7.00am local time. It looked a bit cloudy as we anchored in Fort de France, Martinique on the west side of the island. (Historical note: Martinique is not a colony, but actually part of France. Those living here are considered French and it’s one of the few islands in the Caribbean that has always belonged …
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Month:December 2009
St Vincent and Bequia
We both slept well, although Ann woke with a pretty bad head – must have been the alcohol last night! Another day, another island! Well, actually, we get two for the price of one today – St Vincent and Bequia (later today). As normal, we had a lazy breakfast and then took the Tender ashore. …
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Tobago Cays – Lunch on the Beach
We had a later breakfast and then took the Tender to the beach. It was another gorgeous day, although thankfully, slightly cooler than yesterday – only 26 degrees! The beach was your typical ‘Robinson Crusoe’ type, sand, sand, palm-trees and more sand. Perfect!!! “South of Canouan and west of Mayreau lie the Tobago Cays islands, …
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The Island of Grenada
We woke just after 7, to a cloudy-ish sky – I wonder if it’ll rain? The Ship docks in Grenada today around 12 noon – it’s the smallest independent country in the western hemisphere and is home to 160000 residents. St Georges is the capital and home to The Carenage, noted as ‘the most beautiful …
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Union Island, Grenadines
Overnight (and for much of the morning) we headed for Union Island – Grenadines arriving at Noon. We avoided the rush to get off the ship by spending time soaking-up the sun and then having lunch on-board. We then jumped on the Tender (only a short wait) and headed for the shore. The beach area …
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TV: Being Human – Series 2 launch date announced
BBC3, 10 January 2010 at 9.30pm Being Human web-site and more news HERE Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed …
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Boxing Day 2009 – Anchors Away…
Later today, we’ll be boarding the ‘Royal Clipper’. We board at around 4pm local time and sail at 10pm. We’re not sure yet if we can get an internet connection on the ship, so this may be the last posting until we get back next Saturday! Over the coming seven days, the cruise will take …
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Christmas Presents 2009
As we’re away this year, we only took a few of the pressies with us. Mum Vouchers – John Lewis Vouchers – Boots Jo and Janet Odeon Cinema Vouchers Carol Incense Burner Mae and Denis Blue-Ray DVD: ‘Snow White’ Blu-Ray DVD: ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince CD – Carpenters Ultimate Collection Bev Spicy Sauce …
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Christmas Day 2009 – Barbados
I was up about 6.30 and took a shower. It’s already getting warm here – very UN-Christmassy!! 🙂 We started phoning round the family (UK is four hours in front of Barbados)…Mae and Denis first…then Roger, Jane and Oliver. At his stage, we’re not sure of our plans today. We’ve only bought just a few …
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Christmas Eve – Barbados
I woke first and got up. It’s only 5.30 am here, but the time difference had completely screwed by body-clock. I had a quick shower and then went downstairs for a coffee and started to working on my backlog of reading. It was already light, the birds were singing and George (our host) pointed out …
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TV: Doctor Who – “The End of Time (Part 1)”
Tomorrow at 6pm… (Part 2 is on New Year’s Day). Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the …
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Barbados – we’re here!
After landing at the Airport we were confronted with 400+ people in front of us all trying to get through Immigration. It was due to a flight being late and us all turning up at the same time. We must have been there for about an hour…just queuing and queuing… Luckily, us Brits are used …
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Christmas TV
TV at Christmas is always a highlight for me, although in recent years, there seems to be less stuff worth watching (or is that me, just getting older?). Here is our short-list. Whilst we’ll be away over the festive break, suffering 30 degrees of sunshine (!!!), the SkyPlus box is also getting hot, hopefully doing …
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Barbados, here we come…
Having dropped the hire-car back at Paul’s last night gave us both a bit more time this morning. Ann had a productive morning and so did I – we were ahead of schedule. 10:59:59. We logged on to the BA website, and chose our seats (the system only allows us to do this, 24 hours …
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It’s built..!
Good news! Ann’s car is built and awaiting transportation. This means it could be here for when we get back from holiday on the 9th. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all …
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Bertie’s out of hospital
Lee rang today. They’ll be releasing Bertie tomorrow and transferring him to a Care-Home very near to where they live in Cromer. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together …
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No TV Times and two types of Radio Times – ehh?
I usually like to buy a copy of both the Radio Times and TV Times and compare how they’ve covered various programmes during the festive season. I didn’t think I’d left it too late this year, but obviously I did, (in fact, looking back to last year, I bought them during the first week …
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The Packing continues/Salvation Army Concert/Ice Age
We spent part of the morning continuing to pack. It all seems to fit (but the kitchen sink was a bit of a problem!!) – so we should get away with being under the weight limits for BA. Job done! We’re all packed apart from a few last minute bits and pieces. We’re ahead …
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Cats in/Holiday Prep
Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr This is our final weekend before the holiday, so there is plenty to do – not least the packing! We had a productive morning, mostly cleaning and generally tidying-up. Additionally, we took the cats to the Vet for their final injections. We decided to get to there slightly …
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Han or not to Han
Our original plan was to pick up Jo, Janet and Carol and head over to Han, our favourite Chinese restaurant in Market Harborough for a final pre-Christmas gorge-fest. However, the atrocious weather here put paid to that and we decided to have everyone round to ours. As it turned out, Carol wasn’t able to make …
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The snow has arrived…
Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr Well, they forecasted it…and the white-stuff has arrived in great quantities. When I looked out the window at around 5am this morning, it didn’t look too bad, but it’s been snowing ever since on-and-off (mostly on!) and I reckon we’ve got two inches lying in the road here. …
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BA Strike deemed “illegal”
Good news… I think! Judges have declared the BA strike to be illegal, and so things are back to normal and there won’t be a strike over Christmas. Phew! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology …
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Page 100
Screen courtesy of mb21 Readers of a ‘certain age’ will remember a uniquely British technology that led the World, appearing on TVs in the early 70s – in fact, the service was first launched on 23 September 1974. It was called teletext and back then, it was a must-have for techy-nerds like me! In later …
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David round for Supper
David popped round on our invitation. He’d kindly cut the grass for us over the weekend whilst we were away and we wanted to say ‘thanks’. Ann created a superb chicken and mushroom pie – yum!! and we finished off with a lemon tart and cream! After a full lunch, I’m now more-than stuffed. Thank …
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Lunch with Sally B
My gorge-fest continues. At this rate, I’ll be classified under ‘excess baggage’ when we (err, ‘if’ – see yesterday’s blog) go away on holiday!!! Oooo, a flutter of snow in the air. I drove over to Cambridge to meet up with Sally B for lunch. We haven’t seen each other since June and it was …
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“Someday I’ll Fly Away…”
…or maybe not. After believing that we would probably be OK to fly on the 23rd because the Gatwick staff are on different working contracts, (and therefore the BA strike wouldn’t impact on us) when we spoke to BA‘s PR department they said our flight had been ‘flagged for cancellation’. They advised us to ring …
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Are we REALLY going on holiday?
Up until about half-an-hour ago, we weren’t sure! But, after the past 24 hours wondering whether the BA strike from the 22nd December would completely screw our holiday, it looks like there might be a glimmer of hope! According to the PR Department at BA, none of this threatened strike action is relevant to Gatwick, …
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The 5ive get together for Christmas
My ‘eat-fest’ continues. I headed down to London for 12 o’clock to meet up with some of the ‘gang-of-5ive’, Well, actually there was only four of us this year. Antoinette, Angela, Philip and I met for coffee at ‘Les Pain Quotidien’ before trying out ‘des Pain’ just a few units along – a bad …
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Ooh, that’s clever! (4)
Here’s a clever thing. I can see my mobile phone screen on my PC and use the mouse to control it! EDIT June 2020: Pretty clever for 2009! but unfortunately, the website that supplied the software isn’t around any longer). Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until …
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The eyes have it…
Mae has been due to have the cataracts in both eyes sorted out kicking off in January 2010. She was quite surprised therefore to get a call to bring the whole thing forward to… TODAY! I spoke to her tonight and although parts of the process were quite painful for her, she was in good …
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