They were supposed to come by Christmas Eve but instead have arrived by New Years Eve!
Thursday, 30 December 2010
finally arrived
My Christmas Chocolate tasting box finally arrived this afternoon ;o)
They were supposed to come by Christmas Eve but instead have arrived by New Years Eve!
They were supposed to come by Christmas Eve but instead have arrived by New Years Eve!
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Novo James
Because I have been poorly I decided not to go to James Mum & Dads over Christmas (so as not to pass my bad cold onto his brothers kiddies).
So James went over on Boxing Day (26th December) and yesterday on his own, incidentally the kiddies have the Novovirus.
LOL James came home yesterday complaining of a stomach ache and consequently spent all night on the toilet with the squits!
Its a good job I replaced the toilet rolls on the toilet roll holder otherwise he would have come a cropper.
I am just hoping that I dont come down with it now...
So James went over on Boxing Day (26th December) and yesterday on his own, incidentally the kiddies have the Novovirus.
LOL James came home yesterday complaining of a stomach ache and consequently spent all night on the toilet with the squits!
Its a good job I replaced the toilet rolls on the toilet roll holder otherwise he would have come a cropper.
I am just hoping that I dont come down with it now...
Saturday, 25 December 2010
my chocolates didnt arrive!
Way back in August I ordered my Christmas Chocolate Box.
By Thursday it still hadnt arrived so I rang up the helpline and the message on there said that "all of the chocolate boxes have been dispatched and that they were working closely with the post office for all of the chocolate boxes to arrive by Christmas Eve".
I thought to myself "ok fair enough".
So I walked home form the station yesterday afternoon expecting to see my chocolate box waiting for me, and there was nothing on the doorstep. The postman leaves it there if he cant get it through the letterbox. So I opened the front door and there was no chocolate box on the doormat either.
I have since interrogated James (note to self energy bulbs arent as menacing as 100 watts no matter what it says on the packet) and he assured me that the chocolates hadnt made their way into his tummy!.
By Thursday it still hadnt arrived so I rang up the helpline and the message on there said that "all of the chocolate boxes have been dispatched and that they were working closely with the post office for all of the chocolate boxes to arrive by Christmas Eve".
I thought to myself "ok fair enough".
So I walked home form the station yesterday afternoon expecting to see my chocolate box waiting for me, and there was nothing on the doorstep. The postman leaves it there if he cant get it through the letterbox. So I opened the front door and there was no chocolate box on the doormat either.
I have since interrogated James (note to self energy bulbs arent as menacing as 100 watts no matter what it says on the packet) and he assured me that the chocolates hadnt made their way into his tummy!.
Friday, 24 December 2010
It must be Christmas Eve
I think it must just be a London thing as I was never aware of it happening when I worked in Chelmsford or Brentwood...
...what am I talking about?
Dads taking their kiddies to work! I saw 2 parents (One of them was a Mum) in my carriage this morning with their kids. One man had his unwell daughter (who vomited in the middle of the carriage no less) LOL she was then bent over almost vomiting by the doors as we were pulling into the station. I can imagine her Mum saying "now dont go embarrassing your Dad at work today" (good luck with that!).
I came into work this morning and found my beautiful Eeyore mug got broken by the cleaner :o(
Merry Christmas everyone ;o)
...what am I talking about?
Dads taking their kiddies to work! I saw 2 parents (One of them was a Mum) in my carriage this morning with their kids. One man had his unwell daughter (who vomited in the middle of the carriage no less) LOL she was then bent over almost vomiting by the doors as we were pulling into the station. I can imagine her Mum saying "now dont go embarrassing your Dad at work today" (good luck with that!).
I came into work this morning and found my beautiful Eeyore mug got broken by the cleaner :o(
Merry Christmas everyone ;o)
Sunday, 19 December 2010
poorly of Chelmsford
Last Saturday I came down with a cold (courtesy of my colleague) and it still here, while its not getting worse I dont seem to be getting better either!
I take multivitamins and everything but its still here...
Last Tuesday me and James went for our afternoon tea at The Ritz (LOL I dosed myself up on ibprofen before we went in ;o)). It was nice but nowhere near as nice as Claridges or The Dorchester as they seemed to be hurrying us along (it wasnt like we were eating slowly or anything) and one of the waiters even made a remark about the fact that we had eaten all of the food on our cake stand.
Hee hee they have even e-mailed me a survey to complete ;o) The fools!
Poor James was feeling quite grotty that day too (I think he had a different cold to me), so we looked for a restaurant quite near our hotel and found Prezzo we looked at the menu and decided to go in...
LOL we were looking through the literature on the tables and James pointed out that there was one in Chelmsford!
The meal itself was nice...
...we both went for pasta and then I had cheesecake ;o)
I take multivitamins and everything but its still here...
Last Tuesday me and James went for our afternoon tea at The Ritz (LOL I dosed myself up on ibprofen before we went in ;o)). It was nice but nowhere near as nice as Claridges or The Dorchester as they seemed to be hurrying us along (it wasnt like we were eating slowly or anything) and one of the waiters even made a remark about the fact that we had eaten all of the food on our cake stand.
Hee hee they have even e-mailed me a survey to complete ;o) The fools!
Poor James was feeling quite grotty that day too (I think he had a different cold to me), so we looked for a restaurant quite near our hotel and found Prezzo we looked at the menu and decided to go in...
LOL we were looking through the literature on the tables and James pointed out that there was one in Chelmsford!
The meal itself was nice...
...we both went for pasta and then I had cheesecake ;o)
Monday, 13 December 2010
a week in a day
I have a one day week ;o)
so between 9am and 5pm this is how my week is being split ;o)
9 am to 10.30 am - Monday - will be feeling down because its Monday!
10.31am to 12 pm - Tuesday - a bit happier because its no longer Monday
12.01pm to 2.30 pm - Wednesday - even happier because I am halfway through the week - and lunch being involved isnt insignificant to this ;o)
2.31 pm to 4 pm - Thursday - really happy because its almost Friday
4.01 pm to 5 pm - Friday - I am ecstatic because well its Friday ;o)
so between 9am and 5pm this is how my week is being split ;o)
9 am to 10.30 am - Monday - will be feeling down because its Monday!
10.31am to 12 pm - Tuesday - a bit happier because its no longer Monday
12.01pm to 2.30 pm - Wednesday - even happier because I am halfway through the week - and lunch being involved isnt insignificant to this ;o)
2.31 pm to 4 pm - Thursday - really happy because its almost Friday
4.01 pm to 5 pm - Friday - I am ecstatic because well its Friday ;o)
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Four trips
"Tuesday afternoon & Wednesday was spent wrapping presents...
on Friday I went to the Post Office four times! The first time was to buy 15 boxes...
,,,the second, third and fourth time I took 12 of the parcels to be mailed, I had the time to send the final three, I just didnt have the energy!
I know that Christmas is the time of year that Charities get their most donations.
Normally at Chelmsford train station you get one or two charities collecting per week...
...this week just past guess how many charity collections there were?
"two?" not even close
"three?" I wish
"surely not four?" Yes there were four; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday - I guess that they thought that if someone did Wednesday too then it would be "too much"!
Surely the best time to target rich city folk is after 10pm on a Friday night when they are sufficiently "tanked up" and more willing to be "charitable".
We were in Sainsburys this morning getting our food shopping for the week, as usual we were scanning and packing our shopping as we went. Anyhow we got to the till and there was a boy scout (he must have been about eight years old) and he asked "can I help you with your packing?" my first thought was "are you taking the p1ss?" so I said to him "no Im ok we packed our things as we went along" and the cashier said to the scout trouper (or whatever they are called) "this isnt the best till to stand at as everyone will have their bags already packed" so I said to the kid "thanks anyway ;o)". The scout trouper then walked him to another till.
on Friday I went to the Post Office four times! The first time was to buy 15 boxes...
,,,the second, third and fourth time I took 12 of the parcels to be mailed, I had the time to send the final three, I just didnt have the energy!
I know that Christmas is the time of year that Charities get their most donations.
Normally at Chelmsford train station you get one or two charities collecting per week...
...this week just past guess how many charity collections there were?
"two?" not even close
"three?" I wish
"surely not four?" Yes there were four; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday - I guess that they thought that if someone did Wednesday too then it would be "too much"!
Surely the best time to target rich city folk is after 10pm on a Friday night when they are sufficiently "tanked up" and more willing to be "charitable".
We were in Sainsburys this morning getting our food shopping for the week, as usual we were scanning and packing our shopping as we went. Anyhow we got to the till and there was a boy scout (he must have been about eight years old) and he asked "can I help you with your packing?" my first thought was "are you taking the p1ss?" so I said to him "no Im ok we packed our things as we went along" and the cashier said to the scout trouper (or whatever they are called) "this isnt the best till to stand at as everyone will have their bags already packed" so I said to the kid "thanks anyway ;o)". The scout trouper then walked him to another till.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
I wanted to try this last week
Last Friday one of my bosses bought us bacon sandwiches (as you know Friday is the day that I go for half a lamb sandwich, as I didnt want to have two lots of bread I had a looksie on Itsu to see if they had anything that I fancied the sound of...
...I found their seven vegetable rice bowl and thought that sounds "just the ticket" ;o)
So I went in there at lunchtime and shock horror they didnt sell them, and if I did want one then I could get one from Gracechurch Street. So I went into Pret a Manger and got this instead ;o).
Today I decided to go down to the Gracechurch Street branch of Itsu to try their rice bowl and it was blooming lovely...
...I will definitely will have this again ;o)
...I found their seven vegetable rice bowl and thought that sounds "just the ticket" ;o)
So I went in there at lunchtime and shock horror they didnt sell them, and if I did want one then I could get one from Gracechurch Street. So I went into Pret a Manger and got this instead ;o).
Today I decided to go down to the Gracechurch Street branch of Itsu to try their rice bowl and it was blooming lovely...
...I will definitely will have this again ;o)
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
95 excavators
I am currently (not currently because I am not wrapping as I type) wrapping up 95 excavators as presents for our brokers!
Sunday, 5 December 2010
better than chocolate
Yesterday I went to Taste of Christmas, I was supposed to go with my Sister-in-Law, but she lives on the outskirts of Trowbridge, its all country winding roads where she lives, and understandably she didnt want to get stuck in the snow somewhere trying to get home after. This country really doesnt do snow very well!
So James came with me instead...
We got there and James was sulking, and decided to sit down while I went for a look around...
...so I made my way around to the Cuisine au Chocolat kitchen, and a demonstration was about to start, so I plonked myself down and it was the head chef from Sams Brasserie. He made chocolate french toast and some chocolate pancakes...
...I got to try some and they were lovely ;o)
Just as Ian was finishing, they announced that Jean-Christophe Novelli would be up next, so I got myself a prime seat right in the centre and at the front so that I would get a really good view ;o)
It was about 10 minutes before he came on stage, he cooked a chicken dish with a chocolate onion sauce (the aromas were absolutely gorgeous).
He eventually finished and he was standing at the side if anyone wanted to say hello/get his autograph/picture...
...so I grabbed my bag, coat and fleece and joined the queue. James had meanwhile caught up with me (I had texted him to tell him where I was). I woman in front of me (her name was Annette) got him to autograph her programme and I asked if it would be ok to get a picture of him with me. He put his arm around me and posed...
...then asked us what our names were and if we were enjoying ourselves and then he gave me a kiss...
...Jean-Christophe kissed me! Annette didnt get a kiss but I did ;o) It made really my day ;o).
James afterwards asked if he had spoilt the day for me with his sulking and I said that Jean-Christophe kissing me more than made up for it ;o)
So James came with me instead...
We got there and James was sulking, and decided to sit down while I went for a look around...
...so I made my way around to the Cuisine au Chocolat kitchen, and a demonstration was about to start, so I plonked myself down and it was the head chef from Sams Brasserie. He made chocolate french toast and some chocolate pancakes...
...I got to try some and they were lovely ;o)
Just as Ian was finishing, they announced that Jean-Christophe Novelli would be up next, so I got myself a prime seat right in the centre and at the front so that I would get a really good view ;o)
It was about 10 minutes before he came on stage, he cooked a chicken dish with a chocolate onion sauce (the aromas were absolutely gorgeous).
He eventually finished and he was standing at the side if anyone wanted to say hello/get his autograph/picture...
...so I grabbed my bag, coat and fleece and joined the queue. James had meanwhile caught up with me (I had texted him to tell him where I was). I woman in front of me (her name was Annette) got him to autograph her programme and I asked if it would be ok to get a picture of him with me. He put his arm around me and posed...
...then asked us what our names were and if we were enjoying ourselves and then he gave me a kiss...
...Jean-Christophe kissed me! Annette didnt get a kiss but I did ;o) It made really my day ;o).
James afterwards asked if he had spoilt the day for me with his sulking and I said that Jean-Christophe kissing me more than made up for it ;o)
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Is there nothing that they wont CGI
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
I forgot to bring some gloves with me this morning
Because of the snow we had yesterday (and more last night) James was rushing me out of the house first thing this morning...
...he dropped me off at the station and I went to reach into my pockets to get my gloves out and realised that I had left them on the radiator in the lounge :o(
So at lunchtime I got myself all layered up to go out to get some gloves...
...first I went into Next and all they had were glove and scarf sets (and absolutely no pairs of gloves)!
So I then went to Marks & Spencers and got these long sleeve gloves ;o)
...he dropped me off at the station and I went to reach into my pockets to get my gloves out and realised that I had left them on the radiator in the lounge :o(
So at lunchtime I got myself all layered up to go out to get some gloves...
...first I went into Next and all they had were glove and scarf sets (and absolutely no pairs of gloves)!
So I then went to Marks & Spencers and got these long sleeve gloves ;o)
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Chelmsford snow
I went into the bathroom when I got up this morning and noticed how grey it looked even through the frosted windows and without my glasses on...
...so I went back into our bedroom and looked out of the window and there was a thin blanket of snow...
...so I yelled out to James have you seen it outside and he said that he had.
(even as I am typing this I can see that the snow is coming down in bigger flakes).
Before I left the house for work I made sure that I was layered up...
...I had a camisole top, work top, fleece and my coat on.
When I went to get off of the train (the train that I get turns around and then goes to Southend), a bloke got on the train (once we had got into London) and saw me do up my various layers, and asked me if I had come in from Southend? So I said no I had come in from Chelmsford but it is snowing there but finely and it is settling ;o).
...so I went back into our bedroom and looked out of the window and there was a thin blanket of snow...
...so I yelled out to James have you seen it outside and he said that he had.
(even as I am typing this I can see that the snow is coming down in bigger flakes).
Before I left the house for work I made sure that I was layered up...
...I had a camisole top, work top, fleece and my coat on.
When I went to get off of the train (the train that I get turns around and then goes to Southend), a bloke got on the train (once we had got into London) and saw me do up my various layers, and asked me if I had come in from Southend? So I said no I had come in from Chelmsford but it is snowing there but finely and it is settling ;o).
Sunday, 28 November 2010
its cold outside baby
It has been COLD...
...this morning it was -3 degrees centigrade - I know to my readers in mega cold places this is just a walk in the park (LOL I have looked at my stats and even have the odd reader from Russia ;o)) - but to us soft Brits it is blooming cold.
In actual fact it was so cold yesterday that we didnt go back into Chelmsford in the afternoon for our (or rather my) third Starbucks Christmas drink!
...this morning it was -3 degrees centigrade - I know to my readers in mega cold places this is just a walk in the park (LOL I have looked at my stats and even have the odd reader from Russia ;o)) - but to us soft Brits it is blooming cold.
In actual fact it was so cold yesterday that we didnt go back into Chelmsford in the afternoon for our (or rather my) third Starbucks Christmas drink!
Friday, 26 November 2010
unbootifle
I saw on the news today that Bernard Matthews has died…
…I wonder if the turkeys got their own back on him?
If I was still eating golden drummers then I would be crying into my golden drummers sandwich (note to self buy some golden drummers when next in the Supermarket ;o)).
LOL the question is will Jamie Oliver be writing a eulogy for him? ;o)
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Thanksgiving dinner London style
I walked past Konditor & Cook this morning, and saw on their A-board outside that they were doing a turkey dinner with the traditional Thanksgiving sides...
...so I was umming and ahhing about whether to go for a soup or the turkey dinner for my lunch...
...I decided to go for the turkey dinner ;o)
I saw there were a couple of Americans in front of me and they went for the turkey dinner so I thought to myself they cant have ballsed it up too much then ;o)
Happy thanksgiving to my US friends ;o)
...so I was umming and ahhing about whether to go for a soup or the turkey dinner for my lunch...
...I decided to go for the turkey dinner ;o)
I saw there were a couple of Americans in front of me and they went for the turkey dinner so I thought to myself they cant have ballsed it up too much then ;o)
Happy thanksgiving to my US friends ;o)
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
yipee an extra public holiday next year
I can see our office television out of the corner of my eye...
..I was busily working away (well I do sometimes ;o)) and I saw it flash up in a "breaking news" that a date has been set for Wills & Kates wedding, so I was eagerly watching to see when the date was...
...it is 29th April 2011, so I checked on the diary to see what day it is and its a Friday, I thought the possibility of a day off looks promising ;o)
Then I saw it flash up that it will be a matter for the Scottish parliament if they get a day off, this really grabbed my attention, so I stopped what I was doing with my eyes glued to the screen...
...then it came up that the day will be a public holiday ;o)
I went and got my lunch out from the bottom of the fridge, bought it back to my desk went to get it out of the bag and saw that it has frozen itself!
So I popped over to Pret a Manger and got myself a lentil and bacon soup ;o)
..I was busily working away (well I do sometimes ;o)) and I saw it flash up in a "breaking news" that a date has been set for Wills & Kates wedding, so I was eagerly watching to see when the date was...
...it is 29th April 2011, so I checked on the diary to see what day it is and its a Friday, I thought the possibility of a day off looks promising ;o)
Then I saw it flash up that it will be a matter for the Scottish parliament if they get a day off, this really grabbed my attention, so I stopped what I was doing with my eyes glued to the screen...
...then it came up that the day will be a public holiday ;o)
I went and got my lunch out from the bottom of the fridge, bought it back to my desk went to get it out of the bag and saw that it has frozen itself!
So I popped over to Pret a Manger and got myself a lentil and bacon soup ;o)
my advent calendar arrived
Last week I ordered my advent calendar from Hotel Chocolat...
When I was just about to leave work yesterday I got a text message from James saying that a parcel had arrived for me ;o)
My guess was that it was my advent calendar...
As soon as I got home (before even taking my coat off) I tore open the package and sure enough it was my gorgeous advent calendar.
Only eight days before I am able to have the first chocolate...
HOW AM I GOING TO DISTRACT MYSELF!!!!!!
;o)
When I was just about to leave work yesterday I got a text message from James saying that a parcel had arrived for me ;o)
My guess was that it was my advent calendar...
As soon as I got home (before even taking my coat off) I tore open the package and sure enough it was my gorgeous advent calendar.
Only eight days before I am able to have the first chocolate...
HOW AM I GOING TO DISTRACT MYSELF!!!!!!
;o)
Sunday, 21 November 2010
what I thought of the cruise...
Kelly asked the other day what it felt like being on the ship...
...basically you could feel it moving and when the sea was choppy you could feel it moving a whole lot more. There were quite a few judders too and the staff would joke "it was just a whale"!
Because the ship was huge it want rocking or anything like that, but you could definitely feel it moving (even when lying in bed!).
I dont think that the ship would have enough things to do if we were on a trans atlantic crossing, and I think if we had more than one day at sea at a time it would have done my head in.
The fine dining food was nice and there was always three or four choices - they even had a menu choice with a meal consisting of no more than 800 calories (if you were trying to be good). LOL I purposely didnt go for the healthy option ;o). The restaurant even had different themes some of the nights too. I fully expected to waiting staff to be dressed up in different uniforms, but they werent!
The all you can eat buffet on the other hand had the same food every night and they would change the pasta shapes in the pasta salad to make the uninitiated think that they were eating something different, they did also have most of the food from the fine dining restaurant too. LOL James was put out that I made him "dress nice" when he could easily have had his fillet mignon by the bucket load while wearing his sweat pants.
Talking about James he found an ingenious way of maximising his eating...
...he would go make me go with him to the all you can eat place when it opened at 6.30 (I would sit there reading the next days activities) while he would eat some food, then go back to our cabin at 7.00 to get dressed for dinner, have our dinner in the fine dining place, then if he finished early enough he would try and go back to the all you can eat place until it closed at 9pm.
James was also worried that he thought that the waiting staff were watching him, so he would regularly swap tables (and even eating style) one day he even decided that if we swapped fleeces then he wouldnt look like he was eating so much. I was waiting for him to want to swap clothes completely ;o).
He also found a cafe bar that he could eat some more when the all you can eat place was closed, he would even make me go up to get him more food as he didnt want the staff to think that he was being really greedy.
LOL he even heard that the staff had their own all you can eat buffet, and I swear that he would have sneaked in there if he could have found where it was.
I liked the fact that we got to go to some different places that we would never have seen otherwise, it was just a shame that we were never anywhere long enough to orientate ourselves with our surroundings.
The cruise has definitely made us appreciate our city breaks more...
...would we go back on another cruise? Possibly in a few years time, and only if I booked the non cruise bits (ie getting to/from the hotel from/to the airport and most definitely organising leaving the dock) ourselves.
...basically you could feel it moving and when the sea was choppy you could feel it moving a whole lot more. There were quite a few judders too and the staff would joke "it was just a whale"!
Because the ship was huge it want rocking or anything like that, but you could definitely feel it moving (even when lying in bed!).
I dont think that the ship would have enough things to do if we were on a trans atlantic crossing, and I think if we had more than one day at sea at a time it would have done my head in.
The fine dining food was nice and there was always three or four choices - they even had a menu choice with a meal consisting of no more than 800 calories (if you were trying to be good). LOL I purposely didnt go for the healthy option ;o). The restaurant even had different themes some of the nights too. I fully expected to waiting staff to be dressed up in different uniforms, but they werent!
The all you can eat buffet on the other hand had the same food every night and they would change the pasta shapes in the pasta salad to make the uninitiated think that they were eating something different, they did also have most of the food from the fine dining restaurant too. LOL James was put out that I made him "dress nice" when he could easily have had his fillet mignon by the bucket load while wearing his sweat pants.
Talking about James he found an ingenious way of maximising his eating...
...he would go make me go with him to the all you can eat place when it opened at 6.30 (I would sit there reading the next days activities) while he would eat some food, then go back to our cabin at 7.00 to get dressed for dinner, have our dinner in the fine dining place, then if he finished early enough he would try and go back to the all you can eat place until it closed at 9pm.
James was also worried that he thought that the waiting staff were watching him, so he would regularly swap tables (and even eating style) one day he even decided that if we swapped fleeces then he wouldnt look like he was eating so much. I was waiting for him to want to swap clothes completely ;o).
He also found a cafe bar that he could eat some more when the all you can eat place was closed, he would even make me go up to get him more food as he didnt want the staff to think that he was being really greedy.
LOL he even heard that the staff had their own all you can eat buffet, and I swear that he would have sneaked in there if he could have found where it was.
I liked the fact that we got to go to some different places that we would never have seen otherwise, it was just a shame that we were never anywhere long enough to orientate ourselves with our surroundings.
The cruise has definitely made us appreciate our city breaks more...
...would we go back on another cruise? Possibly in a few years time, and only if I booked the non cruise bits (ie getting to/from the hotel from/to the airport and most definitely organising leaving the dock) ourselves.
Friday, 19 November 2010
disappearing fog
I was on the train this morning and it was really foggy...
...we then went under a bridge and the fog had just disappeared it wasnt like patchy fog when its back again, everything was so clear and focused.
I remember my Mum used to say (probably still does) that the rain has to stop somewhere, I guess the same can be said about fog too!
...we then went under a bridge and the fog had just disappeared it wasnt like patchy fog when its back again, everything was so clear and focused.
I remember my Mum used to say (probably still does) that the rain has to stop somewhere, I guess the same can be said about fog too!
Thursday, 18 November 2010
advent by post
Last year I bought myself an awesome advent calendar from Hotel Chocolat...
...when we came back from holiday my intention was to go to Lakeside so I could buy my advent calendar, I felt so tired and worn out afterwards that I just couldnt be arsed to!
I casually mentioned to James the other day that I wanted to go to Lakeside to buy the advent calendar, he asked if there was any other way I could get the calendar as its a long way to go just for 1 thing! DOES HE HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF MY LOVE OF CHOCOLATE?!
Anyhow I calmed down after I realised that I could order it online - Im a bit annoyed about having to pay £3.95 for the postage, but as James pointed out the petrol used to get there would probably be that much anyway!
...when we came back from holiday my intention was to go to Lakeside so I could buy my advent calendar, I felt so tired and worn out afterwards that I just couldnt be arsed to!
I casually mentioned to James the other day that I wanted to go to Lakeside to buy the advent calendar, he asked if there was any other way I could get the calendar as its a long way to go just for 1 thing! DOES HE HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF MY LOVE OF CHOCOLATE?!
Anyhow I calmed down after I realised that I could order it online - Im a bit annoyed about having to pay £3.95 for the postage, but as James pointed out the petrol used to get there would probably be that much anyway!
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
my other button came off
The trousers that I am wearing today should have 2 buttons to do them up...
...a few months ago one of the buttons came off (I think that I put it in my handbag somewhere - but I am not entirely sure), this morning the other button came off - it came off just after I went to the toilet!
I am completely useless at sewing buttons back on so will get James to do that for me tonight ;o)
...a few months ago one of the buttons came off (I think that I put it in my handbag somewhere - but I am not entirely sure), this morning the other button came off - it came off just after I went to the toilet!
I am completely useless at sewing buttons back on so will get James to do that for me tonight ;o)
Sunday, 14 November 2010
coming home
We went down to dinner armed with our pre paid gratuity vouchers, what got me was that in the blurb with the vouchers it said that you can add some cash too if you have found that the service was excellent - surely the point of pre paying was that you didnt have to add more money to their tips! Ok we did buy our waiters a little present each too of a watch set - they were reduced from $80 down to $20 - and I wrapped them up in napkins from the all you can eat cafe (for that touch of added class ;o)).
We had to have our suitcases packed and left outside our stateroom by midnight at the latest (so the luggage could be sorted and ready for you to collect after leaving the ship), so after having our meal we packed up our suitcases.
The combination of change in transatlantic travel allowances (we were allowed two checked in bags each but now were only allowed one each), and all of the clothes that we had to pack for the cruise meant that we both had trouble shutting our cases. Royal Caribbeans version of casual is not the same as ours!
We didnt even have room to put our booze in the suitcases!
When we came back from having our final holiday cocktails we found a note under our door saying that they would be coming into our stateroom at 8.30 am to carry out maintenance on our balcony. We decided to make sure that we would have our hand luggage packed and take it with us when we went down to breakfast.
The next morning we got up had a shower each and packed up our hand luggage, mine was ok as all it had in it was money and essential stuff like that, James' on the other had weighed an absolute ton...
...in the library on the ship they had a book exchange shelf, and every day he would go down there and would see what he could cadge, he had a collection of around 10 (he says there were 10 but I think it was more than that) books by our last day (all paper backs) and he saw what he could fit in his ruck sack (he managed to fit them all in there).
We went up to breakfast (I always want to say down to breakfast but the buffet place was on deck 11) with our bags...
...I had decided the night before that I wanted to recreate Elvis' fools gold sandwich, we saw some of the tables had napkins already on them with the cutlery inside, we went to sit down on one table and this lady came running over with an overflowing plate of food because we were about to take her table! She should have placed her jacket on her chair (as per the international rule of "savesees") to show that that table had been taken.
Anyhow I went around the different stations collecting the different components for my sandwich...
toast check; individual tub of peanut butter check; pile of bacon check; banana - I couldnt find any bananas! What was I going to do? I told James that I couldnt find any bananas (I even had another look around the whole place just in case they had magically appeared but no) he couldnt find any either and even asked one of the waiters where the bananas were - and he said that they had ran out - HOW CAN THEY RUN OUT OF BANANAS?
I wasnt going to let a small technicality going to ruin my unhealthy breakfast so I substituted the banana for canned peaches - I think The King would have approved - which is more than I can say for my Mum - she would have been horrified ;o). The sandwich itself worked but my tummy really hurt afterwards!
I even got a couple of goodbye hugs, one from our stateroom attendant and one from a waitress who called me her favourite English lady (I felt really bad that I didnt have any spare vouchers to tip her - ok not bad enough to part with any hard cash but you know what I mean).
After breakfast we made our way down to the waiting place for disembarking the ship (as I said we were one of the first groups to leave the ship), so we go in there and the place is packed - we find a couple of seats at the back and sit down. A few minutes later we hear some mumbling but cant make out what the guy is saying, so I walk down the front and then he calls out our number, so I run back to where James is to let him know that we can go and we make our way off of the ship (we use the stairs as all of the old dears are waiting for the elevators), we get off of the ship, find our suitcases as per our colour coded area and then go through immigration, I get through ok and James gets the usual looking at him and then his passport several times (he lost 10 stone/140 pounds), before they decide that it is him.
We find our coach get on there and are raring to go...
...only there is only one other couple on the coach - surely the other people will be arriving imminently...
...after half an hour James was getting impatient and asked the coach driver how long we were going to wait - and he says it could take another 2 hours for our fellow passengers to get off of the ship. At this point we were thinking "this cant be right surely they would have us all leaving the ship at the same time"...
...another half an hour went by and James asked to see the itinerary (by this time it was 10.45 am) and it said that we would arrive at the hotel by 11am, James then said to to the driver "look it says here that we arrive at the hotel at 11am" and he says "its just a guide we have to wait for the other passengers" that was like a red rag to a bull.
James then went off of the coach to ask a Royal Caribbean Rep why we are having to wait for the others passengers and why they are saying that we will be back at the hotel at 11am when we are nowhere near likely to get there by that time.
He went to talk to the rep, but a security guard grabbed him by the arm and asked him why he wanted to talk to the rep, he explained the situation and was told that she wont be able to help him.
So he was walking back and another rep came upto him to ask if he needed any help, and when he explained about "waiting on the coach etc" her whole expression changed and she walked off.
James then came back to the coach defeated...
...we were talking to the people who had fast tracked their getting off of the ship (they took their own luggage off of the ship thus eliminating having to wait for their luggage having to be offloaded in batches), and they said that this was the worst part of the cruise. I couldnt believe my ears - they were saying that this is what normally happens!
I suppose once you get past a certain age (retirement is my current guess) that you have so much free time that you really dont care about having to wait for other people for god knows how many hours. We are not at that age yet, and I dont think that we ever will!
Anyhow an hour later our fellow passengers start to emerge (at about 12.30 pm - an hour and a half after we were supposed to be back at the hotel) and get onto the coach and they were happily cooing about how well organised the disembarking the ship was, I on the other hand was seething!
We eventually get to the hotel, I rush off of the coach (whilst James collects our luggage) am second in line, I get served and I give them my name and saying that I am with the Royal Caribbean party and ask if there is anything waiting for me, I get told no! meanwhile my fellow passengers are handing over their vouchers (I told you they would appear again), and getting keycards to a dayroom! I then barge to the front of the queue and ask the other person on reception what "the other people are getting" and she says their dayrooms so I say "what about me I dont have a voucher" and she says "have you already got a room?" and already majorly p1ssed off I say "so how am I supposed to already have a room then?" she then swipes some cards and hands them over to me. I go to ask if they are for an individual room or a communal one and she cuts me off saying "the elevators are at the back".
I was extremely angry at this point and wanted to hand back the cards because I didnt want to stay there a minute longer - I said to her "I want to hand back the cards because I dont need the dayroom" and she just said "leave them there I cant help you at the moment because I am helping these people" In her defence there was a line of about 15 people behind me at that point, I had a good mind to take the keycards with me and to leave them at the airport!, but I didnt I just left them on the side.
I get out and find James just staring at the coach driver, so I ask him what he is doing and he says "I am thinking all of the things that I am going to do to him if I see him again"! I said to him that it wasnt his fault...
I then tell him that I dont want to hang about anymore and for us just to go straight to the airport (I was THAT angry), so we get on the shuttle bus expecting to have to catch the airtrain back to the terminal, LOL the shuttle driver could obviously tell how angry we were by taking us straight to the terminal.
We find the BA check in desk, and it says that it wont open until 3pm it was about 1.15pm at that point, so James went off to forage for the foodcourts (I think he could tell that I was in no mood to go looking), he found where they were and got my self a burrito, it was ok but difficult to eat with plastic cutlery. After eating my lunch I had a look in the only other shop before check in and treated myself to an NYPD t-shirt (oohh NYPD do podcasts - I will see about getting these next time I reload ;o)).
At about 2.30 we make our way back to the check in area James gets himself a coffee from Dunkin Donuts, I know that there was a Starbucks around from when we arrived, so I went off in search of it for my final pumpkin spice latte.
At about 2.50 a hard faced check in lady appears and calls us over because we were first in line, we hand over our passports and tell her that we would like an aisle seat and the one next to it (she eventually understands what we want after thinking that we wanted to aisle seats), she then asks us to put our suitcases on the scale, I put my one on and the scale starts flashing! Oh no my suitcase is 23.4kg/51lbs the limit is 23kg/50lbs I am barely a pound overweight, she just says that the weight limit is 23kg (I am sure if we had been rude then she would have charged us for excess baggage - I know that I would have), James put his suitcase on and it was 22kg - so his was just in weight.
So we go through passport control, we have to get our hand luggage scanned James takes out the tube of toothpaste and puts it in the little bag (for them to put through the scanner separately), James puts his bag through and we are aware that they are putting and then reversing and putting his bag through again...
...they then take his bag over to a side table and put on a pair of latex gloves to go through his ruck sack, meanwhile James had another carrier bag contains a toy rubber baseball bat and a ball in a blister pack, they go to grab that and I say "its just a childs toy" and they take that and my ruck sack over to the same side table and James says to them that we are together. They are then delving (with latex gloved hands) through James' ruck sack bypass the books and remove the cardboard box containing the bottle of crystal head vodka, they then say to him you cant take that onto the plane, and they are then delving into my bag and remove the bottle of rum, that we bought duty free on the ship. It never even crossed my teeny tiny little mind that sealed bottles of booze would fall into this category. The nice lady who scanned our bags asked if there was anyway that we could check the bottles of drink in another bag as excess luggage, we said no and that the price of the excess luggage would be too prohibitive. Someone was going to have a good night...
We were sitting in departures and the nice lady who scanned our bags came back with they toy baseball bat and ball and said that we could take that on board after all.
We get on our flight on time and because of a good tailwind, we would have arrived back at Heathrow just before 6am, but because of local regulations we had to circle overhead for 10 minutes.
We landed ok, went to immigration and because James still has a bog standard passport he joined the line to go through and actually speak to an immigration person, just before we got to that point I saw a sign for e-passports, because I have one of these I asked the lady (who was there if you needed any help) if I could go through the e-passport thing and she looked at my passport and said yes. So I walked up there asked the bloke (on hand to help) if I should take of my glasses and he said yes...
...so its my turn I stand on the little yellow footprints, place my passport in the scanner take off my glasses and in an instant it came (luckily it was in big enough writing that I could see without my glasses on) to remove my passport and the gates opened, and I was through...
I waved at James who was still waiting to go through and I made my way to the luggage carousel to wait for our luggage. About 5 minutes later James turned up and said that he watched me go through the iris scanner and my face came up instantly - there was one guy there who the scanner couldnt recognise! I guess mine came up so quickly because it is a fairly recent photo - who knows what it will be like in a few years!
Our luggage turned up and we went to the hotel carpark, find the exit put our card in teh machine and it says "ticket has expired" so I go back to the hotel reception explain what happened and got another card...
...we got home and I flopped into bed while James was good and did his unpacking, I finally faced doing mine a few days later...
We had to have our suitcases packed and left outside our stateroom by midnight at the latest (so the luggage could be sorted and ready for you to collect after leaving the ship), so after having our meal we packed up our suitcases.
The combination of change in transatlantic travel allowances (we were allowed two checked in bags each but now were only allowed one each), and all of the clothes that we had to pack for the cruise meant that we both had trouble shutting our cases. Royal Caribbeans version of casual is not the same as ours!
We didnt even have room to put our booze in the suitcases!
When we came back from having our final holiday cocktails we found a note under our door saying that they would be coming into our stateroom at 8.30 am to carry out maintenance on our balcony. We decided to make sure that we would have our hand luggage packed and take it with us when we went down to breakfast.
The next morning we got up had a shower each and packed up our hand luggage, mine was ok as all it had in it was money and essential stuff like that, James' on the other had weighed an absolute ton...
...in the library on the ship they had a book exchange shelf, and every day he would go down there and would see what he could cadge, he had a collection of around 10 (he says there were 10 but I think it was more than that) books by our last day (all paper backs) and he saw what he could fit in his ruck sack (he managed to fit them all in there).
We went up to breakfast (I always want to say down to breakfast but the buffet place was on deck 11) with our bags...
...I had decided the night before that I wanted to recreate Elvis' fools gold sandwich, we saw some of the tables had napkins already on them with the cutlery inside, we went to sit down on one table and this lady came running over with an overflowing plate of food because we were about to take her table! She should have placed her jacket on her chair (as per the international rule of "savesees") to show that that table had been taken.
Anyhow I went around the different stations collecting the different components for my sandwich...
toast check; individual tub of peanut butter check; pile of bacon check; banana - I couldnt find any bananas! What was I going to do? I told James that I couldnt find any bananas (I even had another look around the whole place just in case they had magically appeared but no) he couldnt find any either and even asked one of the waiters where the bananas were - and he said that they had ran out - HOW CAN THEY RUN OUT OF BANANAS?
I wasnt going to let a small technicality going to ruin my unhealthy breakfast so I substituted the banana for canned peaches - I think The King would have approved - which is more than I can say for my Mum - she would have been horrified ;o). The sandwich itself worked but my tummy really hurt afterwards!
I even got a couple of goodbye hugs, one from our stateroom attendant and one from a waitress who called me her favourite English lady (I felt really bad that I didnt have any spare vouchers to tip her - ok not bad enough to part with any hard cash but you know what I mean).
After breakfast we made our way down to the waiting place for disembarking the ship (as I said we were one of the first groups to leave the ship), so we go in there and the place is packed - we find a couple of seats at the back and sit down. A few minutes later we hear some mumbling but cant make out what the guy is saying, so I walk down the front and then he calls out our number, so I run back to where James is to let him know that we can go and we make our way off of the ship (we use the stairs as all of the old dears are waiting for the elevators), we get off of the ship, find our suitcases as per our colour coded area and then go through immigration, I get through ok and James gets the usual looking at him and then his passport several times (he lost 10 stone/140 pounds), before they decide that it is him.
We find our coach get on there and are raring to go...
...only there is only one other couple on the coach - surely the other people will be arriving imminently...
...after half an hour James was getting impatient and asked the coach driver how long we were going to wait - and he says it could take another 2 hours for our fellow passengers to get off of the ship. At this point we were thinking "this cant be right surely they would have us all leaving the ship at the same time"...
...another half an hour went by and James asked to see the itinerary (by this time it was 10.45 am) and it said that we would arrive at the hotel by 11am, James then said to to the driver "look it says here that we arrive at the hotel at 11am" and he says "its just a guide we have to wait for the other passengers" that was like a red rag to a bull.
James then went off of the coach to ask a Royal Caribbean Rep why we are having to wait for the others passengers and why they are saying that we will be back at the hotel at 11am when we are nowhere near likely to get there by that time.
He went to talk to the rep, but a security guard grabbed him by the arm and asked him why he wanted to talk to the rep, he explained the situation and was told that she wont be able to help him.
So he was walking back and another rep came upto him to ask if he needed any help, and when he explained about "waiting on the coach etc" her whole expression changed and she walked off.
James then came back to the coach defeated...
...we were talking to the people who had fast tracked their getting off of the ship (they took their own luggage off of the ship thus eliminating having to wait for their luggage having to be offloaded in batches), and they said that this was the worst part of the cruise. I couldnt believe my ears - they were saying that this is what normally happens!
I suppose once you get past a certain age (retirement is my current guess) that you have so much free time that you really dont care about having to wait for other people for god knows how many hours. We are not at that age yet, and I dont think that we ever will!
Anyhow an hour later our fellow passengers start to emerge (at about 12.30 pm - an hour and a half after we were supposed to be back at the hotel) and get onto the coach and they were happily cooing about how well organised the disembarking the ship was, I on the other hand was seething!
We eventually get to the hotel, I rush off of the coach (whilst James collects our luggage) am second in line, I get served and I give them my name and saying that I am with the Royal Caribbean party and ask if there is anything waiting for me, I get told no! meanwhile my fellow passengers are handing over their vouchers (I told you they would appear again), and getting keycards to a dayroom! I then barge to the front of the queue and ask the other person on reception what "the other people are getting" and she says their dayrooms so I say "what about me I dont have a voucher" and she says "have you already got a room?" and already majorly p1ssed off I say "so how am I supposed to already have a room then?" she then swipes some cards and hands them over to me. I go to ask if they are for an individual room or a communal one and she cuts me off saying "the elevators are at the back".
I was extremely angry at this point and wanted to hand back the cards because I didnt want to stay there a minute longer - I said to her "I want to hand back the cards because I dont need the dayroom" and she just said "leave them there I cant help you at the moment because I am helping these people" In her defence there was a line of about 15 people behind me at that point, I had a good mind to take the keycards with me and to leave them at the airport!, but I didnt I just left them on the side.
I get out and find James just staring at the coach driver, so I ask him what he is doing and he says "I am thinking all of the things that I am going to do to him if I see him again"! I said to him that it wasnt his fault...
I then tell him that I dont want to hang about anymore and for us just to go straight to the airport (I was THAT angry), so we get on the shuttle bus expecting to have to catch the airtrain back to the terminal, LOL the shuttle driver could obviously tell how angry we were by taking us straight to the terminal.
We find the BA check in desk, and it says that it wont open until 3pm it was about 1.15pm at that point, so James went off to forage for the foodcourts (I think he could tell that I was in no mood to go looking), he found where they were and got my self a burrito, it was ok but difficult to eat with plastic cutlery. After eating my lunch I had a look in the only other shop before check in and treated myself to an NYPD t-shirt (oohh NYPD do podcasts - I will see about getting these next time I reload ;o)).
At about 2.30 we make our way back to the check in area James gets himself a coffee from Dunkin Donuts, I know that there was a Starbucks around from when we arrived, so I went off in search of it for my final pumpkin spice latte.
At about 2.50 a hard faced check in lady appears and calls us over because we were first in line, we hand over our passports and tell her that we would like an aisle seat and the one next to it (she eventually understands what we want after thinking that we wanted to aisle seats), she then asks us to put our suitcases on the scale, I put my one on and the scale starts flashing! Oh no my suitcase is 23.4kg/51lbs the limit is 23kg/50lbs I am barely a pound overweight, she just says that the weight limit is 23kg (I am sure if we had been rude then she would have charged us for excess baggage - I know that I would have), James put his suitcase on and it was 22kg - so his was just in weight.
So we go through passport control, we have to get our hand luggage scanned James takes out the tube of toothpaste and puts it in the little bag (for them to put through the scanner separately), James puts his bag through and we are aware that they are putting and then reversing and putting his bag through again...
...they then take his bag over to a side table and put on a pair of latex gloves to go through his ruck sack, meanwhile James had another carrier bag contains a toy rubber baseball bat and a ball in a blister pack, they go to grab that and I say "its just a childs toy" and they take that and my ruck sack over to the same side table and James says to them that we are together. They are then delving (with latex gloved hands) through James' ruck sack bypass the books and remove the cardboard box containing the bottle of crystal head vodka, they then say to him you cant take that onto the plane, and they are then delving into my bag and remove the bottle of rum, that we bought duty free on the ship. It never even crossed my teeny tiny little mind that sealed bottles of booze would fall into this category. The nice lady who scanned our bags asked if there was anyway that we could check the bottles of drink in another bag as excess luggage, we said no and that the price of the excess luggage would be too prohibitive. Someone was going to have a good night...
We were sitting in departures and the nice lady who scanned our bags came back with they toy baseball bat and ball and said that we could take that on board after all.
We get on our flight on time and because of a good tailwind, we would have arrived back at Heathrow just before 6am, but because of local regulations we had to circle overhead for 10 minutes.
We landed ok, went to immigration and because James still has a bog standard passport he joined the line to go through and actually speak to an immigration person, just before we got to that point I saw a sign for e-passports, because I have one of these I asked the lady (who was there if you needed any help) if I could go through the e-passport thing and she looked at my passport and said yes. So I walked up there asked the bloke (on hand to help) if I should take of my glasses and he said yes...
...so its my turn I stand on the little yellow footprints, place my passport in the scanner take off my glasses and in an instant it came (luckily it was in big enough writing that I could see without my glasses on) to remove my passport and the gates opened, and I was through...
I waved at James who was still waiting to go through and I made my way to the luggage carousel to wait for our luggage. About 5 minutes later James turned up and said that he watched me go through the iris scanner and my face came up instantly - there was one guy there who the scanner couldnt recognise! I guess mine came up so quickly because it is a fairly recent photo - who knows what it will be like in a few years!
Our luggage turned up and we went to the hotel carpark, find the exit put our card in teh machine and it says "ticket has expired" so I go back to the hotel reception explain what happened and got another card...
...we got home and I flopped into bed while James was good and did his unpacking, I finally faced doing mine a few days later...
Friday, 12 November 2010
windy rain
The weather yesterday was warning us about gusts of upto 80 mph!
I dont think that it was anywhere near as bad as that in London or Chelmsford yesterday...
...anyway yesterday lunchtime I popped out to get some fruit (I probably only had to walk 200 yards), but in that short distance I managed to get soaked even with an umbrella!
I came back ate half of my fruit, then decided that I felt too uncomfortable being so wet, so went down the the ladies on the second floor and took off my trousers so I could dry them with the hairdryer...
Dont worry I wasnt exposing myself because they have a cubicle with a changing room bench seat where the hairdryer is ;o) I got myself dryish before coming back to finish eating my melon & grapes, then decided to wear my last emergency pair of socks (must buy some more next week).
I left my wet socks drying on the fireproof box in our office, but they were still wet when I went to leave last night, I had visions of the cleaners taking them away in a toxic waste bag, but they were still there this morning ;o)
I dont think that it was anywhere near as bad as that in London or Chelmsford yesterday...
...anyway yesterday lunchtime I popped out to get some fruit (I probably only had to walk 200 yards), but in that short distance I managed to get soaked even with an umbrella!
I came back ate half of my fruit, then decided that I felt too uncomfortable being so wet, so went down the the ladies on the second floor and took off my trousers so I could dry them with the hairdryer...
Dont worry I wasnt exposing myself because they have a cubicle with a changing room bench seat where the hairdryer is ;o) I got myself dryish before coming back to finish eating my melon & grapes, then decided to wear my last emergency pair of socks (must buy some more next week).
I left my wet socks drying on the fireproof box in our office, but they were still wet when I went to leave last night, I had visions of the cleaners taking them away in a toxic waste bag, but they were still there this morning ;o)
Thursday, 11 November 2010
office Christmas lunch menu
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
38 minute workout
Yesterday saw over running engineering works, and it went on all day!
My journey in the morning was ok because I had a seat...
...in the evening however, the train only had 8 carriages as opposed to the usual 12. I couldnt see an empty seat anywhere, so I ended up having to stand.
Luckily the train was only 8 minutes late getting to Chelmsford...
...I was going to use the exercise bike yesterday, but didnt bother after the resistance training that I did on the 17.20!
My journey in the morning was ok because I had a seat...
...in the evening however, the train only had 8 carriages as opposed to the usual 12. I couldnt see an empty seat anywhere, so I ended up having to stand.
Luckily the train was only 8 minutes late getting to Chelmsford...
...I was going to use the exercise bike yesterday, but didnt bother after the resistance training that I did on the 17.20!
Monday, 8 November 2010
cold enough for my winter coat
Today was the first day that it has truly been cold enough to wear my winter coat...
Luckily the coat is quite generously sized so it still fits ok ;o)
Luckily the coat is quite generously sized so it still fits ok ;o)
Sunday, 7 November 2010
days seven ate nine
We were at sea the next day, and the only thing I had booked that day was the ice show (that I had queued up for for over half an hour to get the tickets on our first day).
James had booked himself a spa treatment which was a facial and a shave (which was due to finish five minutes before the start of the show)...
That morning we had gone to bingo again...
...and again we didnt win anything! Well apart from $5.00 on the pull tabs that we were given when we bought our tickets - we actually went posher than the paper tickets by buying a tracker that actually plays the cards for you - all you have to do is yell bingo when you win!
James spa treatment was booked for 1.30, so we went and had lunch and then James went up for hisfacial shave. I meantime went down to the casino to cash in the win and promptly spent another $20 too on the Wheel of Fortune Machine, and no I didnt win a sausage! And yes I know that the only true winners are ever the casino!
Anyway I made my way down to where the ice show was, got an aisle seat and when next to it so James could easily find me when he came down. I put my fleece on one of the seats to save it.
A Norwegian party were sitting behind me and one of the ladies asked if she could sit in the seat next to me, I said no it was for someone who had just popped out to the toilets and that he would be back soon. It was still 10 minutes before the show was about to start and there were spare seats around so I didnt feel too bad!
Just then an announcement comes over the tannoy saying "no saving of seats" and I felt someone prod me in the back (I turned around expecting it to be James) and it was the Norwegian bloke saying "did you hear that no saving of seats" I just turned around again hoping that James would be back soon.
The show started and James still hadnt turned up, I kept getting text messages from him saying that he was on his way...
The show itself was really good, but I dont think that James would have enjoyed it.
He still hadnt turned up by the end of the show and afterwards the Norwegian bloke said "thanks for not allowing my wife to sit next to you that was very considerate of you" I thought to myself blooming cheek I queued up half an hour for these tickets and if I want to save a seat then I will!
Anyhow not wanting anymore aggro I waited for him to leave before I went back to our cabin, when I got back there I found a note saying that he couldnt get into the show (because there was lots of people standing at the back and were blocking the aisles :o().
I easily found him in the buffet and he looked all shaved...
...when I asked if they had used a cut-throat he said he didnt know because she had covered his eyes up - LOL I guess it was so that he couldnt see all the faces that she was pulling while trying to navigate around his mis-shaped face ;o).
That night we had our second formal night, I knew that I had put on loads of weight because the zipper on the dress that I had bought didnt go up half as easily as it had in the store.
FYI I still havent dared weigh myself yet!
The next morning we were in Boston, and because we were returning from Canada, all non US citizens had to report for immigration (they didnt make us do this when we went to Canada - I guess that there were far too many Americans on board and would have been a complete nightmare).
They said that the immigration people would turn up at around 7am so we got down at 6.30 and there was already a queue of 20 people. More people were joining the queue behind us apart from a load of Germans who decided to jump in the queue where one of their party was saving "their" place. There was a huge South African guy who took exception to this and was yelling out to all who dared jump in the queue in front of him "go to the back of the queue you are not getting in front of me" A couple of people from the ship did come down to see what the commotion was about and tried to fob us off by saying that they had asked to go through immigration early because they had an early tour.
A couple of people did listen to him and go to the back of the queue - but largely Royal Caribbean did nothing to stop the queue jumping - and they werent prepared to do anything about it either!
James even made a complaint at customer relations (after going through immigration) about it too but the guy who he spoke to didnt really understand what he was saying, and wasnt really interested either so he gave up.
We finally got off of the ship and were waiting for the start of our culinary walking tour, we had a walk out of the terminal (as we had an hour to kill) but couldnt really see anywhere that we could walk to.
We got on the trolley bus that was taking us into Boston for the start of the tour. My favourite stop had to be Marias Pastry Shop as we got to try little samples of all of her pastries, they were delicious ;o). We tried samples in the other shops (there was a coffee shop, greengrocer, cheese shop and an off license where we got to try some Limoncello) we went to but nothing else was as nice as those. From the off license James bought a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka as a present for his brother.
We finished the walking tour outside Quincy Market, where I got to eat a totally unhealthy corn dog - incidentally they didnt serve these on the ship at all which I was totally gutted about.
We went to have a look around the shops just after I had finished my lunch and the heavens opened - the rain didnt seem like it was going to stop anytime soon - so we decided to call it a day by about 2.30 pm (the ship wasnt doe to leave until 5.30).
We got back to the ship and half expected them to confiscate the vodka (when they x-rayed our bags) as it was illicit booze (but they didnt seem to care by that point).
Our final day was another at sea day, but we decided to try our final hand at bingo (both sessions)...
...as the grand prize still hadnt been won in the morning -James thought it was rigged so it would have to go to a final session - the prize was $3000 (we wanted some of that ;o)).
There were several British people working on the cruise and one of them happened to be selling the tickets for the final mega big prize bingo, I decided to have a bit of fun with her...
...when I got to the front of the queue I asked for an "electronic doobrie" - she said to me "did you say doobrie" and I said "yes, I thought I would give you some Britishness ;o)", then she asked where we were from and I said Essex, and she was from Essex too - unfortunately it still didnt help us win the big prize - but it did bring a smile to her face ;o)
On our last day we were given the gratuities that we had pre-paid - I was expecting a book of ten vouchers that you could hand out to people who you wanted to tip - but no we were given four vouchers each - one for thecleaner stateroom attendant, one for the head waiter (we didnt know who on earth that was) one for the waiter and the final one for the assistant waiter, so we gave the stateroom attendant her ones and divided the other six (giving three each) to the waiter and assistant waiter (after all they did keep plying James with extra starters) ;o).
When we were given the vouchers we were also given our labels together with instructions for disembarkation - we were astounded that we were in one of the first groups to be able to leave the ship ;o).
Hooray this meant that we would be able to get any last minute shopping at the Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall before making our way back to the airport...
to be continued...
James had booked himself a spa treatment which was a facial and a shave (which was due to finish five minutes before the start of the show)...
That morning we had gone to bingo again...
...and again we didnt win anything! Well apart from $5.00 on the pull tabs that we were given when we bought our tickets - we actually went posher than the paper tickets by buying a tracker that actually plays the cards for you - all you have to do is yell bingo when you win!
James spa treatment was booked for 1.30, so we went and had lunch and then James went up for his
Anyway I made my way down to where the ice show was, got an aisle seat and when next to it so James could easily find me when he came down. I put my fleece on one of the seats to save it.
A Norwegian party were sitting behind me and one of the ladies asked if she could sit in the seat next to me, I said no it was for someone who had just popped out to the toilets and that he would be back soon. It was still 10 minutes before the show was about to start and there were spare seats around so I didnt feel too bad!
Just then an announcement comes over the tannoy saying "no saving of seats" and I felt someone prod me in the back (I turned around expecting it to be James) and it was the Norwegian bloke saying "did you hear that no saving of seats" I just turned around again hoping that James would be back soon.
The show started and James still hadnt turned up, I kept getting text messages from him saying that he was on his way...
The show itself was really good, but I dont think that James would have enjoyed it.
He still hadnt turned up by the end of the show and afterwards the Norwegian bloke said "thanks for not allowing my wife to sit next to you that was very considerate of you" I thought to myself blooming cheek I queued up half an hour for these tickets and if I want to save a seat then I will!
Anyhow not wanting anymore aggro I waited for him to leave before I went back to our cabin, when I got back there I found a note saying that he couldnt get into the show (because there was lots of people standing at the back and were blocking the aisles :o().
I easily found him in the buffet and he looked all shaved...
...when I asked if they had used a cut-throat he said he didnt know because she had covered his eyes up - LOL I guess it was so that he couldnt see all the faces that she was pulling while trying to navigate around his mis-shaped face ;o).
That night we had our second formal night, I knew that I had put on loads of weight because the zipper on the dress that I had bought didnt go up half as easily as it had in the store.
FYI I still havent dared weigh myself yet!
The next morning we were in Boston, and because we were returning from Canada, all non US citizens had to report for immigration (they didnt make us do this when we went to Canada - I guess that there were far too many Americans on board and would have been a complete nightmare).
They said that the immigration people would turn up at around 7am so we got down at 6.30 and there was already a queue of 20 people. More people were joining the queue behind us apart from a load of Germans who decided to jump in the queue where one of their party was saving "their" place. There was a huge South African guy who took exception to this and was yelling out to all who dared jump in the queue in front of him "go to the back of the queue you are not getting in front of me" A couple of people from the ship did come down to see what the commotion was about and tried to fob us off by saying that they had asked to go through immigration early because they had an early tour.
A couple of people did listen to him and go to the back of the queue - but largely Royal Caribbean did nothing to stop the queue jumping - and they werent prepared to do anything about it either!
James even made a complaint at customer relations (after going through immigration) about it too but the guy who he spoke to didnt really understand what he was saying, and wasnt really interested either so he gave up.
We finally got off of the ship and were waiting for the start of our culinary walking tour, we had a walk out of the terminal (as we had an hour to kill) but couldnt really see anywhere that we could walk to.
We got on the trolley bus that was taking us into Boston for the start of the tour. My favourite stop had to be Marias Pastry Shop as we got to try little samples of all of her pastries, they were delicious ;o). We tried samples in the other shops (there was a coffee shop, greengrocer, cheese shop and an off license where we got to try some Limoncello) we went to but nothing else was as nice as those. From the off license James bought a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka as a present for his brother.
We finished the walking tour outside Quincy Market, where I got to eat a totally unhealthy corn dog - incidentally they didnt serve these on the ship at all which I was totally gutted about.
We went to have a look around the shops just after I had finished my lunch and the heavens opened - the rain didnt seem like it was going to stop anytime soon - so we decided to call it a day by about 2.30 pm (the ship wasnt doe to leave until 5.30).
We got back to the ship and half expected them to confiscate the vodka (when they x-rayed our bags) as it was illicit booze (but they didnt seem to care by that point).
Our final day was another at sea day, but we decided to try our final hand at bingo (both sessions)...
...as the grand prize still hadnt been won in the morning -James thought it was rigged so it would have to go to a final session - the prize was $3000 (we wanted some of that ;o)).
There were several British people working on the cruise and one of them happened to be selling the tickets for the final mega big prize bingo, I decided to have a bit of fun with her...
...when I got to the front of the queue I asked for an "electronic doobrie" - she said to me "did you say doobrie" and I said "yes, I thought I would give you some Britishness ;o)", then she asked where we were from and I said Essex, and she was from Essex too - unfortunately it still didnt help us win the big prize - but it did bring a smile to her face ;o)
On our last day we were given the gratuities that we had pre-paid - I was expecting a book of ten vouchers that you could hand out to people who you wanted to tip - but no we were given four vouchers each - one for the
When we were given the vouchers we were also given our labels together with instructions for disembarkation - we were astounded that we were in one of the first groups to be able to leave the ship ;o).
Hooray this meant that we would be able to get any last minute shopping at the Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall before making our way back to the airport...
to be continued...
Friday, 5 November 2010
a toffee nut sprinkles promise
The feedback that I have received (thanks Al & Eileen) has been 100% behind documenting all of my Christmas drinks - and in honesty that was the answer that I wanted ;o)
I had a late night last night as we had a quiz night (as set up by our Accountants), I didnt get home until 11pm. Because I get up mega early I was dead on my feet (even on the best of days I manage to get in by autopilot).
We came 9th out of 20 teams so we didnt do too bad ;o)
Anyhow I went into Starbucks in Houndsditch, and asked for a venti skinny toffee nut latte (this is my other favourite Christmas drink) and the lady doing it said that she was looking for the sprinkles (so I piped up) that the sprinkles were the best part of it, and she said that they end up throwing them away at the end of the year where they dont get used up...
...so I said thats such a waste, and she said that if I come in in January they will give me what they have left ;o)
I had a late night last night as we had a quiz night (as set up by our Accountants), I didnt get home until 11pm. Because I get up mega early I was dead on my feet (even on the best of days I manage to get in by autopilot).
We came 9th out of 20 teams so we didnt do too bad ;o)
Anyhow I went into Starbucks in Houndsditch, and asked for a venti skinny toffee nut latte (this is my other favourite Christmas drink) and the lady doing it said that she was looking for the sprinkles (so I piped up) that the sprinkles were the best part of it, and she said that they end up throwing them away at the end of the year where they dont get used up...
...so I said thats such a waste, and she said that if I come in in January they will give me what they have left ;o)
Thursday, 4 November 2010
got my gingerbread latte
Following yesterdays upset, I got to Liverpool Street Station this morning and was greeted by this A-board ;o)
So I sauntered along to Houndsditch (where my nearest branch is) and was pleased to see that the holiday menu boards were up ;o)
So yes I have had my first gingerbread skinny latte of 2010 ;o)
The question is shall I just document the gingerbread lattes or diversify to all the Christmas drinks?
So I sauntered along to Houndsditch (where my nearest branch is) and was pleased to see that the holiday menu boards were up ;o)
So yes I have had my first gingerbread skinny latte of 2010 ;o)
The question is shall I just document the gingerbread lattes or diversify to all the Christmas drinks?
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
snot fair
I had an e-mail yesterday from my beloved Starbucks, saying that because I love the Christmas drinks so much, they were letting me know (early) that the drinks were out tomorrow (or rather today). and at selected stores you could get a free Christmas tumbler if you were one of the first 20 customers...
...you can imagine how excited I was, I actually looked forward to coming to work today knowing that I could have my first gingerbread latte of the the season ;o)
I get to Liverpool Street Station, and I saw that they still had their A-board saying "our red cups are coming" I thought thats strange and had a peek through their door and couldnt see the red menu boards either. I thought that perhaps they hadnt put them out yet (no matter I have a nearer store to go to).
So I get to Houndsditch poised with my Starbucks card in hand and look in the window and again they didnt have the red menu boards up either - I have a look in the food cabinet and there are no Christmas delights in there either :o(
It then struck me like a thunderbolt, that the Christmas drinks are probably only available at the selected stores :o( And I slunked my way to work...
Damn you Starbucks for toying with my emotions like that!
...you can imagine how excited I was, I actually looked forward to coming to work today knowing that I could have my first gingerbread latte of the the season ;o)
I get to Liverpool Street Station, and I saw that they still had their A-board saying "our red cups are coming" I thought thats strange and had a peek through their door and couldnt see the red menu boards either. I thought that perhaps they hadnt put them out yet (no matter I have a nearer store to go to).
So I get to Houndsditch poised with my Starbucks card in hand and look in the window and again they didnt have the red menu boards up either - I have a look in the food cabinet and there are no Christmas delights in there either :o(
It then struck me like a thunderbolt, that the Christmas drinks are probably only available at the selected stores :o( And I slunked my way to work...
Damn you Starbucks for toying with my emotions like that!
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
ordering what I couldnt get on holiday
Because of the way that the cruise worked, I was unable to buy what I wanted while I was away...
..namely my Jeopardy calendar, but thanks to the internet or rather Amazon I was able to order this online.
So I am back to being a happyish bunny again ;o)
..namely my Jeopardy calendar, but thanks to the internet or rather Amazon I was able to order this online.
So I am back to being a happyish bunny again ;o)
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