Our best friends (or "best mates" in Australian)

Because we don’t really have any news to report, I thought I would tell our blog followers more about Paul and Graham, the accountants that Kristen now works for. I want to tell you more about them for two reasons: First, we consider them an integral part of our Australia trip and we would like you to know more about them; and second, things happen to Paul and Graham that don’t happen to anybody else, except maybe in Woody Allen movies.

I’ll start with a story about Graham.

Graham has a lovely California-ish back yard with a pool. When Graham is not at work, you can often find him either swimming in his pool or lounging next to his pool. A few years ago, Graham began noticing wasps around his pool. Over time, more and more wasps began to appear. Eventually Graham discovered that the wasps were coming from his neighbor’s shrubs, where they were nesting.

Graham had never talked to his neighbor, but he knew she was a young woman that lived alone. Rather than troubling her, Graham called the City Council to come remove the nest. Then to be polite, Graham went next door to explain the situation to his neighbor.

Much to Graham’s surprise, his neighbor was not appreciative. Instead of thanking Graham, she became irate and scolded him. She began yelling about being an environmentalist, and expressed concerns about using chemicals to kill the wasps. Rather than trying to reason with her, Graham silently turned and left. Later that day, a workman from the City Council removed the nest.

Several years went by and Graham eventually forgot about the incident. He and the neighbor never had another reason to interact. Although Graham did wave at her when he passed her in the street, he noticed that she never waved back.

One day, Graham opened the local newspaper and was saddened to see that his neighbor had died in an accident. (She was trying to rescue an animal in the road when she was hit by a car.) Graham's sadness turned to shock when he read the woman's obituary. Although the woman died young, her obituary suggested that she would be better off now, as if she had led a troubled life; and the only suggestion as to why the woman's life might have been troubled came in the last line of the obituary, which read: “Finally you’ll be free of that nasty little man next door.”