Respect for the truth is an acquired taste.

Truth, Dare, double dare, torture, kiss or promise

When did not telling stories about your past become a form of lying? And why is it important to ‘know everything’?  When Oscar Wilde said “The truth is rarely pure, and never simple” I am sure he was in a new relationship with a beautiful lady who depended on knowing his entire past, complete with every betrayal, pain, sexual conquest and regret. Oscar’s new flame would have delivered lines similar too “but I am your girlfriend we should share everything with each other” and “Do you have something to hide?” because let’s face it - for him to warrant such a profound and honest quote he would need to have had an insecure and demanding lady.

Oscar Wilde also said in a documented interview “No one has ever denied that relationships are hard; they are quite possibly one of the hardest life experiences and struggles any individual goes through”. The key word in the previous sentence is individual, and the irony is that although a relationship is the correlation of two people bonded together it is ultimately the connection of two individuals united. Oscar Wilde had the right mentality – relationships are about two individuals… Growing together. So with this in thought I propose to you, Why so often do people – particularly women – insist on knowing and sharing every crook and cranny about themselves, then furthermore expect their partner to divulge every single detail about themselves?

Now I understand that what I am about to say is an opinion – mine nonetheless  - so I respect your rebuttals.

When you meet someone and start a life with them it is expected that you want to get to know them, understand them, fall in love with them and hear their stories. However, it is not tolerable or respected if you believe that a relationship develops a single collective brain! There is a lot about a person’s past (and probably present) that is a complete mystery and as a supportive partner, you should be ok with that. There is absolutely no need to know everything, it is not healthy, it is inhumane, and many things are just better left unknown.

You might have found your soul mate and you connect on a level with all-embracing love and openness, nevertheless there was a life before you met and that life shaped said soul mate, creating the person who you love and are with today. While I can understand that you would want to know what the events were that molded them, sometimes these are events that are only theirs and/or an event that is only shared with another person, which would possibly be disregarded or associated with confusion if spoken about with you, which could ultimately change the memory of the event. Now this does not counteract or change the way they feel about you nor does it devalue the relationship or cause any need to question trust, it just means that, as an individual you are entitled to your story, it does not need to be published.

The best proof of love is trust; Relationships are based on trust, you want your partner to trust you and in return you want to be able to trust your partner, If you cannot trust your partner, you do not have an honest relationship, therefore without trust there is no love so there is no relationship. It is regular statement that there should be no secrets in relationships and I do agree to that comment to a degree. When Charles Dickens said “Never close your lips to those whom you have opened your heart.” I doubt he was encouraging you to tell your significant about the time you participated an all night sex-romp orgy with some randoms and a one-night stand you picked up in New Orleans, nor did he want you to divulge into the time your best mate confided in you about her possible STi scare. This information is just a momentary distraction that need not be shared because it doesn’t serve any purpose except probably to hurt your present partner or potentially destroy the trust you developed with a friend. Not talking about certain situations or informing your new partner about previous experiences is not lying, I call it tact or social grace plus a little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation, not to mention prevents relationship insecurity.

Sometimes a lie, a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive, seems the perfect response: a brother lies about his sister's where-a-bouts to the drunken husband threatening to harm her, a doctor tells a depressed patient that he has a 50-50 chance of long-term recovery when she is confident he'll live only six months, a son gives his late mother's estate to the poor after promising to honor her demand that the money be placed in her coffin. The same relates to relationships, why is it important to tell your girlfriend/boyfriend about the number of your previous sexual partners or about whom out of her/his friends you find attractive. More times than not honesty hurts and people who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty.

So is honesty in a relationship always the best policy? In fact, no. Nobody wants to hear that they look heavier or less attractive, nor do they want to hear how amazing their sex girlfriend was at fellatio. In truth, we consider those who are too honest to be blunt, antisocial and even pathological. A recent study found that adolescents who are most popular with their peers were the ones that were the best at being deceptive. And lying has proven psychological benefits. For instance, there’s scientific evidence showing that depressive people are more honest with themselves than non-depressive, or mentally healthy, people. When people recover from their depressions, they become less honest.

There is also the element of time… When is the right time to tell your partner your secrets? Relationships are always rocky in the beginning so why would you want to bare your heart and soul to someone who may not be around in six months?  A new partner has no credentials or right to know some elements of your life. Plus a lot of secrets are shared secrets with other people who would not be happy or obliging to know that you are sharing such a deep intimate and private secret with someone else. The relationship you have with a partner is different to the relationship you have with a friend so it is expected that each relationship is consumed by different stories. Your partner does not want your best mate to know about her pimply bottom nor does your best mate want you to tell your partner about the time he passed out next to a transgendered midget and needed you to pick him up. All relationships, are volatile at best, so do you really want a mere fling, friendship or relationship, to know your deepest, darkest secrets?

Believe me; you're not doing anyone any favors by turning your personal life into an open book.

In summary… You should only know what your partner wants you to know, they deserve to have their past as do you because believe me the truthful past will hurt and cause doubt and suspicion. Let it be known there are only two times it is ok to tell the complete truth - anonymously and in a posthumous biography.

Drunken Romance and the three little words

Waking up next to a lover naked with a bruised thigh can indicate one of many possible scenarios from the earlier evening. While you would like to imagine that the night before was innocent, passionate and completely above board, the fact remains that you have no idea how you managed to acquire a bruise and/or what happened between the hazy vodka, soda and fresh lime bar order, and the abysmal aftermath of waking up not alone.

I am sure (in hope of appearing normal) every young adult who is a 'responsible' consumer of alcoholic beverages has experienced one of those evenings which was sooo much fun you choose not to recollect the evening events or are willing to admit the honest nature that your excessive alcohol consumption has provided you with alcohol infused amnesia.

Now I am not condoning or supporting binge drinking but I know it definitely helps with confidence, relaxation and sexual conquests, so in this blog I do somewhat condone the use of alcohol as a sense of providing an excuse for words, actions and promiscuity. Because it is so much easier to take back said actions, words and bad partner choices when you are inebriated with a simple shoulder shrug, modest facial expression and a verbal “Come on, I was drunk!”

Ok so this story is about a hook up that lasted that tad too long which ended with a drunken declaration of drunken love and poor romance.

It was casual sex… No other way to explain the relationship. Yes we had feelings for each other and yes we had the odd conversation here and there about what our intentions were and how we felt but in reality we lived over 1000km apart and our time spent together was solely between the sheets. In my conscience perception this was a “friends with benefits” kind of arrangement. The confirmation of this was via text message - (and I paraphrase) “…I guess its just so hard and impossible… …It is already a big pain and frustrating as, let alone if we were together. I’d rather have u always in my life than not at all. Hoping we can remains close as friends forever” Now I am unsure as to how most girls would take this but I am a literal thinker and this screams – I am not interested. Handy too because I never thought it was anything serious, and it finally prevents me from being the heartbreaker for once. Casual sex it is… Who wins? I do J.

So a few months go on and my lifeline of short term romances prosper and develop, I am still casually engaging in the company of the individual I mentioned above, and a boozy, incredibly drunken night out with a few close mates happens. The night ends with number one trashbag, aka Me, and number one emotionally confused headcase, aka individual mentioned above.  The next few points of interests are the moments I am supposed to forget, unfortunately I was not that drunk and I could recount every touch, moan and conversation. Naturally, as our confidence, relaxation and promiscuity evolve in our plastered state, we end up in bed, together, engaged in each other’s sexual desires, building up the excitement while removing our clothes… When “I love you!” Pops out of aboves mouth. In order to prevent awkwardness and to ensure that the moment at hand is not going to be destroyed, the reaction I chose was ignorance and selective deafness. But unfortunately the one-sided conversation continues and the statement is repeated followed by a “Why won’t you say it back?”

As a female stereotypically I am meant to enjoy and love these moments of vulnerability and declaration. Every young girl is raised with the belief that they will find their one true love and soul mate and things will be happily ever after. Take Clarissa Pinkola Estes book – Women who run with the wolves – She depicts children’s fairytales into Jungian psychology demonstrating to women that we are ‘trained’ to believe prince charming is out there and that although we as women might believe we are free, independent and available, we are still trapped in the psychological belief that we can and will be saved once that man drops his guard. The whole understanding of love is convoluted, taken too lightly and unrealistic in its expectations. So with that in mind I was supposed to say with an exasperated gasp and a raised hand to my forehead “Ooh my darling, I will forever serve you my dashing man for I also and will forever, love you too”.

But I am honest to myself and I was not in love, so that little ‘romantic’ fling ended quick smart when the next morning whilst rushing off to work I lightheartedly say “Great conversation last night” to a defensive response of “I was drunk dude! Miss Siobhan Eirlys, do not take anything I said seriously, I do not remember”.

The joys of a romance based on alcohol and sex… I love you now but baby when I am sober, you’re just another girl to me.

Accepting the given and losing the temps

Yesterday a good friend of mine opened up a discussion about my blog and a comment was "Why are your blogs so negative? You are such a positive and happy person, your blogs are just so depressing", which got me thinking... I should write a positive blog, an enlightening upbeat one that makes my friends smile because why should I have an alternative persona online then in reality.

So I thought about what I should write about and I realised that the most positive and happiest thing in my life are my friends, so why would I not dedicate a blog to them. They deserve credit for being truly remarkable.

2010 was my year of self-discovery, caused through hardship and just pure bad luck, I experienced that inner breakthrough of who my real friends were and, obviously if you read my previous blogs, who should never in the slightest been considered even an acquaintance. My strongest discovery was that I should never explain myself to anyone, for all of the true friends did not need it and the not so true did not believe me anyway. It all came down to loyalty and I have learnt that ALL of my friends demonstrate that amazing quality… Loyalty.

There are an extensive amount of stories that I could tell and share about all of my friends but I will only divulge the most recent and the extremely gratifying. My first story is about my most recent ex-girlfriend. I will not go into the break up too much, but so you can paint the picture of how truly remarkable she is to me I will reveal that, I was the heartbreaker.

Seven months ago after returning from an overseas holiday together, I ended the relationship with not as much as a bat of an eyelid and I followed through with a refusal to provide closure by not answering or returning many attempts of contact. If anything this girl had so much fuel for fire, copious amounts of available pessimism and disapproval to any negative thing about me that if anything presented itself she had every right to get her claws out. So when the information about the court case came out in the media, I assumed that if anyone were to use it against me and spawn further harsh words about me, it would be her. I will confess and profoundly apologise now, because she proved me wrong, very wrong.

On the Tuesday evening of the court case week my amazing friends hosted an ‘anti-incarceration’ dinner for me, all of my closest friends and the boys from work were invited and we filtered down to a Mexican margarita bar by the beach to celebrate what we saw as a night of love, loyalty and allegiance. Throughout the night, whilst enjoying a grand amount of alcoholic beverages, I received an untitled forwarded email from said ex that was a link from one of many online articles about the court case. Fearing the worst from her, yet astoundingly overwhelmed to have heard from her at all, I replied with a modest, “Lol. I know. Nina and I are being incredibly incriminated … You media people are a big problem. How are you?” A conversation proceeded and I invited her to a party my housemate and I were hosting at our apartment on the Friday evening. Without contemplation and not a lot of confidence that she would attend, Friday night came and in ultimate fashion aforementioned ex arrived stylishly late and prepared to talk. While I was expecting a bit of conversation about our previous relationship, I was not expecting to hear her reassurance, support and unconditional loyalty about the case. “I do not believe it, but I even if it was true, you have been nothing but an amazing friend to me and that is the Siobhan I will stand by” She knew I needed all the support and love I could find and actively welcomed herself back into my world. She was so patient with me regardless of the big mistake I made at the end of our relationship and learnt how to forgive me after I broke her heart. In other words, she treated me the way I wanted to be treated, even though the media and the Australian Justice system were 100% against me.

In friendship, being accepting goes hand in hand with being loyal. A true friend rolls with the punches as you grow and change and knows how to deal with your quirks and faults. She did not expect me to share every detail of every second of my life, nor did she ask for an explanation; just like all friendships she just wanted me to be clear about my intentions and present an accurate picture of who I am. Accurately, I am Siobhan Eirlys, from day one till death, so she had it easy within our relationship.

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. This is something I loved about my longest friend. At age fourteen it is hard to really know yourself, let alone accept yourself, so… I had a boyfriend, a beautiful very popular boy, who I dated for a good four years. He was the boy all the girls wanted, and the one all the boys befriended. Tall, blonde, a surfer boy, articulate and an absolute sweetheart, a true romantic who just ‘got it’. Now I will not divulge into this part of the friendship too much because he now has a very beautiful and very amazing girlfriend that I respect, and it was hard enough for her to understand and regard that we remained friends post breakup, so I best save face and not go into detail about our ever-failing child romance. But I will enlighten you with a remarkable timeline of separation, which not only helped each of us grow individually but closer together.

Through ten years of friendship we have lived separately in other countries, in other states, through new and failed romances, through absolute heartbreak and complete joy. Surprisingly he and I have never folded or lost sight of each other ever. We learnt it was never too hard to send a text, pick up a phone or use the endless amounts of social networking sites around to keep in touch. Needless to say this boy is a given in my world, I know regardless of the choices and predicaments I get myself into he will still be a fixture in my life. Loyalty is a quality almost everyone lists when asked what they look for in a friend. And this boy has given and showed firm and constant support and allegiance to me… His best friend.

Throughout everything I now know… Friendship is when people know all about you but like you anyway. And there is a lot to know about Siobhan Ann Eirlys

Giving a hoot - how does one care?

IIn any situation you have a choice: Scenic route or the Highway, Chicken or Fish, Drive or Public transport, Happy or Sad? And while many people continue to argue that the latter is out of ones control, I beg to differ. It is a basic fact in psychology; people can choose how to react in times of stress, in times of need and in times of great doubt. You CAN choose to 'be deeply hurt' or really to just 'get over it'.

This is my let's get deep blog, the one that really defines my inner lack of sympathy and callousness to the woe is me people in this world, because when it comes down to it, there is ALWAYS someone who is far worse off than you are so be a team player and get over it, not just for yourself but for everyone around you. You do have a moral obligation to be happy.

I believe that everyone has a kryptonite, a real sweeper that once said will definitely push your buttons, fuel an argument and provide an insecure defensive reaction… Mine are those amazing five words "You just do not care.” Let's reflect on me, I have been in three serious relationships, all three have been remarkably similar and in all three I have carried on my negatively defined trait of apparently 'not caring' about anything. I despise being told I do not care; I do care, just not about your petty little insecurities. Most of the time people have no reason to be upset or disappointed, they created it themselves, because the way you project your thoughts and feelings towards something is the way it will manifest and unfold.

Take my ex girlfriend for example; well-educated, genetically blessed, professional sports player, positive family support network, but deeply deeply insecure. We were so in love, so emotionally connected, incredibly real and amazingly in touch with each other, basically we were a true lesbian couple, intense and repulsively passionate. Now she was a very very beautiful girl, you would look twice at her and then try to sneak in a third glance before taking a mental picture to store for later. Therefore I was used to her receiving attention from several other individuals whilst we were out together, it was a regular occurrence that a male or female would hit on her. This was flattering, I loved that my girl was getting attention, to me it meant that I had what everyone wants and it gave me more of an incentive to be the amazing girlfriend she deserved. But regardless of her physical beauty and internal positive traits, this girl had genuine emotional issues; she continually chose to be unhappy and continually chose to find the negative point to any situation. It is so hard to carry someone emotionally through everything, especially when you have your own struggles and problems to deal with.

Everyone has a choice to control his or her inner thoughts, mental disorders aside, if you walk into a situation you have the choice to either accept the situation or let it affect you. This brings me to my lack of care. You see I believe that the only way to know how to navigate through times of such great uncertainty is to find your own heart. Your heart should know how to live and respect in harmony of all of life because while your problem is significant to you there is always something worse happening around the corner to your neighbor and chances are they need you.

Ultimately negativity and insecurities are stemmed from gear and fear is a primal universal human reality, based on understanding how vulnerable we actually are, yet we need to understand that if we believe in all the fear thoughts, we can easily become shut down, delusional or reactionary in ways that feed the fear and lead us further into darkness. We need to move from motivating ourselves not from fear, but from inner logical awareness. Look at yourself of every moment of every day, what is the reflection on you that will and can change to outcome of the world and people around you.

Next time you see yourself in a possibly sad or negative situation, look for the positives and source out the strength from within, truthfully it will give you practice because there will come a time on earth where there will be absolute chaos that it will be necessary for people to arise with so much calm.

The Time They are A-Changin'

In 1964 on his third studio album "The Times They Are a-Changin'" Bob Dylan sang and I quote "Don't stand in the doorway, don't break up their heart" and with this line delivered a start to a world of an openminded optimism of difference.

Considering that I am blessed to have been raised in a generation of hope and free spirited open minded living I was partially shocked to be included by my friend in a conversation on the negativity of homosexuality, especially considering the negativity was solely directed to only one gender. Of course I am generalising, but we all know men love the idea of lady-on-lady loving. It is hot right? But why throughout the years has male-on-male loving been so taboo, contempt and offensive to the majority of the world's population? While it seems that limited things in today's society are unacceptable or against the normality and conventions of humanity, there is still an opinion on male homosexuality.

I am an open-minded girl, a good little untitled girl. Very out, very comfortable and very much in love with the participation of any sexual encounter with the same gender. I have been open-minded for as I can remember and since that time the only dissenting questions I have endured are those based on curiosity, naivety and complete interest. My male counterparts have unfortunately not come off as lightly, which brings me to my conversation.

This "friend" of mine is also breaking the social normalities of society, you see he is a straight, very attractive, Australian male nurse, originally raised in country NSW to very openminded and compassionate parents. He lives in a house with four male expats from Ireland, with one of which is dating a younger, beautiful, Vietnamese girl. My confusion to his shallow mindedness is clearly evident when you write his world on paper and compare. It is unfortunate that the most judgemental people in this world are also the biggest culprits of double standards.

This said conversation started after we were all discussing how our social worlds are 'at that age' and are now settling down to marry and have children. As I normally state when involved in these conversations "I am a sceptic of marriage, it is outdated and unfair that two people can meet in Vegas whilst paralytically intoxicated and pay US$50 to stand before an Elvis impersonator, only to declare  annulment 24 hours later, when a gay couple who have been together for 40 years have only just had the Australian government acknowledge their 'relationship' with no real intention to legalise gay marriage." After my regurgitated rant, homosexuality came into topic, more specifically male homosexuality. You see this friend is not overly comfortable with the idea of two men engaging in any loving act and if he could have his way he would pull the Hitler card and create an existence of only heterosexuals and attractive lesbians. Let's be thankful he went to nursing school and did not take the path into politics or dictatorship.

Needless to say he did not complain when he was participating in the lady-on-lady act only a few weeks earlier, actually I hear he was quite "overwhelmingly" impressed with the experience.

It is unfair that the Ruby Rose's and Portia De Rossi's in this world can pose provocatively in little attire with other women in both male and mainstream magazines and be praised by such an action, yet when Adam Lambert kisses a male in the music video for his award winning song 'If I had You' it was the biggest controversy that hit the celebrity trash magazines. Let's be real, Portia and Ruby are very very beautiful women but regardless of my choice in gender I can still admit that Adam is a sexy man who deserves to show off his sexuality to attract his target audience as much as Portia and Ruby.

I guess while 'The Times They are A-Changin' we still have a little while to go...

Resolutioning for the New Year

My New Year Resolution... 2011 is going to be the year to carry on the smiles and disregard the tragedies.

A New Year Resolution!

New years resolutions are a profound and fun way to acknowledge ones faults whilst presenting the people in your life with a statement of belief that in the New Year you will experience "personal change" because, you are willing to become a new and different person. In a nutshell a new years resolution is a way of telling your insecure self that you have faults, issues, problems and that in order to be a better person... You should change.

The world is continually told to welcome the new year in as an opportunity for change, growth and inner enlightenment. From that the human existence is embraced by the hundreds of billion people who create the thousands of internal promises to commit to a resolution, to commit to that possibility of, change, growth and inner enlightenment.

My new years resolutions is pretty easy to follow and will definitely not generate the need to 'change'.


I, Siobhan Eirlys, am going to stay out of hospital! :-)


I am seeing the most beneficial resolution, the one that will 'change' me. Really I am just over the need to waste my time at follow up appointments.


In 2010 alone I was admitted into hospital via Emergency Ward five times. YES 5 times!


You see I am not a clumsy or accident prone person, I am not a hypochondriac or a medical attention seeker and I despise sympathy so I have been admitted for genuine reason that always come down to stupidity.


Lets start with the beginning of the year. I was admitted to the university of London's emergency department with a broken hand. How I did it is beyond me but I definitely did it well. I had only left Australia two days prior and was hoping to make it down to Morocco within the fortnight to go rock climbing and wind surfing, but the possibility of further injuries deterred me and I had to wait to heal.


Then upon my arrival back to Australia only a few months later I managed to contract cerebral typhoid and a parasite to my blood from indulging in life's foreign pleasures. That set me back a few months of follow up appointments and furthered my love for the gym and adventure sports.


Now we are going into the intense three admissions in one months section. These obviously included the car accident which completely wrote my car off, the crazy 15 stair plunge which broke a bone in every section of my body and the seizure I managed to get after not relaxing enough to heal.


So in the fear of developing arthritis I am making a conscience attempt to stay out of hospital.

Two steps back for a running leap forward

It is unfair to create an expectation or to position a person in the world higher or beyond their capabilities. "Friends come and go"... A normal figure of speech, a typical downplay to justify the reasoning for ‘ending a friendship’ and eliminating said person from your existence. The truth be told though, why would you welcome someone so heavily into your life if there was a doubt for its longevity?

I am a culprit! It is hard to admit and it is a positioning of pride to admit fault, but I am to blame. I lost a friend... Yes my first loss of a buddy! And while there was an original consideration to fight and attempt to hold onto this friendship, I have learnt the ship has sailed and it is not a reflection on me but a reflection on him. I guess I should tell the story so there is an understanding of how and why. The story starts on Valentines Day 2008, 31 months before I met, let's call him, Claus.

My best friend, let's call her, Nina, and I were invited to what we were sold as 'a VIP party'. Two young 20 year old, Eastern Suburbs girls, regular university students, liberated, independent, naive and in an implausible need to be accepted by the 'cool crowd'. Nina was working part time in hospitality at a chocolate store whilst studying finance and economics. Making an honest living, that was conveniently close to university and close to her house. In order to fund the my Media and Communications degree, I was working part time in promotions in the delusional optimism of securing a big break in presenting or acting by handing out flyers, product samples and brochures to rude and time poor city folk. My mother’s wise words were always in my mind so I also juggled a part time job as the person who calls the pass at a three-hat fine dining restaurant.

Invited by an acquaintance, Nina and I at the very last minute elect to leave her share house, in oversized jeans and baggy t-shirts, to a VIP penthouse celebration. So this gathering... This "VIP party", turns out to be more of a let's get ourselves in a parallel, alternate universal state of mind, kind of party. Not something Nina and I are overly interested in indulging or partaking in. This was our lesson in reading people/situations and discovering when it is time to exit a bad experience. While I would love to further express the series of events that took place that evening, legally I can only say... "We did not approve of the party guests or the paraphernalia that was present so we removed ourselves from the vicinity." A few weeks later we were informed that a party guest was allegedly murdered. In fear, youthful naivety, bitterness towards the situation these people put us in and extensive distress, we did not adhere or cooperate in the initial investigations, so the irrational Australian legal system decides to throw four criminal charges^1* against us forcing us to 'do ones bit' for the Australian justice system. Two years later and four pending criminal charges against us, Nina and I are subpoenaed, arrested and taken to the federal court to testify against a man we knew for 40 minutes about a crime we never saw being committed. Just to make the story even more attention grabbing, it turns out the girl who was allegedly murdered was a high-class escort being paid for her company and services for the evening. I bet you are already thinking "What an interesting story", it was definitely fascinating enough for media attention and media attention is what we got.

In fear of facing prison time we were initially going to skip the country on the next flight to New Zealand, however a few spanners were thrown into the works and I grudgingly co-operated and testified. The court case lasted over a week and as we were present at the party and, of the seventeen party guests in attendance, two of eight people facing charges, Nina and I were branded as prostitutes, which if you knew Nina you would find very very very difficult to imagine. The girl is so socially awkward, and a massive square, the poor girl can barely hold down eye contact with a stranger let alone be paid to be aforementioned high-class escort.

So Claus, having only known me for five months prior to this incident, decides to feel like he has been lied to and believe a few sensationalizing journalists and I quote, not "understand how so many professionals can get the story so messed up". I have to give the journos credit, I mean they falsified a relatively a down-homey normal 'Eastern Suburbs' story into a sensationalist rag that aggressively brought Nina and I down, shoving our faces in the mud.

A journalist has a job, create an interesting story so when it comes to scheming and lying, plain old hypocrisy and dishonesty, journalists - apart from a few honourable exceptions - win hands down. If you can call it winning! The accusation of Nina and I’s so-called profession primarily seemed ridiculous; to parade this twisted fabrication around, even for the sake of newspaper sales seemed callous and comical. Or perhaps not — for the newspaper is a business. Newspapers specialise in local news and sports coverage, fiercely competing with alternative papers for sales and obviously wish to cash in on the ignorance and sentimentality of readers, who will, and have, flocked to its implausible content with substantial enthusiasm. Yet who would have thought that an intelligent person, I have chosen to associate with, would be a part of the ignorant and maudlin world of gullible readers. Especially considering, in my bias opinion, that I was nothing but a boundless, straightforward and unswerving friend.

While the remainder of my social world embraced the controversy and chuckled at the stupidity of its accusation, poor Claus showed his bigoted closed-minded ignorance and stated, “There is just something there, there is something she just isn’t telling me”. Hopefully throughout the process of his useless and childish rant he learnt humility, because only a few days later, in fear of a law suit, apologies from the media were issued and the Australian justice system realised fault so all charges against us were dropped.

Really was the friendship such a loss? If anything there is a complete and self respected gain. Plus the disregard of the half-arsed friendship has provided me with some really nice free chicken schnitzels.

1* The charges were: Accessory after the fact, Compounding of offence, Perverting the course of Justice, and Obstructing or hindering investigation. Also known as: Suppressing information for a serious and indictable offence.