A Pommie in the Tropics!

thalauafu

R.I.P.
Greetings from Tropical Far North Queensland!

Hi everyone! I live in Cairns which is doorway to the Great Barrier Reef, and close to some of the most ancient rainforests still left in the world. We have about 3 to 4 months of not so nice weather which is what we call "The Wet" when it is hot, humid and usually very wet, but the rest of the year is pretty much perfect, with daily temperatures of around 25c to 28c....brilliant blue skies and lots of sunshine.

Okay, now that I have made you all envious, especially this year with all the dreadful weather happening around the world, including in the UK, I can now tell you that I was born and bred in England, and having already been hooked by family history for almost 30 years, I have about 4800 people in my tree, mostly from England but a few from Wales. I don't appear to have any Irish or Scottish ancestry. I only add people to my tree that I have researched thoroughly and can prove from documentation, so am not one of these people who just collects names to increase my numbers. My Counties of major interest are Essex, Cambridgeshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Devon, Cornwall, and London, including Middlesex, Westminster and Surrey.

That will do for now....Cheers, Diana


 
Hi Diana,

Lovely to have you with us here on Top Dog. I am sure many of our British members will be envious of the weather you have up there.
 
Hi Diana - welcome to the forum! :D

I have ancestors from Cambridgeshire and Essex as well, so you never know - our paths might cross!

Have fun!
 
Hello Diana, welcome to Top Dog. Used to live in Essex, now live in North Devon - back home to the land of my forebears :)

Ann
 
Welcome to Top Dog Diana. C|:-)
As you can see we're a very friendly lot - so have fun and we'll do our best to help with any queries you have.
 
Welcome Diana. As another Pom I've visited both Cairns and Port Douglas and very much enjoyed my stay there. A friend has just returned to the UK from the same area and although he had a few days rain he too was very enthusiastic. I guess that 19" of rain in one month in QLD isn't a lot but over here it leaves much of southern England under water. My toes and feet have grown webs.

Have fun on Top Dog

Tony
 
Thank you Tony! Yes this is a lovely part of the world, but I have to admit to still having a wee bit of my heart back in 'the old country' even though I have lived over here (in various places from Cairns down to Melbourne) for almost 55 years now! Fortunately I have had plenty of trips back home over the years and who knows....if I win the lottery maybe I can come home once again and go search out all those old cemeteries and Churches where my family once worshipped or were buried! I should be so lucky! <|:)
 
A belated welcome, I know but welcome anyway. Great to see another Aussie, albeit an imported one.
Please may I ask.......is your username Egyptian? and how on earth do I pronounce it. I have tried to get my tongue around it but to no avail.
It fascinates me no end.:)
 
A belated welcome, I know but welcome anyway. Great to see another Aussie, albeit an imported one.
Please may I ask.......is your username Egyptian? and how on earth do I pronounce it. I have tried to get my tongue around it but to no avail.
It fascinates me no end.:)
Many thanks for your welcome! No, my username is not Egyptian...it's a made up word with Polynesian background! My Tongan name in fact! I was for a short period of my life married to a wonderful Tongan guy who had been a friend for many years.

His surname is Halauafu which means....Hala...road, uafu....wharf, or road to the wharf. (ua pronounced like a w as in water. My name is Diana, but as there is no letter D in the Tongan alphabet, it is changed to a T, and the letter i is written ai, so my name became Taiana. So, T. Halauafu becomes Thalauafu! This is pronounced Thal au (as in ow, that hurt), a as in aah! and fu as in Kung fu! Thal-au-a-fu!

I lived for over 10 years in Tonga and have a Tongan daughter in law (couldn't ask for a better one) and a half Tongan beautiful grand-daughter.

It is a fascinating language.....no word can have two consonants together, but you can have a string of vowels together. Every word ends in a vowel - hence uafu...or wharfu! My son Stephen became Sitiveni, my daughter in law is Elizabeth or Ilisapesi and my granddaughter is Loseline which is Rosalyn, pronounced los a lean ay!
 
Bet you wished you had never asked now! :oops:
No not at all. I just hope you didn't think I was being nosey.....cause I was :oops:
I still can't get the tongue around it though. I'll keep trying.
I'm just plain old 'Sue'.
I have a feeling that you have lived a most interesting life.
 
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