LOL, chook, it might work out to be more expensive to leave them behind!

It happened in my BIL s family. You rising early for work?

No, not yet, just too hot to stay asleep ....let me re-phrase that... The weather's too hot for me to stay asleep!

Having a cool drink?

The gentle tinkling of ice in a long glass.... And the background hum of the air-conditioner....

What about you, chook, are you up late or up early?

I will email.

you guys are early risers chookchook2 I must have 9 lives have fallen asleep quite a few times on the roads..gave me quite a scare..now I know better and stop at that Caltex in Werribee for a toilet break and a stretch..I don't break on way down..Sunday night is only an hour 40 on way back on Wed I have to as driving through the day is a nightmare..last week took me more than an hour from Williamstown Rd exit to start of Burnley at 4pm due to a broken down car ..

Telly, if you are in contact with Chook please try to dissaude her from going. She can simply stay and be our friend. She doesn't have to roam far and wide anymore now that she isn't moderating.

If you are there Chooky, please stay, don't be chased away by anyone. Stay for those who want you, please.

Uyenvy, also be careful not to tailgate. Years ago I was on the road from Melb to Geelong with first hubby, luckily we were not close to the ute in front of us, because suddenly a fridge slid off the back! Soon after a washing machine followed, and they finally pulled over. Current hubby thinks I'm a pain for making him leave a gap, lol.

Folks, don't forget, Tele still has a thread going about a Houzzer meet up.

https://www.houzz.com.au/discussions/lets-get-together-dsvw-vd~3635248

chookchook2 I'm the same hubby thinks I'm the worse back seat driver there is..a few weeks back he actually stopped on the freeway so I could take over.. he's the type to go very close to car in front to stop people from merging into his lane..gives me a fright all the time..

Men. I wonder how we will look nagging a driverless car?

I like travel. It's better with good planning, and more money. I'm getting too old to rough it as much.

yes Tribbletrouble..money and time ..which is hard to come by..I haven't started planning yet..and we are off end of June..

Yes to more travel though we planned our home to be a sanctuary from work as much as we could, for now it works well for us as a tropical haven. More & more though travel beckons as we look forward to retiring and downsizing as well as not letting our children see more of the world before we do! 5 star sounds way nicer at our age than backpacking ;)

Passport is ready!

I like your name Uyenvy Le.

It reminds me of saying You Envy Me. I'm sure it's not derived from that, but still..... I like it.

7weed1.,I'm from Viet Nam Vy or Vi (pronounced Vee) is a very common name for girls..

we all have 4 names surname middle name and first names which is made up of two names.. ie like Mary Anne etc ..

our middle names tends to be the same so most time Thi, Ngoc for girls and Van or Minh for boys ..so if one looks at the middle name you can guess if it's a male or female..

my name don't mean anything it's quite fancy which I've always hated..everyone just calls me V..I've got 4 sisters and to prevent confusion my dad grouped our two names together..as 4 of us are

Vy..

when we were younger ..it doesn't help when our friends ring and ask for Vy ..

we always answered the phone which Vy??:)

lol, Uyenvy Le.
Thanks for the explanation. It was the phone answering that made me laugh.
Are you a Vietnamese living in Australia or a Vietnamese living in Vietnam and visiting the Aussie Houzz site.
There's another kind of travel..... after all it is a travel thread.

7weed1 ..I'm Australian originally from Viet Nam..Australia is home now ..been here more than 3/4 of my life.. 36 years this June..only been back once in 2003 and I didn't like it..can't stand the heat..the crowds..the chaos..

I went back disappointed as nothing was like what I had remembered it to be..so better not to go back..

hubby goes back every year to visit his mum..will let the kids go back with him one day so they know their heritage but other than that Australia is home..

I've heard it said that one can never go back....

Now that I have voiced such deep musings....

I'd like to go to Vietnam. I'd like to know the heat, the crowds, the chaos. I don't like any of those things but I like experience. :-) Once experienced it's not necessary to return unless you really, really liked it.

7weed1 ..very wise words..should always try everything once..

we travelled to Japan a few years back ..it was crowded but there was order..one of my favourite places to go back..

another favourite was New York..could walk everywhere

when in Taiwan we had stinky tofu..it stunk like horse poo but then the more it stunk the better it was..I made hubby and the kids try it and oh it was so yum ..regretted that we weren't brave enough to try it on the first night..we tried it on our very last night there..

the worse one was listening to hubby and went up in the air ..mind you I'm afraid of heights..the boat towed us up and down I was terrified as only had my little one with me and we were too light thus it kept on bopping up and down not only that the safety brackets didn't look too safe..didn't find it exhilarating at all

I work a job not to survive and get by.. but to travel..and eat!

We've delayed having kids because we both love travelling. We really do like europe.. Cinque Terre, Santorini, Amalfi (Positano) are our favourites. Memorable places, Cappadocia in Turkey, Prague..

Favourite big cities Amsterdam and Paris.

We done most of asia, but it doesn't seem to have as much appeal. Vietnam wasn't too bad, Hanoi was a lot nicer than HCM. Thailand is our favourite place for Asia...for the food, people, and things to do. #2 would be Japan, for the food and people as well. Skiing was pretty amazing there.

Uyenvy, a few years ago we took our kids on what we called "our Heritage Tour" . Hubby is Croatian born, whereas my side of the family is English/Scottish/German.
So we went to England and Scotland, then across to Croatia. We met up with various family members and had a great time driving around the two very different countries. The kids really enjoyed themselves, & we had lots of wonderful experiences .

We leave for a week in Tassie on Thursday. Soooo verrry EXCITED!!!! + I haven't worked since last Thursday. Yay!! Life is good.

Now I have to work out how to work out which flights I booked.... I've paid, but I can't remember if they sent me a confirmation email, or what.... Oh Dear, there goes the balloon of excitement....

Good news. I found the flight confirmation. Now all we have to do is to be there on time. How hard could that be?

Hi weed, I hope you have a lovely trip to Tassie, and I hope the weather stays nice for you.

The airline should have sent an email notification with your e-ticket. I generally search my emails by typing in the name of the airline and see what comes up, LOL. I can never keep my email inbox under control, I keep things that I should delete, and then can't find the things I need!

Hubby and I went to Hobart for a conference once when kids were small, we left them behind (smaller ones with Baba, older ones with friends at home). There was a sudden cold snap in the middle of December, with snow on Mt Wellington, our clothes weren't up to that, so we went shopping. We made an innocuous comment to the shopkeeper, about how we hadn't brought enough warm clothes, and were treated to a tirade about how he was so sick of visitors from the "big island" coming to beautiful Tassie and whining about the cold weather! We went somewhere else to buy our warm clothes!!

7weed1 have a lovely trip one of my colleagues just got back she said the weather was perfect not cold at all..

"Honey, I'm home."

If anyone who enjoys the rainforest is reading this: Go. Do it. We went with Tarkine Trails. Can't recommend them highly enough.

I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to visit this incredible place. I feel humbled, yet enriched, to have walked amongst 500 year old eucalypts and species that have existed for 10's of thousands of years.

7weed1 glad you had a nice time ..was it cold ?

No, not cold. But, I am a coastal Victorian. The weather there is not so different to the weather here. The QLD's and NSW's found it uncomfortable and the German cuddled the fire constantly.
I think my thermostat is set a little high anyway. I always had to remove at least 2 layers as soon as we began walking.
Here are some happy snaps of the forest, fungi and one of our guides making lunch.

Hi weed, good to hear you are back and had a good time!
My app is doing funny things, I didn't get notified of the new comments. Love the brightly colored fungi - I could see them taking off as potted "pops" of colour in an all-white kitchen!

just saw it today too telperien ..looked peaceful 7weed1

I love being home. But, surprise, surprise, I have itchy feet. I'm thinking of where I would rather be. Somewhere other than at home.
I always imagined that, by the time I was this age, I would be financially comfortable enough to do/have what I wanted (within reason). Life, being life, hasn't worked out that way.
All the boxes we grow up expecting to be able to tick: car, house, career, long-term loving relationship, children, every page in our passport stamped. Whatever our individual expectations are. Some of those boxes get ticked, not always when we expect them, some don't.
As I've dragged myself up the mountain known as life sometimes I 've paused waiting for my expectations to be met. Going on with a heavy heart when yet another box seems to fade away behind me or constantly be just out of reach. "Tomorrow", no, "next week", no, "then I guess it must/will happen next year".
I'm still waiting to have my own house. I have stuff, still in boxes, from when I was 18, waiting to have my own house and get it out and set it up just how I like. It's starting to feel ridiculous. I was always going to be so house proud in my own house. Everything would have a home, and go back there after use.
Who knows? Maybe next year a very wealthy person will knock on my door and say "would $400,000.00 help you out?".
Wouldn't that be nice? My house, plus travel and something for the future.
I have always wanted to go to the Undara Lava Tubes in QLD.
One day. ☺

7weed1 we did lava tubes in South Korea long long long tunnel..I'm claustrophobic...was very glad when it ended though not too thrill to find it's a dead end and had to make our way back to the opening ..

we are in our mid 40s and well our mortgage is so very very big that it won't be paid off in the next 20 years lol oh well I say worse comes to worse we sell up and move into a caravan or something ..

the illusion that comes with owning a house is that you think it's yours but as soon as something goes wrong it defaults back to the bank lol

life..I'm still waiting to go to Paris..he promised me when we got married that we'd go one day..22 years later still sitting here lol I had a thought the other day ..yes I'm going to save up my wage for the next year..get our staff to cover and surprise him just the two of us ..no kids ..

if the mountains don't come to Mohammed ..this Mohammed is going to the mountains lol

Lots of Mohammeds in Paris.

Good for you Vy!!
That's how a modern, empowered woman does it.....

Tribbletrouble lol ..

7weed1 dynamics of our marriage is such I get things done by doing it myself or I have to push him to get it done..just easier to get it done quietly and tell him ..better results and faster too lol

I'm very sorry, everyone, I am still not getting notifications of comments on this thread.
Vy, that sounds like a fantastic idea! You should have a marvelous trip without children, and spend some time re-connecting with each other, having fun. I find that that is actually one of the important things to do in a marriage, is to find ways of laughing at life . It's also important to get on and do some of the things you have always wanted to do, because we never know how long we have on this earth - We see far too many patients who have been waiting for kids to grow up, the mortgage to be paid off, etc etc, and then they get a horrible diagnosis just before they are due to jet off on their once-in-a-lifetime trip. Even if you can't do the big things, try for some of the little things. Weed, get out some of those things you have been saving - rotate them around so you get to see them and take pleasure in them.
Sorry, getting a bit carried away with the imperative voice there - we have seen some very sad situations lately that are really hitting us hard.

That's ok, Tele, talk away however you like. That doesn't sound good.

it's okie telperien..life is indeed too short..a lady at work passed away just as she got her life together after years of being a carer for a parent..she was planning to go away when she passed..

7weed1..yes take it all out and spread them around ..I never save anything..my nice sheets are on my bed..my nice crockery are all chipped lol then I go buy some more..lol

I'm trying to follow that Nike motto just do it..

@7weed1 - I spent a good part of my life working in weird and wonderful locations in employer-supplied accommodation, with employer-supplied furniture, yet each of those places became "home" to me because I had my things (okay, admittedly too many of them!) around me. Books, records, art, quirky things I picked up in my travels, just things that mattered, one way or another. As I moved from place to place, some of the things got tossed and were replaced by better stuff (though I still have a little leather lion bought on my very first overseas trip when I was still a student), but everything had and has its own little story. And that, to me, made each place home even though I didn't own any of them.

Take your things out, and make your place "home." Tomorrow is another day: enjoy the day you have today.

Thanks Tele, Vy, jmm 1837: It's good advice.
I don't want to be one of the aforementioned peoples.
(wry smile - It won't happen to me......)

7weed1 hehhehe only the good ones go early..have you been good or naughty?:)

I'm a naughty one so I don't think I'll go anytime soon lol

'we travel not to escape life,
but for life not to escape us'
one of my all time favourite quotes.. was written on a postcard which was sent to me many years ago.

Miriam love your sentiments..

And the photos, really lovely!

LOVE TRIPPIN!!!! lots of short trips make for great memories!!