‘Nothing Broken’ here?

At Riverside Plaza, a gentleman stopped me to ask if I could help him find a coffee shop called “Nothing Broken”.

I told him that it wasn’t in this shopping centre — and silently wondered if a coffee shop with that name could be found anywhere.

It then occurred to me that he had misheard the name and was, in fact, looking for Muffin Break.

I suggested he turn right into that shop.

I couldn’t help laughing and, being a good sport, he joined in.

I reckoned what he thought he heard was “Nothin’ Break” and had, somewhere in his head, improved the grammar to Nothing Broken.

He went to join his wife for coffee.

As it’s been amusing me for several weeks, I thought you might get a laugh out of this too.

A memory

When the Halpin family was first mentioned to me, it jogged a memory.

My cousin and I were standing on the footpath in Fryers St, gazing longingly at a doll in the window of Halpins store.

I wondered if this beautiful creature could possibly have come from Japan; I had heard my mother and auntie saying that the only dolls available were made in Japan which, in these post-war years, made them angry.

They also said that, as Helen and I were nine years old, we were too old for dolls anyway.

I didn’t mention this conversation to Helen because it would make her sad and she was busy naming hers.

She would be called Rosemary. I said mine, if I got one for Christmas, would be called Rosebud, because her little mouth looked like one.

We visited the window many times.

On Christmas morning, Rosebud was sitting under the tree.

Now these days, a child would grab a mobile phone and send a text — all I could do, in 1952, was worry.

Did Halpins have two dolls? My mother asked me what was wrong and I explained.

She said that all was well, and that Helen had a doll too.

I remember dancing around the room with Rosebud because the world was a beautiful place, even though the Japanese had made our dolls.

And my mistake

In last week’s conclusion to the Halpin story, I left out two of Bernie’s children.

It was completely my fault.

Bernie had three sons and one daughter. Bernard, John and Gerald have all passed away. Liz married Jeffrey Dainton.

All I had to do was pick up the phone and I didn’t. My sincere apologies.

Advertising at its worst

There is some dreadful advertising on the internet, which I discovered playing Mah-jong.

I then found many online gambling sites (pokies, solitaire, bingo) which use headlines such as ‘Stop being poor’ and with young girls claiming to have won $12,000 to $15,000 each month.

Some ads show a pregnant woman begging for food and, to ‘solve’ her problems, someone downloads a gambling game on to her phone.

There was even an ad with a little girl, pleading for food for her mother. The whole business is sickening.

There are sites claiming to be Australian — with hundred dollar notes floating around the screen. So, I followed one through, reading all I could find. Head office is in Bulgaria.

I read the privacy statement, which told me nothing.

Then I looked at other details where they are forced to tell the truth about collecting data — which includes all the players’ contact details, location, finances, email content, websites visited etc.

It appears that they collect all information from the device being used.

Then I found another truly Australian site, which is much more honest and considerate of privacy — but still in the business of taking someone’s money.

Something I can’t understand is that major worldwide companies — such as PayPal and Apple — are associated.

The victims’ winnings can be paid to these companies or directly to a bank account.

I have now given up playing Mah-jong

May it be easy, my friends.

Marnie

Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au

Phone: Text or call 0409 317187