Yes but no "action"!!!!

Feeling sooo tired now...going to have a cuddle with Keane on the sofa...if he'll let me

Hi Folks
O YES YES YES.....
From that height nothing changes.
Thankyou the pix are just great and bring back many happy memories.
Yes by the time you get to the summit of Scafell Pike you have earned that drink but the views on a clear day, so well illustrated by you, make it all worth while and certainly for me.I liked your Ullswater pic immensly and the last pic looking back over the valley with the Screes and the Lake just as I remember it.
In days gone by taking the lower road to the village of Strands the publicans there were two elderly spinster ladies who took your order and trudged down below into the cellars to reappear with jugs of beer.No pumps because anyway there was no bar but a bar parlour with rocking chairs stools and old fashioned leather armchairs. Being a kid I used to ask for a glass of lemonade and they made it with fresh lemons and honey.I was allowed to sit with the adults . The Sisters made up their own Laws to suit.....LOL
Legend had it that all the farming blokes never gave them a minutes bad behaviour and any stroppy or drunken tourists were gently but firmly ejected by the local blokes at the behest of the two old ladies.
The landlord of the Wastwater Head Hotel in my recollections at that time was Wilson Pharoeh ( unsure of the spelling) He was a great character tending to drink away much of the profits LOL
Cheers Oldgit

Bliss O Bliss...... a village shop. Our nearest village shop is 15 Kms away
You are sooooooo “Metropolis”

Hi Pilgrim !!!!!
They all thought you had come to bring Christianity to the Derwent.....
And I can see from your posting that there is no match for your adrenaline rush when the moon goes behind the clouds............
LOVE THIS PLACE LOL
Cheers Oldgit

Hi Folks
Nice to hear from you
yes Grindelwald and Swiss Village are in my neck of the woods,But I have yet to visit.
If you are seriously interested I could help out but i mean seriously interested.That is you have Visas in the pipeline and are able to embark on your migration soon and have experience of running a business necessary capital etc etc....sorry to be such a bore but i want success and happiness for you all and not shackled to the the spectre of “if only”
Here comes the second sermon so switch off here LOL And I know you are not stupid after all you are coming to Tassie lol
Toy away with your ideas for all you are worth cos that is called , the stuff of dreams and dreams do come true. But do me a favour arrive first and see for yourself when you get here what any business has to offer wherever it might be.I can “ ask a friend” to sus out Swiss Village for you read a balance sheet (its relatively easy to hide a business about to fall over).....on the other hand (and it will be snapped up if its a little gold mine) this could be a little cracker ......
I might be concerned about taking on any hospitality/tourist flavoured business in around the Tamar Valley for none of us can accurately predict the effect the forthcoming Pulp Mill might have on the localities either side of the River Tamar and the effect it may have on the locals and visitor numbers.And no I am simply bringing this to your attention please don;t ask for a comment as my answer is always I couldn;t possibly comment LOL
Sermon over Glory Be.
All the good luck in the world.Hang in there and hopefully in the days to come you will be circling the Island ready to land and a new adventure is yours for the making.Anything else just shout can;t promise to know all the right answers or even the wrong answers....
Cheers Oldgit

Hi Oldgit Thanks for your lovely post. It was more out of curiousity as to whether you'd ever been in the bakery/tea-rooms that i asked really...
But it is very kind of you to offer advice etc - so i will bear that in mind for the future!
We're certainly not in a position at the moment to embark on the adventure of owning our own business...
Although it is a dream of ours to have our own little business one day - it's not something we plan on doing initially - not whilst our children are so young as we know owning and running your own business is a lot of hard work - and can take up a lot of time... It's just interesting looking at the businesses for sale - and i often wonder what reasons for the owners have for selling up etc, ie, if they are in the wrong place / offering the wrong service - or whether the place is actually a little gem of a business....
The place in Grindelward just looked really nice...

We have had our visa's for a year now - received them last April - and paid a visit to Tasmania in November last year - combined with visiting the OH's sister and family in Perth.... It took me most of the last year to get in a position myself where i was ready to make the big move (i suffer serious guilt over taking the children away from their grandparents and the thought of leaving close friends and family). Now that i've overcome most of the fears i had initially we now have a new stumbling block in that our house is taking longer to sell than we originally imagined it would. Bad timing on our part putting it up for sale during the credit crisis over here in the UK. Although we will have a lot of equity from the house sale - it will probably eventually be used to buy a property in Tas - unless we rent for quite a while - and perhaps dabble in the idea of buying into a business instead with some of the money somewhere down the line...

My OH is a Sheetmetal worker/Thermal Insulator and today he found out from a company he met with in November that they have work for him - if we can get to the Island sooner rather than later!
He has done that work for most of his working life - although he did have a break after travelling the US, Indonesia, New Zealand & Australia in his late twenties when he actually became a bar-manager in a sports & social club near where he lived for about a year.... so i guess he's had experience in the hospitality stakes to a certain degree.....whereas when i was younger apart from shop work experience i have worked in the Insurance/Accounts Industry non-stop for the last 20years (albeit for about a 12 month break in total for both maternity leaves after having the kids).

I love your positiveness - and the way you said "Toy away with your ideas for all you are worth cos that is called , the stuff of dreams and dreams do come true."

That is really nice, and i think most of the time i am quite a positive person who doesnt stay down for very long... My OH says that i'm a very "spur of the moment" person at times and a bit scary in that way as he never knows what to expect next with me!!!

We hope our new life in Tasmania will be an adventure - and we also hope to change our lives so that they dont mirror the lives we have over here....
I do not hate my life over here - far from it - but it will be lovely to have new challenges, and not necessarily a new life - but a different one....

and i'm certainly enjoying chatting to all you new people....

thanks oldgit (always makes me think of Harry Enfield's comedy programme and the oldgit characters when i see your posts - hope you dont look like one of them! )

take care
Cathy

Your welcome, there are different penguin tours all around the island, its just that low head is the closest to us.

Colin has taken his parents on the tour tonight, its 5 yrs since we went! I bailed out too friggin cold to stand on the beach better to go in summer

I'm kicking back with a mug of soup and watching My Family oh the joys of Australian tv ... totally crap

Ah I could sit and read your stories all day, you write so beautifully. Have you ever thought about writing a book?

Today we went to Ag-fest, oh boy what a ball we had! It is massive! My dogs are barking and my legs are killing me. We came away with over $500 worth of stuff and a load of info leaflets on stuff we'd like to do to the land in the future. Well worth the $12 entry fee.

Here is a pic of Alex hitching a ride on one of our purchases.

:
Me write a book Are we talking about the right "Me" When I reply to many of the Posters on this thread, you included, I am shaking in my boots that my contributions pale into insignificance compared to yours and so many others
:
I did once think of doing a blog on here but I was scared it would turn into the rant and raves of a delirious old fart
Thankyou Dear Lady, you (and others) have raised my self esteem no end by all your kind remarks. I am really just an old windbag
PS Show this to any Males who matter in your life we don't want any trouble do we Its purely platonic, Lads, literary appreciation
We need to be very careful A kept woman doesn't want to stop being kept does she cos she will have to change her descriptor on Ex- Pats for one thing
Cheers Oldgit

Yes Ag-fest is well worth a visit isn't it I would recommend everyone to go jjust the once and I would not be surprised if it did not become an annual must- go- there for so many who think it is not their cup of tea.

Two big lads in that pic

Cheers oldgit

WOW I am really going to have to raise my game to reply to yours.
I will reply soon... in the meantime here I hope are a few pics of The Swiss Village I visited today.First one is the self explanatory signboard at side of road second one shows the Swiss complex with clock tower third one shows the view from the Village over the Taymar River with the high mountain range in the background Launceston is out of the picture to the right. cheers Oldgit

Hi Kerry, I can't believe how much more grownup Alex looks in that picture. He's changed a lot in just the 6months since we saw you all... We went to the Wanneroo Agricultural Show when we were in Perth in November which was good. Eden had a great time....
We should have gone during the day instead of the evening though - there was loads of flies about (altho it would have probably been the same in the day time)... Eden enjoyed a pony ride - and there were loads of stalls - but less i think of an evening as a lot of people were more interested in the fireworks/funfairs then. We also watched sheep being sheared etc.
Glad you had a good day out..... I'm sure that wheel barrow is going to be put to good use on your land!!

It's a bit quiet in our house this afternoon.... Andy's gardening - it's been lovely and warm today... Eden's staying over her grandparents for the day/night - her Nan's taking her to the cinema to see Nim's Island - Jodie Foster's new family adventure film.....so hopefully once Jared goes to bed later it'll be a lovely nice quiet evening for me and Andy for a change!
Hopefully this weather's going to stay nice for the rest of the bank holiday weekend as we want to go to the Coast either tomorrow or Monday.....(but i've probably jinxed us over here now by saying that!!!)....

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
take care
Cathy
x

Hi Oldgit, no worries I tend to waffle....must take any oversea's clients ages to translate my Emails/Faxes at work into their languages!

Here is the place i was originally talking about. Apparently it's shop 8....
Did you see it on your visit there today? The 3rd picture you sent is a lovely view...

Cathy

Hi Possums... Hope your in-laws enjoyed the penguin tour today...
What is the temperature of a night like at the moment?
Do you get cable where you live - or are you reliant on just the Australian channels? I've heard from many people that the choice is awful....

A question for the locals.....

I've been meaning to ask this for ages....and was reminded of it earlier today.

Do you all drink your tap water? or do you use those filters that attach to your taps?

Thanks!
Cathy