Cruising!!

We are just back from our cruise. We had a fantastic time! We have been cruising with MSC for quite sometime now and this time we were rewarded with an unexpected cabin upgrade!

We started by flying from Gatwick to Venice, Marco Polo Airport with British Airways. I always smile at British Airways form of 'preferred customer' arrangement. They simply work out how many 'preferred customers' they have on board and then put a curtain across the cabin at that point!! Without that curtain it would simply be an Easy jet plane!!!

This time we were travelling on the beautiful MSC Magnifica. Its really hard to explain just how big these ships are. Its fair to say they are like floating blocks of flats from the outside !

We had originally booked an inside cabin, but a couple of weeks before were due to leave they sent out the tickets and I discovered that they had changed our cabin from an inside to a balcony cabin! I could hardly believe our luck, in fact I was expecting them to realise their mistake and tell us to return to our original cabin, but no we were in a balcony cabin!!

We were on the tenth deck - Riccione Deck, this was looking down onto the lifeboats below, 

When we left the port we seemed to sail through the centre of Venice, we could see lots of little bridges, boats, Gondolas and churches, it was an impressive scene!

On the first night we went down to the restaurant for dinner and found ourselves sat on a table with 8 other people. We were in the minority as all our dinner party were Australians!!! They were all good fun and by the end of the week we had made some good friends. We got on particularly well with one couple, Roseanne and Ken. They had come away on a holiday of a lifetime with another couple, they started with a week in Malta to visit family, followed by two weeks of cruises. The first week they sailed the Western Med and had been at sea a couple of days when one of their friends was taken ill and was airlifted to Hospital in Palma Majorca. They finished the first cruise on their own and their friend remained in hospital until the end of our cruise. They finally were able to meet up with them again on the Sunday morning. So Roseanne and Ken had to get on with it on their own while not being able to contact their friends while the ship was at sea. We were lucky to have found them and we met up several times to have drinks ! Perhaps one day we will get to see them again.

In preparation for my holiday I had my nails 'done' I have only had them done once before lots of years ago, so I had mixed feelings about trying them again. To start with I had to decide what colour I wanted, which was difficult. Once they were in place, I really had mixed feelings about them. I like the look of them, but they are really difficult to  get used to!! I feel that they are preventing me from doing things!! I can't do up my necklace, open cans of drink, scratch labels off of things, I keep coming across more and more things that I can't do. So now the holiday is over think that they will have to come off!!

Our first port of call was the Italian port of Brindisi. I'll tell you about that later in the week!

I hope that you all have a good week.

Beth's Turn!!

Here we go again, it seems barely five minutes since we were watching Carl learn to drive in his little Matiz called Kermit. Now we are doing it all again with Beth in the driving seat. 

Last week Beth passed her theory test and is ready to get cracking on her practical test, so the time has arrived for her to buy her own car and get it on the road so she can have a go!

Beth spotted a 'ginger' Matiz in her price range and we took it out for a test drive, it seemed to be fine so after doing a few checks on it and bargaining with the seller she purchased it. The insurance was OK but once she passes her test and is on her own it will go through the roof, but so far so good. Its made a big dent in her bank balance, purchase price, insurance and road tax, but now she is legal  and  ready to roll. Its good to look back and compare the two of them!!

The new car is to be known as Maximus the Matiz!!

Now the problem is keeping Bath in long enough to give us a break, we have been to the shops, put petrol in, been to the shops again, tonight she has volunteered to get fish and chips for dinner! The only slight fly in the ointment was that the owner delivered it to us and after they left it wouldn't start. Anyway thank goodness for RAC home start, the very nice man turned up (second time, same man!!) and checked it out only to find it was the battery. I expect the battery had been on the way out, but due to the cost of replacing it, I think he jump started it and let us get on with it! Anyway a new battery has been fitted (with thanks to Grandad) and Maximus is now fully up and running.

No pressure, but I hope she passes her test the first time like Carl!!!

I seem to have a million things to do and not the slightest interest in doing any of them!! Oh well I expect they will all be there for me to do tomorrow!

Here comes SUMMER!!!!

Over the Bank Holiday weekend we took a trip to Lemsford Fete. They were blessed with the weather, it was sunny and just hot enough to give us a bit of a glow! Beth had a go at Archery, she has done it before so she was keen to have another go. It was cheap enough £2 for six arrows and some tuition. She did very well hit the target every time!! We managed to win a mug on the tombola and that was it, I had hoped to win the big prize draw, one of the major prizes was a new all singing and all dancing sewing machine, it was not my lucky day!!

We popped down to the cemetery and its looking really pretty, with all the tulips in flower. I am impressed with  how the council are keeping it looking so good.

Of course the other big news of the past week was that it was the General Election. There had been so much coverage (as there usually is) but ALL the opinion polls were agreeing with each other and forecasting a hung parliament. It was Beth's first chance to vote, so we all went together to put our crosses in the box. There were lots of people there when we were there. So it looked like quite a good turnout. At the end of the day the actual turnout for our constituency was 68.8% not too bad all things considered.  This area has been Conservative for some while so it was not a great surprise that the incumbent was returned but this time with a smaller majority. The actual overall result was not as close as the predictions would have us believe . So we will have to see what the next five years will bring. Can't imagine it will be any better than the past five years. 

I have been in full flow craft wise, I have made all the invites for Carl's leaving do in July, I decided to sit up and see the election results come in and managed to do the whole lot in one evening!! He just has to get them out now. 

On Saturday I went to The Living Crafts show at Hatfield House. It had been years since I have last visited. We booked an entrance deal on line via Groupon. We got there for around 10 am and it was one of those days where it looked like it was about to rain all the time, so it was hard to know what to wear. So I ended up going for the fleece and scarf combo as I could put them in my back pack if it became suddenly tropical. I am still working on the art of selfie taking, I find it very hard not to look at where my finger is pushing the button on the phone!! My friends daughter being a youngster is professional at it!!!

There was some incredible art on display the above looked like blobs of clay mounted in a frame. The colours were gorgeous, it wasn't until we looked a bit closer that I realised that they were representations of faces and hands, very subtle and very beautiful!

There were also some very very expensive stalls, this bag made of up cycled/recycled fabrics and silk flowers had the price tag of £87 , well out of my comfort area!!! I did buy a couple of bits, some lovely lemon hand cream and we walked around the food tent a few times. That was in the interests of testing all on offer!! We tried all sorts biscuits, cakes, fudge, cheese, just little tiny tasters, but a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Just before we had lunch we spotted a group of ladies from West Herts College who were doing pottery. They bought along a gas fired kiln and lots of pots so that we could have a go at glazing our own pots with 'raku' glazes, so we did!! We glazed away and left out pots (and a hedgehog) in their safe hands while we went off for a spot of lunch. 

When we got back our masterpieces were on the way out of the kiln, Amy's hedgehog became a killer, the lady dropped it onto a bowl and smashed it!!

The glazes behave differently depending on the weather, so the green glazes actually turned out mainly red!! It was a nice cheap souvenir of the day!

We finished Saturday night with a great meal out with our friends at an Indian restaurant in Wheathampstead. Great weekend!!

I hope you all have a good week

Bank Holiday Weekend!

I am loving these three and four day weeks, I could get really used to it! 

Yesterday was a bit of a nothing day, just a bit of shopping and a lot of thinking about what to do for the weekend. I really like to have a 'plan' but so far a 'plan' has evaded me, So I have trawled through Pinterest for ideas and eventually hit upon these flowers. It passed an hour or so and I think that I will be able to do something with them, perhaps something arty farty like the beautiful wreath my friend Jane made!

The flowers on Jane's wreath are different type, I will try them next but she has warned me that I will need heat resistant fingers to  with the hot glue gun, I don't have a good track record with glue guns, I still have the burn scar from a Glue gun related injury several years ago!!

I also helped Jane to celebrate her birthday with a sensitive and useful home made gift from me!!

I knew she was starting  a new fitness regime, so I made her a block to walk around!! I am sure that she will use it often!!!

Beth and Grace have gone up to the 02 to see Olly Murs, so this afternoon we went over to Watford to drop her off, I took a chance to have a look around the shops and finally made it into Tiger, The last time I was in one I was in Amsterdam! We had to drop into Primark and picked up a few bits in their sale. I dropped Beth at Watford Junction and when she got out of the car she was nearly blow, away!! She text me when they got there and they somehow managed to get themselves upgraded and into the VIP lounge, who knows they may bring Olly home with them!!

Finally a few photos of our lovely doggie Hunny. She is now an elderly lady of 12 years, she is slowing up and no longer really wants to go for long walks, in fact she is happiest sunning herself in the back garden, she makes me smile when she lets us know she wants to go into the garden and then finds herself a sunny spot!

So happy Bank Holiday tomorrow, lets hope it stays dry!!

A Weekend in Krakow

I have just returned from a lovely weekend in Krakow in Poland. Part of my drive to see new places in Europe meant that I 'did' Poland twice in a month!!

This time it was Krakow a very pretty city and the former capital city of Poland. We flew with Ryan air from Stanstead. The first flight had not been without issues, this time it was no better. We arrived at the airport early in the morning for out 8.30am flight. We checked the boards and queued up at the right check in desk. After waiting for ages to get to the front (Ryan air have supermarket style queues where what ever queue you join moves the slowest!! Easy jet have Post Office style queues where you queue and take the next available check in) Once we got to the front the lady said that check in had moved to another desk!! So we moved queued again finally got to the front and the baggage machine in our queue broke down. We asked the lady what we should do and she said join another queue!!!! Well I was not best pleased. I was fuming. Luckily the man in the queue next door allowed us to go next on his queue!

So we headed off to security check in and I was subjected to yet another body search, the perils of having a metal hip joint. I know why they have to do it, but it can be downright  invasive to have the waist band of your trousers 'felt' under your top. I really had not appreciated just how much of an issue that this would be for me. It makes clearing security a complete pain. I wish all airports had body scanners at least they can see what my issue is. 

We took off and had a bit of a bumpy flight, we landed several times having bounced along the carriageway. We were late so were not subjected to the Ryanair fan fair!!

We were collected by taxi (another moment of fame, a man waiting for me with my name on a board!!) Our hotel, The Hotel Polonia,  We had chosen the hotel for its good reviews and excellent price. We paid around £30 a night for bed and excellent breakfast.

The view from my hotel room was good, I looked over a park and a tram stop. The hotel and the tram have both been there since 1917 and every time the trams went by the whole place shook!

On the second day we took a really exhausting trip to Auschwitz , Birkenau and the salt mines.

We were collected at 9am and had a 90 minute drive to Auschwitz. We had a tour guide who took us around the camp. Its a very sad place and very hard to actually understand the whole size of the horror that happened there, 

Strangely the place looked like quite a nice collection of blocks of flats , I know that at the height of the atrocity it was very grim but look at it now!

There is still lots of evidence of the past history around, barbed wire and look out towers.

There were two concentration camps close together, the other one was called Birkenau, there was a railway that connected the camps. People were rounded up and taken to one of the camps where they were selected to either work or be exterminated. Some people arrived at the camp and were killed within the hour. A truly horrific place.

There were some very sad exhibits, people had been told that they were being taken to a better place to escape the war, so they packed all their precious belongings to take to their new life. They were stripped of their possessions and executed.

We walked for miles (according to my tracker on my iphone by the end of the day we had walked 9 miles!!) 

We ended the day by visiting the salt mines. That was an interesting trip, We went far underground and visited an underground cathedral built by the miners. It was quite a trip!

Just about everything was made out of rock salt.

It was a great visit right up until the end when we had to get back up to the surface via a miners lift, which was cramped and pitch black!!!

Take a look at the Salt Mine Website HERE!

That was an exhausting day but one that I am glad I was able to do. 

Hurrah!! we are heading towards a long weekend. I love a nice Bank Holiday! I am getting used to four day weeks.

Have a lovely weekend.

All the Children are back in England.

Today we collected Grace and Carl from Heathrow, they had travelled from Australia, three flights several time zones and total exhaustion after 26 hours on the go! We had an early start, up at 5am to collect them, it was good to see them back none the less.

They had a great time and we heard a few of their adventures on the journey home I expect over the next few weeks we will hear a few  more! I suspect we were a bit of a let down, we forgot to bring a a big banner with their names on!! We dropped Carl home and I didn't have any washing to do , the bonus of him living in his own flat!

This Easter holiday Beth went away to Spain so Tom and I had a fairly peaceful time apart from all the trips to the airport!

I have had a nice creative weekend doing a few bits and pieces to keep me amused. My friend Jane is doing a stall at a cancer research fund raiser, she needs to make a few bits and bobs, so she has started to 'create' some things to sell. Today I helped her by making a few draw string bags which we plan to fill with some useful bits. I bought a similar bag from a craft show and we know can adapt them for our needs. 

The material is really cute, lots of little pink ribbons, I have delivered them back to her and will await the filling ceremony complete with information tag!!

I have been in need of a new sewing box, I have outgrown the one that I have and its something that I use fairly regularly! Last one one of the ladies that I work with had got some sturdy shoe boxes that she had saved for me (I use them for Samaritans purse Shoebox appeal at Christmas) So I re-purposed one of them!

It was good to get my hot glue gun out again and make my box!! It didn't take too long to fill it up again, I may need to make another one, I am pleased with how it turned out.

I know that I am becoming a bit of a holiday bore, but on Friday we went around to see Raymonde and Colin. This year they have been to Taiwan a couple of times already, so it was only right that I picked their brains for the right area to stay. We had a lovely evening, great food and loads of advice about where to go and what to see, we also saw lots of pictures, I am really looking forward to going and exploring for myself! The good thing for everyone who has to put up with me going on about this is that I have now booked a hotel in Taipei - Hurrah!!! I 'think' its in a good area as per my notes. Its next to a train station so that's another good point! few more nights booked so all is well with the world!

This week I have a fair bit going on to look forward to, so have a great week and I'll be back soon.