Canberra Accounting Services

 

I anglicised my German name GÖRMANN by dropping the second 'N'; however, to keep the German Ö-sound, I replaced it with 'OE' instead of going with the more common GORMAN. Now I always had to spell it out to people: "G as in GNAW, O as in PEOPLE, E as in GIVE, R as in FORECASTLE, M as the first M in MNEMONIC, A as in BREAD, and N as in AUTUMN. My first name is PETER: P as in PSALM, E as in ... You know how to spell that one? Oh, good!"

 

Those bronze plaques cost me almost as much to obtain as the qualifications so boastingly mentioned on them, so when I dismantled my office in Canberra, I took them along as a reminder of another life before eventually fastening them to the wall of my retirement home at "Riverbend".

Being of advanced age, it was hard enough keeping my own balance let alone that of other people, and so I didn't expect nor did I want to do any more accounting work in my retirement. That was until that memorable day when a little old Chinese lady knocked on the door.

It took me quite some time to disabuse her of her discombobulation — there you have it, two rarely-used words squeezed into one sentence! — that the also mentioned "Dip.Ac." stood for "Diploma in Acupuncture".

(Actually, she wasn't all that old, and I almost asked her to take her clothes off! I've left the plaques on the wall in case she comes back.)

 

Googlemap Riverbend