General Chat

Tec, the High school I went to in Manchester, now alas demolished had two train tracks along side it. On running parallel to the playing field and the other running at right angles to it at the bottom.

Most of us pupils were train spotters. Paradise!

Allan

Well I'm away to my bed now folks,
Enjoy your day Allan,
sleep well CC - keep warm, it's cold tonight.

Good Morning Berona if you look in,
~~~~to Diane who must have gone to bed.

Goodnight Tec
Tec.

Good night Tec

Those previous deletions were all mine!

It's my 'wait' problem again! :0))

Allan

Sounds like a great school Allan - I'd have loved it,
Goodnight,
Tec.

Hello CC

My apologies, I was just off doing something else

Allan

Allan, have heard on our TV news that Perth is battening down the hatches for a biiiig storm. Hope it doesn't make it as far south as you are.

I went to Perth a few years ago and toured around the southern areas. Margaret River, Yummmmy!! Albany and the whaling station, a very, very windy golf course.

Loved it.

Pam

Gotta go now. Dentist appt. Back later. P.

Storms forecast for here also, Pam.

We are now into our official 'storm'period. From now until about August/September.

Allan

pmsl CC

Allan

Good night CC

Allan

Too late I guess as everyone has gone to bed or out on daily activities, but a quiet moment.
Loved your silly laws CC. My favourite is tame- it is illegal to dive into or swim in Sydney Cove, although why anyone would want to is beyond me. Most likely you would be chopped to pieces by ferry and cruise boat propellers.
I also wonder how you would get a kangaroo to drink a bottle of beer. Unless he wanted to. Those large feet are truly lethal.
Pam, hope the dentist went well.
To answer your question from a few pages back, I am obviously in Sydney, about 14 km west of the city. Berona is also in Sydney, somewhere. In her absence I can tell you that Sue (SueMaid) our beloved leader and thread starter is in the Illawarra south of Sydney. As you know, Allan is south of Perth.
Berona, if you look in, please accept my sympathy and get-well-soon wishes. I have had relatives with shingles and it is a drag. But thankfully does go away.
xx or {{{{{warm hugs}}}}} to all as appropriate.

Thanks for the good wishes, Colin. I think there is a slight improvement, but my skin is still very sore, even where the rash is fading. It is now more than four weeks since the rash appeared and I believe it can last for six weeks. I can put up with that if I know there will be an end - but the scary part is that I have learned of a few people who have had it TWICE! I don't know what I'd do if that happened to me!

Hi Berona

I'm glad you're starting to improve, I also pray you don't get a second episode of shingles - once sounds too much!!!

CC, pink is not my color, so I'll skip trying that out to see if its true or not, lol!!

Pamela, I had a look at where you live, its quite beautiful - especially the waterfall. Do you get a lot of tourists?
I hope you went ok at the dentist today:-))

Carole xx

Good afternoon, or evening to you all.

It makes a change to be able to say that :0))

Berona, as always, it is nice to see you posting again. I'm glad that you are on the road to recovery, albeit, slowly.

Carole, it is also nice to 'speak' with you again.

Pam, you mentioned in an earlier post that you had visited the Margaret River area. I was down that way a couple of weeks ago doing some work for the State Government in conjunction with the Augusta/Margaret River Shire.

The first few days my wife was with me but the following week I was down there on my own. We are about an hour and a half away from the actual town.

Colin, as always, it is good to see you on here

Allan

Hey, Linda. Many of us Aussies are quite proud to have a convict in our heritage. After all, the poor beggars often got 14 years transportation for stealing food to feed their family.

I have a 14 year transportee in my ancestry and funnily enough, he was finally pardoned and when he died he was a policeman and pound keeper.

Many of the people who came here as convicts really made good out here, probably doing better than they would have if they'd stayed in England.

Pam.

Hi CC. A good deterrent for birds. Plastic snakes. Put them around the area where the birds make a mess and they won't go anywhere near that area. Works well.

Pam.

Hello Carole,

The waterfall was probably Barron Falls. I'm about 3 klms upriver of there. The Falls stop in the dry season which we are entering now but are thunderous during the wet. Quite spectacular.

Yes, we do get a lot of tourists up here. From all over the world. When my kids down south ask me why I still like living up here with all the vagaries of living in the jungle, I tell them that people from all over the world pay thousands of dollars to come here. And it doesn't cost me as much to live here as it does them to live in Sydney and Brisbane. I don't need heaters in the winter and don't even have a ceiling fan for the summer.

Dentist went really well. I just had a couple of teeth that were a bit sore. Turns out I'm a bit run down (stressful things happening at the moment) and my gums are reacting. Hopefully will have it all under control within a week. Teeth got a clean bill of health. Thank God.!!

Pam.

Pamela, OH's convict was of the especially stupid variety. He broke into a house in his village and stole a silver pocket watch and chain with a silver key dangling from it. he was daft enough to let other people see him trying to take the key off the chain. Then to compound matters, he went to a pawn shop in the near bye town and pawned it in his own name.

He got ten years and was a bad lad according to his convict records,regularly getting drunk, absconding and shirking his work. I can't find any trace of him after his records finish in 1849

Linda, was he transported to Australia? If he was and he died here I might be able to find some trace of when and where he died, if you'd like to know.

Really, I think a lot of people in very crowded and poor England in those days weren't terribly bright. After all, it was only the very wealthy who sent their kids to school and many of the adults were brought up in less that desirable families. I've read of the terrible social problems. Where mothers who had no money and were unable to look after their kids left them on doorsteps hoping that someone kind would pick them up. Then, of course, there were the ones who fed their babies suckers made out of cloth soaked in gin. It was just so awful. ....... and we think we've got it bad!!!! ...... I think not.

Out here for the convicts to even have one drink and get caught was a charge of drunkenness, absconding when they could??? I don't blame them one bit. The convicts didn't have an easy time of it. and shirking work; well, if it was digging with pickaxes in the hard, rocky ground dressed in woolen clothing in over 90F heat, again I don't blame them. Life was so different in those days and what those poor wretches went through who were sent out here is just beyond belief.

Do you have access to any of Bryce Courtney's books over there? He wrote a few about the Australian convicts. I think the first one was called The Potato Factory and it was first of a series of 3. I've read them but can't recall the names of them all now. But it makes for very interesting reading. Although they are novels, they are very well researched.

It's now 10.50pm and I think I might hit the hay. Hope to catch up with the gang again tomorrow.

Goodnight all,
Pam.

I eventually found this thread lurking somewhere down on page three.

Standards are definately in decline here.

The Aussies cannot be blamed as they are still asleep.

So where are the Poms?

CC willeventually arrive to say she has been rushed off her feet all day washing bird poo off the patio.

Linda is no doubt perched on the edge of the sofa, clutching her handbag and passport, Euros and Travellers cheques, waiting for Sunday.

Meanwhile, I'm here like Billy No-Mates, flying the flag for Britain all on my own.

Tec.