Land at last

So, no blog yesterday because the ship's internet was down. The good news is that we finally arrived somewhere. The sea was too rough and the wind too strong to get ashore in Flam or Gudvangen. Winds of 60mph and waves over 15 feet high beneath leaden skies and temperatures in single figures celsius (call it 50 in farenheit).

Remarkably the ship was very very stable, though some joker asked the Captain if they had to go round tightening bolts afterwards.

And yesterday we were in Alesund and what a difference. Blue skies and the temperature in the mid 70's (I'll use farenheit since Norway isn't in the EU).

We took a look at our neightbour, the Queen Elizabeth which next to our ship is HUGE.

Then we took a walk around town, visiting craft shops and the likes. And after  that it was time to head back for Pimms and lunch on the pool deck.

Today is another day at sea, cruising among the islands and fjiords just south of the arctic circle, which we should cross at about 9pm tonight.

Tomorrow we visit Svolvaer the nmore fjiords.

Almost There

Less than a week to go now, and we're busy in the BOGOF household getting everything sorted for our cruise. We will, as usual be reporting our progress here, so you can follow our progress to the land of the midnight sun.

One change this year will be my *NEW* camera. After 45 years I have abandoned using a single lens reflex in place of a compact system camera. I've always felt that modern digital SLR cameras are big and ugly. So I'm delighted that my new Olympus Pen F is about the same size as my old Olympus OM2 that I bought in 1979 (I've still got it, but it's been ten years since I last used it).

So here it is. Keep watching to see how I get on with it.

John

In out, in out, shake it all about

Here in the UK we have an important election taking place at the end of the month. We're been asked if we want to stay in the European Union or leave it. I won't bore you with the various details but what it boils down to is do we still want the EU to run the United Kingdom.

Because the election takes place when we are on our cruise we're not able to vote in person so requested a postal vote from our local council.

The various forms were completed and sent off, and a couple of days later we received an acknowledgement telling us that the postal forms would be sent out on Friday 27th May.

3rd June and we still hadn’t received our voting forms so I rang the council to find out when they would be arriving as time wasn’t on our side.

It seems that there had been a council cock-up and for whatever reason our forms never got processed so consequently missed the first print run and won’t now be sent out until 15th June. That’s too late for us so the only way we could vote would be by proxy. The little council woman said she would send out the various proxy forms for us to complete.

I rang my sister to ask if she would be willing to be our proxy - “yes but only on the condition that you vote leave”… For once we agree on something!!!

As she doesn’t live in our particular local area she asked if it would be ok for her to vote using her local polling station. The little council woman had said that would be possible, but just to be on the safe side I’d get it confirmed in writing (you can tell I trust our council) in case there was a problem come voting day.

I sent an email to the council elections department and the manager replied that as long as my sister was registered on the electoral roll then it would be fine. She kindly emailed over the various proxy forms and said that if we scanned and emailed them back to her she would deal with it personally.

The forms were duly emailed back to her and on my request she acknowledged receipt of them.

The very next day and guess what we received – our postal voting cards!!!! I emailed the little manager woman to ask ‘what do we do now’… 

As things were now getting a little complicated she rang and apologised for this rather tangled mess. Our postal votes were still valid so we decided just to go with our original plan.

Come election day I hope all this effort will be worth it!!!

Marie

SIX WEEKS !!!

Six weeks from today the BOGOF household will be on a cruise ship somewhere between Copenhagen and Flam. From there we'll be heading north until we reach the North Cape, the very top of Norway. Given the time of year we'll probably spend an entire week without seeing darkness.

This cruise really has been a long time coming. It's been booked for well over twelve months, and sometimes we wondered if it would ever come. But here we are. Just six weeks to go. And are we excited ...

Happy New Year

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day".

We wish you a very happy and peaceful new year.

Marie & John xx

Seasons greetings

Here's wishing you a very merry Christmas.

Marie & John xx

Thankful Villages and Thankful Years

Starin' over the sandbags,
Sick of the 'ole damn thing;
Firin' to keep meself awake,
'Earing the bullets sing.

Dreamin' 'ere by the sandbags
Of a day then war will cease,
When 'Ans and Fritz and Bill and me
Will clink our mugs in fraternity,
And the Brotherhood of Labour will be
The Brotherhood of Peace.

from A Song Of The Sandbags by Robert Service

In the 1930's Arthur Mee wrote his series of guides, The Kings England. The introductory volume, Enchanted Land introduced the term Thankful Village. Arthur identified 32 villages that had no war memorial to the First World War (or The Great War as it was then known) because every man sent to war returned home.

More recent research has led to the villages being reclassified as civil parishes, and the number increased to 53. In my part of the world only Hunstanworth in County Durham and Meldon in Northumbria are listed. Some argue that Meldon is slightly doubtful as one resident emigrated, and fought and died with the Australian army.

Of the 53, 14 are doubly thankful, having no dead from the Second World War. To put this in perspective, in France, Thierville is the only such place, having lost no-one in either world war, and no-one in the Franco Prussian war either.

So now we've considered thankful villages, can we have thankful years.

Obviously not during wars, but what of the years since. The latest figures available from from November 2014, and at that time there had been 7,145 deaths on operational service in what are termed medal earning theatres since the end of the Second World War.

Sadly there has been just one year with no loss of life, 1968. There were just two in 1961, and six in 2014.

Everything stops....

...for Wimbledon.

Back next week.

Marie

Six o’clock seagull

One of the disadvantages of living in a terrace house, especially one with no garden, is you don’t see much wildlife. Ok, that’s not strictly true. A few years ago on the way back from the pub we did rescue a hedgehog and a frog from becoming road kill, but that’s about it.

The only birds we get are pigeons, whose ancestors stayed instead of moving house with the guy who kept them, and seagulls.

A few weeks ago we were in the kitchen preparing dinner when I noticed out of the window a seagull sitting on the shed roof. It had a good peer through the window to see what we were doing then flew off.

The next day again whilst we were in the kitchen preparing dinner, Mr Seagull (we have no idea if it’s a male or female so we just called it a he) returned, had another good stare through the window then flew off.

Guess what happened the next day, and the one after that, and the one after that too.  For about two weeks the same thing happened and at the same time of day too.

Come six o’clock Mr Seagull would arrive, have a good look though the kitchen window, then 15 minutes later fly off.

As it was around nest making time we think he might have wanted to get away from Mrs Seagull as sometimes he would settle down for a quick nap before flying off.

Marie

The wander returns

I am SO sorry for not blogging these past – coughs – months.

Regular readers – if we have any left !! – will be sick of us sounding like a broken record (for those too young to know what a ‘record’ was, it was something we geriatrics – well not strictly me as I used to listen to cassettes instead – used to listen to music. It was large, round, had groves and made of plastic) by keeping saying ‘we’re going to blog more often’ etc, etc.

In our defence, we’ve never really led exciting lives, and it would seem that since John took early retirement from work, we’re like little hermits.

Back in January (or two postings ago.....) I blogged my wish/want list (I don’t do new year resolutions) and as we’re nearly half way through the year I thought I’d give an update on how things have progressed.

• Win the Euro lottery. £10m would be nice but anything over £50m would be preferable.... Still waiting.
• Make a start on reading through the massive collection of books I’ve accumulated both in hard copy and on my kindle. My kindle library is a couple of books lighter
• Loose some more weight. 10lb lost since July but probably put that back on over Christmas!!! Whilst I don’t know the exact figure in lbs & oz’s, I’ve lost a good couple of inches from my waist and gone down nearly two jeans sizes.
• Get back to playing the piano and the clarinet. Sadly not yet.
• Spend less time on my computer. I can easily loose an hour just flitting through blogs and pinterest. That mission accomplished.
• Get back to my writing. Novel two and the second draft of novel one needs finishing. Whilst I haven’t done any actual writing I’ve been familiarising myself with the plot and characters again in readiness to start writing again.
• Finish off the two cross stitch patterns as there’s another nine still to do.  Still not finished but I have been doing some work on them. In my defence they are both large projects and one of them is on black fabric so I can only sew it in good day light....
• Stop neglecting my blogs. I think you can guess this one !!!!
• Finish off my knitted cable jumper before I start on yet more knitting projects. Although I haven’t finished it, I have nearly completed the back.
• Finish reading the gigantic stack of magazines that’s been piling up for months. Only two magazines to go !!!!!
• Spend less time in my sewing room – other rooms in the house are available... Done.
• Finish off building the four foot model of the Queen Mary II cruise ship. Sadly the ship is still in dry dock...

Four out of 12 isn’t too bad. Plus one of those, the Euro lottery, is really out of my hands.

I have as well been quite busy this year with something else which I will tell you later. Watch this space....

Marie

Good customer service

Now that John’s retired there's no need for us to do our weekly grocery shop at Morrisons on an evening.

So we've changed it to during the day. There is though one small problem. Morrisons is a no-go area during the day. It’s full of pensioners taking advantage of the store being on the sea front so they use it as a day out; parking is a nightmare and you’re forever having to fight your way around the little old dears slumped over their trolleys as they stop and look at every single item on the shelves.

Thankfully two new large Sainsburys and Tesco’s opened recently so we gave them both a try. Tesco had the edge on Sainsburys so we decided to start shop there.

Just before Christmas we had an encounter with a member of staff from the fruit and veg department who has the honour of being one of the rudest people I have ever met.

I take no prisoners when it comes to bad customer service so it was time to unleash the customer from hell.

A ‘its way out of the envelope’ letter was duly sent to Tesco's CEO – why go to the bottom when you can go to the top....

Early last week I received a reply. They were extremely apologetic; the member of staff in question had been reprimanded for their behaviour and enclosed was £30 gift card.

Yesterday when we were at the checkout the member of staff, along with the fruit and veg manager, came over and they both apologised in person.

Well done Tesco. I have nothing but praise for the way in which they handled my complaint. It’s a pity more business couldn’t follow their example.

Marie

PS they've got Easter eggs in all ready!!!!

New Year resolutions – sort of

At this time of year it’s customary to produce a ‘New Year’s resolutions list’. I don’t ‘do’ resolutions so instead here is my wish/want list.

• Win the Euro lottery. £10m would be nice but anything over £50m would be preferable....
• Make a start on reading through the massive collection of books I’ve accumulated both in hard copy and on my kindle.
• Loose some more weight. 10lb lost since July but probably put that back on over Christmas!!!
• Get back to playing the piano and the clarinet.
• Spend less time on my computer. I can easily loose an hour just flitting through blogs and pinterest.
• Get back to my writing. Novel two and the second draft of novel one needs finishing.
• Finish off the two cross stitch patterns as there’s another nine still to do.
• Stop neglecting my blogs.
• Finish off my knitted cable jumper before I start on yet more knitting projects.
• Finish reading the gigantic stack of magazines that’s been piling up for months. 
• Spend less time in my sewing room – other rooms in the house are available...
• Finish off building the four foot model of the Queen Mary II cruise ship.

Looks like I’m in for a busy year !!!!

Marie

Happy New Year

"Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by believing. Believe in yourself. And believe that there is a loving Source - a Sower of Dreams - just waiting to be asked to help you make your dreams come true." -- Sarah Ban Breathnach, author

We wish you a very happy and peaceful new year.

Marie & John xx

Seasons greetings

Here's wishing you a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Marie & John xx

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger, without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

From No Man's Land by Eric Bogle

As the centenary of the great war gets under way you are going to see a lot of statistics thrown around. Not all will come from reputable sources. Far too many figures are of the “everybody knows” category.

But before I talk about that, I want to make one thing clear. I'm neither denigrating nor belittling the losses and the sacrifice. Harold Wilson once said that it doesn't matter how low unemployment is, if you don't have a job then unemployment is 100% to you. And likewise, if you lost a son, or husband or father, then the death toll was 100%

So what sort of figures are we talking about. Let's start with the “entire generation lost” types. According to Statistics of the military effort of the British Empire during the great war, published by the War Office in 1922, In truth the number of British soldiers killed was 702,410. It's a lot, but how many times have you heard far greater figures alluded to. Over eight million men were mobilised, and the death rate was 8.4% (for officers the figure was nearer 12%, and for junior officers who went to public schools, 20%).

Perhaps what made the figures seem worse was the idea of people joining up and serving together. We had the “Barnsley Pals” battalion, and the “Newcastle Railway Workers” and even the “Post Office Rifles”. A bad day would bring death to a very small community. Incidentally, the United States had suffered the same thing during their civil war and were determined never to have “local” regiments. American regiments are numbered and anonymous.

Then there is the saying that after the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, every street in Britain received a telegram telling of a death. On that day there were just under 20,000 deaths and another 40,000 injuries. Think about if, how many streets are there in Britain.

And then we have a well known musician and author who writes about raw recruits heading off to France in 1914. In 1914 Britain had to fight with the pitiably small regular army (248,000 strong and most of them serving overseas). The new men had only just signed up by the end of the year and didn't see action for nearly two years.

What I'm saying is don't let emotion and the writings personifying the anti-war sentiment of the late 20's and early 30's cloud your judgement. The facts are terrible, but the truth is worth looking for.

Journey's End

I've said before that the bigger the city, the worse the view. Today we're in Istanbul and the veranda view is of a part demolished building. Wonderful.

The view on the other side is of a very very busy waterway, and a nice park area.

 

And out neighbour, one of the Costa ships.

After blogging last night we went to dinner, which was eaten as we passed through the Dardanelles and Galipoli..Then on to the Abba show, where Marie sang ALL the words.

Just a short blog as today is our last full day and we're busy packing. No blog tomorrow as we'll be flying home. Sob sob sob.

Fifteen Course Dinner !!

So we're back to Greece today. We're in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Today’s veranda view shows the harbour entrance, with the morning ferry just arriving.

More about Mytilene in a moment, first we have to tell you about last night. We ate in a different restaurant. It was a smaller, more intimate place, and they served fifteen courses. Perhaps I should explain. There were really only five courses, but each contained three sub-courses, a bite or two big. It was an excellent meal, with great service, but the “entertainment” left a lot to be desired, Particularly the sound quality. After dinner we headed down to the show lounge (aka theatre) where we saw the “Crew Show”. Really, the crew put on a show one night per cruise, And some of them were really good.

Now back to today. It was hot, up in the high eighties, but we decided to be brave and venture out. The ship was at anchor, so we took the tender ashore,

The town was rather manic with lots of traffic, and hundreds of mopeds and scooters. Also, they have high kerbs and they don't do ramps or dropped kerbs so we stayed on the waterfront.

Tonight is a formal night, the farewell reception. It's held a day before the final night,because it's formal dress, and by tomorrow night everyone will have packed. After the reception will be dinner, then back to the show lounge for the Abba night. Really.

Turkey, but you wouldn't know it

Today we're in Kusadasi and the veranda view shows the causeway to the castle.

Kusadasi is in Turkey, though it's not obvious. The older part of the town is a sort of reasonably good quality coastal resort with boutique hotels and rental apartments. Get outside the old town and it's English Bars & Fish 'n' Chips.

The there is the cruise terminal. Today there were four ships in. Ours with 390 passengers, one from Louis with about 1000, then two from Carnival Lines with 3,500 and 4,000 respectively.

Now, this is the nearest port to the ruins of Ephesus, which is where just about everyone wanted to go. We decided to give it a miss, and instead took a walk along the front and along the causeway to the castle, which is now a night club. It's a very nice place, but there's nothing Turkish about it. It could be the front in Palma, or Mahon or a dozen other places. Not that we're complaining. Just being here is more than enough for us. There's more than enough on the ship to keep us happy. And speaking of the ship, here's a better view.

Another new port tomorrow. Wait and see.

Hot in Turkey

A new day and a new country, Turkey. We're in Mamaris, which is in truth for the most part a typical Mediterranean seaside resort. Today’s veranda view shows part of the harbour, which is made of of private yachts, charter boats, and two cruise ships, ours and one belonging to Thompson.

The waterfront is well appointed and very clean. We walked along past all the charter boats, offering anything from a three day charter to a two hour booze cruise. The market is another matter. We were told by the local rep that the market was “not as aggressive as Istanbul”. So we won't be going to the one in Istanbul. Most of the shops were selling leather or jewellery, and most were fakes. Some even advertised “Genuine Fake Goods”. And you had to avoid eye contact, because a moments weakness meant you were instantly under pressure to buy. Not a nice place.

We were back on the ship shortly after mid-day, and not long after that it was time for lunch.

So what did we learn today :

Turkey is hot.

Outside of the market Turkish people are very friendly.

The traffic is chaotic.

Petrol costs about 60p per litre.

Germans are not very good at queuing to get on a bus.

More tomorrow,

Greek Tragedy

Another day, another country. Today we're in Santorini, which is in Greece. Today's veranda view shows whitewashed buildings at the top if a vertical cliff. Which just about sums up most of the island.

Very beautiful, but also frustratingly inaccessible.

First of all the local “Boatmen Union Of Santorini” insist that you have to use their local tenders to get ashore. These are of a much lower quality than the ship's own tenders, and access is not very good for anyone using crutches and a wheelchair.

They take you to the “Old Port” and then getting up to cliff is a bit of a problem too.

There are three ways. A funicular railway with no wheelchair access, a donkey ride (donkeys are not noted for having wheelchair ramps and step-free access) or climbing an enormous set of steps. And to make matters worse, we weren't the only cruise ship in town.

Ours is small, but this one is enormous, so there were huge crowds everywhere. We heard that yesterday was even worse with five ships anchored and 9,000 people going ashore. To put this is perspective, the population of Santorini is only 7,000.

So we stayed on board. The pool deck was quiet all morning, and only began to fill up as people returned from their shore excursions, telling horror stories about the experience. So a lazy day, drinking Pimms by the pool, followed by lunch, then back to our suite for a couple of hours before cocktails in the bar and then dinner. It's a hard life ...