alone

I love being alone. A wise old woman once said that privacy is a state of mind...and that statement has saved my sanity many a time. And, really, I don't want to be all alone in this world. That would be awful. But now and then, some time all alone would be nice. Especially at bedtime. I love getting into bed, all alone, with water, cell phone, laptop, Hello magazine, tv clicker, (no snack cuz I have removed my teeth), kindle, ipad, two fans blowing directly on me and at least seven pillows. Ahhhhh....heaven. But, as you can imagine, this almost never ever happens.

Bill has been in the hospital since last Friday. He is just fine and will be home soon. I have loved every single minute of it. Now, if he was never coming home again, I would not be so happy. But there is an end in sight so I can enjoy it!

Another tradition in this house that happens when Bill is away for a night, we order ridonculously crazy amounts of delivered chinese food. Mmmmmmmm.....its so good, for days and days....nothing better than cold chinese food for breakfast.

So, I have to admit I have been kind of enjoying Bill's stay in the hospital. I have gone to bed every night with all my accoutrement, we order silly amounts of delicious chinese food, had long loud conversations with the kids with no tv blasting, played the piano and let all the crap I own pile up on HIS side of the bed.

I think he will be home today and yes, I am glad.

decorations

Yesterday I mentioned that April was having a tea party for a few friends in honour of one them's birthday. Well, now its about eight people and horror of horrors she came upstairs last night with.....crepe paper streamers in her hands.

I detest decorations..of any sort. No matter how cute, how pretty and how well they are put up, the place just looks messy. And, they never go away. Not really.

This delightful daughter still has cobwebs in the corner of her living room from halloween. There was a "spider" on our front door window that would still be residing there except for one thing...we bought a new door and replaced the old one. And you know when you pull down those streamers how the little pinned in ends tear off and stay behind? That will be there FOREVER!!!

So up she came, apologizing all the while, and put up acres of streamers. Oh, it looks festive and pink and Jess will love it. But...we shall see. I will report back after the party on how clean the decoration removal is! (and as I sit here, I see one of the streamers has already disconnected and fallen on one side, knocking everything out of balance..which hurts my libran necessity for symmetry! )

double chins

I am sitting here in the living room watching tv. It has been a long dry spell with no tv. Randomly, Rachel Ray is on. She has a doctor on that is showing how to get rid of double chins!!! Holy Moly!! I could definitely use some of that! Tiny scar, half hour operation, two day recovery, fifteen hundred dollars......now to work on the rest of me!

Its great to be home. Our doggies were so happy to see us. The house was clean!! Only one thing got broken. I just can't find any of our mail. I think it is down stairs but I keep asking and am not getting an answer.

I need to make plans to get up to Kamloops to see Mom and over to Courtenay to see Kevin et al. First though I have to get rid of this stupid cough I have. Its painful and loud. Stupid old men that don't cover their mouths on the ship.

The first thing we did after getting home from the airport was head off to Costco. If you read my blog at all you will know what we feel about Costco!! But this time I was sick. I dragged my butt around, moaning and groaning and coughing, hanging off the buggy and I even bypassed the taste test stuff. As I was checking out, Bill went over and bought a hot dog and poutine. I couldn't even eat it. That has to be a first! I went to bed really early and slept til morning.

Now, I here there is to be a tea party upstairs here Friday nite for one of April's friends. They're place is too small. So I need to clean up our mess we have made since getting home, clean up purple room so Jojo can sleep in there. I will feel good having all that done. I shall post pics! TTYL

new york...after

We made it back to our hotel in one piece, in pain, but in one piece! We caught all those trains then walked all those miles. We met awesome people and several times today people from the ship came up and said Hi and were so excited to recognize someone!! It was pretty amazing when you think of the millions of people in this city.

We stopped in a Macdonalds first thing this morning for a coffee. A fellow with his 12 year old son came and sat down next to us and proceeded to talk and talk and talk in his new york accent...it was awesome. After about fifteen minutes, we knew his whole life history! We walked the whole High Line parkway. What a fabulous place and everyone here in New york is so friendly. We met a lot of people. But...by the time we started back to the station area, our feet and backs were hurting so bad we stopped in a drug store and picked up some ibuprophen. We then stopped at our favourite deli and had dinner, then caught all those trains and shuttles back to our hotel. We have to get up at 3 am to get our plane. Achchchchchc....but we will get home early. TTYL

new york city

Here we are in the Crowne Plaza, in New Jersey.

Today, after docking, we went on an amazing NYC tour. We got down to ground zero and saw all the stuff going on. This city is closing down, slamming shut!!! There were police simply everywhere.

After checking into our hotel, we got the shuttle back to the airport, took the air train to the train station, got the train into Penn Station in the city. (Saw lots of Jersey girls!! Good God!!) We walked and walked and walked and walked. We did stop at our favorite deli for a sandwich. Then we went back to Penn, got the train, got the next train, got the shuttle and now I am going to bed. We are going to try to get into the city tomorrow but we are hearing it could be a problem. we shall see TTYL!!!

day 26,27,28 Yay Canada

Almost the end of the trip. I have gotten behind in my blogging here. So I shall do a quick catch up:
26) We arrived in St. Johns around noon. It was just plain strange to see Canada as a tourist. What a wonderful sight Petro Canada was!! And our flag and the big words Canada on a government building near the pier. We got off and walked around this most charming little city. The buildings are all painted bright colours and the streets are hilly and old. We dipped in and out of little stores and coffee shops and ran into lots of people we know from the ship. It was a delightful day and an easy one. We bought some pricey things in one of the shops, and I was worrying out loud about our tax free limits etc…when Bill suddenly exclaimed, “but this is Canada…it doesn’t count! We can spend as much as we want!” Jeez, we had to laugh.

27) Day at sea, and at this stage of the game…tiresome. At this stage of the trip we now know people. So, you can’t walk anywhere without having to stop and talk talk talk. We have met this one guy, not that old, a retired pilot. He flew the big big planes for American Airlines. This guy is so full of himself I want to slap him. And he tells endless bad jokes. And he is the kind of guy that will NOT laugh at your jokes. We run into him constantly and now he seeks us out to sit with us at breakfast, lunch, dinner, the shows, the cafe, you name it. Hes that guy that does all the trivia games, does the tell a joke night, does karaoke, actually has brought the outfit for line dancing night, doesn’t have a wife, and his you know what doesn’t stink. Bill and I now spend a lot of our time hiding in our stateroom. Its just easier.

28) Halifax….I wanted to go to a fat lady store. We have been to Halifax before so we didn’t feel the need to do a tour. I phoned Monte, woke him up, and had him google my favourite fat lady store…Additionelle/Penningtons and tell me the address and mall it was in. We got off the boat around nine thirty, got a taxi, paid him to give us a one hour tour and then drop us off at the mall. We ran around the mall for a while then I popped into the store while Bill went to Walmart. I got exactly what I was looking for!! We went to Tim Hortons and had a coffee and caught a taxi back to the ship.

Tonite we wanted to go to the show. They had brought on the actress/singer that played Christine in Phantom of the opera for many many years on Broadway. We made sure we timed it so that we sat beside Esther in the front row, no room for annoying pilot guy. But he sat right behind us, and tapped us on the shoulder four hundred times. SHUUUUUT UUUUUUPPPPP!!!!! LEAVE US ALONE!!!!!!!!! * whimper whimper*

The singer was amazing and so entertaining. Tonite there is a Dutch Chocolate Buffet but pilot is going so we are going to skip it. Besides I have another hair appointment at 8 in the morning. (what was I thinking “sigh”) I think this will be the last entry until 9/11…unless something happens again tomorrow…afterall it is a sea day TTYL

day 25 I Don't Like People part 2

Good Morning! I just reread last night’s post and decided against zeroing in on one person. Something funny did happen, but it was only funny because nobody likes this broad. If it had happened to anyone else it would have been awful.

When you put 2000 plus people on a ship, with really nowhere to go, over time you really do get familiar with the whiners (or winers as my sister says). They are the ones I dislike the most. Nothing is done right or good enough for them. And….they are the competitive ones that have to be first and have the best.

We are ALWAYS lining up for something, the dining room to open, the theatre to open, the culinary cooking demos to open, the elevators to come, the front desk for questions and problem solving, the shore excursion desk to change, cancel or buy an excursion, the buffet line to get your lunch, to get on a tender to take you to shore, waiting for your tour number to be called, to get that comfy vibrating reclining chair at the front of the best lounge with the best view out the front of the boat (there are only ten of them and there are over 2000 people wanting one), to talk to techie guy about the internet, sign out a library book, get a computer, to get a latte from coffee guy (the slowest person on the whole ship I might add) ….. well cruising is just one big line up. Without the right frame of mind it could drive you crazy. I have taken this opportunity to practise my patience skills (my halo just went bling bling a little!)

This is how I cope now with it all. Go to the back of whatever line you are in, try to be last at whatever you are waiting for (as our excursion guy always says, “the last bus is the fun bus” and watch the people break their legs trying to be first. There is no dignity in shoving old ladies aside, striding with long purposeful legs to the front, then turn around and yell “Marge! Marge! Up here! MARGE!!! Up here! NOW!!”

We were all lined up for the coffee machine the other morning. I had brought my travel mug. It isn’t a very big one, it holds one of the ship’s mugs worth of coffee, but it keeps it hot. So there we are all lined up. Behind me this large man notices my mug. He states in a loud, I am the boss, voice “No travel mugs. They take too long to fill and it slows down the line.” So I go, “What? Are you kidding?” And he says “No. They slow the line down.” So I say, “Even little ones like mine? Its the same amount of coffee.” I don’t remember what his answer was. So when it was my turn, I set my lid off mug on the counter, grabbed a ship mug, filled it, and quickly poured it into MY mug and moved over to put the lid on and handed the dirty ship mug to a passing waiter. I then stared at the guy who is rolling his eyes and shaking his head. What an ass! I find it really hard to try and not engage in these little skirmishes, or get involved in some way. After a while I just want to purposely thwart them and stand back and watch the results. But I have a little australian voice (LC) sitting on my shoulder telling me I am better than that. I’m not, but I do need to at least try!

Yesterday we had to go to the front desk. This involves walking a looooooong way down a narrow hallway, with stateroom doors on each side. We were behind a little person (there are two on the ship, married, and totally awesome people) He was in his wheelchair, not a very big one but its really fast. He was zinging down the hallway at a hundred miles an hour when a large german man with the hugest stomach I have ever see and a very nasty attitude about everything (we have been on a number of buses with him and he always promptly goes to sleep and snores) stepped out into the hallway without looking first. Oh My God!! The collision was horrendous. That little wheelchair got the dude right in the back of the knees, which made german guy sit down really really fast, and he literally made the little person completely disappear, and the wheelchair just kept steaming down the hallway, now with giant german guy screaming like a girl, arms and legs flailing and no sign of little person. I ran like hell to try to catch them but I just couldn’t. They ended up bursting out of the hallway, across the lobby at the end and smashing into the wall beside the elevators. German guy managed to pull himself up and off, and it was evident immediately that the little guy was okay, but got a horrible tongue lashing, in German, from the german guy. Fortunately, german guy’s legs and knees took the brunt of it and the little guy and his chair ended up okay.

All right I am stopping here. Its pretty sad when wheelchair mishaps are the highlight of your day. There is just something wrong with that and I didn’t even tell you the other story, the one I WAS going to write about. Jeez!! It is now six in the morning and we will be pulling into St. Johns at noon. Yay!!! Canada!!!! TTYL

day 25 I Don't Like People

You know, the next time I make mention of taking a cruise, please use the comment box below to remind me that I don't like people, and especially in the last week of a very long cruise. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of lovely people here, but the stupid, picky, cranky, self-centred, too old to be out, needy, miserable ones kind of outshine the lovely ones.

I will blog more in the morning. This has been a very long at sea day, I am tired and I can't seem to drum up a good attitude...oh the irony of that!! But something did happen today, not very nice but it struck me funny (at the expense of a very nasty person here on board). I shall post it tomorrow morning. I am just too tired tonite. Sorry about that. TTYL

day 24 Greenland and Storm

Firstly, let me tell you what is happening outside!! We left Nanortalik, Greenland, about 2 pm this afternoon. It is now five. The captain came on the blower as we were leaving to warn us that we were heading straight into a storm. The waves are to reach twenty feet high and he has asked us to make sure everything is secure in our stateroom. We are to please hold handrails when venturing out and people that are not too sure on their feet should consider staying put and getting room service. He also suggested that if we have problems with seasickness, that we should visit the medical facility downstairs and get on that right away. Oh, and he reassured us that the Eurodam has been in high seas before and he expects she will do well this time as well. And believe me, its a stormin’ out there!!! The waves aren’t 20 feet yet, but they are getting there!

So, Nanortalik. This village, so remote and unget toable, sitting on a rocky little island just off the tip of Greenland was one of my life’s most astoundingly amazing experiences I shall ever have. We tendered in and the moment I stepped off the boat and onto Greenland I was entranced. It was scotch misting/borderline raining. We were on the fourth tender to land (each tender takes about 100 people) And the lineup of people waiting to go back to the ship was about 300 people long. I was ashamed and dismayed by these spoiled brat fellow passengers. The awful woman that sat behind us on the tender, from Ontario, kept saying to her husband, “look at all the people lining up to go back to the ship already. What does that say about this dinky little place? Eh??” The third time she said it, I turned and said, “Actually, what does that say about us? Eh???” In fact several people decided to not get into that long line up and just stayed on the tender. Can you believe it? They didn’t even get off. Sometimes I truly dislike (read hate but LC says that word is a no no) people. Especially fat spoiled awful people.

Bill and I walked the entire village, every lane, every crack, every pathway. We met the most awesome people along the way and took fantastic pictures. We went into their teeny tiny museum buildings, we patted their mangy awesome mutts, I took pictures of their beautiful babies, we sat on old faded painted upturned boats, we went into their grocery store and checked out the prices (eeekkk!!!) , we played with their older kids, we exchanged communications of some sort with the elders, we watched fishermen untangle fishnets, we watched a bunch of men getting the town social centre ready for a shindig of some sort tonite, we waved and laughed with giggly teenaged girls, we threw a ball for a while with some older teenaged boys, we shopped in their souvenir shop, we bought two CDs of Inuit and Greenland music (both truly awful) and caught the very last possible tender back to the ship at 1:30. This was an experience beyond any experience we have ever experienced! And as the ship blew its horn, and delicately wended its way through the icebergs floating about in their bay, the whole town turned out to wave us off and hoot and holler as we went. Oh my!!

And now here we are back in the lido, waiting for dinner to start. The boats a rocking big time, Frank Sinatra is blasting out of the speakers that are everywhere and I think I am ready for bed. Oh, and down one of those many lanes, over the bumpy paths and into the drizzle, behind brightly coloured houses near the museum, guess who we ran into, all by herself, in tears of joy because of where she was? Ester….good old crippled Ester. I love her. TTYL

day 23 Greenland and Mystery Solved

This was the most awesomest day ever. I had no idea that Greenland is what it is. Ice. All over except the coastal edges. And Greenland is huge. We got up at five this morning so we could watch Greenland come into view and then enter one of the very very narrow 60 mile channels. It was so incredible. The stark beauty of this land is beyond my ability to describe accurately.

We spent the day running from deck to deck getting pictures and viewing soaring mountains and icebergs. Alas! no polar bears showed themselves though. Out on the main viewing deck they served hot chocolate and pea soup!! It was only 4 degrees and the wind was blowing. Cold cold cold!!!

This afternoon our intrepid Captain took us up a fiord, that no one has gone into before that they know of!! It was truly amazing and unbelievable and we all felt like explorers! Then we came back out and went up another to a wee village of Inuit/eskimo descendants. The village was teeny tiny, colourful, perched on the very tippy edge of a vast rock face amongst the icebergs. There are about 150 inhabitants. We stopped the ship and a few of our people got into the rescue craft the ship has and went to the village, bearing gifts and pizzas…lots of hot pizzas!! It was truly a magical moment for all of us to share. About three or four little boats full of natives came whizzing out and around our ship, waving and yelling greetings!! I felt like Captain Cook in the Hawaiian Islands!! Such a special experience.

Now we are slowly working our way around the bottom of Greenland on our way to a village just up the west coast. There are only 57,000 people living on Greenland, spread around the perimeter. We tender into the village in the morning and they will be waiting to greet us with dances and singing and craft displays. We can freely walk around the village and take pictures. I can’t wait.

We found Ester. She had fallen between the bed and the wall in her room. They didn’t hear her tiny voice at first. After a day of looking, the nurse went into her room again and found her immediately. She simply got stuck down there and didn’t have the ability to get herself up. When asked how she was she answered that she knew someone would find her eventually so she had a nice long relaxing nap! She is such a darling and we are all so happy she is okay! So mystery solved and alls well. TTYL

day 22 Sea day and a Mystery

Just had a lobster dinner and still sitting here in the lido. Bill is reading whilst I blog. We also had french cut porkchops. Anyone know what the heck that is? We don’t! It has been foggy with very little visibility today. But…our captain has told us that as we near Greenland it will clear up.

We are getting up at five tomorrow morning (not so hard as each night for the last three nights we have been putting our clocks back an hour). We will be one hour out from entering Prins Christian Sund (thats how its spelt) That is when we will see fin whales, the second largest whales on earth, blue whales, the largest and polar bears along the coast. The channel we travel tomorrow is sixty miles long and at times so narrow it is only as wide as the ship is long. Apparently there are soaring cliffs and glaciers. Oh I wish I could show pics. The captain is taking us into fiords and around narrow channels where no cruise ship has ever gone before…so an exciting day! It is very very very isolated and lots of icebergs to navigate around.

On another note we went to four lectures today. So interesting. Two of them were by that geologist I have mentioned about greenland and the sund. Two of them were by the astronomer that is aboard. At every single lecture, we have gone down early enough to get “our” seats. Second row right by the middle aisle. In the first row, for every lecture, for every performance and for every tour, a tiny weeny crippled over little lady has sat right in front of us. She is about 87 years old and as charming as charm gets. She talks to everyone and is as sharp as a tack. Beside her a lady of about 75, travelling alone, sits. She is a part time travel lecturer in a college near Port Angelos and Anacortis. We have all become somewhat friendly and are now on first name basis. Esther, the older lady is from San Francisco. And today she wasn’t there. So after the fourth lecture, around four o’clock, I mentioned to Sheila, the other lady, that Esther wasn’t there. We became a little alarmed. Then the bar steward who goes around taking drink orders noticed and mentioned to us that she was missing. So Sheila decided to go to the front desk and just notify them that we hadn’t seen her and since she is travelling alone we are a little concerned. They knew who she was talking about immediately.

A few minutes ago I just ran into Sheila. They cannot find her. She isn’t in her room and they have scoured the ship and cannot find her. A few of us are now quite alarmed, as is the crew. I am seeing a number of decorated officers gathering with security and walkie talkies a………Oh, they just made a public announcement. They have called her name and asked her to call front desk and asked us passengers to keep an eye out for her. Oh Lordy. She is the dearest little person you’d ever want to meet. Where could she be?

Well, its time to sign off and get to bed. We have an early early morning. Oh….and that bag Bill had? He gave it to me. Inside was a shirt for Dorothy. What a sweet man…even if he annoys the hell out of me now and then. And I know for a fact that I annoy the hell out of him even more. LOL!! TTYL

day 21 Iceland and Bad Bill

We are back on the ship, sitting in the lido, have had a lovely dinner and now its time to blog.

We had an eight hour tour today. We sat in the very back of the bus with a bunch of Germans…so friendly even if they didn’t speak much English.

Iceland was absolutely NOT what I expected. Truly, I feel like one of those down south peeps that think we canadians get around by dog sled. It hardly ever snows here, the coldest it gets in the winter is about ten below and they have more daylight in a year than almost anywhere else on the planet.

There are no trees, other than ones they have imported and planted. All the areas that humans can go is like endless prairie with volcanoes off in the distance. The fields are covered with 1000 year old lava that is covered with green moss and lichen. There are lots and lots of geothermal areas, steam and geysers coming out of the ground. We drove about 125 miles today and basically saw endless fields of moss covered lava. I have to admit it was just a tad disappointing. Iceland was nothing at all like the Faeroes, which by comparison was indescribably beautiful.

We did stop at a geothermal plant…and learned all about how they are creating their electricity by using the underground hot water. Most interesting. But in the gift shoppy area, Bill made me so mad I stomped out of there. He can be so annoying and I can write this cuz I always read my blogs to him before I post. So, this is what happened:

Bill has a phobia of weird money. He simply does not want to come home with even 1 krona or whatever. But…..he always comes on these trips with nothing smaller than fifties. When you buy something with an american fifty or fifty euros, you get the change back in the country your in currency. So we never have small enough money to get something in the gift shops or small enough money to tip the tour guides…which is really embarrassing. So, today, in the thermal plant gift shop I found a t shirt I would dearly have loved to get my niece Dorothy. Plus we would get change to tip the guide and leftover kronas can be used in Greenland. But, do you think he would just hand over a fifty? No he would not. “Use your credit card” he says. So I explained my plan but nope, he just kept whining that we would end up with kronas. I KNOW! We can use them to tip the tour guide and spend it in Greenland. I finally got so mad I quietly but very forcefully said, “well I am handling and organizing the money next trip” And he yelled really loudly back, “Well good, you just do that!!!” Everybody was looking. Oh my God!! It was time for us all to go to the bus anyway so I ducked out of there and into the bus really quickly. But Bill, now all mad and preoccupied, didn’t remember that we had to be on the bus by 2:30. So the tour guide came down the aisle, counted us all and announced that one was missing. Hah!!! He didn’t show up for five minutes, long enough that when he got on the bus people razzed him. He took it well..He did show up with a bag. He bought something. I didn’t ask what it was or what he used to buy it. The bag is sitting on the bed and I ain’t touching it!!!

I just read this to him. He didn’t say much. But he did admit that he used an american fifty and we now have a few kronas to use in Greenland and he tipped the tour guide properly. Good man!! I still don’t know what is in the paper bag on the bed! TTYL