. like, she was a poster-girl for female'empowerment.' (I wished Julia had been there, so she could hear me usethat word - she'd have been so proud!)A...yway, it was good to spend some time with Kath even if we didn'talways see eye-to-eye on everything. She was still my bestest femalefriend ever.Phil and Natalie got back from Florida that evening. Mom and I pickedthem up at the airport, and I barely recognized my sister-in-law, shewas so tanned. Having helped her buy her new bikini, I could. He showed me to the balcony off the living room, and asked me to makemyself comfortable while he got us something to drink. He mentionedthat the city lights were always so beautiful at night, and I wouldenjoy the view. And he was right. There was a gorgeous view from hisbalcony. I could see yachts and sailboats in the inner harbour, andcity lights twinkled all around. At that moment I was sure they weretwinkling just for me.As I stood at the railing, I heard him approach from behind. The. ”“What’s he proposing?”“Well, at this instant he’s begun a Master’s in Mathematics. But he thinks he could transfer to a Master’s in Applied Statistics and not lose any of his current credits. But Macquarie also has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Statistics and he could do that in the July to December session.”“Sounds as though he’s given it some thought. And I know there are a lot of jobs, depending on what he’s interested in.”“Really?”“Well, the ABS [Australian Bureau of Statistics] is always. I said that I did not, then asked the obvious question of her.She was indeed HIV positive, and had just gotten out of jail that day. She admitted that she had done 6 months for a minor theft charge, and “was horny as hell” (her words).We drove and chatted, and she was actually very pretty. About 40, with nice brown hair and slender figure. We drove around, then got a bite to eat. There was an obvious attraction there, but I was understandably cautious. After about 2 hours of driving and.