CRUISING 2009

I have been on holiday, so thought I should update the site with some up-to-date news. I am not going to bore you will all the details of our trips as you could well fall asleep. Needless to say we had a brilliant time. We had 12 days of gorgeous weather / excellent food and smirnoff ices....... what bliss!



We went on a 12 day cruise. We flew into Rome and went to Naples, Athens, Rhodes, Mykinos, Kusadisi (Turkey), Alexandria, Corfu and then back to Rome. We had a few sailing days. We met some fabulous people whilst we were away. On our trip along the Amalfi Coast we met Julie and Dave (who I will talk about later), and Sheila. It was Sheila's birthday the day after the trip and we were invited for champagne and cake(s). Well, we didnt want to refuse when alcohol and cake were mentioned (you know how easily persuaded I am when it comes to food and alcohol!).



You may have heard that cruises are about:

GOOD FOOD

Well to a certain degree that's right. You can eat at any time during the day, from room service, to the "Winjammer" (self service restaurant - eat what you want, when you want and as much as you want and I can assure you people do!) and there is a main restaurant. We only use room service for breakfast - especially when it is a 'sailing day' as the Winjammer is a little busy! We ordered our breakfast (for the following morning). I didn't think I would want to eat too much (it is rather difficult to make a decision about breakfast when it is 2am!), so thought we would just order one cooked breakfast, some coffee and pastries (well, you have to don't you!). At 08:30 they delivered our breakfast VIA A FOOD TROLLEY - I think the waiter must have thought we were entertaining ! Two plates with bacon / sausage / egg / hash browns etc. fresh rolls, fruit juice, 2 x pots of coffee and 10 different pastries! We did our best to eat some of it! We learned our lesson (so we thought), so the next time we ordered breakfast via room service, we carefully completed the form at a sensible time and expected to be delivered 2 x breakfasts and a pot of coffee - next morning at 08:30, Gerry rang us to make sure it was OK to deliver our eagerly awaited breakfast and we ended up with 1 pot of coffee and a bread roll! Undaunted, we thought we would give it one more attempt, surely we could get it right this time !! Form completed we waited for Gerry to phone us and deliver pastries for one and 2 x pots of coffee - we got 1 pot of coffee and 2 x breakfasts and no pastries! Needless to say, we didn't attempt to order breakfast again via this method !



VISITING NEW PLACES

Yes, I guess it is, we went to Athens and went to the Acropolis along with thousands of other people. I don't want to appear as if I am moaning, because I am not, but it was SO busy, and then to make matters worse when we were trying to return to the ship we were told there was a 'protest' (or similar) taking place very near to the Acropolis which meant we had to take a detour to get back (more about coach journeys later!) to the ship. We eventually got back (2 hours later) after we had dropped off some mad folk who wanted to do some shopping (why?).

Another eventful trip was to the Pyramids. Before I start, I want to say we had a wonderful day and I am so glad I can cross the Pyramids off my list of "places to visit", but it was a long day! We boarded our coach at the dock and had to wait until all the coaches were ready to go as we were to travel in convoy. Armed guards were put on some of the coaches! (Where were we going to!!!) We were on the two seats just by the steps which went down to the loo on the coach and we were in Egypt!!! (I will make no further mention about the loo as some of you may have only just eaten). I couldnt get my legs in front of me when I sat down properly, so had to sit with my legs dangling in the walk-way for the FULL journey. We then left the dock and travelled to Cairo. Two and a half hours later we spotted the Pyramids and the coach suddenly got noisier (well, not the actual coach, but the people on it!) and we drove up to the parking area and our guide gave us a few tips as to how to deal with all the people who were about to great us - the camel driver / the boss of the camel driver / the police / the policeman on the camel / the armed policemen / the sellers. (I have been to Egypt before and I had forgotten how persistent these guys can be, even the Police wanted us to tip them (for what I am not too sure)). I think the most amusing was the policeman who kept blowing his whistle and asking me if we wanted to 'touch it', you come over here and 'touch it' - I think he wanted me to touch the Pyramid (well, thats what I thought, I could quite easily have been mistaken and missed out on something really interesting!) and then of course we would have had to pay him. Another policeman wanted a tip for shielding the sun from Tom's eyes as he took a photo, he then tried to take the camera off Tom! We only had to endure this for approx. 45 minutes, then off to the viewing area where we could capture a photo of all the pyramids and more people wanting to take money from us. Eventually we were driven to a beautiful hotel where we had lunch. A trip around Geeza and Cairo and then to the museum. One further stop off at a Papyrus factory - (why on earth anyone would want to know how to make papyrus is beyond me, but if you do know of anyone who does, then please let me know and I will share my newly gained knowledge) then home, well thats what we thought, until a couple on the coach unwrapped their newly bought drawing (on Papyrus) only to find it wasnt what they thought they had bought !!! 45 minutes (and still sat in the seats just up from the loo) later we were still parked up outside a car park being hassled by even more people wanting us to purchase their items they thought we couldnt live without!! which brings me back to the coach....... the engine kept cutting out, we would be steaming along then come to a stop. The groans on the coach kept getting louder and louder we must have 'stopped' at least 5 times on the way back (which doesnt sound a lot, but when you are sat on a cramped coach near to the toilet ...... need I say more). We returned to our ship over an hour late, but were greated by some rather hunky men in their naval uniforms handing out cold handcloths and drinks and welcoming us back 'home' - it was all worthwhile !


MEETING NEW PEOPLE:

We met a lot of great people. We 'dined' each evening with Eddie and Wendy. We had a great laugh with them every evening, well we thought we did, but for some reason we didn't meet up with them again during the evenings - we are not too sure why? Tom said it was because they wanted to go to the show and have a quiet drink and we wanted to go to the Casino then disco and drink lots!! I must add at this point, it wasn't me who wanted to do the drinking, that was until I realised they sold smirnoff ice. We met Dave and Julie on our trip along the Amalfi Coast, Julie was originally from Warrington but had emigrated 30 years previously and had met Dave fallen in love and then married. What good company they both were and I am pleased to say Julie had instilled those good old English traditions on the family, steak & kidney pie, Lancashire hot pot and black pudding! Their description of their lives in Canada sounded idyllic until we got to know them a little bit better and then the real truth emerged!

Their dentist was a 5 hour round trip! There were more moose in the area than there were people in the town! (As Dave shoots this was an advantage as there was no need to go to the supermarket for meat as they had a regular supply of moose-burgers, moose-sausages, moose-stew - I think you get the general gist of having a "shooting licence"). Bears were sometimes spotted in the garden (you are not allowed to shoot the bears so the "shooting licence" was completely useless at this point!). The temperature dropped to minus 40 in the winter! Apparently if you are dressed properly this isnt really a problem. One of the most essential items in your wardrobe is your 'beaver hat' !!! (I am sure M&S will have a large selection). Whilst we are talking about 'stocking up the freezer' Dave is also a keen fisherman (yes, he has a licence for this as well!). He regularly does his fishing in the local lakes and even manages to fish in winter. There are a few essentials you need in the winter for fishing (in the Lake District this is just a fishing rod and a few worms), not so in Canada, you need a skidoo, fishing tent, your 'beaver hat' and a gas powered drill. The tent is obviously to keep you warm whilst you are doing your fishing, the beaver hat doesnt need any explanation and the drill, what else would you need a drill for on a frozen lake? Its to drill the hole to put your rod in !!

I learned so much whilst talking to Julie and Dave, I know how to fish in the winter (not too sure about the beaver hat though), and I also know what I need to take with me when I am travelling on a long journey (during the winter months) - a box of matches, a candle and an empty can of beans. Not really what I take with me when I am travelling by car, for me its my hand bag, mobile phone, perfume and perhaps a shovel! Apparently this lot would be useless (well, perhaps the shovel might be of some use). So for those of you who are thinking of driving in the winter your essential items are listed above - apparently when you get into any difficulty, you light your candle, place in the empty bean can and this will generate enough heat to keep you alive .... simple really! (Makes my trips to Manchester look really simple now).

We heard so many tales of what it is like to live in an area with Bears, skunks (yes, skunks), and moose. The funniest was re a japanese visitor to the country who had landed at the airport and taken a car and had decided to drive in the dark across the country. He was spotted by the local police with a huge hole in the windscreen speeding back to the airport, apparently on questioning he had been driving along and had been attacked by a "huge monster" - the monster was a moose. (Obviously if Dave had been there the freezer would have been full for the rest of the year!).
Hopefully one day we will meet up again as I feel we have only touched the surface with 'life in Canada'. (The good news is that we have regular eMails and photos from them and it doesnt look as if they are going to do an Eddie and Wendy!).

All I can say now is that we are looking forward to our next cruise (to Russia) and perhaps we may be able to purchase a 'beaver hat' !!!

www.flikr.com/photos/judeandtom/

WE DID IT

THANKS FOR YOUR MONEY & SUPPORT !

As I am sure some of you know already, we completed our 'task' in just under 8 hours. I will post photos etc. as soon as I can master Picassa !!

I don't really want to bore you all with the details, but in a nutshell we managed to get back after 8 hours solid walking. We were pleased with our time considering we had only walked 5 miles in the first 2 hours!!

It is bank holiday Monday and the temperature is well into the 70s and I feel I should be sat outside with a smirniff ice - so guess what ? Yep, I am going to sit out ! See you all later.

Jude x

NEEDLEWORK

Our needlework skills have been put to the test ! I thought it would be easy, it wasn't. Firstly, I didnt have a needle and thread, I thought I had a little box where I had pins / needles etc., but Tom said he had never seen it in use so he threw it out. Secondly, Joanne decided to cut her boa in half, in principle this seemed a good idea (if it had been in her house), the dining room looked as though she had been plucking chickens !! The good news is we now have bright pink bras with bright pink feather boa and flowers attached to the front ... stunning !

We have received all our instructions from the Moonwalk team and there are rather a lot of do's and dont's - more don'ts than do's! One of the do's is to make sure we practice walking in our bras, or at least walk around the house in them. Jo took her first step in public on Sunday afternoon and walked over from her house to ours - wearing just a bra (she did also have her track suit bottoms, I hasten to add), what can I say, Tom opened the door to let her in .......... I may wear mine tonight, but then again ........

Only one week to go now until the 'big day'. We completed the Kendal Star Walk on Saturday and completed our 9.3 miles in 2hrs 25 minutes, we collected our medals and walked home (are we bonkers or what!). We just have 2 further walks this week and then set off to London on Saturday afternoon. We are travelling to London by train which is just as well as we have a booklet to read (as mentioned above), with that many things we can and can't do, we will have to make sure we are fully 'read up' before we dare enter Hyde Park.

Well, thats it now, until next week. I will be taking my camera so should have loads of pictures and will hopefully post these as soon as I can after next weekend.

Oh, and finally, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has sponsored us - our total as of today is £1106.

Jude

EASY STEP TO DYEING YOUR BRA!

I fell at the first hurdle, you have to have some rubber gloves (I have never possessed a pair of rubber gloves!). I have since done a straw poll with some of my friends and they all have rubber gloves - I now feel a little inferior/let down - why hasnt anyone told me about having to have some!).

Not one to be beaten by the lack of a pair of gloves(!), I just got on with it 'gloveless'.

Tom and I were now no longer speaking .............. He said I shouldn't have used the bowl he uses to clean the windows with (I would normally use a cloth!), and there were about 4 buckets in the shed (all full of spiders) I should have been using, I suggesed he use those to clean his windows with!

Hands full of pink dye I realised I needed some salt (well you would wouldnt you!), so I had to speak to Tom after all - he moaned as he spooned in 4 tbsp (is that table spoons / tea spoons or soup spoons as Tom was using - I thought it best not to say anything AGAIN). I continued to stir for 15 minutes and then left for 45 minutes. In the meantime I was trying to cook the sunday lunch and had to put the timer on for the first 15 minutes of cooking time (at my age you need the timer as I usually forget what time I put it in the oven). Tom assured me he would know when the 45 minutes for the bra deying were up (we were speaking again, by then!). But he wasnt going to put his hands in that pink stuff and that would be up to me. By this time, the pinger on the first 15 minutes for the sunday lunch had gone off which meant I had to turn down the oven temperature, but my hands were full of pink dye as I was just in the middle of a "stir" ......... who was going to turn the oven down? Tom was in the other room watching the Grand Prix, I didnt really know what he was going to say to me when he came in (althought I could imagine!). Boldly going where I didnt really want to go, I shouted him and asked if he could just 'pop into the kitchen', he did happen to mention he was watching the grand prix, but I said it was desperate. The oven was turned down a few degrees, I smiled, he said 'what'? .... could he please put on the timer for 45 minutes ........ all I can say, is that I am glad United beat spurs yesterday !!!

The timer pinged - 45 minutes was up - at least the meat was well on its way to be cooked, but the bras had been in the bowl too long (Tom had forgotten it was his job to tell me when the 45 minutes was up, because he thought he had set the timer for that, I explained the timer had been set for the meat).

I couldnt fnd the instructions for the dyeing because they had been thrown out in an earlier 'discussion' I had had with Tom. I remembered something about having to put the bra(s) into some cold water, but where was I to put the luke warm redundant pink water - we now had a lovely pink sink (it is normally white). Quickly getting out the jif I was scrubbing the sink when Tom came into the kitchen to see if there was anything he could do to help, I did say everything was under control, I don't know why - but he didn't believe me!!!! He spotted the now empty bowl (yes, you know the one, his favourite bowl for washing the windows) which just had 2 pink bra(s) in and was a lovely shade of pink - he looked at me and said in typical Victor Meldrew style 'I don't believe it'!!! As you can imagine a few harsh words were spoken and he left the room. The pinger then went off again, which meant the meat had to be checked, I couldnt ask Tom to come back in the kitchen again, could I ?

Needless to say, we did get to eat our Sunday lunch and the bra(s) are now a beautiful shade of pink ready to be decorated next weekend.

..... and now for the walking news, we completed our 20 mile walk in 5 hours 15 minutes - the highlight of the day was eating our bacon butties and tiffin whilst sitting in the foot passenger ferry going from Sawrey over to Bowness ....... perfect !

Look out for bra decorating tips next week !.

Jude x

WE CAN'T GET OVER ..........

.........the weather! What a glorious week!

The good news is - our bras have arrived - along with our numbers (not too sure where we are to put these as in theory we will only be wearing a bra and tracky bottoms !!). We immediately "dashed" off to to purchase some items to decorate the bras with. Pink feather boas are the order of the day. We have to dye our bras first - so I have bought some 'electric pink' dye - I havent decorated a bra before, but I feel sure it can't be difficult, can it !

We have also received our 'registration' for the Star Walk in Kendal on the 9th May 2009. Fortunately for this event we don't need to docorate a bra and we just have T-shirts to wear. The star walk is a week before our marathon so we are using this as part of our 'training'. We are hoping to finish in a decent time and then have an easy week on the run-up to the 16th.

We are doing a 20-mile walk next Saturday (25th April). The plan is for Paul (Joanne's husband) to drop us off at Mum's in Hawkshead. She is going to supply us with a bacon buttie each (and some tiffin). We then plan to walk to the ferry at Sawrey. This was the plan, but I have just read the local paper and the ferry closes this weekend for its annual, well, not exactly annual, but 5-year service (I wish my car only had a 5-year service, it would be much cheaper). There is still supposed to be a ferry for foot passengers, but its about 5 miles from where Mum lives, so don't really want to walk there to find we can't get across the lake! (Mum will have to be on standby to come and collect us). Anyway, hoping we get over on the ferry, its onto the Crook road towards Kendal, but we are going to take a left turning towards Burneside over the bypass and then pop into Burneside, over to the shap road and then head our way back to Natland - easy peasy. Tom is on standby at some stage of our walk - he said he will bring us drinks and a sandwich - I think he thinks we are just going for a picnic!

Of course, this time next week we will have done it (I DO sound confident don't I!).

Did you know that walking (or running) a marathon is 65% mental and 35% physical..... no neither did I...... until I started to train for this marathon.

Thats it until next week, apart from - I thought Ronaldo's goal last week was superb and I hope they win today.

Over and out - Jude xx

EASTER WEEKEND

Good news on the fundraising front - we have now reached £500.00 - half way there. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

No walking this weekend - we are 'resting'.

Jude x

Levens Park

THE WEATHER IS GLORIOUS

What a brilliant week. The weather has been great. We walked last Sunday. We were out for a couple of hours and it was glorious. What a difference the weather has made. I actually want to go out at night!

We went for a 16 mile walk yesterday (Saturday), for those of you who live locally, we walked under the Helm along to the Station Pub. We continued to Mealbank (is that the right spelling !), I didnt even know the place existed - but it looked very nice. We eventually arrived in Burneside and then walked back into Kendal and came back to Natland via the canal. No more walking now until Monday (thank goodness).

We are only doing an hourly walk Monday / Tuesday and Wednesday and then 'resting' over Easter weekend. Suits me down to the ground ....... do you get the feeling I am not quite as enthusiastic as I was !!

Joanne and I have also received confirmation we will be doing the Kendal Moonwalk. This year it starts at 9pm (instead of midnight). Its a week before our event in London, so we will use this as part of our 'training'.

Thanks to everyone who has sponsored us - our total has moved to an impressive £460 - well on its way to our target of £1000. Once again thanks to everyone who has sponsored us both and to all your comments - although some are a little sarcastic !!

I may even manage to get some photos published next weekend (Easter). We went round Levens Park last Sunday and managed to get some photos of the deer.

See you next week and lets hope for more good weather.

jude xx

Not a good week

We had great plans for this week which all went wrong. We only managed to get out on Monday and that was just for one hour. Unfortunately the weather got the better of us this week (it was raining). We were even supposed to join our local aqua aerobics class (another day to have got wet!!!!!) on Thursday and I had to cancel that. The good news..... we had a coffee and a glass of wine with Tom, as you can imagine he was really really pleased - good thing MUFC werent playing.

As the weather has been so had we are going out later this afternoon (Sunday) for a couple of hours. We are also going to take some photos which I will hopefully be able to load onto this site and we have been asked to send some photos to the Westmorland Gazette (I think there may a little article about us one week) and for our local Natland website.

Our sponsorship keeps coming in - we are now up to £279.00 on our electronic sponsorship form and Jo has a similar amount on her 'paper' form. Thanks to all of you who have sponsored us both.

We have both registered for the 'star walk' in Kendal - just over 9 miles walking the streets of Kendal (nothing new for Jo and me!). This takes place one week before our 'big event' on the 16th May. Our sponsorship for this event is for cancer care and all monies raised are for the local community.

We have a 20+ mile walk planned for 25th April. We are walking from Hawkshead to Natland. Mum is going to supply us with a bacon buttie before we start and some 'tiffin' to keep us going along the way. Tom has even said he will meet us with 'supplies'. He is going to pop through on the 'wasp'. For those of you who know Tom the 'wasp' is his only form of transport - a TGB 202 - with a top speed of 40 miles per hour !!!! He said he will bring chocoate and water with him - 2 very essential supplies !

Thats it for this week. Once again thank you for sponsoring us it really is very much appreciated. See you all next week. Jude xx

Update on the walking

According to our 'guide' we should have walked 22 miles this week!

I don't think we will have managed 22 miles though because we have only been out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It was Tom's birthday on Thursday, so had a day off but this carried on over the weekend and we havent been out at all!! (I did manage to walk around the Trafford Centre on Saturday afternoon and I also managed to walk to the Indian takeaway on Saturday night!).

We should only be walking 12 miles next week (w/c 23rd March), but I think we will have to 'up' this and aim for 20+ miles.

We finally managed to get our train tickets booked. I guess this should have been quite an easy thing to do, but no. Wouldnt you have thought that an advanced ticket to London would have been an easy purchase - well it was if you wanted to pay £100+ plus, but we wanted to pay much less than this. The good news is that we managed to get a return fare for £48.00.

I have taken some photos of the routes we have been walking (it has been sunny some of the time) and will post these as soon as I have managed to get them into a suitable format !

Marathon Training

I'm walking a marathon....

My friend, Joanne, suggested we should do a proper walk after doing the Moon Walk in Kendal last year (9.6 miles). It sounded a good idea. She suggested we did a half marathon in London (Playtex Moon Walk), I agreed - Imanaged to do 9.6 miles least year and that seemed relatively easy. We went out one night and had had a few Smirnoff Ices (well, you know me!) and she suggested it would be an even better idea to walk a marathon - I readily agreed ............



Well, that was before Christmas last year and I am not too sure if it was such a good idea now. We have been walking a minimum of 3 nights in the week and then again at the weekend. Some weeks we are walking over 40 miles. We have been out in the rain, snow and hail ! I don't want to sound as if I am moaning, but, honestly the weather has been crap! We thought we would go for a 16 mile last weekend and had to abandon it just over half way due to the terrible weather. Never one to give up though, we were out again last week.



The plus side to the walking, well ...... I am a lot fitter. I am getting lots of fresh air. Its lovely scenery up here in the Lakes - I expect you are all going to rush out now and start walking !!! The down sides - we have had to do a lot of walking around the streets of Kendal, with hi vis vests on, pounding the streets. It always seems to be raining ! - I guess you have now put away your training shoes! Its not all bad though, we really have had a laugh. We talk constantly (I know this will be a surprise to most of you, as I am such a quiet person!) - Tom has said that we can't be taking it seriously if we keep talking all the time - I reminded him we were female !!!

I haven't been able to take any photos of us actually in training, but will do now the nights are a lot lighter and the clocks will soon be 'springing' forward.

I would love to hear any 'training tips' you may have?

Photos will follow soon

Jude x

HOLIDAY NEWS

Not really too sure what I am supposed to be doing here. Elle suggested this would be a good 'medium' to share my holiday(s) / news with you rather than sending an eMail.

We are both well and have just returned from 2 weeks in Gran Canaria, well we returned to work on the 12th January. It was really great to miss all that bad weather - we kept getting text messages to say that it was -8 and -9 and we were basking in glorious sunshine. We had 2 weeks of just doing nothing - it was great.

Since my return to the UK I have been 'in training' to WALK a marathon in May - I will keep you updated with all my 'training news' ! Jude xx