myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Good to hear a whisper from over the pond young Bill!
Now, who else has gone AWOL? Tony! Hope all is OK?
Love
Noe

Hello All,

Haven't posted for a while. It's the busy time of year trying to close out all the accounting after year end.

We're also in the midst of our annual remodeling project which this year is a complete redecorating of our living room, dining room and two halls. This involves removing untold quantities of 25 year old wallpaper, plastering over out of date textured ceilings, general plastering and patching, and complete priming and painting. Even though we have a crew of painters doing this it still involved packing up and removing dozens of boxes of "stuff', removal of drapes and fixtures, moving of furniture into the upstairs bedrooms, and daily cleaning up of plaster dust that has permeated every square inch of exposed surface area throughout the house. They're down to the final days of painting but then we'll still have at least a week of cleanup and putting everything back in place.

Of course the good news is that what little time I've had on the computer has been spent gathering info and finalizing our trip to Puerto Vallarta Mx on Feb 10th.

Bill

P.S. Paul, have a good time in Tobago

Carol
My apologies, no intention of telling you off, meant to spur you on !

Bill
People this side of the pond tend to decorate more than a few times in 25 years. Cultural differences are becoming all too visible !

Gisela
Think you may have to pretend you were born at the end of July ! That way you still have a great party and Carol can be there !

I'm famous???

Oh Sandra, you are right, did I say the 13th? No, no, that was a fault! its on the 23rd Or was it the 28th I shoud ask my mum to make it sure...
End of July is perfect because, Annette, my Danish friend has birthday in August and we planned to party together.

Bill, have nice holidays in February! And how about you plans for July 2011 ?? You and all wafflers are invited to my birthday. The only thing is, you have to pay the flight to Tobago and the room by yourself. I will pay the drinks ..

did I really write this? It will cost me a fortune ... But who cares except of my bank? Not me

Sandra,

We aren't that backward here in the colonies; we do redecorate more often than every 25 years The twenty five year old wallpaper was in the hall leading upstairs and required extensive scaffolding to install and virtually the same to tear it down. Since this was a project we dreaded facing we've repainted adjoining areas several times each time picking up a different color in the paper. When we finally ran out of colors we decided to bite the bullet (for Gisela that means to face up to an eventuality) and while things were in a mess we decided to have the ceilings done also. Textured ceilings were all the style here a number off years ago but are now considered dated. One lesson we've learned is not to do extensive redecorating that can't easily be redone as styles change

Gisela,

We'll be in Tobago in March 2010 but I doubt that July 2011 will happen. We only take one tropical vacation a year and it's going to be during cold weather here if I know what's good for me

Bill

Bill
It took scaffolding to put it up,sorry that ain't wallpaper - over here we call it plaster. Textured ceilings, what were you thinking ? They were popular here only because we have a load of old, poorly built houses ,don't want a new ceiling - hey, we can make that look good. Can confidently say never lived with textured ceilings or with stuff on walls that is not identifiable. Apart from which, have a wonderful holiday in Mexico, let us have all the gory details.

I love the way textured ceilings and tropical holidays are discussed in one thread.
Our house? Textured ceilings or textured paper on ceilings in every room, which were there when we moved in in 1985. As long as it's white and in good condition we don't care a jot! Be back in fashion one day if we wait long enough....
Bill, some people in this country still don't have central heating or showers(they do have baths though )my eighty year old neighbours for example.
How's that for backward? And some have kept their Victorian outside toilets; may even be in working order..
I love it.
Noe

Carol
Love the way you are skirting the main issue. Maybe you are right I'm a bit of a bully but now Gisela has admitted she is not quite sure when she was born can't see the problem .

Tony
Has the IOW drifted out of the Channel ? Very confusing as South Today are not aware, keep getting bulletins and weather forecasts. Should you now be somewhere off Madagascar may be a plan to let them know.

Hi bill,

if I can also make it in 2010 and probably in March maybe we can have a pre-50-birthday-party?
I love partys and can't get enough.
One day we will meet, I'm pretty sure and if it takes ages!

For the others: be prepared for 2011! Any day in July will be OK for me.

Carol, I'm just trying to book the house you discribe in your book (Hummingbird Heaven). Will call tonight. Who cares about the steps.... It's a good training

Just got this from a colleague and couldn't resist to show you. It's called 'English Lesson'. First you see the German text to translate, then the results. It's not necessaray to understand German.

Lesson 1:
German: Drei Hexen schauen sich drei Swatch Uhren an. Welche Hexe schaut welche Swatch Uhr an?
English: Three switched witches watch three Swatch watch switches. Which switched witch watch which Swatch watch switch?

Easy? try this:

Lesson 2:
German: Drei geschlechtsumgewandelte Hexen schauen sich drei Swatch Uhrenknöpfe an. Welche geschlechtsumgewandelte Hexe schaut sich welchen Swatch Uhrenknopf an?
English: Three switched witches watch three Swatch watch switches. Which switched witch watch which Swatch watch switch?

Still not enough?

Lesson3;
German: Drei Schweizer Hexen-Schlampen, die sich wünschen geschlechtsumgewandelt zu sein, wünschen sich, Schweizer Swatch Uhrenknöpfe anzuschauen. Welche Schweizer Hexen-Schlampe, die sich wünscht geschlechtsumgewandelt zu sein, wünscht sich, welchen Schweizer Swatch Uhrenknopf anzuschauen?
English: Three swiss witch-bitches, which wished to be switched swiss witch-bitches,wish to watch three swiss Swatch watch switches. Which swiss witch-bitch which wishes to be a switched swiss witch-bitch, wishes to watch which swiss Swatch watch switch?



Doctors for broken toungs will be found at 0800-123456789

If I disappear off the radar for a while it's because I've collapsed with exhaustion after trying Gisela's tongue-twisters. And boy do some German words contain a lot of letters! (Don't know why I tried to read them; I don't speak German)
On the subject of language, I saw a job advertisement today for an "Independant Chair".
I bet the Germans don't have silly job titles like that. Or the Tobagonians!
Gisela,
I'll never forget The Steps; sheer torture. And to think people actually live up there permanently! I suppose if you're used to the climate it's not so bad. I could cope with them if the temperature was 20 degrees lower. It's worth it for the view though, you can sit and watch the village people go by. And no, I don't mean that camp group who sang YMCA back in the seventies! Be fun if it was though....
By the way, one of my literary fans ( actually, my brother in law) suggested that I sell copies of my book at Crown Point Airport. Would they let me do you think?
Back to the tongue-twisters...
Love
Noe

Gisela
Whatever you are taking please send me some !

Dear friends,

Sandra, I don't have to take anything. No drugs or alcohol. I'm working for the German Post (a.k.a. DHL) for more than ten years now. Thats the only reason

Carol, I never tried to speak the text out loud, not even the German part. I only tried to find out the meaning which was hard enough Don't get mad about it, just ignore
Try to book the house but couldn't reach the owner last night. Should I take this as a sign? I remember that I refused to visit my friends for breakfast when they lived there. I didn't wanted to walk the steps every morning. Now I'm booking the house two weeks for myself! And the third week I will stay at Castara Bliss Appartemets. This is the house right beside Hummingbird Heaven. I don't think there are much less steps to it....

Bill, good luck with picking the wallpaper from the ceilling. Sounds like a horrible job. I remember that this was fashion in Germany many years before but fortunately I never had it in an own house/appartement.

Have to go back to my drugs, ahm, sorry, mean my job

47 days to go

Gisela,
No, there are probably about the same number of steps, and the apartment underneath Hummingbird Haven only has about four steps less!
You need to get into training. These are my suggestions:
1. If your apartments have stairs, turn the central heating up, put on four layers of clothes and run up and down the stairs six or seven times every day, building up to twenty times just before you go.
2. Find a zoo or botanic garden with a tropical glasshouse or enclosure, go there every day, wearing the aforementioned layers of clothing, and if there are no stairs then jump up and down as much as you can. Ignore any stares or rude comments from passers-by. It's a free country and you're not harming anyone so tell them to mind their own business. If they continue to stare at you then refer them to me.
3. Failing the above, make your bathroom really hot and steamy, put on the clothes, erect a stepladder and climb up and down it twenty times a day.
4. Book yourself onto an army training programme.
6. Ask a big strong lifeguard to carry you up, then give you a Carib at the top, whilst fanning your fevered brow.
There, I think that should cover it.
I feel quite pleased with myself..
Love,
Your personal trainer,
Noe

Gisela,

Or you can book at The Naturalist or Castara Beach House and only have one or two stairs to negotiate to get to the beach Then the only training you will have to do is strengthening your elbow to handle the rum punches. Liter steins of good German beer should work perfectly for that

Sandra,

I have no idea what we were thinking when we put in the textured ceilings other than we were trying to coverup some cracks and patches. It really became necessary to remove them and replaster because they became water damaged (way back in this thread is a discussion about the new roof and subsequent virtual refurbishing of the exterior of the house and redoing of our yard). The scaffolding was really necessary to do the wallpaper in the stairway as there was no way to lean a ladder against the one wall and apply paper to it at the same time. Anyway, while I'm here at the office the painters are finishing up and by the time I return home this evening all should be complete This weekend will be spent putting things back together

Bill

Dear personal trainer,

I'm really impressed with this phantastic exercises. I Made up my mind that I really have to find a way to make this staps every day. I decide:

suggestion 6 is my favourite

Carol, do you remember the photo I sent you? ... without comment ...

I still did not reach the owner but he will probably call me back. He is going to Tobago next week so the house will hopefully be free when I need it.

respectfully

Gisela Grell wrote:
I'm really impressed with this phantastic exercises. I Made up my mind that I really have to find a way to make this staps every day. I decide:

suggestion 6 is my favourite

Carol, do you remember the photo I sent you? ... without comment ...

That's exactly who I had in mind. I'm sure he would be only too happy to oblige!

Bill,
Your suggestion is by the far the easiest and most sensible option!

I know that everything is big in America but you make your place sound like a mansion! Is there a haunted East Wing? Now that's an ambition of mine, spend a night in a haunted house (with company!) Did you know that Britain is the most haunted country in the world? York has ghosts of Roman soldiers; very old ghosts indeed! Of course, maybe it's all nonsense...
Where was I?
At least you've got on with it though. After talking about it for 2 years, we've finally taken the first steps towards re-furbishing our bathroom, which will involve re-plastering the wonky walls and re-positioning the bath and toilet. Having more or less decided what we want, the builder we want to use may need an operation which may put him off work for a while...
Most inconsiderate of him.
Back to the bathroom. As it's Saturday I'm still in my pink fluffy dressing gown.
Noe

Bill
Hope when you read this life has returned to normal, apart from the fact your lady wife will be not be happy. As you think "job done " she will need to race out and buy new plants, move pictures, and generally make you feel this was not such a great idea. Hang in there - this phase will pass.

Hello all wafflers

Its seems that the departure of Paul and the "Canadians" has allowed Castara to calm down a lot and the incessant rain has had everyone diving for cover.

Duck is smiling again and I think a lot of those booking trips with him are unaware of his reputation.

Its a big week with the larger steel bands as the judges are over from Trini to see them, we went with Ancle last night to see Steel Xplosion somewhere between Lambeau and Buccoo and the went to Black Rock and saw Katzenhammer and the quality was incredible its the first time we have seen bands of over sixty players and the sound is incredible.
It should have been finished by about 11.30 but as is Tobago it was nearer 1.45 and I was the designated driver so the head feels great this morning.

Off for breakie and another swim.

Regards from a happy child.

Paul