Out Westwood Way, Tasmania

A lovely drive was taken the other day to a country area called Westwood.  My husband's G Grandfather had property out that way, but his house burnt down apparently, and I have no idea where he went after that.  It's rather a dead-end story really!

The Church of England at Hagley in the distance and a photo zoomed in.

Facing into the sun doesn't always made for a good photo, the one below to me has interesting colour.

A farm house.

You can see the Westwood area with dotted red marks.

A big Day

It was a big day for me last Sunday, I turned 80.  It's hard to believe and I'm so lucky that when I wake up each morning I can get up have a shower, walk, talk and do my house work and have my best friend with me, my husband.  I'm truly blessed.

My husband and I went out to celebrate and got home at 1.15am in the morning!  Family and a few friends came out with us to celebrate at The Levee near the Tamar River in the city.  One of our sons took the photos with the phone, all the ones he took when I was cutting the cake, he forgot to leave my head in the photo..lol  Anyway, this is what he took.

The cake was made by my husband's niece and is a fruit cake.  The flowers from my two sister in laws and one husband. 

Not every one would look at the camera.  Three of the 5 grandchildren are there if you can find them.

The above photo the lady on the right has been a friend for 61 years, and the man a friend of my husband's 69 years and a friend of mine for 61 years.  The lady's husband is in a nursing home as he has Alzheimer's and a friend for 60 years to both my husband and myself.

A cousin of mine who lives in Hobart down south of the Island has been my friend for 80 years.  Yes, as old as I am, she is 85 and when I was only a few months old my parents and I lived at her house and we have been friends ever since.  My cousin and her husband still come to stay at our place usually once a year. When their children were young they all came and stayed along with her parents my late Auntie and Uncle. 

Below-The view from the windows to outside.  In my case I walked outside and took these.

The City

 We went into the city of Launceston last week to buy some shoes for my husband.  A parking place was very easy to find, there was one at the base of The Mall and we only had to walk halfway up it to Sketches, a shoe shop. 

There are parking meters which are not that easy to use because the light shines on the area you have to read as that is where you put your car registration and how long you will be there and so on, if the sun is shining then it's near impossible.  So I like many have an app on the phone called EPark, it's pink so easy to find, so all you have to do is open that app, put the time you wish to stay there for, eg 1 hour and if you take less time you stop the app and are not charged for time not used.  I hope you can follow.  There is a time limit also.

Jeanswest a clothing shop, well there were 90 stores in Australia all told and the fashion chain was placed in voluntary liquidation all across Australia.  This business had a decent size shop here in Launceston and we had to walk past it and we saw a lady sitting inside on the floor eating her lunch and she appeared to have cleaned most of the shop out, along the path up against the window were free items.  Sad to see another empty shop.  

The Mall was just about void of people; I took a few photos as it looked like a ghost Mall.

I can remember that once you could hardly move because of the people shopping.

The Hoochery

 The Hoochery in Kununurra is 4,500.5 km (2796.5 mi) from Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.

They make Rum, Gin, Whiskey, Liquers, 

Visit their website here to find out more if you wish to.

There is a lovely small video on their homepage as well and the scenery is good and you will hear the Aussie accent of the outback.

Words from The Hoochery.  "Worth the drive! The Hoochery is located on The Dessert's family farm, 13 km out of Kununurra in the heart of the Ord Irrigation Area.  With a relaxing outdoor 'Gin Garden' and a rustic 'Rum Bar' serving lunch and bar snacks, cakes and coffee, cocktails and tastings.  There is something for everyone.  Come out for tastings of our Award-winning rums or for out delicious home-made cakes."

Husband and myself visited The Hoochery on one of our visits up north in the tropics.  We went in the winter and the temperature was about 30 deg C. as it is in that area.

Love this part of Australia, and the building was ever so clean inside, with staff so friendly and yes, we bought a bottle of rum.

Batman Bridge

The Batman Bridge built in 1966 - 1968 was the first cable stayed bridge in Australia is only about 30 minutes from home with a good run.  It was named after John Batman, a Tasmanian pioneer and the founder of the city of Melbourne.

The photos were taken on different days over time.

Several years ago people used to park their caravans all in the above area, there were toilets, picnic tables and the grass was mowed and green, then the local council in the area decided that no one could park their caravans there, toilets were removed and placed in another area, even some picnic tables and chairs were removed.  Now the area is just a place to look at the whirlpools in the Tamar River in that area.  I guess the locals didn't care for holiday makers and wanted to keep the area for themselves or something like that.

Wedding Anniversary

60th Wedding Anniversary dinner at the Country Club Casino at Links Restaurant celebrated with family, no photos of family.  Sister-in-law J took the photo.

Thank you all for the lovely comments.

I've had curly hair ever since I can remember, however a few years after I was married, I grew my hair longer and used to iron it with an iron on the ironing board with a tea towel over my hair to help keep it straight.  After a few years or more straighteners came to the fashion scene in about 1980, so I used one of those for many years until about 3 years ago when I let my hair be it's natural self.

If we have curly hair we want straight hair and vice a versa. 

I've shown the Casino before, it was in February so these photos below are just a reminder and I forgot to take photos of the Restaurant once again.  I hopefully will think of it next time we go there.

The map of where the Casino is.