one point Jordan admitted at after Adam's death he changed and that changed the people around him. Meeting Cameron and Joshua has again changed Jordan and the family dynamics have moved with him. Vanessa enjoys having an older "grandson" even if she doesn't want to be called "granny" More about 'Dr Jackson' in future chapters. Every small town has a Edith.

Jordan looked at the caller ID. “It’s Michael. I wonder what he wants.” Jordan answered the call and switched to speaker. “Hi Michael, how are things in Stingray Heads?” “Hi Jordan. I’ve got Frank, our local cop, with me. He’s got something important to tell you.” ************* Earlier that Monday. Frank was at the front desk of the police station when Edith Collins entered looking excited. “Constable Frank, I suppose you’ll take more notice of me now that Social Worker

Quote: I made a mental note to come back and check out the real estate agent again before I went back to the city, which I would undoubtedly have to do, even if to just tidy things up before I leave there for good. Tony is admitting, at least to himself, that he is leaving Brisbane and moving to T'ville. I'm so looking forward to that. A gentle chapter.

Worthwhile tissue warning. 😢😿 The loose ends are being tied together and I hope George and Lionel and Larry get to live and grow up together. 🤞

A beautiful chapter, just about Tony and Aaron. As they meld back together I can only see them staying together this time.

Ryder's nativity is delightful. In his weakened state he is starting to see things as they really are and who his enemy really is. Will this continue when his strength returns? Fate is definitely directing Ryder in his search for his fated mate but what is the real situation with the wolf shifter Pembroke. I hope we see a lot more of Vince and Jack.

Here we pay local government (council) rates to pay for local services (local roads, garbage collection, parks etc). These rates are based on the "unimproved capital value" of the block of land. The house is not taken into account. The state government also has a land tax. Land tax is applied to land property which is owned but not your primary residence (ie. investment property and holiday homes) There is a threshold before land tax is applied. At present that threshold is $1,075,000.

While Tony and Aaron are rekindling their relationship, there's a lot going on in the background: house, writer's centre, siblings and Harry's visit. I can see this being a very busy and revealing week for Tony and possibly everyone else at the party.

One of the wonderful things about English is that an individual word is not necessarily specifically tied to a particular grammatical function, unlike in many other languages. Lots of English words are used to fulfill more than one grammatical function. @Myr posted avowed as an adjective and @Bill W has as usual collected excellent background for the word avowed as an adjective along with examples of its use in sentences. In seven of the sentences avowed is clearly used as an adjective. In the first two, and @Myr's example avowed is used as a verb (past tense of avow*) describing an action rather than, as an adjective, modifying a noun. Additionally, if you google (a word which is both a verb and a noun) avowed you will find that Avowed is also a video game and hence now also a noun. So here we have avowed not only as an adjective but also as a verb and a noun. Isn't English wonderful! (* avow has become both the noun and verb vow as used in weddings.)