Content note: we discuss medical things and encourage people to check with their healthcare professional if they have any questions or concerns. We are *not* qualified!
SPEAKERS
LILY, JENNY (+ SIRI)
LILY 00:00
It's cold and wintry. It's like, the first few days where this starts to happen. I kind of like it because it's like cosy and I'm wearing clothes I haven't worn in a few months and it's a bit different. But it just feels really early to be having this kind of weather.
JENNY 00:17
I know. Yeah. I hope it's not the end of the warmth.
LILY 00:23
Well, I think Sunday is supposed to be nice. Like, we're still gonna get like random days here and there that are over 25. But I don't think we're gonna get a run of like, warm days again. And you know, anyway, here we are. It's been a very quiet day so far, which is really nice.
JENNY 00:38
And how'd you go at the gynaecologist?
LILY 00:40
Oh, yeah
JENNY 00:41
You can catch everyone up.
LILY 00:43
Exactly. Gyno update because it's been all quiet on the thrushian front
JENNY 00:49
[Laughter] The Thrussian Front. The Eastern Thrussian Front.
LILY 00:54
Yeah, exactly. But no, went very well. I was there half an hour early, because I thought it was 11. But it was 11.30. Anyway, so yeah, I'm struggling with my time today. But um, I really like her. She just kind of checked up. She did like the same thing she did last time, which is just like with a little q-tip, running it around my vagina, you know, various parts. And last time, it was like very, like, in certain areas, like painful, even though she wasn't even pressing. It was just painful. And this time, there were like a couple of slight like, oh yeah, I can feel pressure kind of thing. But it was all fine. So that's really good.
JENNY 01:32
So what was that? The cream?
LILY 01:34
[Laughter] I forgot about the antidepressants and thought that was funny that I completely forgot about the ketamine. That is so funny. So she said, though that the cream even though it's got the antidepressants in it. So there's the hope that it's retraining my nerves to kind of be less -- not depressed, I think everyone thinks antidepressants, but it's just retraining like to get it back to how it was. But she was like, the main thing that's going to be helping is the ketamine. I know. It's yeah, the ketamine anyway. So, yeah, so she was saying that that's doing the most work and the nerves were still -- she keeps saying jangling -- they're still jangling away, but that slowly over time, they will, she's like, I'm just hoping they will stop. You know what I mean? If they're not being constantly re fired by the pain, which is why the ketamine is there. So, yeah, so she gave me another prescription for it for like a bigger tube. She said it would last about a year. And so I can just keep using it. And, you know, she was like, if you ever want to, like try go if it for a bit and see, because I was saying that I still, the times that I've say, forgotten to do it. Like once, because I take it morning and night, just like there's been times that it's been really like 12 hours since my last one. I haven't done it. And having sex is still not nearly as painful as it was, but there's still that like uncomfortability so she was like, just keep using it. And it might just be that the solution, you know, but it's good. If it stops it progressing further and devolve into it becoming a pelvic floor issue.
JENNY 03:14
Yes, yes.
LILY 03:16
And she also said, you know, it's like with the thrush medication, like, if I go off it, and I get thrush again, then I'm just on thrush medication. It's not -- they're not really -- they manage the things they're not fixing it so yeah, there's just a chance that I'm just going to be on this stuff kind of long term which is fine because they're not antibiotics. And it's worth it for avoiding how much like pain and stress and everything. Um, she gave me some good recommendations for a cream for BV. Actually just I'm gonna get it because I want to tell people about it because I feel like yeah,
JENNY 03:51
Community service
LILY 03:53
Yeah community service.
JENNY 03:55
We need to do a disclaimer though we are not doctors. We are not qualified. We are not registered, we are none of that.
LILY 04:02
We are not
JENNY 04:03
Lily is just sharing her experience.
LILY 04:07
We are not healthcare professionals, but I am going to the expensive gynaecologist at the cost of $160 so you don't have to! So she recommended Fleurstat which is a cream for BV you can just get it over the counter, it's not an antibiotic and she said that's just really good to treat it if you're getting symptoms and again on top of that quickly, and then also something called Aci-Jel.
JENNY 04:30
Sorry, Fleurstat is a cream or a tablet?
LILY 04:34
It's a cream with like the things that go up the whatever
JENNY 04:39
pessaries or inserter?
LILY 04:40
Inserter like in syringe.
SIRI 04:43
I didn't quite catch that...
JENNY 04:44
Oh, fuck off Siri.
LILY 04:48
She just wants to get in on the convo
JENNY 04:50
'I didn't quite catch that' [laughter], she wants to get in on the convo [laughter]
LILY 04:52
She's like 'I want to be part of the podcast. I've got opinions. Let me tell you about my thrush'
JENNY 04:58
SIRI HAS THRUSH
LILY 04:59
Yeah
JENNY 05:01
Siri has BV
LILY 05:02
Yeah, so um, anyway, so she, she said it's like micro something that helps keep the pH balance. So it's like essentially combating the BV with different microbes that help chill it out instead of combating it with antibiotics or something. So that seems like a good option and then something called Aci-Jel, which I was like because is there anything that I can just be using regularly to just keep my vagina like happy? So the thrush is maybe not happening?
JENNY 05:32
You mean apart from the antidepressants and the ketamine?
LILY 05:35
Yeah, no, it's like, very well cared for
JENNY 05:39
Pampered.
LILY 05:41
Yeah, anyway, so she said Aci-jel is good, but kind of keeps the pH on the more acidic side, which is what, what you want. And apparently sperm can make it too acidic, I think or something like that.
JENNY 05:53
Hang on, you want to keep it on the alkaline side or the acidic side.
LILY 05:57
You want to keep it on the acidic side, so maybe sperm makes it too alkaline. Or maybe it pushes it too acidic, like past the point of good, but it definitely messes with the pH balance, which is why doing something as simply as like, having a wash or a little wipe down after sex can like help or peeing or whatever, because you're just removing the sperm. But if it's just like sits there and ferments it can really fuck up your pH.
JENNY 06:20
And you mean semen instead of sperm.
LILY 06:22
Yeah, okay. Sure.
JENNY 06:23
Sex ed teacher, and even if I wasn't-
LILY 06:26
but people know what I mean
JENNY 06:27
Yeah, but it's like people saying vagina for vulva.
LILY 06:32
Sure, but okay, you're a very precise talker. I feel like
JENNY 06:35
I am.
LILY 06:36
You are a very precise talker as I talk more in concept, and meaning like I don't the words. Yeah. I don't know if people know what you mean, when you're talking about a vagina.
JENNY 06:44
I know. We all have our bugbears, though, or our little things, don't we? But I am a very precise talker. Yeah _______ drives me mad when he is not precise with his communication.
LILY 06:58
It's interesting. Like, I feel like I don't even like I probably should more, I don't like consider the words. Are just vehicles. You know what I mean? It's like they can mean whatever you want them to mean.
JENNY 07:08
Well no. Because words have precise meanings. And sure it can sometimes change depending on the context, but that's why I am precise.
LILY 07:16
Well, shall we get to the reading? Yeah. Anyway, so welcome to My Mum's Bad Diaries, the podcast where my mum reads me her debatably bad diaries, but her diaries from the 80s where we're at right now. I'm Lily, the daughter
JENNY 07:35
And I'm Jenny, the mother, the writer. Yeah, they are debated... debate.. They're not always bad. In fact, they're pretty good. I mean, I guess the term bad was really referring to the embarrassing you know, like just things being embarrassing or things being ... personal.
LILY 07:54
And maybe not even about the those even though yes, there are definitely embarrassing and personal things in the diaries, but not even the diaries themselves, more in the action of reading them aloud to your daughter. I think that's maybe where, you know, it kind of started with the salon idea. This idea of reading it out to [an audience] and it not being a private thing anymore.
JENNY 08:06
True True. We are starting, we are in 1981 but we're almost at the end of 1981. So today's reading is Sunday 20th of December 1981. I'm totally loving Jane Eyre. I admire her for her courage and strength. EG page 344. And then I have a quote: 'Laws and principles are not for times when there are no temptations. They are for moments as this when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour. Stringent are they. Inviolate they shall be.' And that's the end of the quote. Wow, she's got guts. Not sure who I mean, she I guess Jane Eyre, I'm talking about the character.
LILY 09:02
Maybe. Yeah, that's a great book. It's very um it's quite dark, but really good.
JENNY 09:11
We should do I do it for our My Mum's book club.
LILY 09:14
Yeah, book club. Well, remember, we then also read that, that kind of spin off written by that woman Wide Sargo...
JENNY 09:24
Yeah, The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rys ...
LILY 09:29
Which is great. I loved that. It was really good.
JENNY 09:34
Yeah, we should do My Mum's Book Club. And we do those two, and we do Wuthering Heights, of course as the first. And we do the Mayor of Casterbridge. To make a correction. Henchard's 21 year old oath is from the Mayor of Casterbridge, which you said and
LILY 09:58
I did.
JENNY 10:00
It would be good to do. You know, it'd be good to do books that we mentioned.
LILY 10:05
I would love to do that, particularly because like, you know, well, I've read, I read quite a few of them, but like, Mayor of Casterbridge which I've never read, or Tess of the d'Urbevilles I've never read, which I think we talk about as well.
JENNY 10:14
Yeah, we do.
LILY 10:15
There'll be there'll be a real theme, because it's like, this is all what you're reading it at kind of 17, 18. And it's quite tragique. I feel like a lot of the books. Yeah, so that would be fun as well, because it we kind of have a theme for the spin-off episodes. Well, it'd be fun. We could do that just even like every couple of months or something.
JENNY 10:34
Yeah, I think it'd be good. And then we will, then it will trace my reading, you know, the development ofmy reading, and then there'll be the Dick Francises and Sidney Sheldons and Stephen Kings. So not reading all of them, but just touch-stone books. I think it'd be good.
LILY 10:53
I think so as well. And, you know, it could be it could be not even necessarily, if there's stuff that we've read before and we know quite well, it could even then just be we're just going to be discussing these two, you know what I mean? And just our thoughts on them, you know, if we do a bit of research or something, yeah. Of things we find interesting. Yeah, that'd be cool. Well, yeah, maybe a project for this year?
JENNY 11:13
Yes. Well, in less than one week, I shall be in Hong Kong. It's incredible to think that in such a short time, I will be so far away in such an utterly different environment and culture. So that's, that's all happening. All booked, clearly
LILY 11:30
Exciting
JENNY 11:30
Yeah. Nim came over yesterday. And we played tennis on the road with Liz and Jim and watched TV and read. So tennis on the road, it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have been out the front of our house in _________ Road it would have been the side street. Last night we put on a concert for Liz and Jim and it was sick. Cinderella ad lib. Then they did Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It was fun
LILY 11:59
God, I just feel like people just make their own fun so much more back then. You know what I mean? Like there was just a lot more- to be doing that at 17. You know what I mean, it's kind of rare.
JENNY 12:10
I think so these days. Yeah. These days. There was fun mucking about. Then today, we rose at 7:15am had showers and breakfast. And dad arrived at 8:15am to take us to the canoe marathon. We arrived there after picking up ________ -- alias Ethiopia, alias Intellect -- at about 9am
LILY 12:33
I love how you just put in what obviously are just in jokes with the assumption that you're going to know what they mean. Like so long after, with like no explanation.
JENNY 12:42
I know. I remember 'Intellect'. I don't remember 'Ethiopia'. I should. I should ask him, Jim about that.
LILY 12:50
So they were friends from school. Is that right?
JENNY 12:52
Yeah. Yeah. Probably from about Year 8. Yeah, close friend. So we picked him up at about 9am only to be confronted by mass competition. It was so overwhelming. After starting half an hour too late, the race commenced and all six boats [laughter] began the gruelling, one mile circuit around Albert Park Lake.
LILY 13:14
Oh, Albert Park, canoeing as well so not rowing?
JENNY 13:19
Yes, six boats in this marathon.
LILY 13:23
And you're like oh my god such a big competition, we were overwhelmed! Maybe they were a lot of people watching though. People kind of get into that stuff.
JENNY 13:31
No I think that's me being sarcastic. Yeah, being funny. We swapped teams a la relay style every lap and it was great fun. Then Dad took us to Leo's Spaghetti bar at St Kilda. And then in brackets Fitzroy street and we ate. It was a fun day. My legs are a la lobster, ie sunburned.
LILY 13:52
Oh, we've all had those lobster legs.
JENNY 13:55
Have you?
LILY 13:56
Yeah, I remember.
JENNY 13:57
Oh in the early years, yeah.
LILY 13:59
Bali. Maybe we were in Bali. And I got quite burnt on the back of my legs, I remember.
JENNY 14:07
And I would have been saying, put some cream on...
LILY 14:11
Oh yeah. 100%. And then I wouldn't have and then you'd be like, This is why you gotta put some cream on and I'd be like, it would just turn to tan. It's fine.
JENNY 14:22
On Christmas day, Friday, so this is the 20th, five days before Christmas. On Christmas Day Friday we're having lunch at ______'s with the _________s and nanny and poppop and next day I jet off to Hong Kong.
LILY 14:35
Oh. So exciting
JENNY 14:37
We -- mum and I -- went to Boomerang Travel Service yesterday to see if the tour had been organised. Okay, so I haven't even mentioned-- did I mention I'm going to China? I think I did.
LILY 14:47
Yes. You said for three days and you're going to be so excited to be somewhere completely different.
JENNY 14:52
So that's the tour.
LILY 14:53
Sure. Three days.
JENNY 14:55
I know a [sings] 'three-day tour'. We will be finding out by Wednesday if it's all okay. I don't know what that means,
LILY 15:04
well, maybe enough people needed to book in for it to go ahead or something.
JENNY 15:08
I have to get a visa to go to China in Hong Kong, but I'll have plenty of time to do that. Mum asked the girl heaps of questions, and she's now much happier about me going and consequently, so am I.
LILY 15:21
Okay, so would have been- Gran's worrying a little bit there. Yeah,
JENNY 15:27
the white white slave trade. [Laughter]
LILY 15:30
[Laughter] Oh shhhhh.
JENNY 15:30
That's what she used to joke about with me. But when in the 50s, you know, she'd go to the, we probably should change that. I know that's not the term now. Now you'd call it human trafficking. But she said that in the 50s, her mother used to say to her when she went to the cinema 'don't sit in the aisle, because someone will jab you with a hypodermic and and kidnap you for the white slave trade'.
LILY 15:54
Which is, that's so interesting. Because like, that's, that's just not what happens. You know what I mean? Like, human trafficking is such a thing. And it's horrific and scary how prevalent it is. Yeah, but it's not people kidnapping you from the cinema in like Toorak. [Laughter]
JENNY 16:14
[Laughter] Exactly
LILY 16:15
With a hypodermic needle, like something out of a, like a mystery book or something, you know, like, yeah, yeah, it's, it's like, so I always find it so fascinating. The tales or the stories people used to believe back when they had less information about the world, you know what I mean? Like when people left to their own imagination about things, whereas these days, it's like, if you want to know something about human trafficking, there's so many documentaries, or there's so many things you can read about it. And back in the day, people always saw this like, play once, and that kind of happened. And so that's how it must have been like. Yeah.
JENNY 16:45
I saw Francis three times yesterday. He was he was gardening as Nim and I rode home. We talked then, and when we were playing tennis again. Then last night he came up, all dressed up for a fancy dress party. A la Sister _______ in a nun's habit [laughter]
LILY 17:07
[Laughter]
JENNY 17:07
He and _______ are coming up for pre Christmas nibbles next Thursday night, Christmas Eve. He talked about going to see Rocky Horror live, it would be so fab. I can't be fagged, writing anymore. So I'll say cheerio, JAX. And I'm thinking the JA is Jenny Ackland. Not Jenny Adam, but I can't be sure.
LILY 17:27
Well, that makes a lot more sense, to be honest. So you think this whole time it could have been?
JENNY 17:32
No, it was definitely Jen Adam
LILY 17:35
And now it's
JENNY 17:36
I don't I just don't think I'll be hanging on to Adam. But maybe I maybe I am because on the previous page, there's photos of him. [Laughter]
LILY 17:43
[Laughter] I just think that probably as like, life becomes a bit more full. You know, like with everything kind of just- they move to the more normal place of just being crushes as opposed to obsessions.
JENNY 18:01
That's right. And the previous episode, I had my first kiss with Hat Boy Frog. So
LILY 18:06
Little Froggy.
JENNY 18:07
I think that might have just pushed I think, yeah, I'm just moving on a bit.
LILY 18:11
Yeah. Good. I'm glad, that's that's good adjustment.
JENNY 18:16
Real world adjustment. 21st of December 1981. I had my cholera/typhoid vaccination to get today. Exclamation mark. It was fun. Exclamation mark. My arm aches. Exclamation. Wowee. Exclamation mark. I also finished my Christmas shopping today. Exclamation mark. Thrills. Exclamation mark. For Liz, Jim. Sorry, for Jim. Listen, I got Not 1982 by the Not the Nine O'Clock News team. It's a calendar. I think I'll be getting my camera here in a duty free shop. If I have any money leftover from Hong Kong, I'll pay dad back for the camera. [Laughter] If I have any money. If I don't, suck it dad,
LILY 19:03
Whatever. Well look kind of compared to what was promised travel-wise. I think he can buy you a camera.
JENNY 19:11
He's paying for the tickets.
LILY 19:14
Yeah, but it's not a three month sojourn through Europe with you and a friend is it?
JENNY 19:18
No. No, no, no. It was just going to be me and him.
LILY 19:21
I thought he said you can invite a friend. Well, why is that weird?
JENNY 19:22
Well, it took forever on the train from Ashboring, I was just going to be me and him. And then he said, you can go and take a friend. That didn't happen. This is the third the third option. And I remember this camera. Yeah, did all the research went to Ted's Camera Store in Elizabeth Street. It was a Canon. Yeah, Today as Liz and I were coming home from town --so we went into town to do Christmas shopping and to get a calendar! but where around Ashboring could you buy anything? Yeah, maybe Chadstone wasn't that good. Yeah, probably Yeah. And that shows that that's what we had to do to go and get anything good
LILY 20:05
Like a whole day trip into the city.
JENNY 20:08
Today as Liz and I were coming home from town, I sort of resigned myself to aiming for a front page story for The Age as part of my ambitious career to excel as a journaliste terrifique. [Laughter]
LILY 20:23
Just wait. So you resigned yourself to that desire or dream?
JENNY 20:27
Yeah. So my, my precision of word choice was not on display at 17. Because resigned, is accepting something that's negative.
LILY 20:37
But maybe that's the joke. Maybe you're just making the joke of like, I've resigned myself over to this great fate or to wanting this great fate.
JENNY 20:46
I don't think so. I think it's just the wrong. I think it's like I Yes, resigned's the wrong word. It's interesting. A front page story. That was my goal
LILY 20:57
Oh, and yeah, you're still on the journalist track so I'm really intrigued to see what changes.
JENNY 21:03
Mmmmm. How that goes awry!
LILY 21:03
Yeah [laughter]
JENNY 21:05
I thought of all the people at school, married with screaming kids and unfaithful husbands, all in the kitchen, before and after work slash school, the flustered housewife catching a glimpse of the headlines, which sprawl across The Age's front page, with the name Jennifer Ackland underneath the absorbing article.
LILY 21:31
It's very interesting that you're really wanting to distinguish, I think, from what you see as like the typical life of a woman, you know what I mean? In that boring life, you really wanting something very different for yourself, which like, maybe these days doesn't sound that radical, and even back then maybe it wasn't that still, like, there was probably that expectation that that's what you would do, you know, and you're only kind of one generation removed from that being the only thing that women did do, when you think about Gran and her kind of life and her career and experience?
JENNY 22:03
Exactly
LILY 22:04
Yeah, so very much I feel like- and particularly the unfaithful husband thing, very much not wanting what Gran maybe had experienced? Yeah.
JENNY 22:14
Yeah. And just thinking, Well, I don't want that. And that all goes together. That that is just like part of the package deal. And probably that's what I thought that all men, or almost all men, were were unfaithful.
LILY 22:30
And I think and maybe particularly back then, I think, maybe not with the unfaithful thing but that as a package deal. I think women for a long time felt I either do that, right, or I can completely reject it and I just do my thing, and I don't get married, and I don't have kids. And you know what I mean? That's how I have my freedom. And that's how I have my career. And I think it is interesting. These days, we've been trying harder to marry the two together. Which, to varying successes, you know, it's hard to do 100% But I think we're expecting more of men to help support that. Those two things happening together.
JENNY 23:08
Yeah, but also men benefit from it. No doubt about that.
LILY 23:13
From women working? Oh, yeah. Well, we've moved from a society where you could support a wife and two children and have a house and a car and be pretty chill to now two parents need to work full time just to like pay rent, so. Good shit
JENNY 23:28
And a wife wife and three children if not four
LILY 23:31
True. Yeah, yeah.
JENNY 23:32
Yeah. So I think you're right this concept of having it all having it both, doing it both was not- it wasn't really a formalised, like it hadn't crystallised yet.
LILY 23:42
I think that's very, like 90s, early 2000s. Like You Can Have It All in like that, like spread in Cosmo, like How You Do It In 10 Steps. Which I think is a little bit misleading and again, puts a lot of pressure on women to try do it all instead of looking at either society, or men, to reassess their expectations of women, but yeah,
JENNY 24:05
It's a dream, but not impossible. Hey, on the radio is Girls on Film. One of my favourite sounds of December 81
LILY 24:15
'Sounds'
JENNY 24:16
[Laughter] I love it man. Yeah yeah, one of my favourite sounds. And this is a great film clip, like the Duran Duran film clips are really pretty good
LILY 24:29
Well, you sent me through those Aerosmith film clips, just because we were on a bit of an Alicia Silverstone tangent on the weekend. Mum was watching Clueless
JENNY 24:41
Did you have a look?
LILY 24:42
I did have a look, I didn't watch all of them all the way through because they're so fucking long, but yeah, very good kind of storytelling and like the vibe but but also noticing that there was like a real theme of like this girl just like getting free in a car and going a bit wild and crazy. and leaving town and stealing things and getting tattoos and I was like: Okay dude
JENNY 25:04
Yeah and getting a belly ring. But yeah, that wasn't. And that was like later that was in the 90s. Yeah, yeah, that was mid 90s. But yeah, that was sort of like, yeah, it was a new way of film clips. I love the Duran Duran album. It's very intriguing, I think.
LILY 25:26
[Laughter] I'm just imagining...
JENNY 25:27
On an intellectual level
LILY 25:28
Yeah, this is this is the kind of article you're gonna write for The Age front page [laughter]
JENNY 25:34
[Laughter].
LILY 25:34
'I really like their music.'
JENNY 25:36
[laughter]. I'm wondering whether I should take this book with me when I depart on my global movements on Saturday. So I'm, I think I'm just very excited about going. And it's kind of there's something happening to the way I'm writing. It's like this- there's an inflated sort of quality of excitement. And
LILY 25:59
well, I was just gonna ask, did anyone else do travel? After school? Any of your other friends? Did people go and do stuff like this?
JENNY 26:08
No, but _______ comes to Hong Kong. And another girl comes to Hong Kong. And you remember I said _______ stayed with a girl in my year level's family? Yeah, she doesn't come but her younger sister _______ comes.
LILY 26:24
Right. So it's kind of maybe this feeling of like something quite special. You know what I mean? And, and you've got these kind of great ambitions going into the world. And that something like this is happening in your life. Yeah, it's almost showing that you're different and special and potentially going to achieve those grand plans, you know?
JENNY 26:45
Yeah, I think so. Because nobody, as far as I knew nobody, you know, just went straight after to school to travel. You know, this isn't backpacking. It's going and staying with a family in Hong Kong for three weeks. But then I do do my three-day side trip, which was really, really adventurous and it was back then. I mean, 1982. You know, you couldn't, you couldn't go to China with- unless you're on an organised tour.
LILY 27:09
Sure. Kind of like North Korea now and stuff. And still, I think, I don't know, I have not travelled China. So I don't really know. But I even when we went from our- from Hong Kong, to Guangzhou for a little bit, it was quite official, like we had to say where we were staying right. And kind of where we planned to go, what our- what we were going to see each day, like we had to give them like an itinerary I think. But yeah, just really interesting. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's this real sense of something happening. Something starting. Yeah. And this is the start of the journey that's going to take you to the front page of like The Age, you know what I mean? Like, it's all happening.
JENNY 27:48
It's all happening. I'm on my way. Yeah. So I'm wondering whether I take this. I'm going to take this journal with me, Hang on, I'll just reread over it and check if there are any incriminating bits. No, it doesn't look as if is, and then meant to be as if there's anything horrendous to the eye or accusatory to the intelligence must go now. Stuffed. Bye J X. 22nd December 1981, three days to Christmas, four days till I leave to Hongers Kongers. Today, I continued my story. I figured most of the plot and the characters, I have to now choose names for the characters. It's a slow progress, but I think it's probably flowing quicker than for some [laughter]
LILY 28:38
[Laughter] You're like: Look, this is my first shot at any kind of big writing, but I get the sense that I'm doing pretty good at it. [Laughter]
JENNY 28:47
[Laughter]. I'm so embarrassed. It's funny. And I know what happened to this. I mean, I've got it, we'll put it, we'll put it up. I got it. You know, it's like I did 20 pages or 30 or 50 pages max.
LILY 29:06
But it's, it's you know, this is the hubris of youth. And I think you almost need this kind of a rose tinted wash over your eyes have kind of the confidence to even try anything. And that's the truth in life. If you went into it, fully jaded about how hard writing a novel is, you never would have done it I don't think and I don't know. I think I'm just I'm impressed you were writing at all. You know what I mean?
JENNY 29:30
Yeah, me too. I didn't think, I didn't think I was
LILY 29:33
Good on you.
JENNY 29:33
Yeah, yeah. No, you're absolutely right. But it's funny.
LILY 29:38
It is funny
JENNY 29:38
'I think it's probably flowing quicker than for some.' I'm determined to eventually finish it. Nanny gave me one of her cardigans today. I commented on how I liked it. And Mum asked her where she got it. Then then gave it to me. I love it. It's pink and very plain but exactly what I've been looking for
LILY 30:00
Oh that's very nice.
JENNY 30:01
Yeah, I have no memory of that. My arm is still very sore. I'm going to start packing tomorrow. I want to be-
LILY 30:10
Sore from the the typhoid and cholera? God, every time I hear those diseases, it's like, just like, I just imagine like the 1800s. Like, it just doesn't seem like a thing?
JENNY 30:20
I know. It's Dostoevsky.
LILY 30:22
Yeah. And someone dying and some like poverty apartment in like the middle of Russia. And you know what I mean? Like, it's very tragique I feel.
JENNY 30:31
It is very tragique. My arm is still very sore. I'm going to start packing tomorrow. I want to be superbly organised. So I know exactly where everything is. Must go now. And think of names. Bye. JA. And then three x's.
LILY 30:47
Oh, you feeling good? With your story flowing, everything's coming together. Yeah. So would you have taken a like a backpackers backpack or like a suitcase? Can you remember?
JENNY 30:59
Oh, no, it wouldn't have been a suitcase. I don't know what I took. I don't think I got a backpack backpack until I went over and did my Europe trip, or for the Bali trip.
LILY 31:15
Which I... I used that when I went on my Euro trip. Yeah, same one, which is cool.
JENNY 31:20
No, no, no, I had a green one.
LILY 31:23
Ah, so I didn't use that?
JENNY 31:25
yeah, that was the one that died a long time ago.
LILY 31:27
OK, I was like that's amazing.
JENNY 31:29
No, no, no, we- that was a different one that we got you
LILY 31:32
No, actually, that was the one from our 2007 trip
JENNY 31:36
Yeah, it was. I can't remember what I took. Maybe it will be in the journal
LILY 31:41
Maybe. Maybe like a kind of like duffle bag or something?
JENNY 31:44
Yeah it might have been something like that. Yeah. Huh. Cannot remember. 23rd of twelfth, 1981. We just rang _______ in Hong Kong, she sounded so far away. It's okay for me to stay with them the night of the 14th of January 82. Then I leave the next evening. Must go now. Dad's picking me up tomorrow morning at 8:15am to go to town to buy my camera. Bye. J X.
LILY 32:14
Oh, my God. So early. Yeah, wow. Traffic would have been terrible. Maybe it just wasn't really traffic back then. In the same way now
JENNY 32:25
no, I traffic was not the same. It's so bad these days.
LILY 32:29
We're gonna be LA in 10 years. Seriously. Yeah. Because instead of like trying to figure out how to get people to drive less, we're just pushing everyone out to outer suburbs, because it's too expensive to live inner suburbs. So more and more people rely on driving in, they're going to start building those horrible, like double-decker freeways, which I hate
JENNY 32:49
Yeah, yeah. 25th twelfth, 1981. Merry Christmas in big capitals. And then I've come I've come back a year later on the 20th of the 12th, 1982 and done an arrow saying 'fuck off'.
LILY 33:08
A lot changes in a year.
JENNY 33:09
I know. I become probably quite anti Christmas, this is when it happens. It's after 12 midnight. So it's officially Christmas. But it feels like the day before. Today dad picked me up and we went into town. He bought some 1982 diaries, and then we purchased my Canon AE-1 Program camera.
LILY 33:34
Okay. So what would've that? Obviously film, SLR Film, film. So like with like a proper lens and everything
JENNY 33:45
would have had a little focus but not a lot of okay, was SLR not digital?
LILY 33:52
I think SLR is digital
JENNY 33:53
All right. So not SLR. So it was obviously there was no digital element. No autofocus, everything was manual.
LILY 34:01
Okay, right. So we hadn't got point and shoot yet. That wasn't a thing. Right? Okay. Wow. Yeah. So kinda like my Minolta or whatever, which is like, you know, got a little something but you're doing everything or stuff. Yeah,
JENNY 34:12
yeah. And with a I think I probably had a light as well. A flash. A little flash, right. It's lovely. About $320. So that's a lot back then.
LILY 34:21
That's expensive.
JENNY 34:23
Yeah.
LILY 34:24
Wow.
JENNY 34:24
But I can't play with it until I'm on the plane. It's all sealed up. So duty free, you could not open it up until you-
LILY 34:33
Oh, you could buy duty free from
JENNY 34:35
You got it a bit cheaper.
LILY 34:36
Not at the airport?
JENNY 34:37
Yeah, at Ted's Camera Store. They had duty free prices. I don't think it is anymore.
LILY 34:43
Now it's all at the airport like you can buy but you have to be like, behind-
JENNY 34:48
Behind the thing
LILY 34:49
So how would they know if anyone's- if you've got a ticket? Do you have to show them your ticket?
JENNY 34:54
Maybe you had to show them your ticket?
LILY 34:58
How do they know when you open it?
JENNY 34:59
LILY 35:00
Oh, I can't remember. Well, I guess if you go through security and your camera's open, but you could have just bought the camera full price and taken it
JENNY 35:07
yeah, I just don't understand
LILY 35:09
or maybe you're just playing by the rules because,
JENNY 35:11
yeah, I think I was I think I was [laughter]. Then dad stopped at Dee's. I ran in with the records and her present and she gave me one and then I left. Then Dad and I went to visit Aunty ________ for a little while. Then we went to Glenferrie Road to the bank and dad got 250 more in yank dollars- in Yank traveler's cheques.
LILY 35:37
All right, so few things. Who did you go to visit?
JENNY 35:41
Aunty ________. That was his aunt, his mother's sister.
LILY 35:43
Sure. I never met her did I?
JENNY 35:45
No, you didn't meet any of my grandparents apart from Popop
LILY 35:49
True
JENNY 35:49
Because Gran and Poppa died early 90s. You met ________ from that side of the family. Sure. And, of course ________ is still
LILY 35:59
Yeah. So traveler's cheques hey? I don't really know what those are. I think of them as coupons [laughter]
JENNY 36:05
Right. So they were a cheque. You know, what a cheque looks like your chequebook, you know, and
LILY 36:10
I will never own a chequebook in my life. It's just kind of wild because as a kid, it seemed so exciting that you'd have cheques to sign
JENNY 36:16
Yeah, I remember thinking that as a child. So it was like that, but they didn't come in a book like that. So in the bank, you'd get them and they'd tear them off. So you got them torn off? And they were denominations, like money. So you could get like $50, $100 denominations, maybe $20. You could get them in different currencies. So I got them, obviously in American- US, you'd then go into either a bank in the country you are travelling or a currency window, you know, those sorts of
LILY 36:51
And get the cash.
JENNY 36:52
Yeah, you'd counter sign it. So you'd sign them as you bought them and then you'd go in to cash, them you'd sign them again so the signatures matched. Of course, they could be forged. And then they'd give you the cash and there'd be a little bit of a commission for you know, they take a little bit of a fee.
LILY 37:09
So you bought them in US dollars, would they give you US dollars or they give you the equivalent of those US dollars in yen or whatever? Yeah, in Hong Kong dollars. That seems incredibly confusing. But I guess it was the system?
JENNY 37:24
Yeah it was back then. We didn't even have telegraphic transfer. You could wire money but it would take ages. like Anna Delvey: "My father's wired the money, it's on the way, I don't know why you're being so dramatic!"
LILY 37:39
[Laughter] it's a pretty good impression
JENNY 37:44
"I don't know why you're bothering me so much."
LILY 37:50
If anyone hasn't seen Inventing Anna about Anna Delvey, that supposedly German-Russian heiress. That's what that is. Right? Okay. Interesting. And so many signatures and yet so much room for fraud. Like I think it just be so easy- so why couldn't you just go and get US dollars in cash or
JENNY 38:09
Yeah and people did
LILY 38:10
or Hong Kong dollars in cash.
JENNY 38:11
People did but if you didn't want to carry that much cash because cash just goes. But the traveler's cheques, they they were safe, like they were secure.
LILY 38:20
Right
JENNY 38:21
Then I came back home and relaxed. I was so tired. Dor came over for dinner. And just as we were sitting down to plum pudding apres turkey -- roasted -- yum, _____ and Francis has came up for nibbles. And we talked and laughed and had plum pudding, coffee, champagne port, etc.
LILY 38:41
Oh, wow. So you guys were doing kind of the Christmas foods pre Christmas
JENNY 38:46
Christmas Eve. We used to do Christmas Eve and mum would cook you know, Christmas food if we weren't having it at our place the next day. She'd do a Christmas.
LILY 38:55
Oh, so you guys did turkey?
JENNY 38:56
Yeah, then we did that time. I don't remember doing it often. It was such fun good to see _________. I hadn't seen him for ages, but still good friends. Francis talked about going to Le Joke when he gets his car back. And about going to Sydney he and I to visit _______ next year. That would be great fun.
LILY 39:17
What's Le Joke?
JENNY 39:18
So Le Joke was one of those comedy places that we went that I went with friends to see Toby do the tram impersonations. There was Le Joke, the Last Laugh. I think Le Joke was at the Last Laugh. LL was downstairs -- a big venue -- and Le Joke was upstairs. It was a little smaller room. That would be great. Fun. Must go now, tomorrow or today will be so busy. Just to think tomorrow I'll be in Hong Kong. I can't believe it, must go, cheerio and Merry Christmas. And then in brackets Adam and then J x.
LILY 39:53
Okay, he's resurged right at the end.
JENNY 39:56
And there's one more little entry before I get to Hong Kong. 25th of December 1981. It's approximately quarter to eleven at night and this Christmas has been somewhat merry. I'm pretty well packed. Dad is picking us up at 9am tomorrow morning to go to Tullamarine. It's quite exciting. At ________'s today -- so ________'s mum's brother -- we went for lunch. ______ was there complete with Newcombe moustache and frizzy hair. He looks so much older. So a Newcombe moustache, there was a tennis player John Newcombw right it's a big moustache that guys are wearing today, these young guys That sort of sportsman moustache.
LILY 40:46
Right. They are. What I would call like a 70s pornstache kind of vibe.
JENNY 40:52
Exactly. And it was quite fun. I can't think of anything much to say except: Good night J x.
LILY 41:01
A very brief account of family Christmas. So Gran and ________ saw more of each other than back then? Because I've never really met him. So interesting that you guys went over there for Christmas.
JENNY 41:12
Yeah, we had a we had a couple of Christmases there. Not many. But once he broke up from _________ I think that just affected everybody. Didn't see his kids for years. So why would he see Mum and _______ for years? And then I don't know, I just think that sort of changed stuff. Maybe the shame of the shame of that. Or
LILY 41:31
I guess people don't then want to do family stuff if they're not even in contact with their own, like kids and family. Like they're not going to want to do a family Christmas or a family event really. So that changes things and people get quite isolated. Wow
JENNY 41:45
Yeah. And at popop's funeral I did a speech and _______ came up to me afterwards and he said It's always really good to see you Jenny you know, it was sincere and heartfelt. It's a shame because I think in that situation too, it was like who he got with, who he was with. And there was tension between Mum and her around- she was clearing out Nanny's you know, clothes and things like that. And Mum felt that [inaudible]
LILY 42:13
yeah, of course. Don't get involved with that kind of stuff. I think if you're a partner that's for the family to handle and you're just there to help out however they see fit.
JENNY 42:25
Exactly
LILY 42:26
Yeah that's it's an interesting- like I feel like I've always felt our family's quite small you know what I mean? Like because it's just really been like Gran, you, ______ and _____ and then like _______, _______ and like me and that's not particularly big that I forget that there are extended parts of the family that like I guess we don't really see so much.
JENNY 42:46
We saw a lot of the _____________, like a lot not so much _______ and his kids so it was quite occasional, very occasional that we maybe had one Christmas at his place.
LILY 42:58
Because I remember there being a bit of a reconnection with _______ there was a time there and
JENNY 43:03
There was. And it was sort of driven by Mum. Mum did something wrong or it seems like _____ did something wrong_____
LILY 43:13
I think it was something about him being a her party.
JENNY 43:15
No, it was after that. Yeah, neither of them came. Did you notice you know, and _______ didn't come to our wedding, I was pissed off, he texted on the day
LILY 43:25
No, that's not good. Interesting, divorce and it really just breaks stuff apart and that's like often a lot of stuff that people can't kind of really get over which is unfortunate
JENNY 43:37
Yeah, it is it is really unfortunate. It's hard for kids obviously
LILY 43:42
well because they you know when you're a kid you don't have the means to like organise your own family catch up so you really do suffer
JENNY 43:49
that's right
LILY 43:50
I think family is like, can be one of the best things and having you know a big family having everyone there and doing lots of family stuff together as always so lovely and nice but it's nice like even even like, I was talking to- _____ I don't know what her alias is Ivy. About her kind of plans, you know, travel plans and she was saying how her and one of her friends I think is gonna go, they're gonna go to the UK and they're gonna meet up with little ________ and like, that's just nice that they hang out and had a really great time when he was here and like you know he grew up in France and is a what cousin, second cousin once removed, you know what I mean? Something and still like you can kind of get to know your extended family and kind of have that closeness or you know, people just kind of getting on which is nice. Anyway, so celebrations! This is the end of our season
JENNY 44:42
It's the end of season!
LILY 44:45
Yeah, I know are amazing. It's been
JENNY 44:49
what a what a ride. A wild ride
LILY 44:51
A ride. A wild Ride. Yeah, we should do a little do a little like recap like Best Of I reckon, for Instagram or something. But yeah, you know, thank you, once again, for sharing all of this with us. It's been so interesting. And I feel like we've really only scraped the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's to come. And you know how much happens. And I think already, it's just so fascinating to see just hearing what your hopes and dreams are. And instead of looking at that as like, Oh, so much of that, like didn't happen, just to see how like, you can really never predict what is going to happen in life. You can have all the plans you want in the world, but like, you're just kind of going to be taken on your journey. So yeah, it's exciting to think of, of what's to come.
JENNY 45:33
And that is true. Yeah, you can you can have your plans. Life has its own. Yeah, it has its way with you.
LILY 45:40
It does [laughter]
JENNY 45:40
And yet, you know, in some ways, I mean, I'm entirely happy to not have had a front page article on The Age, I am much happier to have two published novels. And I don't know. Yeah, it's it is it will be very, I'm curious to see how that derailed or, you know, it's probably most likely just me changing my mind. As simple as that just thinking- going off on another pathway.
LILY 45:52
Exactly Well, part of me suspects, oh, part of me, expects that, we might just never hear of it again. It just might not be mentioned again. And this is the thing, I think there's so much of being young and I still do it so much at my age, is like the wondering, the thinking, that assessing, the planning, that considering that goes into trying to figure out you know what you're going to be and the amount of times I've written something in my diary, like, this is my plan. And I remember doing it back just as COVID was happening, or just pre COVID. Like, this is my five year plan, just to have-
JENNY 46:41
was marketing in it?
LILY 46:42
Yeah, I 100%. And I'm like, I don't want to do that. You know what I mean? I was gonna go live in Sweden, and I was gonna go do this and that and it's like, I think it's so important to have those plans, but also to know that they're just like, wisps of kind of nothing in the- everything that's happening in the world. But yeah, it's gonna be exciting. So next season, can you just, based off memory, can you give us a couple of things to kind of expect? So we're gonna see you going to uni?
JENNY 47:08
Yeah, so we have the Hong Kong trip. You'll see me going to uni, first year Arts. And that'll be really fascinating -- I think as much as an ordinary person's life can be but you're meeting new people. You know, just different things that have been different adventures, get into the music, get into going to see bands. Try drugs for the first time, probably get drunk too often. Boys. I don't know- there'll be crushes. Yeah. crushes. So yeah, lots of movies.
LILY 47:43
Exciting. Patrick on the scene or not yet?
JENNY 47:46
Patrick's 1983, in October. So we've got a way for Patrick.
LILY 47:51
A way for Patrick. So yeah, he's looming.
JENNY 47:54
Actually, Simon might- someone called Simon comes in, but I think he's earlier in 1983. Interesting. 1983. So I do a year of uni '82. And then I have a year off in '83. That's when things get even more interesting.
LILY 48:10
More interesting. But, you know, you just kind of said like, is as interesting as an ordinary life can be or is that what you said? And it's like, yeah, the ordinary is fascinating. You know, and I mean, like, it really is the minutiae of people's lives and the true stories of people is, I don't know, always just so compelling. To just learn, you know, it's such a reflection of human- like a human life. I don't know. Yeah,
JENNY 48:36
I agree. And then the minutiae. Even though in my diaries, I don't tend to yet have all the details or the tiny, really intricate details. I'm pretty sure I mean, there's a lot of detail about Adam. So you know, anything that kind of comes under my eye, that activates my my focus or my interest, there will be one hopes, more detail and I think also I become more relaxed about the gossip and the bitchiness, and, you know, I think I probably do start to put in details about everything. I'm not sure. That'll be, you know, that'll be interesting as well, to see how that works. Do I become more confident in that this journal is a reposit- can be a repository of all my secrets.
LILY 49:16
It will be Yes, because right now there is still a bit of a like a wall. And the way the way you write, and the words that you're using, it's still kind of this front.
JENNY 49:33
Yep.
LILY 49:34
And you know, so it's not really a stream of consciousness yet. And I wonder if it ever does become that, maybe not. Yeah, but yeah, if there's a relaxing into the process of
JENNY 49:43
it, yeah, for sure. So thanks for coming on the ride with with me.
LILY 49:49
And I'm very excited for you know, when we're back in the studio eg my bedroom and your office for season two.
JENNY 49:58
Yeah, me too. All right until then until then okay toodles please don't sue us
LILY 50:05
yes please don't sue us and good to chat nice
JENNY 50:07
to chat
LILY 50:12
bye