Have a waffle with Carol

[Bill B]

Just back from two weeks in sunny Mexico (which is why I haven't posted lately). I see that while I've been gone that things have rambled on as usual in all sorts of aimless ways.

Happy B'Day David

Noe, having personally met David I find it highly amusing that you could use his name and James Bond in the same sentence

Bill

[David Watkins]

Thankyou Bill.
I know that Tubby B always regretted having to use Sean instead of me,but hey he did OK
David

[Carol Townsend]

Hola Young Bill!
Good to have you back, however it was very naughty of you to skedaddle off to Mexico without so much as an "Adios amigos"!
Hope you had a good time, and lots of adventures.
I must now take issue with you.
Our ramblings are never aimless! Look at what we've discussed:
The British weather;
Tony grows purple sprouting broccoli, has discovered how to make dreadlocks and regards himself as the Old White Rasta of Ryde. ( I just LOVE that phrase and will use it at every opportunity...)
Gill has tried to persuade me to buy her sister's house in Yorkshire and open a bed and breakfast establishment; no chance!
Our German Steph knows the word "crappy" and likes some TV show called "Scrubs!"
And David drinks his rum with supermarket fruit punch and is a bald Bond, legs too! Who needs Connery when we have Watkins?
Nothing aimless there!
Anything I've left out, please let me know.
Love
Noe
xx

[Tony G]

Now let's get this right Sis... I do not consider myself to be the 'Old white Rasta of Ryde'. I actually said that I may be considered such if I was to grow dreads, which I am not planning on doing anytime soon.

T.

xxx

[Carol Townsend]

Sorry Big Bruv
I will consider myself told off, not mention the subject again, and go away and sulk.

[Tony G]

Oops! Didn't mean to sound so harsh. How can I make it up to you? Would you like some purple-sprouting broccoli?

T.

xxx

[Bill B]

Hello All,

First day back at the office and I can't wait for the next vacation

Noe, after reading your recap of what transpired while I was away I'll stand by my original comment

That's all for now as I have to get back to "the grindstone"

Bill

[Brian Taylor]

I learn grand words like "venerable" here and all noe points out is "crappy" and the fact that I admittingly have seen the soap "scrubs". I look like a real dummy here. may I have a purple sprouting broccoli please to cheer me up again, too, tony?

steph

[Carol Townsend]

Tony,
No.
Want chocolate.

Steph,
Be assured. Knowing the vernacular means you are really are becoming fluent in English!
Cockney rhyming slang next...

Bill,
You have your priorities all wrong amigo. Get your nose off that grindstone and join in our deep and meaningful discussions at once!
Love
Noe
xxx

[Carol Townsend]

Afternoon All!
I've just been to an "over fifties" swimming session. No, they did NOT check my ID!
I stepped into the World of The Retired, and I look forward to joining their ranks.
I did get get a little frustrated, as everyone seemed to know each other and there were groups of people standing around gossiping (women AND men)in the shallow end, or floating around gossiping in the deep end or in the middle of the pool, so I never got to swim in a straight line. If they want to gossip, why don't they sit in the coffee shop, save the admission fee and save themselves the trouble of getting wet! There were two portly men in their sixties acting up like schoolboys, and I was expecting to hear the lifeguard blow the whistle at any minute and kick them out.
Must go again. All of Life is there..
Off to work now.
Adios!

[Brian Taylor]

frustratingly I had to google "vernacular" since it was not in my small dictionary on the desk... so far for being fluent...

noe....no chocolate, otherwise you have to start living 24/7 in the "pool of gossip" beeing the only one actually exercising there... and you know how the other "kids" look at someone who always tries to be best

have a good day over there
I'll have a nice and sunny one here... no david, no rum punhces for me!
steph

[David Watkins]

I am freezing to death......................I may not make it to October............I need a charity "Help a Watkins Return to Tobago,easily abreviated to HARWT".Now is that not worth 10% of your salary(tax deductable of course!)
Blue Bude Boy(I can't find a shivering icon so bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

[David Watkins]

I am warning you now that this is a joke (?).
Shannon Mathews ,the winner if the British Junior Hide and Seek contest has decided to challenge Madeleine McCarthy's European record!

[Bill B]

Yes Ma'am

Unfortunately I have to stick to the grindstone once in a while because I failed to follow my fathers advice when I was a young man. His advice? "Remember, that you should always marry for love, not money. But, it's just as easy to fall in love with a rich girl as a poor one." After forty three years I have no regrets that Mary Lou wasn't rich when I married her.

We already have next winters vacation planned for Puerto Vallarta Mexico. We're looking into paying our next years dues on our timeshare, banking it with RCI and seeing if we can trade for Sandy Point in Tobago for early 2010.

Bill

[Carol Townsend]

Hey Bill!
Apart from visiting this forum do you spend most of your spare time in planning your next vacation?
Note that I used "vacation" not "holiday" in honour of your being from the other side of the pond!
We have used the services of RCI once or twice when we haven't been able to use our timeshare, but on the whole we prefer to use it ourselves. It's only for a week,so we'd have to save up two years' worth to make it worthwhile going to somewhere far-flung like Tobago.
Our timeshare is Tresco, in the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall (Watkins territory!) I'm sure you'll find it in the RCI directory. We hope to go there in May.
See ya!
Noe
xxxx

[Bill B]

Noe,

We do plan our vacations far out for a couple of reasons. The two timeshares we have (one in Las Vegas that we inherited from my Mother-in-Law and one on the beach in Virginia that we bought for $250) are small non-descript resorts that we have stayed at but are not places we would want to return to often. We like to travel to tropical places in the winter, which of course are difficult trades because that's what so many others want also. We have found that by banking early and requesting far out that we can be successful in getting what we want. We also use frequent flier miles to cover our airfare and again, because the availability is limited, we find that if we can book them as soon as flights are scheduled (330 days out) we can get them.

Having trips scheduled this far ahead also gives us something to look forward to on these cold dreary days

You could trade for one week into Sandy Point and then stay a week or so at Castara so that you would be able to justify the long and expensive flight and still have your timeshare for the next year

Bill

[Carol Townsend]

Never thought of that young Bill!
In fact, before you mentioned it, it never occured to me that there were timeshares on Tobago
I need to work on my husband though, who keeps saying profound things like "I liked Tobago too, but there's a big world out there."
It's our 25th anniversary this year, and in celebration of paying off our mortgage we are thinking of a very long trip next year; New Zealand, which I believe is as far as you can go from here before you start coming back.( The Earth being round, as I was told at school....)
I love the idea of your buying a timeshare for $250! Sounds like you got yourself a bargain! (And that's the first time I've used the dollar sign on the keyboard!)
But we bought our timeshare because we fell in love with Tresco at first sight, and it's very difficult to get accomodation there otherwise. Have a look at simplyscilly.co.uk and you'll see how beautiful the islands are.
Before I start rambling on about Scilly, I must go and finish off an extract from my Tobago diary...
Have a good day..
Noe The Rambler

[Carol Townsend]

Ah the Spring!
There is a woodpecker tapping at the oak tree in the field at the back of our house. Frogs are croaking in our neighbour's pond. The starlings are building their nest in the usual place in the roof,the songbirds are in good voice and our magnolia is coming into blossom. We were woken up in the night by a screaming fox and this morning began with the gentle sound of my neighbour's driveway being ripped up by a digger. That man can never leave his house alone for five minutes. Always something being done!
It's freezing cold, I thought I heard snow being forecast for some parts of the UK and David the Bude Blue Boy is no doubt shivering his socks off. I wonder if anyone has subscribed to HAWRTT yet?
I have finally learned how to make a word document to record my longer wafflings and found out what "copy and paste" is. Hooray! I do get very cross with all those red and green wiggly lines though. If I want to use my own unique grammar I will jolly well do so!
So, to cheer up all the shivering Brits, and "wind - up" (that's vernacular Steph!) David, may I proudly present:

[Carol Townsend]

So let's have a waffle or two about Tobago then. You thought I had nothing more to say about our holiday, didn't you?

We stayed in a privately owned house in Castara, up a hill. Eighty or so rough, gruelling steps up a hill, called Jackson's Trace, with a little shop at the bottom.
The first day we arrived, we parked our jeepy-thing on the grass next to Marvin's Bar(being careful not to run over the tethered goat) and gazed upwards. Couldn't even see the house! In fact, it's so well-hidden that I remember one of the locals remarking: " I wondered what was up there!"
"Oh dear" I said. "How on earth are we going to get the luggage up there?"
"Just get on with it" said Himself.
So, I dragged my case up a few steps, by which time the family had reached the top and were on the way down, and came to my rescue. It's all very well putting wheels on cases to drag them along the road, but can someone please invent ones that go up stairs?
I had put myself in charge of the keys so the others had to wait patiently, or rather, impatiently, for me to crawl up the stairs, purple in the face, and collapse in a sweating heap while they worked out which of the keys went where.
Ah but it was worth it! There was a verandah running the whole length of the house, with a table and chairs, and we quickly realised we wouldn't be spending much time inside.
This was our view: to the left, tree covered hills from which came the regular dawn chorus of cocricos, and at the bottom, the football pitch from which came the sound of a strimmer every morning. In the centre, the road leading up the hill and the sea in the distance. To the right, the school and Marguerites,( which we didn't realise was Marguerites until we'd been there about five days), and more trees.
Yes I admit it; the best thing about the view was that we were able to watch everything that went on to our heart's content, hopefully being so high up that no-one would notice how nosey we were.
We had intended, before we saw The Steps, to be up and out early each morning,( which is our normal routine on holiday) make a visit to the beach, see the fishermen pull in their nets and then go back for breakfast. This never happened. Once we had made our way down ( a rather nerve-wracking experience when it's been raining and you only have silly Primark flip flops on your feet), down we would stay for as long as possible. We didn't dare forget anything; you couldn't "nip back" and fetch it without having to stagger up Castara's own miniature Mount Everest. So, early morning pre-breakfast walks were out of the question.
The day would start at about five - thirty with the cockerels, dogs and cocricos all doing their best to ensure we didn't miss the sunrise. There was one cockerel who would practise outside the kitchen window, and wasn't the least deterred by our threats to have him for dinner.
After the dawn chorus came The Man With The Strimmer (or whatever the thing's called) to shave the vegetation around the football pitch.
By then, the rest of the village would wake up, with the occasional sound of a mother berating her children, and cars (with music of course) would start to appear on the road.
There was a pale green one which would drive up the road at seven thirty each day, and sometimes pick up a passenger. "There he goes" we would say. "He's very punctual".
One day he stopped for several minutes, and we were most concerned that there was a problem with the car and that he might be late for work. Maybe he was just fine tuning the sound system. He set off with us urging him on:" Go on mate, you've got five minutes to make up!"
Then we would watch the comings and goings of various locals, including Cheno whose house we overlooked, but he knew we'd be watching and would give us a wave! He would often brave the steps and come up to say hello, and, naturally, zip up them like a mountain goat and not even break into a sweat.
We would see people strolling across the field to the waterfall, or sometimes a lady going down to the river with the most enormous basket of washing on her head. How do they do that without dropping the lot? It's very good for the back and posture I believe, and with one particular lady wearing a long dress it was a scene reminiscent of the peoples' African origins.
We would also observe the wildlife; mostly the birds which we tried to tempt with biscuit and bread crumbs. We put out some rather unappetising muesli which they had great fun standing in and scattering all over the verandah and the roof of the apartment below in the hope of finding something better to eat.
Our feathered visitors included the ubiquitous banaquit, tanagers, a barred ant shrike and tropical mockingbirds; a name which my husband could never remember and kept saying Continental Mynah birds!
Let's not forget the bats, who thought the house belonged to them and at first would come inside and hang from the beams, but later were more wary. I wonder how long it was before they realised that when we had gone home they had the place to themselves again? We liked the bats; it was such a novelty having them fly in and out of the house. If only they didn't eat our bananas and leave deposits on our clothes and the mosquito nets.
Lizards of all sizes and varieties lived in and around the house, and we once had a large and impressive anole displaying its chin pouch for us on the verandah. It thought it was the size of a Tyrranosaurus Rex and wandered off, disappointed, when it realised we were not going to run away in terror.
There is food, in the form of fruit, everywhere in Tobago. The sweet aroma of mangoes, or the rather too sweet aroma of mangoes rotting just outside the kitchen window...and the terrifying sound of ripe mangoes landing with a crash on the wooden roof at 2 a.m. You could feed the whole village on the mangoes that fell on our roof. Halfway down the steps was an avocado tree with the biggest avocados I have ever seen.
We even enjoyed the rain. There is nothing more relaxing on a Sunday morning than to sit on the verandah with a cup of coffee, listening to the rain and watching it sweep across the hills. Until Cheno pops in and suggests that we might like to drag ourselves down the steps and actually see some of his country...
Those wretched steps, though less strenuous when going down, were more alarming than when going up. I wished I had brought my walking pole, especially after the rain. It's no fun tiptoeing down wet, steep, uneven steps in flip flops when you are wearing glasses with varifocal lenses. My son, bless him, decided I was not safe on my own, and would dutifully stay close by me until we reached the bottom, where once an elderly lady looked at me with great concern and told me to be careful. I received similar advice from an old lady when slowly making my way up the steps: "Take your time dear, have a rest." So I did.
I must not give you the impression that we spent most of the time on the verandah; we did go out every day!
What about the evenings? It gets dark early, that's the thing; no long light Summer evenings like in Northen Europe. Never mind, coming out in the dark was a bit of an adventure in itself.
We had brought torches, having been warned that the steps were very dark, so, clutching them tightly in front of us, we would set off Down The Stairs, being careful not to squash any of the local residents; by which I mean on one occasion, the largest, fattest frog I had ever seen, which sat in the middle he step, glaring at us and gulping in typical frog fashion.
Having reached the bottom without breaking our necks; a triumph of agility, we would head off for a wander, then go to Marguerites or Cascreole.
Later,back to the verandah, where we would sit for the rest of evening, watching people coming and going, and checking the time of the bus that would regularly stop to collect someone from Marguerites.
And so this chapter of the diary comes to a close.
Next: the Scary Washing Machine and the Exploding Water Tank....

[Carol Townsend]

Forgot the photos!