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Wellies's latest comments
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24th Jun 2018Wellies commented on:
Hi from ScotlandIn reply to Litlpetl. I haven't been on this site for ages as I find it a bit confusing. I came across this ' Hi from Scotland ' bit and read your post. I noticed you mentioned Lochwinnoch. I used to go fishing there for pike when I was a young feller in the '50's and early '60's. I moved to Australia in 1964 and now live in Tasmania. If you'ld like to reply it would be nice to hear from you ( that's if you get this and I can find your reply ) Ok I'll hit add your post and see what happens.ViewDate:
28th Aug 2017Wellies commented on:
MOVING HOME ALONE ......AND TO A NEW PART OF THE COUNTRYG'day Robanpen, I know exactly what you mean about moving when you get older. I moved around quite a bit when I was younger. But it was different then. I had a family. So I took my own friends with me i.e. my family and it was much easier to make friends as you were in the workforce, made friends through your spouses friends at work and through your kids. My wife died several years ago, my kids are all grown up with their own kids and live hundreds of miles away so rarely get to see them. I'm lucky if I get a phone call now and again as they are all so ' busy ' and you sometimes feel you have been pushed down to the bottom of the contact list. But can suddenly go to the top of the list when something goes wrong in their ' busy lives ' They seem to have forgotten that you were ' busy '. Mostly by looking after them, spending lots of money on them and trying to give them a happy life. As I've got older I've found ( which I'm sure happens to most of us oldie's ) that I have lost a lot of friends that I have common history with through death, losing touch through them, or me moving, divorces and people taking sides, etc.etc. I've lived out the ' bush ' most of my adult life and have no desire to live in a city, or suburbs. I'm more at home sitting around a campfire, or having a bbq and a laugh with friends rather than going to some fancy restaurant or cafe. But that's just me. Everyone is different. I went to a restaurant recently ( first time in a long time ) with an old mate from interstate who had visited me for a couple of days. A young couple came in and sat at the table opposite us. As soon as they sat down, out came their mobile, or I-pods, or whatever you call them. They never spoke a word to each other. even when their meal arrived, they used their fork to eat their meal and their other hand to operate their mobile. My mate and I shook our heads and wondered whether we were still on the same planet that we were born on when people used to talk to each other face to face. I'm not really bitching about it. It's just the way people's lives seem to end up no matter what you do. Otherwise why are we all on Siversurfers. Life seems a bit sad when you end up talking to strangers through a medium like this, and I certainly didn't think I would end up on something like this. But here I am. I only picked this site by accident, as from memory, I think I typed in seniors chat room on Google and up came this site. So thought I'd have a go at it, not realising it was UK based and I'm in Australia. But reading through a lot of posts loneliness and looking for new friends seems to be the common theme. But don't think it's probably the right site for me as I can't come and have a cuppa and chat with whoever, not sure if I could get used to this type of cyber friendship, plus I find this site so confusing as I have noticed quite a few other people have. I wouldn't know what sort of advice to give you as far as moving at your age Robanpen, or whether you'll ever read this anyway. I retired to a small village 18 years ago where I knew no one and I've found, like some people have mentioned, that I have lots of aquaintances but no real friends. They've all lived here for 200 years, everybody is their cousin or uncle,or they've grown up through school together and are not really interested in making new friends with blow-ins like me especially when you are single. I live in a nice place with a lovely view but a place is only the people you meet and maybe, as you said, ' the devil you know...' It's much easier to make these decisions when you are young and bullet proof. Even although I've ended up a lonely person at least I have a good view across a Bay, own my own place, don't lock the house, or the car,and don't have any traffic lights or parking problems and a beautiful beach in a lagoon just around the corner from me. I feel that I am probably better off than a lot of people. Anyway I've probably waffled on long enough. Just got myself into a writing mood and its helped occupy my mind for a wee while. So good luck to all you Silversurfers and hope you find whatever you are looking for. Cheers Wellies.ViewDate:
23rd Aug 2017Wellies commented on:
Finding the right senior chat room for youDon't know what happened I was halfway through a sentence when it wouldn't allow me to type any more. Maybe a big hammer, instead of pliers would be better Ed36 I was going to say that I quite often see tourists on bikes walking them up the hills and looking like they are going to have a heart attack. But Tassie is such a beautiful place that I think it's worth their efffort. I've lived and travelled over most of Oz, mainly due to postings with my job ( Meteorology ), and came to Tassie to retire when I came back from 16 months on an Antarctic expedition. I have been here for 19 years now and live in a small village in the South. ( only 81 years to go, an' I'll be a local ) I notice a lot of people are looking for people to go on cruises with. Well get on a cruise to beautiful Tasmania. It really is a beautiful place with plenty of fantastic beaches, mountains and lakes. I live on the edge of a Bay with a great view across to the village. I have a small 3 room cabin on my property called the Haggis Hotel with a great view across the Bay. So if any of you Sassenach Silversurfers can make it to Tassie, you've got free accomodation at the Haggis. If you book in 81 years and 5 days, I'll be a local, and you'll have a bonus...... all the latest gossip.ViewDate:
23rd Aug 2017Wellies commented on:
Finding the right senior chat room for youG.day Ed36, Well that's a great technological breakthrough. Ripping out the 'caps lock' with pliers. Could be worth a bit of money selling your idea to Silicone Valley. YEAH I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. I hit caps instead of shift, look up, and find my last sentence is all in capitals. Is this another one of these old people's things we get? i don't seem to remember doing that when I was a young 60 year old. Yeah Tassie roads on a bicycle can be pretty daunting especially with the hills. I quite oftenViewDate:
21st Jun 2017Wellies commented on:
Do young people really think us 'oldies' are simple?G'day and thank Y'all for replying to my post about the Princess. Didn't expect it. To happyhacker " whoops !!! Well what can you say ? It wasn't a real good chat line to impress a Princess. Us Aussies don't have Princes and Princesses over here. So when they do come over for a visit they are vulnerable to Aussie frog scams. She must have been a bit stupid to listen to a frog in the first place. But there again, being a savvy Silver.surffer she saw through his scam and ate him before ending up in a life of servitude To Yodama. I never mentioned anything about the Princess being an Aussie. The frog/prince was an Aussie. I can't reveal the Princesses name for legal reasons, but she was a cousin to the Queen twice removed and was English with a bit of Scottish in her. ( that's the bit that helped her from her predicament ) an old Scottish saying her Grannie her told her " Dinae speak tae strange frawgs or ye'll end up wae a hip replacement " On Googling the Princesses biography I found that she had never heard of hopping animals like kangaroos, or MacRoo burgers, had just had a hip replacement, and couldn't hop after them anyway.. So an Aussie frog with a castle and a crippled Mum must have been so inviting for her. Especially when she found out that a fish had eaten one of his feet and he couldn't hop anymore. A sad tale, but true. To happyhacker. Have a think about it.. If the Princess had kissed the frog, turned him into a Prince, and then ate him to get his inheritance....then what?. I don'know if the laws have changed in the UK since I lived there.....but it was known as canobalism. ( can't seem to get the spelling of this right ... but it means eating people ) In O.z there are laws against eating people. You can eat roos, wallabies, possums, wombats, magpie geese, snakes, spiders, frogs, haggis and rabbits. But human Princes over here are an endangered species and people are liable to heavy fines, and or lengthy jail sentences for eating them, and also forfeit any inheritance. To georgesmum. Thanks for having a chuckle. I'll send you a wallaby pie with mushy peas for Christmas. Cheers to all, WelliesViewDate:
19th Jun 2017Wellies commented on:
Do young people really think us 'oldies' are simple?Once upon a time a beautiful Princess was strolling through a forest when she came across a frog sitting on a lily pad in a pond. " G'day Princess " croaked the frog ( he was an Aussie frog ). The Princess was startled. " Do not be frightened dear Princess, croaked the frog. You see I am really a Prince and a wicked witch put a spell on me and turned me into a frog. The only way I can turn back into a prince again is if a beautiful Princess kisses me. If you will do this for me, dear lady, I will marry you and you can come and live with me and my Mum in yonder castle atop the hill. You can cook and wash and iron for me, and take Mum for walks in her wheelchair, and you will be forever happy. " That evening when the Princess was dining alone, on frog's legs and chips, she smiled to herself and said " I don't bloody think so. "ViewDate:
18th Jun 2017Wellies commented on:
MOVING HOME ALONE ......AND TO A NEW PART OF THE COUNTRYG'day Yodama, Thank you for your reply. It's not that I am a really slow typist. I have typed thousands of words as I write short stories as a hobby. I mainly write true stories of my experiences in life and try to put a bit of humour in them. I haven't tried to publish any. They are mainly to leave to my kids for when I snuff it. I don't seem to have got any faster on my typing though. My main problem is tippigrafical errers where I have to go back and fix them. I can't touch type and do things like like hitting the caps lock instead of shift, look up and find my sentence is all in capitals,or haven't hit the space bar etc. Maybe the old 40 is the new 73, or may have something to do with the fact that we are all upside down over here ha! I have just had a writing disaster. I have been writing a book, and according to the computer I had written just over 50,000 words. I was reading over it when I noticed I had missed the word ' from' from a sentence and tried to correct it. I typed in fr, and when I hit the 'o', the whole lot disappeared and I was just left with fr. I hunted everywhere for it, but couldn't find it. I rang my internet server and a tech. took over the computer. He spent a couple of hours on it but with no success. The next day I rang again to see if a different tech. would maybe have the answer. She also spent a couple of hours on it, but with the same result. It had disappeared into cyberspace. Every time I had written a paragraph I had hit save to prevent this happening. To add insult to injury I had lent my external hard drive to a friend so that he could download some movies from it on to his laptop. When I asked him for it back, he told me he had lent it to his son who lives in town ( 100kms from here ). So was unable to back it up on that. Sooooo frustrating !!!!! Don't know if I have the energy, or the inclination to start all over again. You were asking about the the Antarctic. I spent 3 separate years on expeditions down there ( 1970, 1980 and 1998 ) I was involved in Meteorology. My last time was 16 months as our icebreaker had an engine room fire on it's way to pick us up. They leased two Norwegian icebreakers to try and get us out but neither could break through the ice. It looked like we were going to be there for another year We finally got rescued by a huge Russian ice breaker who managed to batter its way through the sea ice. During winter the sea ice goes out for hundreds of miles and no ship can get through it. I have written a few short stories on my experiences down there. If I knew how to do it I would send you one. I am on Skype too and talk fairly regularly with my brother in Scotland. Most of my old friends either don't have Skype, are dead, or I have lost contact with due to them moving, or me moving around. I remember a few years ago someone showed me how to try one of these chat things. I was about halfway through writing out my profile and went to make a cup of tea, When I got back there was a box saying that it had timed out and everything had disappeared. So I never bothered about it again until I thought I'd try this site. Does the same thing happen on this site.? Anyway better send this before it disappears. Cheers, Wellies.ViewDate:
16th Jun 2017Wellies commented on:
MOVING HOME ALONE ......AND TO A NEW PART OF THE COUNTRYG'day to all. I am new to these social site things and was clicking around when I found this place and started reading some of the posts about moving home alone. It was good to read that there are other older people out there with the same problem as me. I am 73 and widowed. I came back from 16 months on an Antarctic expedition in 1999 and decided to retire in Tasmania, Australia. I came to Oz by ship on my own from Scotland in 1964. I was a ' 10 pound Jock '. Best 10 quid I ever spent. I live in a small village and am experiencing the same thing as someone else said. You end up with a lot of acquaintances, but are lucky if you find a good friend. Being old and single, doesn't help. The locals are friendly enough, but their conversations tend to be around local gossip, and I don't know who, or what they are talking about. And most of the time you see them are when you bump into them at the shops and then it's ' G'day how are you ?, nice weather etc. And then you never see them until you bump into them, maybe weeks later. Most of my adult life I've lived in isolated places in the outback of Oz. But quite often people don't realise that living in an isolated place is different from being isolated and alone. For instance in Antarctica I woke up and had 14 mates to have breakfast with, have a chat with, have a beer with, a laugh with etc. and was never lonely. I also used to have a wife and kids. The kids live interstate and, Oz being so large, that's hundreds of miles away. So don't get to see them very often. To the lady who was thinking of selling up and moving into a flat to free up some money. I'd be very careful. I've heard so many tales of woe over here from older people who did that. ( in fact I was thinking of it myself. ) If you rent somewhere there is always the chance that they will sell the house, decide to put one of their kids in and turf you out,put the rent up, not maintain the place etc.etc. This could happen when you are older and it's difficult to move furniture etc., or be able to afford to move it. I own my own home and live on the edge of a Bay with a beautiful view. So I've decided I'll be here until they take me out in a pine box, or end up in the Nursing Home across the Bay. Just wish I could find someone interesting and intelligent to talk with in my twilight years. Never thought getting old would be so hard. Anyway I've probably talked enough, and will hit this button that says 'add your post ' and see what happens. I'm a slow typist so if anyone reads this, read it slowly and it won't be blurred. Ha! Cheers, Wellies.ViewDate:
13th Jun 2017Wellies commented on:
Finding the right senior chat room for youHi, I have just joined this site. I live alone since my wife died several years ago. and am just looking for some older people to chat with, I live in Tasmania, Australia and am originally from Scotland. I have travelled around the world and lived and worked in most of Australia from tropics to desert, and spent 3 separate years on Australian Antarctic expeditions. Love writing and have written quite a few short stories and halfway through a book. I enjoy talking on all sorts of subjects. Don't like cities. Not very good on computers.