Sharing My World This Week

When you leave a room, do you turn the lights off behind you or keep the lights on throughout your house most of the time?

My parent’s generation were always very particular about not wasting electricity and turning lights off when you left a room. I probably run more lights than I should for one person. I don’t see very well in the dark and my passage is long so I always leave a light on at night in case I have to get up to let Cindy out or go to the toilet. If I go out and know I will not be home until after dark I leave that light on as well as the front porch light. In the evening I will generally leave one of the two kitchen lights on as well as the living room light where I am sitting. I just don’t like stumbling around in the dark. I don’t generally leave lights on in the bedroom or other rooms I am not intending to use.

What do you feel is the most enjoyable way to spend $500? 

$500 is not a fortune but it would buy me a return plane ticket to Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney with some change left over. I haven’t checked lately but it would probably buy a ferry trip to Melbourne from Devonport as well. If I didn’t want to leave Tasmania I could go to Strahan or Queenstown and ride on the West Coast Wilderness Railway and cruise on the Gordon River. You can have quite a nice mini break for $500.

Strahan Tasmania

Cruising the Gordon River

Aboard the Lady Jane Franklin

Complete this sentence: My favorite thing to do on my cell phone is…

My very favourite thing would be not to use it at all. People say mobile phones make them feel connected but I don’t always want to be connected. When I am with other people they are always getting phone calls from their kids over things that would wait until they got home or phone calls about work when they are having time off. For me the mobile phone is just a tool. I use it to check on meeting times and places when I’m out and for a sense of security when I’m away from home as public phones are hard to find these days. I do have a few friends and family members who I will chat with on it because it is the most convenient way for us to communicate.

I don’t have a smart phone so my options for doing things with it are limited. I can connect to the internet but I can’t watch movies, bank, buy online or even check my email with a tiny flip phone. I prefer a tablet for that if I am away from home. The main thing I like to do with my mobile phone is to use it to send and receive text messages as that is what it is best at.

What inspired you this past week?  Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination. 

We had some really sunny days last week which made it seem as if spring was not so far away. I went around my garden looking for signs of returning life. I can see buds on my deciduous trees and bulbs starting to poke their heads out of the ground at last. The jonquils are an inspiration. They have been flowering for weeks.

Buds

Jonquls

Sharing My World This Week

What was the last URL that you bookmarked or saved?

I think it was probably a crowd-funding website where I made a donation to try to save a diesel locomotive from being sold possibly for scrap.

A 45 day campaign to raise the money required to buy this locomotive.

Do you believe in the afterlife?  Reincarnation?

I am not sure I want it to be true. I used to believe in it because I had trouble with the idea of everything just stopping after I died. However, now I am older, I feel I have had a pretty good “go round” in this life and I don’t think I want another one as to me the world is becoming more and more crazy. So yes, I guess I still believe in reincarnation but I don’t want to come back thanks.

If you were or are a writer do you prefer writing short stories, poems or novels?

If I were a writer I would probably be writing non-fiction. I like to write about people and places and things. I’ve often said I’d enjoy being a travel writer or maybe I’d write something informational but fun about dolls which is kind of what I do on our doll blog.

Travel diary and note book, my sister knows me well.

What inspired you this past week?  Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination. 

I didn’t feel particularly inspired last week. My friend Karen was inspired. She made some fantastic Father’s Day gift baskets for the Op Shop. We celebrate Father’s Day in September. We worked hard tidying the shop and sorting donations but that was not what I would call inspiring. I finished pruning my roses, not because I was inspired but because it had to be done as did painting the laundry. I did feel inpired by my photo shoot on Saturday afternoon and pleased that I have material for several posts. Some weeks are not inspiring but not necessarily bad either.

Sharing My World This Week

List some of your favourite types of teas.

As in most things I don’t have exotic taste in teas. I’m British so I like a nice cup of tea but it has to be black tea.  I’m not too fussy about brands but generally I have Lipton’s Black Tea or Bushells.  Twinings English or Irish Breakfast is fine too. I have tried Earl Grey but sorry Captain Picard I don’t especially care for it. You need to drink it black and I like milk in my tea. I also like Twining’s Russian Caravan tea which I will drink black but I don’t like herbal or fruit teas.

Cup and saucer

If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?

This one is me with a bad back last week.

Tuesday was an Op Shop day and as we were sorting out the clutter in the back of the shop this one seems appropriate.

Wednesday I’ll be staying at home so it is more likely to be this one.

What are a couple of things could people do for you on a really bad day that would really help you?

If I am having a really bad day I would probably appreciate practical help if I’m feeling overwhelmed by tasks that I have to do. If I am just feeling sad or upset I would really rather be left alone to deal with it.

Irregardless of your physical fitness, coordination or agility: If you could be an athlete what would you do?   Remember this is SYW, dreaming is always allowed.

Even in my dreams I’ve never wanted to be an athlete. I just don’t like playing sport that much. I do like ten pin bowling and table tennis so I would probably choose one of those for a career as an athlete although I don’t think they woudl be as much fun if I had to play. I’d like to be good at them though as I am terrible at  both.

Optional Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I was very pleased to see my friend Karen back at the Op Shop after a spell in hospital. The rest of the week was pretty quiet as my back was sore and I stayed at home and took it easy.

Naomi plans to visit later this week, weather permitting , and we will have the day together.  On Sunday I’m going out to lunch with some friends who I see about once a month.

Sharing My World This Week

What is your favorite cheese?

I am boring where cheese is concerned I’m afraid. I just like a nice, not too sharp cheddar. I like Swiss cheese and Edam for a change or a bit of cottage cheese but fancy cheeses are wasted on me.

Are you left or right-handed?

Right handed. Not like this one.

Need a hand

Do you prefer exercising your mind or your body? How frequently do you do either?

Definitely my mind. I do puzzles or solitaire on the computer and I have an app on the tablet for English Grammar which I like to test myself with. The body exercise I prefer to get in the course of daily life, housework, in the shop or just getting from A to B on foot.

Complete this sentence: Hot days are …

horrible, especially when it is hot at night and you can’t sleep.

Optional Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Naomi and I had a nice afternoon at the Casino on Friday, we had lunch and played on the “pokies” for a couple of hours. I left having won back all I had spent so was quite content and treated myself to a taxi back to the city instead of getting the bus. I would have liked a taxi all the way home but I did not win that much. I also finished painting one more room, the one at the back of the house. I used left over paint from the kitchen and ceiling paint left from previous jobs so it cost me nothing.

This week is going to be an enforced quiet week because I hurt my back. Just a strain but I’m walking around like Quasimodo today so taking it easy for the rest of the week.

Wrest Point was Australia’s first casino opened in 1973.

Sharing My World This Week

How do you like to spend a rainy day?

When I have a choice I like to stay home. It’s a good opportunity to write blog posts or edit photos or perhaps play a computer game, fix up dolls or knit. I like to hear the rain on my galvanised iron roof when I’m cosy inside. Of course there are still chores to do whatever the weather but nobody likes doing chores do they? So I have just mentioned the fun stuff.

List at least five favorite treats. (They do not have to be sugary).

• Raisin toast – a favourite breakfast.
• Tim Tam biscuits
• Quality Street chocolates and toffee
• Cadbury’s fruit and nut chocolate
• Mince pies – I adore them but only have them for a few days between Christmas and New Year. I could make them anytime but I don’t.
• Special icecream eg. New Zealand Natural, Valhalla, Golden North honey. There is a stall in Salamanca Market where in summer you can get a cone of Tasmanian made icecream with fresh berries, strawberries, raspberries or blueberries. That is a very special treat.

The best toffee ever.

Where’s your favorite place to take out-of-town guests?

By Bezza84 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Locally, the Tahune AirWalk to see the forests and into Geeveston to see the wood carvings. David and I used to like to show off the Huon Valley to visiting friends so we’d usually go for a drive and stop at places like Franklin and Port Huon to take photos of the river and have a meal.

Other places  in or close to Hobart are Salamanca Market on a Saturday, Richmond which has convict era buildings, or we would drive up to the top of Mount Wellington for the views. We once took a friend who loved markets and second-hand shops to the Tip Shop at Glenorchy. She loved it.

One of the wood carvings in Geeveston.

You are trapped in an elevator, who would you want to be trapped with?

Naomi because we would talk and laugh and the time would go faster.

Optional Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I went to Hobart on Saturday to have lunch with my friend Ally and her husband Matt for her birthday. We went to a dessert cafe I had not tried before. It was nice to catch up as we haven’t seen each other much lately. This week the Op Shop is closed and I am enjoying having some extra free time.

Sharing My World This Week

For your main meal do you prefer sweet and sour, hot and spicy, spicy and sweet, bitter, salty, bland or other?

I don’t really enjoy bitter or salty foods. I don’t mind sweet and sour pork as a stir fry and I enjoy moderately hot and spicy foods like curries from time to time. Some might say that my taste is rather bland though as I like plain meat and veg and I hardly ever put condiments on my food. I usually think that what they are cooked in is enough and want to enjoy the flavours of the meat or vegetables without having them smothered in sauce or gravy or covered in salt. I will have a little sauce with some foods but I don’t like gravy poured over the meat.

Where do you hide junk when people come over?

I don’t have people over unexpectedly that much so it’s not an issue. If the living room is messy I’ll tidy that up and put things back where they belong. The other rooms I shut the doors. People do not need to go in them when they visit.

This question does remind me of a funny thing that happened to Naomi and I as  young teenagers. We kept on playing with our dolls and toys rather longer than other kids of our age and one day we were in my bedroom and had a lot of dolls out . Unexpectedly our aunt, uncle and cousin arrived for a visit. Our cousin was a bit older than us and we did not want her to see what we had been doing. “Hide them!” I said to Naomi and dashed out to keep our cousin talking so she would not enter my room before we were ready for her.  When we went into the room a few minutes later there was no sign of anything toy like. Naomi had managed to get rid of it all. I wondered how she had managed it so quickly. Then I heard a noise as if something had fallen over inside my big wooden wardrobe. Naomi and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh. Our cousin did not catch on and we were saved from embarrassment.

What daily habit would you like to  introduce to your life?

I should really get into the habit of going for regular walks. I used to walk a lot but I don’t really do that anymore. My house is just outside town so there are no pavements and I have to walk on the road verge to get to Geeveston or Port Huon. I don’t mind the distance but don’t like the uneven surfaces.

If you were to perform in the circus, what would you do?  

I’d really like to say I’d like to have performing dogs which of course would be trained humanely and would live with me as pets but animals in circuses are not very PC these days. In lieu of that and because I am a totally uncoordinated person I would like to be one of those jugglers who can spin piles of dishes without dropping them.  I saw a man do this at the Moscow Circus decades ago and he really impressed me.

Optional Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week we had some really cold icy weather. Naomi was supposed to be coming here for lunch but as the overnight temperatures were going to be three or four below zero (celsius) we were concerned about her making the drive early in the day. Both the Midland Highway and Huon Highway are prone to ice and snow at their highest points.  Instead we decided that we would meet halfway in Hobart for lunch and photography. We had a great day taking photos, the weather was good, the light even better and we tried out a dessert cafe in Salamanca that is well worth a visit.

This week I will be going to Hobart again on Saturday to have lunch with Matt and Ally for her birthday. We’ve not been able to meet up for several weeks so we are looking forward to that.

Penguin Sculpture, Hobart waterfront.