Unhappily Ever After

Normal service resumes today with the departure of Annette and Kath, who've flown up to Queensland after eight days in Sydney; eight days in which they've seen rain to rival anything we get in Manchester and (in Annette's case) had the dubious honour of finding a three-inch cockroach crawling across their toes. I said I'd show them the real Sydney and I didn't let them down. We spent their last night at the opera bar - where else?

And they've taken with them a few Christmas cards and £5 to buy some stamps, so if your cards are marked Preston this year, don't be surprised. (And speaking of which, I've obviously been away too long because in fishing about for some British money to give to them, I came across this big weird-looking thing and had to actually read it to work out it was a £2 coin. "Oh it's a two dollar coin" I said to Annette. "Pounds" she corrected me. "British pounds").

Anyway, it's been an interesting day at work today because I took the playgroup children on an excursion to Taronga Zoo. There's nothing like soaking up the sun and getting paid for it to remind me what a priviledge it's been to spend a year in Sydney, though I hadn't counted on finding Jackie in such low spirits. She was slumped on the wall outside the zoo when I arrived. Then she showed me her hand.

The engagement ring was missing. With eleven weeks to go, Dixon's called the whole thing off.

"He says he's become indifferent to me" she sobbed. "He doesn't care whether I'm there or not. He's called the wedding off, he won't talk to me".

"What will you do now?" I asked

"Well he wants the ring back and I've refused. I mean, it's been valued at eleven thousand dollars. Call it compensation for the heartbreak but I'm keeping it myself"

"I'm not sure what the etiquette is" I said.

"Well the etiquette is he wants to sell the ring because he'll have to pay my mother back all the deposits she's paid for the wedding but he can go hang. He'll have to find the money somewhere else and that'll hurt him where it matters"

She wiped a tear from under her enormous sunglasses. "And as for the house, well we only bought it four weeks ago. Can you imagine? And the capital gains tax is enormous if you sell within a year. He's talking about buying me out but I'm going to insist it goes on the market. I mean, if he keeps the house he'll never live in it, he'll just rent it out as an investment and he'll make a profit on it. Why should he get that profit and not me?"

"Because he's bought you out?"

It wasn't the answer she wanted to hear.

So after all the months of listening to Jackie's mother-in-law dramas and all the talk of the 1.1 mill they were spending on a house, it's all come crashing down. Just goes to show that being gorgeous is no guarantee of happiness. You might get your prince but it doesn't mean you'll keep him.