Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 18

Well, I’m sure you’re waiting to hear about the skittles, eh? The first difficulty was a 9.30 start in the evening. Who has heard of a 9.30 pm start? Certainly we who have ventured into the nether regions of Shropshire seeking glory as part of the Wenlock ‘B’ bowls team, like to be back in the comfort of our homes by that time. Here in Jamestown things are done rather differently. Having spent an hour or so in the Consulate Hotel (rather nice and charming atmosphere with, you chaps out there will be relieved to hear, no dogs and owners imitating the opening day of Crufts) having a beer (South African lager) or two, I stumbled out to the skittles alley at the local community hall. I arrived early to watch the previous match so that ... read more

Hi! First entry to start the blog before we actually start travelling. In just two weeks we will be in Rome, spending 3 days touring before boarding the Holland America ship Noordam. Hope to keep up the entries as we travel and tell of the highlights of the trip, as we celebrate our 30th Anniversary! So we will be talking (or typing and reading) soon.... read more

Well here I go off on my little adventure. First challenge is getting over the Atlantic Ocean. My original plan was to head to Heathrow and go south from there, but as I am currently almost nothing about travel goes the way you expect it to. I found that a ¨repositioning cruise¨ would actually be the cheapest way to get over to Europe and as luck would have it the cruise ends at Barcelona. They are so cheap because they go over the atlantic and there is nothing but sea and the godless abominations known as flying fish the whole way. So with the exception of a lovely afternoon in the Azores it was 11 days of badly needed relaxation. Cruise ships are not great places for action, but they are great places to plan out ... read more

As Frank might have said Or as my new friend Peter (isn’t it wonderful to be surprised even now that it is possible to think that, ‘I have a new friend’) might have put it ‘I’m working at living in the moment’. Pretty well taking all we can from the then and now, the pleasure of the sublime, the ordinariness of every day life. But being aware of these everyday things and heeding them, even if not taking pleasure. Some of you will know that my literary hero is Frank Bascombe who is the narrator in Richard Ford’s wonderful trilogy of novels ‘The Sportswriter’, ‘Independence Day’ and ‘The Lay of the Land’, which I assume will be as satisfying as the previous two as I have read only the first 10 humorous and wise pages. In ... read more

Friday 20th April 2012: We left the Suez Canal yesterday evening and on our first day in the cooler water of the Med, we’ve seen the first dolphins we’ve spotted for quite a while. Unfortunately when you’re 8 floors above the water, they look small through a camera’s view finder so we still don’t have any great photos of them but at least we’re back in their territory. We also got a good view of Crete in the late afternoon but quite frankly neither of us could bother getting up to get the camera so no photo of that either! Our clocks went forward an hour last night so we had a late start to our day which left us little time to kill before this morning’s lecture. This was Richard Farleigh again and ... read more

Traveling all around the world in searc for a perfect salon doens't really make any sense because these days you can find them online as well. For instance if you are looking for best salons in bostonand not able to find some good ones, then head over to Google search and simply search there and see the magic right now. You might have your personal beauty salon, you're in a great place, you might have employed competent hair stylists, as well as bought your entire beauty salon equipment. Feels like you've got everything required, appropriate? Incorrect, you have to keep in mind several important aspects. These types of components will assist you to acquire clientele and keep all of them. Salons are sprouting up every one of the country and levels of competition are fierce. These ... read more

April 15 2012 – Ship's Log – MS Balmoral Last night we attended the Memorial Service, to commemorate the 100 year Centenary of the sinking of RMS Titanic. At 11.40pm, the time that Titanic struck the iceberg, our Ship's Captain Robert Bamberg blew the ship's whistle and spoke briefly (and beautifully) in commemoration and remembrance of the lives that were lost when RMS Titanic sank. We observed two minutes of silence, contemplating those lost, those who lived and the tragedy those people endured. At 1am on April 15, we attended a service which was then carried onto the aft decks of Balmoral. After a period of quiet remembrance, the service concluded with the laying of three wreaths over the site of the Titanic's wreck at 2.20am – the time that Titanic finally slipped beneath the waves. ... read more