but this wasn't at the top....it was at the bottom of the page! I was checking to see if we were definitely going to do the chat next Sunday. I'm going to read the transcript of Clive and Sue's chat to get some idea of what questions might come up! See you in the chat room!
Yay, Barb (and Art)! This is gonna be fun! I sent you an e-mail last evening about the date...did you get it yet? Hopefully, you did. Looking forward to seeing you in chat!
“It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much.” ~Yogi Berra Brenda
Brenda the last email I received from you said you were going to check with Pauoline about setting it up, and obviously you did! We're looking forward to the chat, but somehow I'm feeling like I need to study for a test! What if someone asks a question I don't know the answer to??!!
You must have missed my last e-mail, Barb...I sent it last night, to let you know that I'd be asking Pauline to post the chat for April 23, 1:00 P.M. It must be lost in the esthers of the internet Universe! (We've been having a little trouble with our provider, Telus, as of late, so no surprise for me, if it failed to arrive.)
There's no such thing as a test, Barb! This is your life's experience and having you share that with us is going to be so very interesting. So many people think about making a move like you did, maybe they even talk about it with someone else, but they either don't know how to get started or aren't sure they actually CAN do it, so it remains a dream, rather than an actuality.
You have the distinct advantage of actually going ahead with your dream, making it a reality and creating a very successful transition for yourselves in the process!
No worries, if there's a question you miss because of the speed of the chat process, or if it's a question you can't answer right then, maybe you can go over the transcript and post the answer afterwards, on this thread.
Clive and Sue were feeling a little bit of stress because the questions were coming fast and furious, and I think it was a little difficult for them to get answers posted before the next batch of questions were asked. Maybe for this chat, we can wait a little bit longer for your answers before we pepper you with more questions!
Looking forward to Sunday!
"Calvin: Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we think faster than we speak. Hobbes: Probably so we can think twice." ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes Brenda
Good morning Could someone please help me with the world clock? It's not being all that cooperative. I THINK it means that 1pm MDT on your Sunday 23 is 5am (YIKES!) on Monday 24 for me here in Canberra, Australia? If so, then I'm not a happy little vegemite and will put a pic with a frowning face on my profile pic. Leslie, 6.22am and I haven't had any coffee yet. Time is but a stream I go a fishin' in... Thoreau. ...
I can honestly say Barb and Art that the waiting was terrifying and the experience was exhausting.
Damn good fun though.
The best tip we can give is make sure you got two people there. One to do the typing and one to read the screen out loud as it happens. And boy does the screen scroll quickly. I didn't read the transcript till after it was all over. Sue read it out as it wen t along and I typed like a mad dog.
Originally posted by Barb (and Art): Pauline, yuou're probably doing this as I type, but could you update the notice in the right-hand column about the next chat?
Updated on the message board sidebar and on the slowtrav.com home page and country home pages. The notice links to your blog (if you click Barb and Art).
Thanks for doing this Barb (and Art) - I look forward to the chat! --------------------------
For background, read Barb's blog and her pages on expats about moving to Italy:
I THINK it means that 1pm MDT on your Sunday 23 is 5am (YIKES!) on Monday 24 for me here in Canberra, Australia? If so, then I'm not a happy little vegemite and will put a pic with a frowning face on my profile pic.
Persia, Sadly, I think that you are right about the time difference...it looks like you are 16 hours ahead of me in my time zone of Mountain Daylight Time. THAT is early in the morning, for sure!
Here's the World Clock website that I use, and the comparative time differences is on this first page. No matter how you slice it, we're a LOT of hours apart! When our Guest Host is from Australia, it will be my turn to be off-kilter with the time, and you'll be 'in the berries', as they say!
"Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived." Captain Jean-Luc Picard ~ "Star Trek" Brenda
Persia, If I sweet-talked, would you consider getting up at that ungodly hour of the morning and joining us as our very special Early Morning Sunshine Guest? With a heaping plate full of fresh toast, a newly opened jar of vegemite by your side and a mug of freshly brewed joe, you'd be totally set!
It'll be interesting to see how I manage getting up earlier-than-early when we have Guest Hosts from Australia and/or New Zealand, and I'm the one rolling out of my soft, warm bed in the wee hours of the morning to introduce everyone! Different story, then, I'll bet!
"Most people do not consider dawn to be an attractive experience - unless they are still up." ~ Ellen Goodman Brenda
Originally posted by BGE: You have the distinct advantage of actually going ahead with your dream, making it a reality and creating a very successful transition for yourselves in the process!
Maybe we've stumbled onto one of the reasons our move WAS sucessful Brenda. Moving to Italy was NEVER our lifelong dream....so maybe we saved ourselves some disappointments by not having any preconceived notions of what life in Italy would be like. If we'd had Italian heritage or just dreams of living in Italy, somehow those ideas would have created certain expectations....and of course you KNOW the reality would have been much different!
By just stumbling into our Italy addiction, we just sort of went with the flow....very unusual for me, because altho I BELIEVE in karma, I'm such a control freak that I never really trust the gods to take care of things...I always have to be right in there myself, taking care of all the details. Altho I had LOTS of details to take care of once we decided to move, the decision to move was made for us.
Trust the Universe to be friendly, I tell ya! You can call it karma, fate, serendipity or whatever works for you, but it's definitely there in spades when you look for it and learn to trust it.
I call it flow, baby! When all the traffic lights are green along the street in front of you, as far as your eyes can see, then it's definitely a "GO", and you must head out in that direction. I believe that the doorway of opportunity is open in front of us for a short time, and if we don't step through and take what is offered before us, that doorway closes and moves on, opening to the next person in line and offering that same opportunity to them that we did not take.
We'll not be asked how much money we made, how big a house we lived in, nor how many people we impressed in our lives...we just might be held accountable for all of the permissible pleaasures that the Universe offered to us that we didn't accept.
With Barb's permission, here's a quote from one of our e-mails while we were arranging this chat...I think this speaks volumes as to the why and how Barb and Art made their move to Italy...
quote:
The real answer to why we moved to Italy is, "Because we HAD to"....we simply felt uncontrollably, inexplicably drawn to live in Italy. We moved because it was where we were supposed to be. Neither of us has any Italian heritage nor childhood dreams of living in Italy. Everything happened so unexpectedly, and we simply did what we had to do. It wasn't a choice, it was an acceptance.
I love this line, Barb..."It wasn't a choice, it was an acceptance."
So, if you are thinking of, dreaming of, planning for, or otherwise toying with the idea of moving to another country, and you've been procrastinating and prevaricating over any decision, join us in Slow Chat on Sunday April 23 at 1:00 P.M. MDT, and share in Barb and Art's story about their acceptance of their move to Italy.
"One ship sails East, And another West, By the self-same winds that blow, Tis the set of the sails And not the gales, That tells the way we go." ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox Brenda
Oh Brenda, I'm going to try now just for you I like cinnamon sugar on my toast. I'm only half an Australian. I was born in California (7th generation) and still have a US accent. I did a poll once and I found out that one in four Australians eats vegemite. My son Giancarlo eats it but my youngest, Alessandro eats peanut butter. My boys also drink ice tea and Dr Pepper (gosh, I wonder where they get that from?) Now, let's get it straight, it's 5am next Monday, right? We want to make sure I get up at 5am on the right day now! Have a super day! Leslie at 6.58am with the electric blanket on.
Oh my gosh Leslie....I realize that cold weather is on it's way in Australia, but you have your electric blanket on already? Art and I were both sooooo relieved when my (frugal) daughter gave the go ahead to my SIL to turn on the AC last night before bedtime!
Barb - I'm cold! It's one degree celsius outside. And my mother is visiting from Brisbane (1400ks north) and I will have to put on the heater when she wakes up. I'm sitting here sipping hot tea, 3 cats, electric blanket on high - and I want to make my first coffee but I can't turn on the coffee maker yet as it will wake her up! I've got my new book to read "The Last Book About Italy" by Ann Rickard, but I'd rather read all the overnight US posts instead. I can't believe I have lived on the Internet all these years and planned all these trips and done all this slow travel in the past - THEN in January this year, I find this site. Leslie (7.24am, going to turn on the Breville at 8am sharp!)
Thanks, Leslie! You'll be so glad that you did this getting-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn thing, because there are a truly cool group of Slowtravellers who set aside time in their lives to meet in chat and share lovely travel experiences, ask incredibly intelligent questions of our Guest Hosts and then, they stick around after the hour designated for the chat is over...visiting, asking questions, sharing gardening information, you name it, we have it!
I am sure Slow Chat will be at 5:00 A.M. on Monday morning, April 24th for you, but you know what? I'd love it if someone else would weigh in here and confirm my calculations for me! I just look at the time that's shown at the bottom of your post as the time in your world when you posted your message; then I compare it to the time that is shown right at the top of your post, because that time is MDT, and that's my time zone! Seems like you are 16 hours ahead of me.
Vegemite...tried it, couldn't get past the smell, I'm sorry to say! Eeeeeuuuuuwwwww I think it must be an 'aquired taste' as they say!
Ever tried cinnamon on top of delish, dark, demerara brown sugar on your toast, or cinnamon sprinkled on top of honey or maple syrup? That REALLY roasts my corn! Yummmmmm!
Barb, an electric blanket for me, too! Even though it's nice and sunny outside today, the evenings get chilly, and I've turned the furnace way down already; so I very deeply appreciate the toastiness of my bed with my 'bankie' turned up high for an hour before bedtime!
"What do you choose when you're offered a treat? When Mother says, 'What would you like best to eat?' Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast? It's cocoa and animal crackers that I love most!" ~ Christopher Morley, 'Animal Crackers' Brenda
You're brave trying vegemite! I haven't ever tasted it. I will try the brown sugar with my cinnamon toast, I've always used white sugar. Over here they say, "happy little vegemite" and also "happy chappy (or is it chappie?)" as well as "happy camper". It will be interesting having Barb and Art on line answering questions. What a great topic! Leslie.(9.03am)
...ummmm, so try the darkest, moistest, brownest sugar you can find, with a little coarser texture than the "golden" brown sugar and infinitely better for your system than the dreaded-of-all-gastromomic-creations, white sugar(bleeeeeeaach!). I use demerara totally and completely now, and have not cooked with or prepared food with white sugar in a few years. In Canada, it is sold as demerara sugar or raw sugar.
Here's a quote from this link that says it in a lot fewer words than I can: "Raw sugar is a coarse, brown, sticky variety made by simply boiling down whole cane juice and it too is a wholesome food, but it is very difficult to find in the Western world." Here's a comparative chart for brown vs demerara sugar. This site is for a supplier in New Zealand, so I'm hoping you can find it in Australia, as well! Once you try it you'll never let white sugar pass your lips again! Well, then...I'd better get down off of my soapbox before someone pushes me off!
Try it once, especially on cinnamon toast or in your morning coffee, if you take sugar in coffee, and you'll be a deliriously happy little vegemite!
Honey on cinnamon toast? The best! Oh, just one caution? Watch out for the dangerous droolers...thin streams of liquified honey that race to the nearest hole in the toast and drool all over your face, as you are eating your cinnamon toast!
"What are the three little words you never want to hear while making love? 'Honey, I'm home.'" ~ Ken Hammond Brenda
Slow Travel Talk 
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Could someone please help me with the world clock? It's not being all that cooperative. I THINK it means that 1pm MDT on your Sunday 23 is 5am 
I think it must be an 'aquired taste' as they say!