myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Don't you just hate waiting in for a delivery?
You can't go out, not even into the garden to put rubbish in the bin or hang the washing out, you can't have the radio too loud, you daren't spend more than 30 seconds in the bathroom in case you get back downstairs and find a card saying " we tried to call but there was no reply", and you can't switch the vacuum cleaner on in case you don't hear when the delivery man knocks the door with a feather duster. Come to think of it, that's not so bad.
I am waiting for a new cooker to be delivered and installed. I phoned the number given on my receipt and followed the instructions given by the female Dalek who told me " Your - item - will - be - delivered - on - Wednesday - the - tenth - of - October - between - two - and - six - p - m."
Well I'm sorry Ms Dalek but I've learned from bitter experience that things never get delivered when they are supposed to, so I have one ear open just in case they turn up early.
She also told me " If- you - change - your - delivery - time - you - may - delay - receipt -of - your - item - by - five - days." Scary!
She is now refining her plans for World domination.
So, what to do? Spend some time on the old computer whilst drinking lots of coffee ( bearing in my mind what I said about not spending too much time in the bathroom. Maybe I should put a note on the front door? " In loo, please wait.")

I found another forum ( I wonder how many there are?) and have just read The Rules:
" Any post to members that in the sole judgement of the Moderator ( all hail ) is deemed to be off topic ( eek!) may be deleted and may cause loss of website use." Oooer! It also says:
" Users do not wish to have to read through chitter chatter in order to find the information they are seeking." Well! EXCUSE ME!
Then it invites me to join. No chance! If I did I would revert to being a rebellious teenager and be expelled after my first posting.
Don't get any ideas about getting all boring and stuffy Mr Wooler!

So, lets start at the very beginning ( a very good place to start ) and I will tell you How It All Started. First, so they say, came the Big Bang and...

A cold dark evening in January 2007. Hubby comes home and says:
" Someone at work has a holiday home they are offering for rent. Are we interested?"
"What, a caravan?" Enthusiasm level: 1/10. The last time we rented a holiday home from a colleague it was a caravan in Wales. Now hold it all you Welsh! Yes it was beautiful ( Cardigan Bay) as Cymru is, but it wasn't exactly an adventure, and my poor daughter was bored out of her adolescent mind.
"No, a house." Enthusiasm level: 2/10.
" Somewhere we've never been." 3/10.
"We have to fly there."
"So it's outside the UK?"
"Yes." 7/10. Haven't been outside the UK since a week in Malta in 1999.
"I think the flight is about 8 or 9 hours."
"So it's outside EUROPE!" 10/10. "East or West?"
" West. It's a small island." We like small islands.
" Um, give me a clue then!" You may have noticed my husband never comes straight out with anything.
"Begins with T."
"Um, no idea. I can only think of Tenerife."
"Tobago."
" Tobago? TOBAGO?" Enthusiasm level: Off the scale.
I phone my friend. "Tobago? As in Trinidad and Tobago?" she says. "Oooh!"
I phone my mum."That's nice dear. Where is it?"
"The Caribbean. You know, West Indies."
"Oh! You mean like Jamaica? It's a long way then."
Bless her! She's never set foot outside the British mainland and once thought New Zealand was in the EU. "We never did geography at school remember. There was a war on." Hitler's got a lot to answer for.

At that time I was scared stiff of computers and never attempted to switch it on unless Hubby or Son were in the house, so at first I left all the research to hubby, and he booked the flights and arranged the car hire.
I eventually plucked up courage and ventured onto the net all by myself, and discovered..."Simply Tobago".....
Then, in about February 2007 I discovered this site, and this forum!
I studied you all from afar, and then, my brethren, decided to take the plunge and join the club! It's done wonders for my computer and typing skills, not to mention giving me an outlet for all the nonsense that explodes, unbidden, into my head from time to time.
Has this saga been of help to new visitors? No.
Have I provided any useful information? No.
Do I care? No.
Have I enjoyed writing it? Yes! It's kept me out of mischief.
I hope you've enjoyed reading it. If not, tell me and I'll book an appointment with my therapist.
Cheers Big Ears
Carolnoe Townsend

Hi Carol(noe),

Gosh - I thought it had been quiet on here recently - but you've obviously been saving this one up for us. Can I just say it's made a boring lunch-hour a lot more interesting!

I think most of us stumble on myTobago by accident - and then, for at least some of us, it becomes addictive. Who would ever have thought that I'd read posts about fishing?

The first, pre-myTobago trip that Hugo and I made to the island came as a result of a sudden need to get away from awful winter weather. I looked on Teletext; rang up the company that seemed to have the cheapest deals to anywhere, and said, "What have you got that's somewhere sunnyand different?" - and 4 weeks later we were in Tobago staying at Grafton Beach. (And before any one says anything - yes it was AI; yes we enjoyed it very much - and yes we DID get out and explored all round the island!!) We've been back once since, staying in Lambeau - and will, no doubt be back again before too long.

In the meantime - there is all the fun of this forum to keep the memories alive.

Jane

Funny this with internet Forums.
The reason we chose Tobago for our honeymoon was because we both were members of another internet forum and they where all talking about the best places they had ever been. One of the guys mentioned Tobago in two words. "Beaches" and "rainforests" That was all we needed and off we went and booked.
We also stayed in the Grafton but we really only spent time sleeping there and the rest of the time outside the hotel exploring and we will certainly go back and stay in a villa some day!

Lina

Carolnoe,you have to get a column in the DT! This post made me laugh so much that I thought my tears may damage the keyboard.
David(no Sir yet??)

Here here Sir David, made me laugh a lot too, my boyfriend kept asking me what I was laughing at. Carolnoe you also remind me of a lady on another forum I post on for holiday home owners (I've got a little studio in the Alps) she writes just like you and makes us all laugh too.

You should start a blog site and just post all your ramblings on there, never know it might turn into a future 'Bridget Jones' diary' type book for the future!!!

Well the question is has the cooker turned up yet???

Caroleeeeee

PS our first planned visit to Tobago came from searching t'internet for somewhere sunny and nice to go around Xmas and Tobago seemed to come out favourably on lots of sites, but we ended up with a much better deal in Jan!

Dear, dear Carol, thank you so much. You're a diamond.

I think that Caroleee's idea of setting up your own blog is an excellent one. I would definitely have it bookmarked and probably be there every day as I am here.

Just make sure that you keep posting on myTobago.

Tony


http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyandjanette

Thanks, Carol
How boring it would be if you were not permitted some chatter, and entertaining chatter it is too!

The bit about your Mum reminds me of a young Scientific Officer (hence a graduate) that I employed many years ago, preparing reports for defence scientists. She sent one out for an Australian student at the Royal Military College of Science, which was fine, except that she put some classified NATO stuff into it. On being tasked over this, she merely said "Oh, isn't Australia in NATO, then?". Maybe this face is handy:

Thank you my brethen!
Tony, that would be a diamond " in the rough" I take it? Um, how do you set up a blog? The problem with that, and particularly with Sir David of Bude's suggestion of writing for the Telegraph, is that I would then be under pressure to " deliver", so as not to disappoint my adoring public, and I'm not sure I'm up to the job.
What will I do when I run out of things to say that are connected ( however tenuously) to Tobago? I know! A crash course in fishing or scuba diving! Maybe I can become the Water Guru.
Caroleeeee, so you have a holiday place in the Alps? That would explain your avatar.( Do you realise that until I discovered this site I'd never even heard of that word?)
Which portion of the Alps is it? Swiss, Austrian, French or Italian? Do you ski, or indeed, yodel?

Now, what you've all been waiting for; The Cooker. Yes, the female Dalek was correct! It arrived at 2.30. All went smoothly, except for the dirty fingerprints the delivery men managed to leave all over the hall, kitchen, front door, walls......
I've registered for the guarantee, which means I'll now be bombarded with junk mail no doubt.
This morning has been a little trying. Last night, after darkness fell(of course) the light bulb " blew" in the kitchen, which blew the fuse so we had no lights downstairs. "I'll sort it out in the morning" I said. I'm a liberated woman; I can twiddle a screwdriver and do things like change fuses with the best of them.
Then, the bulb blew in daughter's room. I'm not surprised. She chose the colour for the walls; " Sexy Pink". It's enough to blow anyone's mind believe me. I've never needed to wear sunglasses indoors before.
So, this morning I turned off the "juice", which is what my father always called it. I've no idea why. You can imagine how mystified I was as a child; I thought it WAS juice!
Tackled the fuse first. Took AGES because I couldn't get the fusebox undone, then couldn't get it done up again ( a screw loose?) It's very difficult when you can't see properly with your normal or your reading glasses. They should invent " doing jobs in a dark cupboard under the stairs" glasses.
Next, changed the bulb. That was fine, and gave me the confidence to carry on, so I trotted upstairs with the stepladder.
CAN'T GET THE BULB OUT OF THE SOCKET!!!!!
I'm somewhat " vertically challenged" so had to keep stopping to rest my aching arms as I was reaching above my head. I might have to ask hubby or son! Please don't let it come to that! The shame! The humiliation! What will the Sisterhood say?
And before you men start trying to be helpful, yes it's a bayonet fitting, and yes I have encountered them before without any problems!
Put the " juice" back on, switched on the computer, NO INTERNET
Turned it off, put it back on, and there you are. Phew!
They're playing Queen on the radio; "I want to break free". How appropriate.
I'm off shopping. I'll tackle that darn bulb again later!
See ya! Take care!
Carolnoe

Mr Wooler can you ban this person from the site?My sides hurt with laughter pains ,cos of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
David

To preseve my own sanity, I'm keeping out of it. People are starting to look at me as if I am the village idiot (Sorry, the mentally challenged members of our community) because of the constant inane grin on my face.

Noooooo, please no ban - life would be dull without her!! Thanks Carol you're a star.

Jude x (7 days to go)

Hahahahahaha!!!

Carol my little studio is in the French Alps, Serre Chevalier to be precise, I can snowboard but not very well!!! I decided to buy in France as I have quite a few friends in that area and worked there for a while, also my bf is French, so we have a base should we ever go back to live there, which we probably will one day!

Don't do yodelling I'm afraid, singing - very badly, but that's about my musical talents apart from a few guitar chords!

Well to start a blog you can get one on a site called Wordpress for free, you can talk about anything and everything you like as often (or not) as you like! I think just your 'what I did today' would be amusing enough!!!

Carolnoe,

I'm back from vacation and I'm glad to see that you are still going strong

Still trying to get caught up on everything so I"ll post more later.

Bill (Part of your adoring public)

Perhaps there should be a Carolnoe dedicated topic,rather like the weather with Mr T?
But don't leave us Carolnoe---forget about that blog stuff,keep us amused!
David Here's lookin'at you(hic)

I'm all for that!! I've got to the stage now where I look to see where ANY of the Carol(with or without Es)s have posted!!!!

Lol! I wonder if it IS something in the humour of people that makes them love Tobago so much!? I can certainly find something on here most days that leaves me laughing!

Keep it coming, all!!

Lisa.

Actually, Lisa, I think you've hit the nail on the head. Let's be honest, Tobago is a wonderful place but if you have no sense of humour, chances are you'll hate the island - or at least the people. You have to either laugh, or cry, at so much that is essentially 'Tobagonian'. As a result, I think you will find a good sense of humour is the one thing that ties all Tobago-lovers - and Tobagonians - together.

David, you have a good point. The only thing that would slightly complicate it is if we blocked others from responding to Carol's 'blog'. However, the feedback might be an essential part, so I'm not convinced. So, Carol, by all means start a new thread - call it whatever you like - and rant away. Actually, maybe this thread is it already. Perhaps we just need to change the title of the first post so that it is easier to identify in the main form topic listing. I'm easy so over to you guys. Keep up the good work, Carol, either way.

Greetings on this miserable October day! ( at least it is here)
Welcome back Bill me old mate.
Did you enjoy your leafpeeping? I hope you kept a diary!
I don't khow about "strong", but I'm still going!
Steve and Lisa, you are right, I think you need humour everywhere.
Hmmmm
And Sir David, what have you been up to? ( as if I didn't know )
Au revoir
Carolnoe
PS The Lightbulb Issue has been resolved. I was forced to ask A Man
Our mate Kev popped in.
" Kev, my men won't be home till after dark, would you do me a favour and change this bulb?"
" Certainly, I AM a qualified electrician after all." True, he is.
"Better take these sunglasses; it's in daughter' room. Shall I turn the electricity off?"
"No need. I'm a qualified electrician."
"Haven't you told me that before?"
" Dunno. Might have".
Job done. Off he went clutching a can of beer.
This man is is also an expert in Computerology. He actually builds the things and works as a kind of " trouble shooter."
He even tackles the odd bit of plumbing. A paragon, a veritable saint!
In fairness, my hubby has his talents too!

Gosh Steve!
I 've just re read your post which you must have been editing while I was wittering away. I'm really flattered and honoured, but I'll disappear for a while and let someone else put in their fourpenneth ( an Olde English saying Bill!)
I need to think, and get dressed; do you realise I'm still in my dressing gown?

When the electrician called!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hmmmmmmmmm
David (47 days,22hours,25 minutes until takeoff!)

Carolnoe,

Or as we say "put in your two cents worth"

Bill (poyap)