"Nothing. Why me..... Why! Meeeee!" She wailed as she glared out the window at the snow-less yard "Not a bloody-"

"Hey there missy!!! There'll be none of that in front of the children"

"I'm fifteen, father" Sara grumbled as she stuffed porridge in her face.

"Well, Lisa and Elizabeth are seven so I repeat, there'll be none of that"

"But there are always people down the street saying it "Sara dragged the sugar bowl ever closer, she loved porridge but it had to be sickly sweet. Her keeping her father boiling on about the bad language got her a few moments of sneaky sugar stealing.

"I don't care if they are sitting in local hairdressers, two streets over" He muttered from behind his ever-present newspaper. "There will be none of that language here"

"That's just weird" Sara grinned. By the way, she got three more teaspoons of sugar in her porridge! "Who would swear in a hairdressers... unless, of course, they dyed your hair green"

Huffing with the air of a father with too many daughters Kevin shook the paper out, causing Sara to lean right low over her sugar covered porridge and smirk up at him, he gave in to the conversation "I give up"

"Hurrah!!! Start jabbering all those fancy Aussie swear words Natalie!!"

*****

'In other news.... Three inches of snow have been forecast for this afternoon.

...The weather bureau has confirmed that this will be accompanied by a clear night and zero to light winds'

Uncle Kevin switched the radiogram off before turning to frown at Natalie, she was definitely thinking about celebrating the weather forecast by jumping up and then down repeatedly on the sofa. She shrugged and waved her hands about instead, rushing her uncle and cuddling him tight.

"I will miss you, you are my very favourite uncle you know"

"I'm your only uncle Natalie...."

"Sooo, still my very fav. That's all that matters"

"You.... You will take care won't you? Louise can't be with you while she's at work. Don't do silly things, this isn't like the outback"

"Oh, come off it Unc's. I cracked the back of a king brown snake as it went for the chooks two days before I left. This town business is pretty easy in compare"

"I don't doubt they have you shooting, rustling-"

"Herding"

"Apologies- herding, branding and breaking horses but the city, my girl.. has its own dangers. Men-"

"Men are like cars. Give them the fuel of attention they go on and on, starve them of it and they're stuffed"

"What does that father of yours teach you?" Kevin worried jokingly.

"Shooting, herding, calving, branding, castrating, whip-cracking, engine repairs.... Normal stuff" Nat shrugged like it was nothing much.

"Normal stuff! Normal does not castrating things" Kevin shuddered at the thought "..or included having a kangaroo as a pet!"

"Yes, it does. Jasmine was a sweet joey, raised her myself... miss the little mite too. Had to shoot the ruddy dingo to save her"

"Bloody hell"

"Hey, no swearing uncle!"

Kevin gave Nat one more hug for good luck. "Goodbye luv, I trust you to be safe or in prison under the care of her majesty if you flog some poor unfortunate fella with your fists.... Or castrate him"

"Goodo! Jolly good and all that nonsense. I'm getting rather good at all your funny lingo aren't I"

"I'll let the public be the judge of that. Here, open this when Lou gets home, won't you?" Kevin handed Natalie a cream envelope as she nodded. He wasn't going to hang about and lose his hearing when that envelope was finally opened. "Bye, bye pet, see you in a while"

Uncle kissed her cheek and rubbed her hair like a funny bugger, then cleared off down the steps to fold his tall frame into the driver's seat of the over-packed Morris Minor.

The van stayed. Parked forlorn and forgotten in the street beside the gigantic oak tree growing on the footpath, exposed roots jutting out rather dangerously for high heeled ladies that walked by.

She'd have to have a gander and figure out if she could fix the van before Uncle Kev got back, a bit of a New Years Prezzy she mused as she waved and hollered. "See ya ole chaps!!! Cheerio!! Ta-rah! Toodle-oo!"

****

Natalie lay on the floor, her back flat against the oriental looking rug as she lay staring at the ceiling. It was only a hair past seven thirty in the morning and Louise was due home at eight. She promised to go out today and Natalie felt guilty for asking Lou to accompany her. Louise wanted to of course, but it was still an awfully big day after working night shift as a nurse's aide at the hospital.

Apparently, she made beds mostly, and mopped messes. Seldom, if ever, did she change a bandage or blot blood from injuries, as those special tasks were the nurse on duties job or, the know it all doctors that pranced about the ward like Nancy's. Lou's words not Nat's.

Lou, had however, put in a good word for Nat at the hospital as they were quite short staffed over the Christmas period but Nat was in two minds to be taking a job there. It would cut into her snow time for one thing, and she wouldn't get to sightsee as much either....

Picking up the Uncle Kevin's envelope for what must be the two-hundredth time Nat ran her finger over her uncles lovely handwriting. He may be a carpenter but he had wonderfully neat swirly cursive script and she was a tad jealous. Her mum had tried, desperately tried... but when your daughter would rather run wild in the bush than sit at the dining room table trying to master the letters of the alphabet... well you just don't get to mastering much of the Queens English while being a tearabout. Natalie grinned remembering all the rambunctious hell she would give her poor mother.

"You- hoo! Anyone home?" Louise laughed and slid down the hall in her stocking clad feet to slip herself into the lounge's door space "Ready to scare the bejeebers out of all the London stiffs and straights old girl?!?"

"Crikey you nearly gave me a heart attack Lou! Come here first, I have an itch that needs scratchin'"

"Ugh, get a ruler"

"No silly, Unc left this letter and I'm dying to have a look-see"

"Boring!" Lou stifled a yawn as she sank on the floor beside Nat "You know you won't be able to raise me off the floor again, right?!"

"Shove your finger in that end, and I'll take this end" Natalie poked her finger in the tiny hole where the gum hadn't stuck down properly.

"You're crazy"

"I'm sharing, ya wombat. On three. One. Two. Three!"

Both the girls giggled on the oriental rug as they ripped and pulled at the envelope but it was Louise that grabbed the contents out, unfolding the page to speed read in silence.....

"Bloody Nora"

"Give us a look, stop hogging it. What is it? Lou! Give us a squiz"

"Bloody Nora and flipping heck!" Louise let her voice rise higher and higher. She had turned away as they struggled and as she unfolded and clutched the contents, she unwittingly hogged the items to her chest "I'm in heaven, I'm definitely going to heaven"

"You will be in heaven if you don't let me see too Louise! Let me see! Pleaseeee Lou, what is it?!"

"Heaven I tell you!!" Lou yelled once more.

Louise turned about and wiggled two little bits of card in Nat's face "Louise stop wiggling them. I can't read them! Are they bus tickets? What are they?"

"See for yourself" Louise leaned in with the tickets so Nat could finally, finally read the tiny words.....

"Beatles- Row B Seat-what--" Nat shook Louise silly, still a little confused "You mean these are... For the record- Are they.........?" Louise pushed one of the tickets into Nat's hand while firmly clutching and re-reading her own. "You're having me on!?!?!"

"Natalie.... We..... Are... going to a Beatles concert!!!!!!! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr woo hoo!"

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my stars!!!!!!!!!! She Loves you Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!! She loves you Yeah" Poor old Uncle Kevin's couch was jumped upon and the girls clutched the tickets to their hearts and grinned and bounced and screamed for simply ages "Yeah Yeah. Oh, shake it oh baby!!!! Please oh Please Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

"When?" Nat re-scanned the ticket "Next week right before Christmas!"

"My very own Beatle-y Christmas Swoon Swoon. I hope... the seats are good yeah? I hope John sees me.."

"I thought you liked Ringo or Gerry Marsden and his pacesetters? Sara said you liked his singing" Nat snickered. She knew full well that Lou had a small clipping of John in her peacoat pocket.

"Pace Makers, you sausage and Natalie... I would happily date any of them"

"Oh, you know what they call girls like you, don't you?" Nat grinned naughtily from under her lashes as she watched Lou frowning.

"Careful convict, I'll not take you to see your railing"

"No! Nah, it's all good Lou. They would call you hopeful and maybe a teeny tiny bit mental" Louise raised a hand to smack Nat's arm "Hang on, no punching yet Louise! We're all mental right?! I've been here a matter of days and I'm as 'mental' as every other one of my cousins for that music. I wouldn't know one if I fell over him in the street but if he started singing.... What that's saying? Oh right, I'd be saying 'Cor Blimey' "

"Come on, let's hide these two precious diamonds of cardboard somewhere safe and get you out touring London and I will oh so enjoy watching you get entirely too friendly with the EMI House railing" Louise sparkled with happiness as Nat launched at her with abundant cuddles, bouncing all about again. These next few weeks were going to be amazing.