While on her daily travels our beautiful dog Fletcher stuck her nosey nose somewhere that it should not have been. She came up with a nasty allergic rash along the side of her snout. This rash was extremely itchy and so she attacked it with her sharp toenails. When we became aware that there was a problem madam was in quite a state. So along to the Vet, Graham went with her,$109 later he arrived home with all sorts of medicines and potions. We were very pleased with ourselves as we watched her snout begin to heal very nicely, until one [View Full Entry]

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Graham was down at the Whangamata Marina Construction Site last week to check up on the progress of the job. All appears to be moving along very well and the floatation systems are now being installed. Graham had another birthday yesterday. These birthday's seem to come around very quickly now days but who is counting!!!!!! We shared the day with our dear friends Carrie, Trevor, Pam and Tony. We all had many laughs and a lot of fun. I cheated with lunch and used 'Eve's Pantry' for the Quiche, lemon Meringue pie and Birthday cake. All were very beautiful buuut when [View Full Entry]

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On Friday the 13th February we travelled down to Omokoroa, North of Tauranga to visit friends who have just finished building a lovely new house. We spent a lovely couple of hours catching up on all the news. We continued onto Whakatane and across to Ohope Beach where we stayed at the Surf Beach Motel. We had dinner with Bill . It was lovely to see how well and happy he was. He certainly leads a very busy life. He is flying once again and he was telling me that he goes over to Aunty Bubbles house and does [View Full Entry]

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We are having an amazing summer here in New Zealand, and particularly Auckland where we are sweltering in the heat. Graham and I decided to travel by Ferry from Bucklands Beach over to Waiheke Island to visit friends for the day and go on the Sculpture Walk. We had a delightful day and the Sculpture walk was extremely interesting. I must say it held our interest for the two hour walk. We were intrigued by the Sculptures themselves, but most intrigued at the cost of each Sculpture bearing in mind that we are in a World economic recession at the moment. [View Full Entry]

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Day 45 & 46 We were up bright and early to get to the airport in Phuket. We had been told in Dubai to be at the airport at least two and half hours before take off. Our driver in Phuket told us no, we only needed to be there one and a half hours before take off. We figured that our driver would know what he was talking about so went along with what he said. We arrived at the airport at about 7 o’clock to be greeted by bus loads of European tourists going home. Our hearts sank a [View Full Entry]

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Day 44 Graham was up very early this morning. There was quite a strong wind blowing, and he wanted to see how the wind was troubling the floating structures at the Marina. We had a restless night last night as the air conditioner made one heck of a racket. We ended up trying to sleep without it. My goodness, were we hot!! It takes me back to when we lived in Singapore. I really found the humid heat then very trying and I am finding it the same here in Phuket. I took myself off for a long walk this morning [View Full Entry]

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Day 43 We left Dubai last night at 8pm and flew to Singapore arriving at 7am Singapore time. We transferred to a Silk Air flight to Phuket, arriving in Phuket at 10am Phuket time. As I write this my body has no idea what time it is, as I didn’t sleep on the flight to Singapore. I would imagine I will be exhausted by the end of today. We have done a fair bit of travelling on this trip and been in a number of airports. I have to say Phuket was the craziest. We got to passport control and the [View Full Entry]

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Day 42 We left Hatta this morning relatively early, so that we could return the rental car to ‘Thrifty’ by 11.30am. The drop off point was Chelle’s house at the Ranches. It was a little beyond our capabilities trying to find the Thrifty depot in Dubai. We couldn’t help but notice the closer we got to Dubai the murkier the sky became with all the dust, smog etc. In the mountains at Hatta the air was crystal clear and so lovely and fresh. What an enjoyable time we had in Hatta and so very inexpensive for what we got. Our trip [View Full Entry]

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Day 41 This is our last day in Hatta. We have had a lovely decadent time here in Hatta. We really needed the rest, as the trip has been extremely busy. Last night a lovely man arrived at our door with our nightly chocolates plus a small posy of flowers for me. How nice that was. We awoke very late for us this morning and didn’t arrive to breakfast until after 9am. We were seated beside a Dutch couple and we started to chat. We left breakfast at 10.30am, so the day was almost over. Like us the Dutch couple were [View Full Entry]

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Day 40 - Dubai - Hatta We have decided that the Hatta Fort Hotel is the nicest hotel we have stayed in on this trip. It has a four star rating, but from our experience of many hotels on this trip, it would be five star plus. Our room is just lovely with everything we need or want. We get chocolates at night, fruit during the day, fresh bottled water each day etc. The staff are unfailingly polite and cheerful and ready to help at a moments notice. The staff will also stop and chat with us, which is so friendly [View Full Entry]

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