ladylisa

We've been invited by two families to spend thanksgiving with them. One that we didnt fancy and the other that we definitely did. Only problem was the one we didnt fancy invited us first so as an excuse we said we were spending the day on our own, so then when the other family invited us we then couldn't say yes because they both know each other. Ho hum.

Englishmum

Going into Newark airport where I do voluntary work....helping all those Brits/Germans/Dutch/Italians/Scandinavians flying in who have no idea it's Thanksgiving and wondering how to get into NYC (without getting badly ripped off by taxi and limo drivers... ) I'll get home at around 4.30pm and have a nice turkey dinner cooked by Pete

Actually what the original plan was, was to have my Australian friend round for dinner with her children and her lovely mum (who should have been) visiting from Sydney.

Unfortunately my friend has encountered a disaster. She was divorced more than a year ago, but in September her ex-husband decided to give up his Green Card and plans for US citizenship and has returned to live in Australia for good. My friend's children were in Sydney visiting their grandparents - they were flown up to the Gold Coast to spend a few days with their dad, then returned to Sydney. They were due to fly back to the US last Sunday on the afternoon flight. However, last Sunday morning their dad went to a magistrate in Brisbane and got a court order banning them from leaving Australia.....this was only discovered when they checked in for their flight and the Australian Federal Police and Immigration Service detained them.

There is now a custody battle going on.....the ex-husband is just being vindictive and now says he wants custody of his 'Australian children' but my friend had to fly to Sydney last night....she's still on her way there as she had connecting flights in LA and Fidji... Her mother has to appear in court in Brisbane to explain why she was taking the children out of the country (they're Aussie citizens although the youngest was born in the US and had travelled on a US passport...the visa's expired too). My friend has been given a court date of 20th December....she's self-employed and doesn't get paid if she doesn't work.

I can't imagine anything worse than an international custody dispute....it's going to cost thousands in legal fees (AU$350 per hour) and I've no doubt that my friend will 'win' full custody but how awful to be a single parent when living overseas (her job doesn't exist in Oz).

Elvira

I remember you mentioning this on another thread and was wondering how this is developing. What a mess! And the poor kids caught up in the middle. I simply cannot understand how a parent can inflict this on his children. It's them who probably suffer even more than the mother, what with all the guilt associated with the inevitable conflicts of loyalty.

Partystar

All I can say is that he is a complete bastard.

Englishmum

He's far worse than that LOL!

This is the very same man who originally moved out when his wife was 8 months pregnant (with her son) and had a four year old daughter.

He's never worked in the US, the idea was that he would be the 'house husband' but he never did anything in the house other than spend the day on the computer.

I saw his new baby son before even he did because he couldn't be bothered to turn up at the hospital until his son was 2 days old... Then he decided to move to LA as he wanted to have 'acting lessons' and stayed there for nearly a year. He only came back to the East coast when he was destitute and my friend stupidly allowed him to move back in as she was having nightmare problems with au-pairs and nannies and the idea was that he would be the primary child-carer....

He's also a heavy drinker and my friend says he smokes dope and was almost certainly on stronger 'recreational' drugs when he was in LA.

Good bloody riddance but yes, it is such a shame for the children...

(His dad is no better.....he's left his wife of 40+ years to move to Thailand with his much younger Thai girlfriend....although the 'herbal viagra' isn't working and he wants to move back to Oz and his wife.....and he once asked my then 16 year old daughter if she'd had her nipples pierced. Freak.) :scared:

mandpete

We were supposed to be going to Montreal but it's too cold up there now so we are staying at home.

We will be watching Macy's parade on telly in the morning and then going to watch Harry Potter at noon. When we get back I'll be making garlic/breaded mushrooms followed by a roast lamb dinner with rhubarb crumble and cream for pudding.

Roast turkey once a year is enough for us and that has to be at Christmas.

Partystar

Sounds a bit like my 'Dad'. My parents are British but moved to Aussie to live back when British Airways were doing their £10 deal. They had 4 children together within 4 years & just after the youngest was born, 'Dad' decided that he'd had enough of the family life & left my mum alone with us in Aussie. He came back to England & set up shop with a younger woman, they ended up getting married & having 3 kids & then he left her too! So altogether he's aabandoned7 kids, however the others were lucky enough to have him around for a good 10-15 years.

In some ways I wish all this would've happened in the States as we would have grown up with some money from him in support payments, instead of the £14 the English courts made him pay every fortnight for us!!! Luckily Mum was good at making the money last, she would often make dinner for as little as 50p each!!! However, I dread to think what our hospital bills would have been if we did grow up here, we had at least 20 operations between the 4 of us growing up!

I should probably be happy that he left, it's made me a real hard arse, I definitely know how to take care of myself & have probably done better in life because I didn't have a Dad around to spoil me. Then again, it would have been nice to have a Dad. Sorry for babbling on, I needed to let it out.