Animals, Apples and 8 sleeps to go!

Late this afternoon after feeding the animals, being chooks, ducks and alpacas and 'tucking'them into bed we drove into town to the waterfront. Took the dogs for a walk round the waterfront including the marina, as pictured. Angus (black spoodle) is put on a shorter lead when we go to areas where more people are likely to be wandering about. He LOVES people though some, of course, do not like dogs. Angus cannot understand this and frankly, neither can I!

This marina used to be a working area, whereas now it is purely to berth leisure boats. If you like boats it is a pleasant place to walk around, especially in the summer months and imagine which one you would like to own! My husband Kim, tells me that it was always very busy loading apples for export in the days when apples was a big industry in Tasmania. Kim's father and his father before him were apple orchardists and heavily involved in the industry. As a child Kim was paid 2cents a box by his parents which were used for packing of the apples. It was all done on the farm. Kim said he saved up and bought a small television, black and white in those days with the money from those boxes. He did his homework on the school bus because he was always too busy working on the farm. Mind you, he still got straight A's. To this day he never eats apples!

These days apple labels are sold at the markets, antique stores, vintage stores and garage sales. Kim said one mixed the glue to put on the back of the label and then rollered it onto the box. They are now collectable. We have a pile of unused labels that were left over from those days. They were stored in a drawer till we moved to our current 'country style' abode. Several have now been framed and adorn walls in the kitchen. I will take some pics of them and upload on here tomorrow.



These pics show Windward Bound. Must go out on it one day. One tends to often take their local attractions for granted.


Anyway, after walking the dogs we got takeaway from 'flippers' which is a fish punt at Constitution Dock. Bought scallops, beer battered flathead, chips, crumbed blue grenadier and a couple of potato cakes. The food was nice, especially the flathead though the potato cakes were terrible as they were the commercial type 'plastic' food and after one bite we threw them out. We do not eat a lot of fried food and two pieces of fish with one serve of chips is generally all that we need. I eat about three chips and that is about it and I like them overcooked so they are crunchy! We were going to cook up veggies etc for tea but one of our children and partner will be over for a meal tomorrow night so will cook then.

Eight sleeps to go till we head off overseas. When getting the food tonight I kept thinking how much I enjoy fish , chips and mushy peas at a London pub.(I was actually a vegetarian for around 8 years and did you know someone who only eats fish and veggies is a pescetarian) Actually, Kim has chips and I ask them to give me mash (mashed potato as they usually have that to go with bangers (aka sausages) on a pub menu. Although we have been to London before we have not been around the Uk so looking forward to that. Our housesitters are arriving next Sunday morning to learn the routine with the animals (they came here for a cuppa last week as are holidaying round Tasmania from their home in Queensland at present)They will meet our kids when we have a bbq lunch on the Sunday. We fly out on the Monday afternoon though do not arrive to Dubai until 4.50am the next day. have just found it it is the month of Ramadan when we arrive in Dubai. This means that moslems do not eat from dawn to dusk. I believe it may be difficult for us to get food and if we do, we cannot eat it in public. I cannnot see myself getting up to eat breakfast before dawn. I have not been to Dubai before and am looking forward to it. We will be going from one extreme to the other in regards to the weather. I believe it will be quite hot there.

On Friday I took my Animal Studies students to ZooDoo for the day. I hugged a camel and got excited thinking I will soon see them in the desert in Dubai. We had a good day despite it being rather cool. All I could think was that the next time I see a camel I will be no doubt feeling the heat! This one was trying to get her head into the food bucket. Her name was Clementine! Pic of Tasmanian Devils which live in the wild here in Tas.
How adorable is this? They are part of a breeding program.

Pics of a lovely new shop called Blue Illusions which has opened in Magnet Court, Sandy Bay. I love the french feel of the decor inside. I bought the dress I wore to Kim's 50th from this store.



Check out Tamara's blog at Thyme For Tea. She ran a "French" theme in July though I left it too late to post over at her place. Take a look, well worth a read :) Although our trip this time does not include Europe I will say that whilst we have 8 days just in London, one of them will be spent in Paris, France. We have booked seats on the Eurostar train to go from London over to Paris for the day. How cool is that!!!! I cannot wait! I have only been to Paris once before. This was in 2007 when Kim and I did a Trafalgar European Supreme Tour which was 31 days across Europe. In Paris we enjoyed a cruise at night on the river and saw the Eiffel tower twinkling prettily. It was magical the way the tower is lit up at night. During the day we went up on the Eiffel tower and what a magificent view. We also visted the Louvre museum and went to a show in the evening to the Nouvelle Eve, I think it is called. Some of the others on the tour went to the Moulin Rouge but that was on the same night as the river cruise which we had opted for instead. We were only there about three days or so and it was not long enough. I would recommend to anyone considering that tour to end it in Paris, rather than heading back from Paris to London to end the tour as we did. Taken us years to get there whereas both our daaughters have been there, going in 2009. I imagine one day our son will take Kathryn there. Right now they are concentrating on organising a wedding!

I just phoned friends of mine to wish them a happy and safe trip as they are off to London tomorrow. Rose is from England originally and is going to celebrate her 50th birthday at a pub in her local area. Ronnie (Veronica) is going with her (we went to Europe in 07 with Ronnie and her husband). The husbands are staying behind to look after homes and business whilst the girls head off. I could have been going with them but am happy to be heading off in a week with Kim. The only trouble is Ronnie is having her 50th birthday party in September, on the day we get back home. We arrive into Hobart at 4.30pm. Our housesitters will pick us up and after flying all night and getting into Sydney that morning we will have considerable delay there before our flight home to Hobart. I am hoping that we will be able to attend her party but will have to wait and see. I expect we will want to hug our dogs , check my chooks and our alpacas and fall into bed after a hot shower. The following day, on the Sunday is our son's birthday.

Until next time : take care