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| Terry, at the band concert. He didn’t learn how to play sax until a couple weeks ago! |
It’s ironic that a year ago today while we were in Fiji, we wrote about working out at health clubs as we travel the world. I had hoped to join a club here, but for the last nine days, since we arrived in Tasmania, we’ve been so busy that it hasn’t turned out.
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| Zooming in from the fourth to last row in the theatre, I was able to get this shot of Terry (without flash) during his part of the performance. |
Instead, we are doing a lot of walking although we need to pick up the pace. There are too many things to see in Penguin that keep us from taking a quick stroll as we continue to stop to look, take pictures and chat with locals.
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| View from Marge’s living room window in Burnie. |
Then, suddenly, we do laundry, shopping, cooking, making the bed and cleaning after ourselves after a long hiatus from the housekeeping help included in our rent. Is that exercise?
Have we become a little lazy? I don’t think so, nor do I beat myself up when five of the seven or more months we had household help (and didn’t cook either) while I was suffering with the injury to my spine is now totally healed and pain free.
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| Too cute! Marge and Terry pose for the camera. |
Even today, the penguin house will be cleaned for us. I ran around last night and this morning cleaning up clutter to ensure nothing is in the way. I stripped the bedding, started a load of laundry hanging it outside when done, emptied the dishwasher and showered and dressed.
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| This lemon tree, next door to Terry’s mother-in-law Marge’s home had the biggest lemons we’d ever seen. |
With the thought in mind that we have an 11:00 am appointment to visit a local B & B belonging to Terry’s next door neighbor Gerard, whom we met a few days ago when he and Terry stopped by for a hello, I felt a need to get moving very early this morning.
Our intention on the road is to promote local businesses wherever possible. Some of our worldwide readers may choose a holiday/vacation, in locales in which we’ve lived considering some of the recommendations we may have rendered along the way.
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| Burnie Regional Museum. |
Over these past four plus years, our philosophy has been to only highlight those businesses and events that we’ve found pleasing. We’re not here to bash a single visit to a restaurant, barber shop, market, shop or other venue.
If we don’t care for the quality of an experience, we don’t say much, if anything at all. Maybe it was an off-day. Who are we to criticize the owner and staff of a hard-working establishment that may have trouble running a business?
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| Terry has owned this sax with case for the past 50 years and only a few weeks ago learned to play for the Burnie Civic Center 30th Celebration Concert. |
We do not post negative comments on TripAdvisor or other travel-related websites. Didn’t enjoy the experience? Mums, the word from us. We realize that other travelers desire to read honest negative reviews about traveler’s experiences and we appreciate that. There are others who gladly write their negative opinions on any experience they may have had, on any of the reviewing-type web sites.
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| There are varying levels of experience in the wide array of groups, including the above adult learners (as shown in this phot0), junior band, junior learners band and senior band. |
If we have a bad experience, we don’t ignore it. Instead of writing a review, we contact the owner by email to explain our experience. We avoid asking for any compensation which we’ve found enhances the validity of our opinions. It’s not a perfect system, but it works for us.
As we busily attend one Penguin event after another we’ve found ourselves thoroughly and genuinely enjoying each experience. The charming demeanor of the locals and their businesses readily presenting the “small town” feel has left us reeling with a pure sense of belonging while in awe of its special people.
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| Musicians were highlighted by special performances. |
Yesterday, we attended the weekly Sunday Penguin Market, open from 9 am to 3:00 pm each week. Although only a few farmers were in attendance, offering produce for sale, overall the market revolves around handmade merchandise, antiques and unique items. Soon, we’ll share those photos.
After the market, we visited a local park only walking distance from our vacation home for more beautiful photos. In time, we’ll share those as well. We’d considered taking another drive to the countryside, but decided to spend the rest of the day at “home” which we haven’t done since our arrival with the exception of one rainy day.
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| The Segway singers performed a few times. |
Gosh, dear readers, we’re trying to stay on top of events verses posted photos but it’s just not possible. Each day presents one, two or more photo worthy experiences which we attempt to share as quickly as possible.
We’re still behind on posting photos of the countryside from our drive from Hobart to Penguin over a period of two days.
They come to you in time, along with amazing countryside photos we took in the area only a few days ago. Please bear with us.
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| David Turner is the musical director and is very talented. |
On Saturday night, we attended the Burnie Civic Centers 30th Celebration Concert as we mentioned in a prior post. Terry, our landlord, an experienced musician (among his many other talents) had learned to play a saxophone only weeks ago for this special presentation. He, among, many other musicians, from grade school aged kids to seniors put on quite a performance.
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| Georgia, a talented young lady performed a solo. |
It started at 7:30 pm, ending three hours later. It was a long time for us to sit still but we managed and had a great time. We drove with Terry in his well maintained 33-year old car. On the way we picked up his lovely mother-in-law, Marge and we all attended the event together.
After the event ended, Terry showed us a few houses elaborately decorated for Christmas each year that he thought we’d enjoy. As we drove up to the first of three houses, my energy level increased at the prospect of taking photos of these colorful displays. Here again, photos will follow.
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| David, the musical director and his son Nick performed the Cat Stevens song, Father Son. Well done! |
As I hurry along to complete today’s post in plenty of time for our 11:00 am meeting at Gerard’s B & B, Tom’s watching the Minnesota Vikings Game. It’s in the 4th quarter and at the moment the Vikings are ahead. \We’ll see how that goes by the time, we’re done here today.
Have a fabulous day! Thanks for traveling along with us! (BTW, the Vikings won!
Photo from one year ago today, December 12, 2015:
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| Wherever we may travel water views always present a photo op and scenes we love including this pond at the Pacific Harbour, Fiji Arts Centre. For more photos, please click here. |