Friday, 23 August 1996  4:21pm

Hey Sis,

I know I’ve only got half an hour to go, but I’ve ground to this terrible halt.  I can barely hold my head up, you know?  You’re not really tired, you’re just tired of what you’re doing.  I don’t feel bad anyway, I did stay back until 6:30 last night.

I’m going to skip Friday drinks again tonight.  I didn’t go to last week’s or the week’s before.  These days a sort of veil of despondency falls over me every Friday afternoon, and I just can’t razz myself up for a drinking session.  Maybe I’m getting old.

I saw Mum on Wednesday.  We met for lunch.  She’s got this job with Aunty Alice at Victoria University of Technology in Flinders Street.  She hates it, and keeps saying that she’s going to quit.  I hope she does, it sounds awful. But I’m sure she’s catalogued the jobs faults to you herself.  Oh yeah, thanks for the CD, it’s great.  It really grows on you, like the one you got me at Christmas.

Mum showed me some photo’s of Brady over lunch in Schwob’s Swiss.  She’s got real hair now.  I found it a little disconcerting actually.  I dunno, I keep thinking about our Uncle and wondering if I’m going to turn into him or something.

Oh yeah – those pictures that I called you about in the middle of the night the other week?  They don’t exist.  I checked.  Very thoroughly.  And if you ever mention that episode again, I will track you down. Oh and thanks very much for the dodgy advice vis-a-vis those pics – telling me to go around in the middle of the night and demand to see them!  That is absolutely the worst advice I ever hear in my life.  Do you know that I actually called her house at 2am?  Thankfully her housemate didn’t want to wake her.  When I saw her at that party the next night, she was all excited, thinking I wanted to “reconcile”.  Especially since I wouldn’t say why I had called . Ta very much for those pearls of wisdom S [here J also used my middle name.]

On the Mia front I sent a tape of hers back to her the other day.  I’d had it for a few weeks, and felt a bit bad for not getting it back to her soon enough.  Then Lisa (Mia’s friend and my work mate) told me today that Mia was “really cut” that I’d returned the tape.  Apparently it was a gift.  Super.  So now Lisa tells me I should call Mia and apologize.  I said that I thought she’d do a better job than me.  Making phone calls to ex’s only prolongs the inevitable.  I mean, you  split up for a reason, right?  Basically, what you’re saying is that you don’t want to be friends with them anymore, because a girlfriend is really only a friend that you sleep with.  The sex, in the final analysis, is a secondary consideration.  Anyhow, I’ll just ignore the situation and hope it goes away.  That’s always me favourite plan of (in)action.  I’m sick of thinking about it.  I thought breaking up would be the end of this stuff.  Ho Hum.