New grandad and granma

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Tomodatchi

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Hi everyone!

I'm happy to be here, a grandfather of 3 and a learner of all things internet. My wife will post sometimes in my behalf because she's still learning, so I made a couple account for both. We just found out the wonders of sushi, introduced by our eldest son and are now digesting a wonderfull all you can eat lunch of raw fish and sticky rice! And what about that wasabi? Word to the wise, don't dip the fish in that stuff like it's green mayo, it will make you cry! Our name came from a nice waiter who taught us how to say "Friend" in japanese. A fun start to our day overall. :)

Oh by the way, my wife extends her regards to all as well!

So I hope you welcome us here and onto great discussions and learning more things about this weird world of ours, which our kids try to explain to us, but there is only so much time they can spare to their old folks :)
 

Welcome to you and your wife Tomodatchi! :welcome:
 

Hello Mr. & Mrs. Tomodatchi, I'm allergic to fish, but I know several people that tell me it's good. Hope you enjoy the forum. What part of this world are you located in. I'm from Houston, Texas. :hatoff:
 
Ina said:
Hello Mr. & Mrs. Tomodatchi, I'm allergic to fish, but I know several people that tell me it's good. Hope you enjoy the forum. What part of this world are you located in. I'm from Houston, Texas. :hatoff:
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Thank you all for all the warm welcomes! My wife and I met in England, she's British and I'm Portuguese. We got married back in '74, when the dictatorship ended in Portugal but before that we've been travelling all over, namely to the States, France, Mozambique... In 82 we settled down in our home country with our two kids, one was 5 and the other 2 at the time. And now we're here in OPorto, Portugal, our youngest is in Switzerland and our oldest lives just a block from us with his wonderful family.
 
Hi Mr. & Mrs. Tomodatchi, I heard that Portugal is a beautiful place. Sounds like ya'll have had a great time going around the world. But it is also good to settle down with family around.
Tell us about how you two are spending your retirement. We all like to hear what is interesting in other parts of the world.
Did you ever get to Texas when you traveled the USA?
 
Ina said:
Hi Mr. & Mrs. Tomodatchi, I heard that Portugal is a beautiful place. Sounds like ya'll have had a great time going around the world. But it is also good to settle down with family around.
Tell us about how you two are spending your retirement. We all like to hear what is interesting in other parts of the world.
Did you ever get to Texas when you traveled the USA?
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Hello Ina, Candice here. :)

My husband insists we went to Texas, because at the time we thought about spending a weekend in Mexico as part of our roadtrip in '79, but I've got the better memory of the two. I distinctly recall that we only spent a night at Edmond, which is in the neighbouring Oklahoma and then made our way back. :)
 
Hi Candice, Texas has flat lands, piney forrests, it's even part desert. But I do wish it was not so hot.
Although, we do live within 30 minutes of the large city of Houston, we like the cooler places of NE Texas.
We live in a log cabin that is well over a hundred years old. Rooms were added as the first families grew. We have just over 2000 sq. ft.
We have a few acres that we have grown large gardens. We now only have chickens for the eggs, and a burro for the great-grandchildren to play with.
We are thinking of selling in two or three years, and getting a smaller place.
My hubby, Michael, is 71 and I'm 62. We're still trying to get use to retirement. Michael was a communications coordinator, and I was an accountant.
How about the two of you? What do you like doing? :coolthumb:
 
My husband is an university teacher in OPorto U still, just a couple of years from retirement, I'm a recently retired barrister. We both are very much into the Law overall. This country has a very poor legal system and people here have very little access to it, so we have devoted a good share of our lives teaching and counselling as a couple. We've had a good run in helping a lot of relatives and friends to understand their rights, because this is one of those places where the government always tries to trick you into giving those rights up. Knowledge is power and we made sure people understood that. Not many do, sadly.

But it was a lot of harwork, a lot of it unpaid, so we started slowing down a few years before our retirement. Even he has more time on his hands now but this country will not let you retire until you are 65, otherwise we would be at home together the whole time to raise our grandchildren. That is ultimately the plan.

My husband is especially enthusiastic in this regard, he's still very much a big kid, which is amusing and sometimes terribly endearing. I love see that man around the children. Our eldest son is very much like him, perhaps that's the reason why they are so attached and why he and his family have chosen to live close to us. All in all, I couldn't have chosen a better life for us, even with all this crisis around us, which we actively ignore by staying away from the television.

Instead, we are learning computers, for the past 10 years we have been actively engaged in it, but almost strictly for work. Now it dawns upon us the potential for entertainment these things have, so pairing with the smart tv and those play stations, our house is very much a digital playground. Sometimes I wonder if I ever thought there would be such a massive paradigm shift in our lives, I thought standard television and radio were very much the "be all, end all" entertainment devices for the rest of our lives, but now I look around and anything is possible, really. And I just may live long enough to see this evolve into something else. :)
 

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