Once Upon a Time........

Once upon a time there was a wee Scottish girl, 

with long skinny legs and a great big smile.

A twin brother she adored, as part of herself, 

a bond not shared, by anyone else.

A mum and dad who loved her, of that there was no doubt, 

and two younger sisters, who made her laugh and shout. 

Her dolls neatly dressed, she took care of her toys, 

she treasured these moments like nobody else.

                                                                                             

                     

Once upon a time there was a young city girl, 

conscientious in study, achieved what she sought.

Friends, there were many she loved and adored, 

she’d dress to the nines and dance until dawn.

Fluent in French, the best cook by far, 

she never forgot those from afar.

She left us for France to follow her dreams; 

we wrote many letters to keep us in tune.

She worked hard and played hard till one day we heard, 

she’s moving to Yorkshire with Roger her friend. 

Married and happy with a man she adores, 

this beautiful lady now wears country clothes.

Once upon a time there was a strong woman, 

she tended her garden, the blooms grew with love.

The ducks they would quack as she talked to them much, 

overcoming her fear of the closeness they sought. 

She was quirky and funny, and read lots of books 

and would crochet a jumper as fast as she could.

A tower of strength, she turned out to be, 

protecting her family from news they couldn’t hear. 

Her worry and struggle from pain we couldn’t see, 

was masked with her fun to save us from fear.

Her spirit is free now, she dances on clouds, 

No worry or pain, she laughs out loud

Her light shines through, like the crystals she used, 

sending love through the ether to comfort our pain. 

So celebrate her beauty, and forget her not, 

her light remains shining in all of our thoughts.

Her light has not left us, her spirit shines through, 

in the twinkling stars, right above you. 

In the cool summer breeze she hugs you with love 

while her beauty appears in the warm autumn leaves. 

We love her and miss her but still feel her strength, 

so remember her always with love, her dear friends.

In loving memory of Carol Harrison (Molly Printemps) who lost her three year battle with cancer on the 16th July 2015.

May she do cartwheels on rainbows 

and dance on the clouds.

Her wonderful husband Roger, (Roberto Printemp), who cared for Carol (Molly Printemp) with love, affection and humour during many tough days sends his love to all as he tries to find a way through the darkness. 

Fly high my beautiful sister and don’t forget to visit

Namaste

Katy xx

Camelia

I'm showing off our beautiful Camelia.  It's been a bit windswept lately but this year it's just laden with blooms.  We took it from my late mother-in-law's (Beatrice Printemps) garden before her house was sold and it took a few years to get going, being traumatised by frost during two bad winters.  For the last two or three years it's been absolutely beautiful.  Our secret ingredient is wood chippings which help to keep the moisture in and the weeds out.  We have a free supply from our log man, Steve, who rents one of our old sheds for his logs.

DUCK UPDATE

Those funny little ducks are still a bit scared of the water.  They stay very close to the edge and only go in if we throw food in for them.  We put them on Duck Island a couple of months ago, and there they stayed.  I thought it was a natural thing for ducks to gravitate towards water but I suppose with us keeping them in the big shed since they were babies didn't help (but at least Mr Fox didn't get them).  They go to the edge of the water but if they get too far away from the island they get into a right flap and a panic and race back to dry land.  Hopefully they will get used to the deep water eventually and go for a good swim.  It would be so much fun for duckies! Oh, we also have a swan.

 

British Telecom

I don't usually pay attention to my British Telecom phone bill but I happened to glance at the itemised list and realised, to my horror, that I am being charged 27p each time I dial an engaged number.  Each call was only for a few seconds and I know from the number that the person does not have an answering machine.  The same number was listed four times, each all for a few seconds and each call with a charge of 27p attached.  We remembered phoning this number and that it was engaged for a long time.  I told a friend and he checked his own bill and was sure he was charged the same for unanswered calls.

 

I contacted BT.  God those Indian call centres!!  Anyway, I was told that these charges were normal and that somehow they did get connected.  I told him I'd never heard so much rubbish in my life and promptly hung up.  I have since written a letter of complaint to the CEO and I have sent a message to Watchdog as well.  If I don't get a satisfactory answer from BT, I will be contacting Ofcom because this should not be happening. Maybe it's their way of making up the money for our "free" evening and weekend calls. I don't think BT will be the only guilty parties doing this so check your bills mes amis. They are breaking the law.

Happy Easter!

Found this and thought it was worth sharing.  Have a lovely Easter weekend.

Cheap Supermarkets

Like fellow blogger, John Gray of Going Gently, I too am not a fan of the cheap supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl that are currently rocking the UK supermarket world.  I have tried it several times (Roberto loves it!) but it just leaves me cold.  I have tasted the food.  Roberto promised me the tinned soup "tasted just like Heinz"....It didn't.  It's not nice at all.  I have tried the baked beans - yuk! The cheap mayonnaise tastes like vinegar and the vegetables don't last much longer than a day.  I have given Aldi products a good go and I simply don't like them.  Okay, you get a trolley load of food for £30 but it's cheap food and you get what you pay for.

 

Don't get me wrong, we are on a budget as well and I do love a bargain as much as the next person but I just don't like to compromise on good quality food, and I now refuse to go anywhere near Aldi, much to Roberto's indignation.

 

As for the checkout, be prepared to have your many purchases slung at you at very high speed.  The checkout staff are timed for each customer, so the faster they get them checked through, the better (maybe they get a bonus for serving the most customers?).  As soon as you tell them whether it's "cash or card", the timer is stopped and you can try and catch your breath and endeavour to finish packing your shopping in a timely fashion so that the next customers can be flung through.

 

I seem to feel the energy in places and when I go into an Aldi shop, I just have this urge to run like hell as soon as I get into the shop.  I'm sorry if I am upsetting any avid Aldi shoppers but to me the shop feels dirty and scuzzy, and I won't go back.  Stamps foot!

Roberto's Trip to Halfords

Roberto had a little pootle to Halfords the other day to get some man stuff for the car.  This is how it went.

He puts his tin of stuff on the counter, ready to pay.

YOUNG CHECKOUT GIRL: "That'll be £9.99 please.  You can get another one, it's buy one and get one free".

ROBERTO: "No thanks. That's okay".

YOUNG CHECKOUT GIRL: "Think about it".

ROBERTO: "I'll just go and get another one".


It's a man thing, girls.

Going off Radar

Dear Bloggy amis, if I disappear from the Bloggy radar for a while, it's because I'm having some hospital treatment within the next few weeks and months and will need some time to recover. I will still come and visit your lovely blogs, though, so I won't totally disappear, and if any amusing stories crop up, of course I will relay them to you with pleasure.

 

See you on the other side amigos!

 

Love from Mollykins

Happy Ending

 

 

Every now and again in amongst the darkness of wars that have nothing to do with us and  general doom and gloom that is fed to us 24 hours a day by our Mainstream Media, a little chink of light appears and a miraculous thing happens.  A good news story makes it onto the News.

 

I'm not saying that what happened to the elderly gentleman pictured above is good news but what came of his ordeal was just wonderful. Alan Barnes, a disabled pensioner was mugged right outside his house in Gateshead.  He was thrown to the ground and broke his collar bone. After his ordeal, he was terrified to stay in his own house and went to his sister's house to recover.  In the meantime, a young woman called Katy Cutler heard what happened to Alan and decided to set up an online donation page to raise money to help him move to another house.  She initially intended to raise £500 to help him buy carpets and curtains for a new home but the donation page went viral (as they say in social network circles) and as of today's date, the amount of money raised for Alan is now standing at £300,000.  That is more than enough money for Alan to buy his own house.  What a fantastic happy ending!

 





 

The Not-so-Fabulous Mr Fox



Sad news to report, mes amis.  Mr Fox had Donald, one of our white ducks, for Christmas dinner.  He had Daisy the week before...and poor old Fatty, my black and white duck has disappeared as well.  I am so sorry about Fatty because we had him the longest and I did think he had his wits about him with regard to the fox. We still have six young white ducks but we are keeping them in the big shed until the weather gets better as the pond does freeze up and Mr Fox can walk over it.

 

 

 



Donald and Daisy Duck - no longer with us

Award

I am very pleased and proud to announce that my blog has made it onto the prestigious award list compiled by Lord Pudding of Yorkshire.  The Laughing Horse Blog Award is extremely coveted by the blogging community so it is indeed an honour to have made it onto the list for 2014, under the "Top East Yorkshire Blogger" category.

 

Madness!

Yesterday, 20 December, on our way to the outskirts of Hull via the A63, there was traffic queuing on the inside lane from the Humber Bridge to the next slip road and beyond. Do you know why?  They were queuing up to get to the Sainsbury's supermarket.  Can you believe people sit in their cars in a mile long queue waiting to get to a grocery shop?  Further along at another slip road, more queues, this time for a large Asda store.  What is this madness that takes over people at Christmas?  It's only one day of the year and the shops are all open again on Boxing Day. Nobody is going to starve.

I am quite sickened by all the greed and over consumption.  Usually I love the run up to Christmas and I normally have Michael Buble's Christmas CD playing on a loop in the house and in the car when I go out but this year I am a bit p***d off with it all.  Christmas stuff in the shops and being advertised on TV from October, disgusting Black Friday greed, hearing about people spending upwards of £300 each on small children who will not know what they have at the end of the day, or who gave it to them. I even heard about one young mother who is buying an ipad for a 5 year old because he decided to add it to his very long list at the last minute. The icing on the cake for me this year was seeing Cadbury's Crème Eggs being sold at the beginning of December.  Bloody Easter eggs!!

Don't get me wrong, I have always loved Christmas but on reaching the age I am at now, I'm just not sure I believe the Jesus story any more. 

Anyway, wishing you a very Happy Winter Solstice.  Let's welcome the sun back and look forward to spring.

Joyeux Noel!  See you on the flip side, as they say.

 

 

Kaledo Jewellery Sale

 

 

 

Just wanted to let you know that my very creative sister is having a big pre-Christmas sale in her Etsy jewellery shop - 50% off everything from Friday, 28 November until Monday, 1 December 2014. All the jewellery is designed and made with love by my sister, Kathryn.

 

The link to her Etsy shop is www.kaledo.etsy.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duck Flu and Scare Mongering Media Nitwits

 

 

 

I am SO sick of London media nitwits when they immediately start the scare mongering stories as soon as something like bird flu hits a small town in East Yorkshire.  These people won't even know where East Yorkshire is.  The fact is that sometimes, like all living creatures,  birds get sick. When they are cooped up in pens in their thousands, the sickness will spread.  Humans cannot catch flu from a duck.  It is not the H5N1 virus which is a man-made virus, developed in a laboratory by scientists (that will never be announced on Sky or BBC News). 

 

I can see what's going to happen.  The media frenzy will blow it all out of proportion again and suddenly the Christmas turkey industry will collapse because everyone will be buying a hunk of beef for Christmas dinner. The sad thing is that the masses believe what the brainwashing media tell them.  Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 today made me particularly mad today in likening the bird flu outbreak to Ebola in Africa.  There's something wrong with that man.

 

I am watching it all from the sidelines and I really hope that the majority of people realise that the media is deliberately spreading fear.  Christ, I hope Kay Burley from Sky News doesn't turn up in East Yorkshire!!

 

 

Silent Night

This beautiful video made me cry. It speaks for itself.  I am just sorry it's an advert for Sainsbury's. 

New Ducks on the Block

Well, blow me rags!  First of all we couldn't get white ducks for love nor money and now we have eight.  We acquired two fully grown ducks a couple of weeks ago.  Their previous owners called them Donald & Daisy (I know, not very original).  They are fully grown and very, very spoiled.  Daisy seems to just sit on her duck's a*se all day eating and sleeping while Donald goes for a wee swim with the guys.  I am slightly worried about the fox because we have seen it in broad daylight a couple of times but the ducks seem to sense it and stay in the pond, just sitting there in silence.

 

Donald and Daisy Duck

Yesterday we had a 'phone call from a friend who knew someone who was selling six white ducklings, so naturally we jumped at the chance.  They are 12 weeks old and still have some downy feathers so we are keeping them in a shed for a week or two until they get a bit bigger and lose their downy feathers.  They are still a bit grubby and scrawny (think they were just kept in a yard) but as soon as they get into the pond, they will be pristine white again. I will have to teach them about the fox before I release them.  I lost several lovely white ducks to a fox about 4 years ago and I was heartbroken because we had reared them from tiny little balls of fluff. Anyway, here's a first picture of them in the old shed.

 

 

Don't stand in the drinking water, you plonker!

I will keep you updated with their progress.  They are still a little bit bewildered but they'll soon settle down.

The Last Leg of our Cruise

Before I continue, I just wanted to mention something I saw on Sky News while we were in our cabin one morning.  Good old P&O, only two channels on the TV - Sky News and Sky Sports. What a great marketing ploy to keep your passengers out of their cabins and up on deck spending on the ship. Anyway, the presenters were discussing Brad Pitt's new World War II film, which I think is called Fury.  Apparently Brad employed the services of a 90-year-old war veteran to advise him throughout the film.  I bet the old boy thoroughly enjoyed doing that.  The elderly gentleman didn't have a clue who Brad Pitt was when he was first contacted and said something like, "If you're not Alex Guinness then I don't know who you are".  Brad took it all in good humour (he's a lovely lad is Brad - kind face).

 

FEMALE SKY NEWS REPORTER: "He didn't know who Brad Pitt was?  Where has he been? 

 

Who are these people?

 

I'll tell you who they are.  They are the kind of people who eat in Marco Pierre White's restaurant in London and rave about it to their media bubble friends. The same nitwit female reporter will order the consommé and then say, "this is to die for.  I must ask Marco for the recipe". 

 

"It's a Knorr stock cube with boiling water, love, and you've just paid £100 for yours".
 

 

...AND MOVING SWIFTLY ON - NEXT STOP, TOULON IN FRANCE

 

Toulon Harbour

 

There wasn't a great deal to Toulon and we were originally going to catch a train to Cannes but decided against it because the journey was an hour and a half and the trains were not that regular so we didn't want to be stranded as the Ventura set sail for Barcelona. We wandered round the streets of Toulon, through the market streets filled with the scent of wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables and herbs.  I could just have stood there and breathed it all in for hours.  It smelled as if all the fresh produce had been picked that morning, which it probably had. We stopped for a coffee and to my great delight, the French waiter was quite snotty...but not enough.  We should have stopped off at Nice the other day for some super-snottyness. The best snotty waiters are there.

We walked a bit further on and found an indoor shopping centre with a huge supermarket as well as other shops.  I turned round and saw Roberto dashing up the escalator and wondered what the fluff he was up to.  When I got to the top of the escalator, I realised what it was.  No, it wasn't a shop that sold special NASA baseball hats.  It was his old favourite shop, C&A.  Great joy! He used to love C&A in the UK because it was one of the only shops that didn't mess around with the sizes and their shirts always fitted him perfectly.  We found him three nice shirts and when I got to the checkout, the very nice French checkout lady told me there was 50% off two of the shirts - even greater joy!  We didn't do much more in Toulon as we were still quite tired from all the gadding about the day before so we just had a cold drink at the harbour and then went off to join the queue for the tender boat and went back to the ship.  

The next day was a welcome sea day and we just chilled out, sat in the sun, walked round the deck and just generally faffed around, as you do.

Sunday and we are in Barcelona.  It was incredibly busy with thousands of tourists.  There were also three other huge cruise liners docked up beside the Ventura.  We walked the length of the Ramblas and then came to a big shopping centre, which was closed.  It's not that we only went to shopping centres on our holiday, but I always find it interesting to see what the shops are like in other countries.  We found out that the big stores don't open at all on Sundays in Barcelona so I was a bit annoyed with P&O for that one because the Sunday docking was probably cheaper for them.  I loved the Spanish people though.  They are so patient and even if they didn't speak much English, they tried their best (I don't speak any Spanish) and the thing I liked most was when you were crossing a road at a crossing, they weren't revving up their engines like Formula 1 drivers, ready to run over your toes (like they do in France). 

Christopher Columbus statue (left), Barcelona

Our last stop on the cruise was Palma in Mallorca. I loved it!  I had only ever been to Mallorca  once when I was about 23 years old on a girly holiday and all we did was sunbathe and swim and go out at night, as you do when you are young.  I would love to go back to Mallorca for a proper holiday, hire a car and go exploring.  The weather was fantastic for October.  At midday it was about 28 degrees. Even more exciting for Roberto....we found another C&A shop - WHOOOPPPEEEEE!! It was funny because it had autumn and winter woollies in when it was so hot outside.  Maybe they were for the British tourists.  Anyway, we both bought a winter jumper each - no, not matching.  Roberto now wants to plan a driving tour of Europe, based on where the C&A shops are located.

The Cathedral in Mallorca

The harbour in Mallorca

Well, that was just about it mes amis.  We had one more sea day and then on arrival at Malaga, we were transported to the airport at 6am and homeward bound, arriving in a dull grey Manchester at around 12.30 and then getting stuck for two hours on the M62 because of an accident.  Never mind, we had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed our first cruise. We can't wait for the next one.  Better start saving.

Monaco & Antibes

During our recent cruise we had surprisingly good entertainment in the evenings. I was expecting typical cruise ship crooners (there were a few) but we had a really good Elton John tribute singer, a Kenny Rogers and a Phil Collins.  They were all very good.  Then one night in the theatre we had Tom O'Connor.  He is still going strong and is much funnier than some of the younger comedians you see on TV nowadays. There was a ventriloquist one night but that was just a step too far for us.  We gave that one a miss.

 

...and onwards to Monaco....

 

Early morning arrival in Monaco

We were out on the balcony again in our jimmy jams to see the ship's arrival in Monaco.  I don't think I've told you before chers amis but I lived in Nice for about a year when I was in my late twenties and had a job in Monaco as a secretary in a shipping agency (it's still there).  Please don't think it was all glamorous and exciting.  It was the most boring job I have ever had and the hours were long but it was a lovely place to work, and I didn't have to pay tax - result!  Anyway, because we knew Monaco quite well, we decided to take the train to Antibes for part of the day and then have a walk round Monaco when we came back.

 

I couldn't believe how much Monaco had changed.  We thought it would be easy going to the train station which wasn't anything special the last time we were there.  Now, it has  been completely modernised and extended and is all under cover.  We walked a mile along a moving walkway and followed directions for the ticket office.  The ticket office was closed.  Of course, it was still before 9am.  So we tried to suss out the ticket machine, which took a while but we managed in the end and then we had to try and work out which platform to wait on, which also was not obvious and there were no  screens on the platform to help.  Anyway, we eventually got our train and made our way to Antibes.  It is a lovely train ride along the coast in the bright sunshine.  I can't remember how long it took, maybe half an hour or 45 minutes.

 

Back street in Antibes

The harbour at Antibes
My boat's bigger than your boat!

The last time we had been in Antibes was quite a few years ago, maybe 15, and Roberto remembered going into a little café/restaurant and having the best chicken club sandwich ever, so we went in search of the Key West....and we found it!  He was over the moon, and the menu was still the same.  So if you are ever visiting Antibes, go to the Key West for your lunch. 

 

Key West Bar/Café in Antibes.  It isn't anything special
but their chicken club sandwiches are just fab.

I bought a big bag of herbes de Provence (a magic ingredient for my winter soups) and some lovely lavender soap from one of the little shops in Antibes and then we were off back to Monaco on the train.

It was hot, noisy and crowded in Monaco.  There is building work going on everywhere you go.  I was really tired by this time and I couldn't face the climb up the hill to Monte Carlo so we found the lifts that took you most of the way up.  There was a wedding going on in the Hotel de Paris. We didn't see who it was but you should have seen the cars parked outside!  There was quite a few million squid in cars alone. We just had a wander round and took a few photos. I was just about past myself by then so we wandered slowly back to the ship and had a look in a few shops on the way.

Monaco harbour with our ship the Ventura docked up.
 

Sun setting over Monaco as we sail away

Update on Roberto's lost hat.  No we haven't suddenly found it but he's still chuntering on about it, saying that some old b***d is wearing his special NASA hat on the way to the Caribbean on the next leg of Ventura's cruise. I might just go online and see if I can still order one from the NASA website and pretend that the old b***d felt guilty and sent it in the post. 

Arrivederci Roma et Bonjour Ajaccio

Ajaccio from the top of our tour bus

If felt a bit strange arriving in a different country each day, but it was a nice kind of strange.  We looked forward each morning to exploring the new place we had just arrived at. I forgot to mention that every time we disembarked, the P&O photographers were waiting for us like paparazzi.  They took a photo of disembarking passengers at every stop and then later on you could go to the photo gallery and find your photo and pay...wait for it...£11.80.  They also took photos of you at the black tie evenings (if you wanted a special portrait) and those photos cost £17.95.  The special album to collect all your photos cost £21.00, so if you were daft enough to buy every photo and an album, you would be out of pocket to the tune of about £200 squid or more.

 

Anyway, we made our way out of the port in Ajaccio and found an open top double decker tour bus and decided to do the little tour.  Quite a few of the other passengers came along as well and it was a lovely tour round the coastal road and then back through the town.  For some strange reason, we didn't take a lot of photos in Ajaccio so I can't show you much of it.  Again, it was a lovely old town with a market in the square and lots of interesting little shops. After the bus tour, we went to a café to have a cappuccino and decide what to do next.  I saw this couple from our cruise ship sitting at the end table in the same café.  I don't like to speak ill of my fellow British passengers but they were both very large and round and I'm sure I heard the woman asking the French waiter if they did English breakfast.  I wasn't sure if I heard it right because there is no way those two would have missed breakfast on board the ship, but sure enough, the waiter brought them a menu. Later on when we were back on board the ship, we went up to the buffet restaurant for afternoon tea - how lovely is that? They did little dainty sandwiches, cakes and toasted tea cakes and it was all very British.  I came upon the round couple again, plates piled high with the little sandwiches and cakes.  I don't like to judge people but I couldn't believe how much they ate.  Maybe food is an addiction for some people. To the Rolling Room with them!

 

A week into our cruise and we arrive back in Italy, this time in Genoa.  For most of the stops, we had done our own research into what we wanted to see, train timetables etc because the P&O organised excursions were quite expensive.  However, we noticed there was a trip to Portofino and there is no way we could have found our own way there so we splashed the cash and booked the trip and we were very glad we did. 

The coach took us to a little fishing village called Camogli to catch the boat to Portofino.  We had an hour in Camogli to go for a coffee and explore a bit.  It was really lovely, with all the high flats painted different colours.  The tour guide explained that this was for the fishermen years ago.  After they had been at sea for days they would look out for their own apartment by the colour and it would cheer them up and make them feel as if they were nearly home.

Camogli, Italy

 

Arriving in Portofino

 Portofino is not that big but it is absolutely beautiful.  After having a walk round we stopped at a café for a gelato.  They were expensive but we thought we would treat ourselves.  We thought they would be big and fancy with bells on.  In fact, when they arrived, it was 3 scoops of ice cream in a small silver dish.  Never mind, at least we can say we had a gelato in Portofino. We would like to have stayed for longer but the tour guide told us all to meet up at a certain time to get the boat back for the coach.  We didn't go back to Camogli, however.  This time we went onwards and were dropped off at Santa Margarita which was also a lovely town but we didn't have time to see it properly as we were marched to the coach to go back to Genoa.
 

 

Portofino



Portofino

Right, onwards and upwards.  Monaco and Antibes in a day next....think I need a rest. 

First Stop Kotor, Montenegro

Early morning arrival in the Bay of Kotor

I had never heard of Kotor before our trip.  Its neighbours are Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. We got up early to see the beautiful bay surrounded by mountains.  It was like sailing through a fjord.  It was cool and misty and very quiet and peaceful. We stood on the balcony in our jimmy jams and enjoyed the beautiful views and the calmness of it all.

Then after breakfast we jumped into the tender boat with some other passengers and off we went to explore another new place. It is only a small town but it dates back to Ancient Roman times.  On disembarking the tender boat, we were instantly bombarded by touts trying to sell tours and taxi rides, which was a bit disconcerting to say the least.  We hurried through the crowd and went our own way, immediately finding the entrance to the old town.

The old town of Kotor

We wandered around looking in all the little shops and then found our way to the top of the town where there was an old stone path you could walk up to an ancient fortress. Malheureusement, we didn't make it to the fortress, chers amis. It was like climbing a mountain.  The path was all cobbled stones and there were rough steps at the side which were easier to walk up but it was so steep to climb up and we were gasping for breath after each section.  Can I just point out that we were not the only unfit people on the climb.  There were plenty of other tourists wheezing and gasping on their way up. Anyway, this is the photo we took when we got to the part where we couldn't take another step.

Kotor, Montenegro

Then it was downhill to a lovely café in the square for a cappuccino.


CORFU AND THE LOST HAT

The next day we arrived at Corfu.  We woke up early again, eager to get out and explore some more. Now Roberto had brought a special baseball cap with him.  He had bought it on holiday in America many moons ago in the Kennedy Space Centre.  It was a 40th anniversary of NASA hat and he had been saving it for a special occasion (I think that must be a man thing). Anyway, somehow or other between walking from our cabin to the shuttle bus, he lost said hat.  I don't know how he did it (no, he wasn't wearing it at the time!) but I didn't hear the end of it. He bought another one in Corfu because it was really hot there but it just wasn't as special as his NASA one.  He kept complaining that some old b***d on the ship would be wearing it by now and when we got back to the ship, he was looking menacingly at all the people with beige baseball caps on, ready to pounce. 

The old town of Corfu.  I loved all the little shops,
especially the leather bag shops.

 

ROBBERS AT THE GATES OF THE VATICAN

We had another sea day and then we arrived in Civitivecchia, Italy. We had checked out the train timetables to Rome before we went on the cruise.  We bought a return BIRG ticket for 12 Euros each, which was extremely cheap considering it was an hour's train journey to Rome and we could also use the ticket on the Metro and bus systems.  On arriving at Roma Ostiense station, we found the Metro and went two stops to Il Colosseo.

 



Photos taken and then it was back onto the Metro to San Pietro and the Vatican.  We didn't go into the Vatican because we didn't have time to wait for 3 hours, and to be honest, I wouldn't have waited for 3 hours anyway.  The queue must have been a mile long, if not longer.  It was as if people were waiting to see Jesus. I would like to have seen the Sistine Chapel but we  had less than a day to visit Rome and see as much as we could.

 

We had a walk round St Peter's Square because Roberto wanted to find the clues between the paving stones and solve the mystery of the Da Vinci code.  There were thousands of people there.  I mentioned the robbers at the gates because we had a look at the Vatican related souvenir tat on the stalls and shops and couldn't believe the prices.  If you wanted to buy rosary beads, they were 35 Euros on some stalls.  I would want diamond ones for that price. We also enquired in a shop about an SD card for Roberto's camera.  The price was 50 Euros, for the same one he bought in the UK for about £12. It disgusted me really because on all the streets we passed there were poor beggars lying there with limbs missing.  It was just awful and everyone was just walking past them - all those Christians. Jesus (if he really did exist) would definitely not have liked it. My early catholic brainwashing  came in handy as I was reminded of the story of Jesus in the temple:

 

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."   Matthew 21:12-13

Just for the record, I did have to look the quote up.  The brainwashing wasn't that effective. I'm not sure whether I was  having an off day but I just didn't like Rome.  Whether it was just the heat and the number of people but I wanted to run for the hills. Never mind, at least I can say I've seen some of it. The Italian trains were great - double deckers with very comfortable seats.  I thought we had made a mistake and gone into a first class carriage.  They were also slap bang on time in both directions.  We have a lot to learn from the Europeans about train travel.

Arrivederci Roma

 

 

 

Still Cruisin'

Don't worry, chers amis, I won't bore you with every day of our cruise but a few funny things did happen on our first sea day.  We went exploring on the ship on the first day, finding out where everything was.  Everyone is allocated a restaurant with waiter service, although you can go to the buffet restaurant any time you want.  We wanted to find ours so that we could go on the first formal night when you put on your posh clobber. Our restaurant was called Cinnamon and when we found it we noticed that there was a Marco Pierre White menu displayed outside.  We heard another passenger saying that it was just an advert for his White Room restaurant which was also on board (one that you had to pay through the nose for).  Anyway, we skipped off and continued exploring.

 

In the afternoon, we were just sitting relaxing in the bar/pool area, enjoying the sunshine and having a cold drink.  I saw someone pointing upwards and followed his gaze.  Standing in the open air restaurant above us, hair blowing in the breeze was......none other than Rob Brydon.

Rob Brydon, P&O Cruise Ship Ventura
9 October 2014

Just one more take, guys, and then it'll be a wrap.

We think he was making an advert for P&O.  They did the same take about ten times.  It got a bit boring in the end. Anyway, that was a bit of excitement on a sunny afternoon on the Adriatic.

Now to the formal evening.  There were a lot of seasoned cruisers in dinner suits and bow ties and ladies in long evening dresses. Ladies could also wear short cocktail dresses or smart trouser suits and the gents could wear a normal dark suit with tie. Roberto and I got dressed up and ready for our first meal in the Cinnamon restaurant.  We were looking forward to our meal but when we arrived and were seated, we discovered that the menu was in fact a Marco Pierre White menu.  I ordered the soup as a starter and Roberto ordered smoked salmon (once we had translated the menu from gobbledegook).  Well, the soup turned out to be consommé and I'm sure it was made from his so-called secret ingredient, i.e. Knorr stock cubes. We did have a laugh about that actually. Roberto's smoked salmon arrived.  He had one small piece of transparent smoked salmon with little bits of decoration around the plate and a small piece of lemon tied up in a muslin bag.  All very decorative but we were hungry!! The next course was also little bits of food decorating the plate so we decided to skip the dessert and raced upstairs to the buffet restaurant for some real food.  'Twas very disappointing.  I can't understand people paying hundreds of pounds for food like that and then raving about how brilliant it is.  Londoners, you can keep your celebrity chefs.  I did notice during the holiday that a really attractive girl was sent round to try and get bookings for the White Room every day.  I didn't see one person making a booking with her. In fact, she looked as if she was past herself most days.



Right, next stop Kotor.  Where the fluff is that?