In praise of the quiet life at "Riverbend"

 

A quiet life sounds like an option that only the defeated would ever be inclined to praise. Our age is overwhelmingly alive to the benefits of active, dynamic, ‘noisy’ ways of living.

If someone offered us a bigger salary for a job elsewhere, we’d move. If someone showed us a route to fame, we’d take it. If someone invited us to a party, we’d go. These seem like pure, unambiguous gains. Lauding a quiet life has some of the eccentricity of praising rain.

It’s hard for most of us to contemplate any potential in the idea because the defenders of quiet lives have tended to come from the most implausible sections of the community: slackers, hippies, the work-shy, the fired…; people who seem like they have never had a choice about how to arrange their affairs. A quiet life seems like something imposed upon them by their own ineptitude. It is a pitiable consolation prize. More at The Book of Life.

At "Riverbend", the quiet life is no pitiable consolation prize. It is the very raison d'être why people come here. So, please join us - but be quiet about it!

 

To all you golfers

 

If you want to play a safe game of golf, come to Riverbend's grassy seven acres alongside the slow-flowing Clyde. The worst that could happen to you here is that you chip a ball into the river.

 

“Get there fast and then we will take it slow …”

 

Remember the Beach Boys? Then you're the right age to enjoy "Riverbend Cottage" because here we don't have noisy man-made frills such as swimming pools or gyms or community halls because there is no need to add to what nature already provides.

At "Riverbend" nature abounds and offers many swimming pool choices in the river just outside the door or the sea just a short car- or boat-ride away. The gym is walking the large grounds or paddling a canoe or walking to the village. The community hall is open nightly under the starlit sky with a fire pit in the middle.

By design, "Riverbend Cottage" cannot fail because there are no big promises to renege on. You get more than what you pay for, not less — nature sees to that.

Get here fast and then you can take it slow ...

 

Is Riverbend Cottage turning into a Maggie Smith Club?

 

She had Tea with Mussolini (1999) after she had taken A Room with a View (1985), then she lived in her House in Umbria (2003) and was one of the Ladies in Lavender (2004), after which she appeared in the Quartet (2012) and moved into The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), before becoming The Lady in the Van (2015).

But wait, there's more: we've just added My Old Lady (2015) to our Maggie Smith collection.

So, if you want to overdose on Maggie Smith (or Katharine Hepburn or Humphrey Bogart or any of the other movie greats), come to Riverbend Cottage (aka Cinema Paradiso).

We even supply the popcorn!

 

This guy has Tenacity

 

Every year at Easter time, MV TENACITY, probably the biggest floating gin palace this side of Sydney, moors off "Riverbend" to enjoy the beautiful sunrises and the tranquillity and shelter in this bend of the river.

He's done so again this year and I wonder why? Is it my un-password-protected wireless internet access or just the sight of me sitting on the verandah and imbibing my Easter cheers?

As Commodore, Secretary, Treasurer, and only Member of the Nelligen Yacht Club, I rowed out and introduced myself to Ross Britt who turned out to have at one time been interested in buying "Riverbend".

Well, he no longer needs to - he practically lives here already!

 

Maggie Smith at Riverbend

We've just bid for "The Lady in the Van" on ebay without realising that the price was in British pounds and that we finished up paying twice what we thought we would.

Still, nothing is too much when it comes to giving our guests a unique experience while staying at "Riverbend Cottage", so if you like good movies in general and Maggie Smith in particular, book yourself in for a real treat.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May the road have traffic lights like these!

Life is good at Riverbend!

• I am a Seenager. (Senior teenager)
  
• I have everything that I wanted as a teenager, only 60 years later.
  
• I don’t have to go to school or work.
  
• I get an allowance every month.
  
• I have my own pad.
  
• I don’t have a curfew.
  
• I have a driver’s licence and my own car.
  
• I have ID that gets me into bars and the liquor store.
  
• The people I hang around with are not scared of getting pregnant.
  
• And I don’t have acne.
  

Life is good!

I have more friends I should send this to, but right now I can't remember their names.

Bali's Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

 

This beautiful Boutique Hotel is located in the cool foothills of Lovina in the peaceful north of Bali, overlooking the sparkling Java Sea across to the peacefully smoldering volcanoes of Java.

The moment you arrive here, you won't be able to stop yourself from saying 'Wow' and 'Oh my God'. As you relax and unwind by the pool with its sparkling water spilling over the edge, and feast your eyes on the breathtaking view, you think you've died and gone to heaven. For more pictures, click here.

I have had my eyes on this place for over ten years during which time I have stayed there on numerous occasions. It is now for sale at a very good price and I am looking for nine other 'shareholders' to purchase a 1/10th share, equal to approx. AUS$25,000, in this hotel.

If you are interested in this fantastic lifestyle opportunity, email me at riverbendnelligen[AT]mail.com and I will send you further details.

The Dressmaker

 

At "Riverbend Cottage" we love Australian movies. Who could forget "The Castle", "The Man from Snowy River", "Red Dog", "Travelling North", "Sunday Too Far Away", "The Shiralee", "Wake in Fright"? ... and the list goes on.

This month we will add "The Dressmaker" to our large collection of Australian and foreign movies, so do yourself a favour and come to "Riverbend Cottage" for some serious movie-watching - we even supply the popcorn! ☺

To all our dog-owning guests: take advantix of this offer!

 

To keep our two little Maltese flea-free, we've been buying FRONTLINE for years - and the fleas loved it!

A friend suggested ADVANTIX and we were itching to give it a try but where to buy it? The local vet sold it at the usual exorbitant price; the local pet shop offered a six-pack for $85; and then we found VetSupply.com.au who sold the same six-pack PLUS TWO FREE DOSES for just $70.

That's $8.75 instead of over $14 per month per dog. The savings buy a lot of dried liver! ☺

P.S. ... and the dogs haven't scratched themselves in weeks!

The Art of Travel

 

Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is before our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, and new thoughts, new places. Introspective reflections that might otherwise be liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape.” So writes Alain de Botton, my favourite living philosopher, in his little gem of a book, "The Art of Travel".

Well, having given birth to your thoughts, what better place than peaceful "Riverbend Cottage" to nourish them and allow them to grow because, as Pascal discovered, “The sole cause of a man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room” (i.e. Riverbend Cottage).