Sailing into the Sunset (Again)

Well if it's not in the suitcase now it isn't going with us!!

Yes it is time for us to be off again. I know it seems like we have only just got back (it's actually 6 weeks since we returned from Norway) but tomorrow we are heading south again and Saturday afternoon we shall be sailing off into the sunset... yet again.

This time our destination is the Mediterranean on the good ship Oceana. First port Barcelona, then Monte Carlo, Elba, Rome, Naples (we are visiting Capri from here), Cartagena and Gibraltar. We have been to most of them before but this will give us an opportunity to explore a little more and see some of the sights we missed the first time.. can you belive we went to Rome and never even glimpsed the Collesseum!!

It has been a bit rushed, having to work up right up to leaving, but I did manage to get the majority of the packing done on Sunday. Since then I have just been throwing bits and pieces into the cases as I find them.

Today Erin and I went food shopping to make sure they have at least some food in the house while we are away. I also bought a new small digital camera as I broke our other one when I was on Emma's hen weekend a few weeks ago, I think someone stood on my handbag because both the camera and my mobile phone had cracked screens.

There is little else to report I am afraid, life has involved working, sleeping and more working. We did go to Druidstone on Tuesday for their "Greek feast" which was very nice, but other than that we have been saving ourselves for our holiday. Try not to miss me too much whilst I am gone (I am sure you won't seeing as my blogging has become so hit and miss) and I shall see you all in October (we get back on the 3rd)... and then I suppose it will be time to think about Christmas!!!

Morning Wonders

I think I may have mentioned before that working nights can have its advantages.

This morning just as I was starting to really flag after a very long and very busy night, the dawn was just breaking and the sky was a beautiful orange colour. Suddenly out of the west flew a skein of geese in a perfect V shape right past the window of Port Control at eye level.

It was a wonderful sight, there must have been at least 20 of them and they flew east into the sun rise where they were sillouhetted against the orange sky as they made their way up the Haven. It was the perfect antidote to a tiring night and lifted my soul.

Anniversary

This blog seems to be becoming a weekly event now. I really must make an effort to do more.

Tuesday was our Silver Wedding Anniversary... 25 years of married bliss (allegedly!!). We have never particularly celebrated our anniversaries, the date seems to come and go with the odd card, usually from our parents. This year however, the cards started to mount up a day or so before hand and by the actual date we had quite a little pile to open.

We also had presents.. a very rare occurrence. Three variously sized silver photo frames, a bottle of Southern Comfort, 2 bottles of wine and a bouquet of flowers... not a bad haul really.

We decided to celebrate quietly on our own and went to Stone Hall (see pic) for dinner. It was really nice, if a little quiet (only us and another table of 4, but then it was Tuesday night).

I had a warm smoked duck salad with basalmic dressing to start while Noel went for the escargot (that's snails you know!!) which were lovely with a really rich garlic butter. For mains I had a rack of Preseli lamb with a garlic crust and Noel had a fillet of beef with pink peppercorn sauce. The vegetables were braised fennel, green beans, carrots and new potatoes and everything was superb. Dessert was a creme brulee for me and a hazelnut meringue with fresh raspberries and whipped cream which looked absolutely delicious and from the small spoonful he let me have tasted as good as it looked.

Unfortunately we had had to drive so only a small amount of wine was consumed (with soda in my case as I had volunteered to drive) but it was a really pleasant evening.

I was back to work yesterday and today and it was pretty hectic and stressful (today isn't quite so bad). The weather has suddenly decided to improve greatly, typical when I go back to work, but I am now counting down to the next Cruise which is a week on Saturday. I shall endeavour to blog again before we go.

Emotional Rollercoaster

Today has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. It was Erin's GCSE results day and she has been a bag of nerves for the last week or so, convinced that she was going to fail several of them.

She didn't need to worry!! We went up to the school at about 9.15am and she met up with all her friends. They disappeared into the school while I sat nervously in the car with everything crossed.

Next thing I knew this little whirlwind threw itself into the car, clutching her results sheet in her hand and jabbering 19 to the dozen. Turns out she got 1 A, 6 Bs and 5 Cs... more than enough to get her onto the course she wants to do at College.

There were tears (from me)... much squealing and excitment (from Erin) and numerous phone calls to be made. She then disappeared off with her friends to have a celebratory breakfast while I went off home to cry a bit more (with pride) and finally get to bed.

When I emerged about 3.45pm, she was tucked up in bed looking miserable. After ringing Martin this morning to tell him her results she hadn't heard from him again. About 4pm his work rang the house looking for him, at this stage she began to really panic because both his personal and work mobile were switched off and he wasn't at either his Father's or Mother's. I rang Nicole (who works with him) to see if she knew where he was, only to be told that he had apparently taken the afternoon off to spend with Erin... this just made her panic even more with Erin imagining (as only distraught teenagers can) all sorts of horrendous things having happened to him. By the time I went to work at 5.30 she was besides herself, crying and worrying and it was really hard to leave her like that.

I finally got a phone call about 6.30pm to say that he had been in touch and was staying with a mate tonight. The whole thing was staged, I am sure, so that she would not go to her results party.... why are men such arses!!! Anyway she is going to her party and I hope she has a wonderful time and young Martin will be getting a piece of my mind when I see him for ruining what should have been one of the happiest day's of her life......Grrrrrr!!!

Happy Birthday Dear Blog

Today is the 3rd Birthday of my blog since its inception on AOL.

I have loved doing it and really enjoyed all your comments and feedback. Blogging seems to be losing its appeal to most people at the moment but I intend to persevere.

So thank you dear readers past, present and I hope future. Keep reading please and keep passing comments and I shall try my hardest to keep entertaining you, even if the majority of the entries are pretty mundane and humdrum.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear bloooooooooog... Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuu!!"

True Embarassment

I tend to record a lot of programmes on Sky+ to watch when I am on my time off. Things I don't think Noel will be very interested in or that I really fancy watching but are on quite late. A few weeks ago I began recording the vampire series True Blood on FX.

Today at lunchtime I decided it was time I started to watch them as I had 5 episodes taped, so I settled down on the sofa and started watching. Before the programme began a warning flashed up to inform me that the programme contained "Scenes of sexual nature and strong language"... great I thought ideal afternoon viewing.

I began to watch and true enough there were scenes of a very sexual nature... very sexual indeed!!! Unfortunately right in the middle of one such scene I heard the back door open and Martin (Erin's boyfriend) come into the kitchen, where the tv also happened to be on and tuned to the same thing I was watching... I desperately attempted to stop the tape, only to succeed in pausing it at a particularly graphic moment......so now Erin's boyfriend thinks I sit at home all day watching porn!!!!!

Normal Service is Resumed....... sort of!

Well I'm back... in fact I have been back since Monday but have been busy catching up with Facebook, Holiday Blog and worst of all housework.

The holiday was wonderful and a full account is currently being posted in installments on the Holiday Blog with pictures but just to whett your appetite here is a sample of the kind of scenery we saw.


We got back to Southampton last Friday... OMG I've been home a week, it dosn't feel like that it feels like much longer!! We stopped off in Bath for 3 days on the way home which will also be detailed in the Holiday Blog eventunally.

We finally got back to Milford on Monday about 7pm and Tuesday morning was spent unpacking and getting the washing on. Then about 1pm Tuesday afternoon I went out on a bit of a retirement bash for one of the boys I work with (well he's hardly a boy seeing as he has just retired but you know what I mean).

We met up at the Harbourmaster and there were about 18 of us (and me the only girl!!) It was a beautiful afternoon so we sat on the balcony and just drank and had a laugh all afternoon,

This is Frank (who was retiring... we have worked together for 27 years, so it was quite sad to finally see him leave)This is me with Paul Pullen (one of our Pilots).. the silly hat was a present to Frank and was being passed around. As I said the sun was shining, the beer was flowing and it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Once it started to get a bit colder we retired to Martha's Vineyard (not the one in America) and lost all the light weights and I finally headed home about 10pm not long after this picture was taken which was just as well.

The group are Ian (Pilot), Mike (he works with me in Port Control, Frank, Niall (Frank's son), Jamie (his other son) and Rob (Pilot boats), all in all it was a great afternoon and evening and I hope Frank has a long and happy retirement.