More diet *groan*

Diet number 5.000 started last Wednesday. 5 days in I have had a mini-binge on one occasion and yet still managed to stay within my points allowance....things are looking up! I'll let you know the progress when I go to WW on Wednesday.

I haven't eaten bread for a while - until my little "binge" yesterday. My guts were terrible all night. Lots of gurgling going on, lots of bellyache and (TMI maybe?) lots of wind...eek! Poor Hubby.

Was Hubby impressed? Nope.

Did I regret it? Yes.

Will I do it again? Probably.

Do we EVER learn?

Cruise update

I really MUST try and update this blog at least once a week, it's looking very neglected. It's not that I don't remember to, I just never seem to get time to do it. That, and my life basically revolves around work and graphics...the average person isn't going to find my work interesting...and everyone already knows about my graphics through my Adori Graphics blog.

I do have a few small tid bits which I haven't posted about on my other blog. Things like my recent vacation which I haven't blogged about yet because my feet haven't touched the ground since I came home! We had a wonderful time though, with a few small negatives, but these were outweighed by the positive experience generally.

I thought this particular ship was well run and had excellent customer service. Us Brits are not known for good customer service (no tipping = no incentive for good service me thinks). But apart from a rocky start this ship seemed to run like clockwork, unlike the previous ship we'd been on.

My main complaints were:

• Some elderly passengers who felt entitlement to the very air that you breathed and whined about everything...you know, the beach was too sandy, the water was too wet...that kind of thing. 
• Food - too arty farty and no choice for those of us with more conservative palates...goodness knows how the grumpy older folk got on with it.*
• Stock replenishment - pretty dire at first, but seemed to improve after the first day or two.
• Queues - we seemed to spend an awful amount of time queuing in this ship. I know us Brits love a good queue but this was ridiculous at times.

Things I loved:

• The European ports much more than the Caribbean. 
• The unexpectedly mild weather
• The fact it was less humid than the Caribbean (all our other cruises were there)
• The fact that because it was less humid, my lungs didn't feel like they were wilting
• The people we shared our table with
• The customer service

The things I loved far outweighed the things I didn't like/enjoy. Look out over the next few weeks as I slowly add some pics and a little about each port that we went to.

*I honestly have nothing against elderly people, in fact I hope to be elderly myself one day. The thing I do object to is rudeness, lack of consideration and people who throw manners back in my face by being rude. Oh, and people who whine. It just happened that all of this came from elderly passengers. The kids, teens (mostly) and younger adults were all respectful and well behaved.

sooooo tired

I feel burnout setting in again....I can't remember the last time I felt so tired...thank goodness it's only 2 weeks until we leave for our long-awaited holiday. I sooooo need this!

So what have I been up to since my last post? Well the main thing is that I formed a team at Adori Graphics because it's just NOT a one-person blog any more. It hasn't been for a long time really and now, looking back, I don't know why I put off the inevitable for so long really. I have a wonderful team now, but it's taken some training and effort and now I am..well...quite frankly...pooped!

I will try and update this blog with a proper post over the weekend and let you know more about our outings and what we've been doing.

Family holiday disasters

They say you always remember bad things that happen to you. If that's the case, then me and Andy certainly have some memorable holidays.

First, there's the holiday where, as we were packing up to come home, the maid appeared in the doorway hurrying us along because she wanted to clean the apartment. We hurried along and on arriving back home, realised we had left ALL of my dirty washing in a laundry bag in the wardrobe. I'd bought a new wardrobe for the trip and the hotel never did respond to my email. I hope the maid enjoyed her new (albeit dirt and very smelly) clothes.

Oh and then there's the cruise that we went on in 2005...a fabulous trip to the Caribbean. We'd just got there and were unpacking the clothes. I'd put all of the clothes away and only had the t-shirts left to unpack. Andy passes me a stack of his t-shirts and I dutifully put them away in the wardrobe. "Ok, pass mine over" I said. "That's all of them" he said. Turns out he thought my t-shirts were his and had thought to himself as he was packing "I've got way too many t-shirts, better put some back" and basically left ALL of my t-shirts on the bed at home! I had to survive a 2 week holiday with the t-shirt that I was wearing, which was dirty - since I'd spilt my lunch down it on the plane - and a selection of his t-shirts. Thank goodness we're about the same size!

Ooooooh and here's one for you...we'd just arrived in Tenerife and was about to unpack the clothes...(there's a theme here, have you spotted it yet? LOL). I asked him to pass me the padlock key for the suitcase. At that moment, I remember leaving the key on the kitchen worktop and we had to get maintenance to break into out suitcase for us. For the return journey we bought some of those ones with the combination lock...and the lock mechanism failed so we had to break into the case when we got home too.

On our last cruise in November 2008, we were loading the suitcases into the car (on our way to the airport...yay!). It's 5pm and the shops are due to shut..and guess what? Our case falls apart and clothes start spewing onto the pavement. Eeeekkkk!!!! We had to dash to the shops to buy a new suitcase, on the way to the airport, and with the shops due to close...we met my mum and dad at the airport looking stressed and well ready for a holiday.

I'm just wondering what will happen this time LOL.

Talking of horrendous family trips, I was just reading this article on the BBC news website (so funny) and I especially liked this bit...

Particularly memorable was one journey to France aged six when a fellow passenger vomited on her leg on the ferry; with her clean clothes buried somewhere deep inside the family Land Rover, the senior Kennedys thought it wisest to clean her up at a public convenience when they reached the continent. Unfortunately, when they did so the young Emma managed to step into the squat toilet and cover herself in human effluent; she was so traumatised that she fainted and, as she recalls with a shudder, her parents then "had to wrap me in a bin bag, take me to a garage forecourt and hose me down".

Does anyone else have a funny holiday disaster?

Day trip!

Today Andy & I went to Scarborough for the day. It's late and I'm tired now, but here's a few pics from the day :)

This is the main reason why I don't go to the beach much - too many people driving waaaaaaay below the speed limit - causing queues a mile long!

 

 

The harbour

The beach

Lots of these everywhere!

PS: If you follow my photography blog, you might recognise the third pic as being the one that I posted here - just taken a season later!