There is a change between Greg and Pauline's relationship. Oma, Floss and Mimi started walking away which left Pauline and Greg to walk around by themselves. The change between their relationship is from cousins to cousins in love. They are walking down a path hand in hand. " We went down some steps and our hands just brushed together so I held onto her fingers to see what she would do and she didn't try to snatch her hand away. That was how we walked along. Hand in hand. I started to wonder about it. She was my cousin and everything. But I didn't suppose holding hands with your cousin was incest or anything. ' Have you got a girlfriend?' She said. 'Nah.' 'Why not?' 'Who'd have me?' I said and laughed. 'I would,' she said and she didn't laugh at all. She was serious. " Page 112. Oma used to live in Paddington and she wanted to go see the house she grew up in. They went to see it but it had been knocked down and had been rebuilt into a fancy mansion. The change is the house and how it's the same address but a different house. " After about ten minutes walking we stopped outside one of the houses. ' I used to live here,' Oma said. It was pretty impressive. There was a big stoop, fancy plastering with iron lace and a wrought-iron fence. 'Jeez you must have been rich,' Pauline said. 'Oh it didn't look like this then,' Oma said. 'When we lived here, they were talking about pulling it down it was so run-down. It was condemned.' " Page 113. There is change in Oma's life. She dies as soon as they get home from Sydney. She took every one to Sydney so it was something to remember her by. There is change when Greg is 15. He has a new girlfriend called Tanya she lives 2 streets away. He has gone from Pauline to Tanya in 1 year.
There is change when Greg's Dad announces that he is moving from Perth to Sydney and that he has a new job. The change is where he is living and his work and the making a new beginning in his life. " ' You know your mother and I have been having problems.' I nodded. ' when you come home we won't be living together anymore we've decided it's best for us, best for you kids, if we go our different ways.' 'We are we going to live.' 'I'm going to rent a place. Not far away. Just for a while.' And there's something eles.' 'I've got an offer of a job, here in Sydney. That's why I'm over here now.' 'Oh yeah?' 'It's going to mean a lot more money. It's a fantastic opportunity.' He wouldn't look at me so I knew he had already said yes. 'With your mum and me having these hassles, it doesn't make sense to stay in Perth anymore.' 'Your going to live in Sydney?' I said,and my own voice sounded hollow, like we were sitting in a cave." Page 79. Greg changed his mind about caring for Mimi at the Blue Mountains. Mimi wanted to go get a closer look of the three sisters and he said that's they would soon and that answer wasn't good enough for her so she went off on her own and got lost! Eventually Greg found her and decided that he would rescue her as she was hanging onto a cliff face. " 'Will you take me to the three sisters Gugs?' 'You can see them from here.' 'I want to be close and see them.' 'Not right now.' When?' In a minute alright.' 'You never do anything with me,' she said. " Page 84. " 'Where's Mimi?'asked Auntie Floss. ' She must have wandered off,' I said. " Page 86. " 'Mimi!'I shouted. ' I heard a very faint help to the right and ran towards it. She'd left the main path. As I trampled through the bush towards the sound of her voice I thought about snakes and spiders, but tried not to think to hard. And then I saw her. Oh my God. There was some loose rock leading up to a bushy slope which got steeper and steeper until it finally became a sheer cliff face. And there was Mimi halfway up, hanging on a thin ledge of rock with her hands straight above her head. " Page 87.
Greg is sitting on the lounge and Oma comes over and starts talking to him. She asks why he always wears black. He said he didn't. They then talk about growing up and how things change from when you are little to a teenager. " 'Why do you wear black all the time?' 'I don't wear black all the time,' I said. I looked down. I had on my black ACDC tee shirt, my black cords and my black joggers. 'It just seems a bit - somber,' she said. I shrugged my shoulders again. 'I remember when you were a kid,' Oma said. 'You were like Mimi.' I wondered if Oma was deliberately trying to insult me. 'You were a terrible show pony. Funny how we change as we grow up.' I didn't see where she was going with this. 'I was never like Mimi,' I said. 'I suppose we all change. Can't be helped. Sometimes it's just a natural part of growing up. Or sometimes things happen to make us change.' " Page 39. Oma is talking to Greg about life and about Greg's dad. Oma mentions Greg's dads real name and it makes Greg think about all the names that his dad has been called and how the change in relationship with Greg's mother has affected those names. " It's hard having parents, isn't it?' Oma said. 'They behave like children sometimes.' I wasn't sure if she was joking. 'I remember your father used to say to me : children need to be seen not heard. But that's not right, is it, Gugs? Children have to be listened to. Espescially when your nearly adults, like you are.' 'You should tell that to dad.' ' He is not a good listener is he, our Malcolm?' Malcolm. I'd never heard him called that before. Mister Jones, by the teachers, and by the man who comes to mow the lawn. But Malcolm! Not even my mum calls him that. She calls him daddy or sweetness. Well she did up until the divorce. Then she called him a lot of stuff I'm not allowed to repeat." Page 41. The phone rings. It is Greg's mother. She is talking to Oma who was murmuring into the phone. She tells Greg that she wants to speak to him because his father has moved out and has fully separated from Greg's mother. The change is Greg's parents having a healthy relationship to a separation. " ' You want to talk to Mimi?' I said down the phone. 'In a minute. There's some thing I need to talk to you about.' Here it comes. 'Yeah?' 'Your Dads moved out.' 'When?' 'This morning.' I just stood there. Three China ducks were taking flight up the wall. They looked like they were flying away from something. I wish I could. " Page 46. Greg goes outside to get some fresh air before dinner and sees Pauline out there. He goes and sits with her. Change is identified when she tells him that Oma told her about his family troubles and his friend who passed away. She asks about it and he considers putting on his headphones and Walkman but he changes his mind because he thinks it would be quite rude. " 'Oma told me you were having a hard time lately.' 'Yeah. What did she tell you?' ' Not much. Just that Uncle Mal and Aunty Ann were going to split up and you were pretty sad about it. She also said something had happened to one of your mates.' I didn't know what to say. Almost out of habit I felt in my pocket for my Walkman. I didnt want to put the headphones on right then but I patted my pocket and it was reassuring to know they were there, if I needed them. " Page 58.
The book starts off with an introduction to the family and their crazy nick names. " I live in a family where no one is called by their right name." Page 1. The main character is called Gregory but Gugs or Greg for short, Mimi is Greg's sister, Freck is Greg's cousin, Pokey Pauline is their other cousin, Aunty Floss is Pauline's mother, Oma is the mother of Floss and Greg's and Mimi's mother and the grandmother of the rest of them. Change has been identified in the first pages of the book when Oma asks Mimi and Greg to go to Sydney with her and Freck to see Pauline and Aunty Floss. Greg is at the airport looking through motor magazines at a bookstore before his flight until he sees a girl. " There was this really hot girl standing on the other side of the magazine rack, flicking through a Girlfriend magazine. She looked up so I turned away as quick as I could. I wanted to beat her to the ignore in case she didn't like me. But then I thought: this is my big chance. If I smile at her and she smiles back at me, I'll know there is more to life than listening to your parents threatening to kill each other." Page 5. Greg had changed his mind from wanting to ignore the girl to being a bit curious and wanting to know more. When they arrived in Sydney Floss and Pokey Pauline were there to meet them. Greg was amazed at how much Pauline had changed. " Pokey had changed a lot, and I mean, a lot. The last time I saw her, she was seven years old, a beanpole and a wuss who cried everytime I punched her. Now she had boobs and everything." Page 10. Pauline had also changed by the fact that she was temperamental. " ' So, how have you been, Pokey?' I said to break the silence. ' Don't call me that.' 'What do you want me to call you, then?' 'Brace face,' Freck sniggered. She moved so fast Freck didn't even see it coming. She reached over, grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked it out. Just like that. It was Brilliant. 'The name's Pauline,' she said." Page 11. Greg started to feel homesick about all the change in Paulines house. " But it's the things like funny toilet paper and different tasting milk and not having your usual cereal for breakfast or your own seat at the dinner table." Page 13. Greg's best friend Ben had moved to Sydney a few years ago because of his parents splitting and so now Greg was in Sydney he could finally visit him. Greg remembers Ben being cool and wearing billabong tee shirts but when he saw Ben he had totally changed. "There was something different about him. He had bum fluff on his face which meant he was going to need to shave long before I ever would. And he had a few really big bangers that needed a good squeeze. Also he didn't dress like he used to, in really good gear, like those Billabong tee shirts his dad used to buy him. He looked really scruffy." Page 30. Before Greg saw Ben and all his new friends he was really excited to seeing him again but after what he saw and how Ben wasn't at all interested in him, he wasn't anymore.
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