WEEKLY CHAT (non-osprey) SUNDAY OCTOBER 8, 2016

LINDY- I definitely would arrange a holiday for the dates that Awful Cousin gives you! But, would that then land your other relatives with her?

LYNETTE- lovely pics and you didn't offend me with the prayer.

ANNETTE- good to read that Miss D is doing OK. Assume that your OH is diving into the freezer for his meals? As for the political stuff, still finding it all quite frightening.

A saying from our childhood days - Great minds think alike. I was thinking that maybe I would join some other trip to NZ. Sadly it would be without Travel Friend or familiar group. Being alone in a group is no problem, I have travelled alone for 4 out of 5 trips to Europe/UK. But last trip to Germany has discouraged me as 1) I caught a virus on plane, 2) the days were long, 3) we rarely stayed anywhere more than one night. However I had a peek online for what is available. Enthusiasm was dampened when I found tours that went to places of no interest (to me) and dash past where I want to linger. To many move on after one night. I like to base myself in a city/town and do day trips from there. I shall search further. There must be tours better suited to me.

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I survived 3 hours of nanny duty with no problems. Twins were both (rare) down for a nap when I arrived. Dau & I chopped vegies for her big pot of 3x minestrone soup. Later I supervised a 4-in-1 puzzle. Brilliant. 4 puzzles with 2, 4, 6 & 8 pieces which twins swopped and redid several times. MissL showed me that she is a big girl now. Side of her cot has been removed and she can climb in or out herself. Then I felt tugging on my slacks - Miss J wanted to show me her bed (which had the side removed some time ago). Come teatime all misses love their soup. “More” is the call. Miss5 is the slowest eater! I shall try helping for 3 hours alternate weeks.

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Power has finally after 2 weeks been restored to all in our state, allowing permanent fixes to begin. The industrials were last, costing them millions of $$$. The blame game continues with pollies jumping on their bandwagons. It’s the fault of aging infrastructure, the reliance on renewable energy (SA has 40% wind power, solar and an interstate link to coal-fired power), an Act of God (ie only the weather), and so on and on. One of the saddest stories is the failure of backup power at a leading hospital which led to the loss of 12 embryos ready for IVF.

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Chauffeur Friend & I are planning an escape next Thurs. We couldn’t have picked a better day! OH finds a card in letterbox and reports that our power will be off for upgrade one hour next Thurs. I ask which hour. He can’t remember. I check card to find power off 8 am to 3 pm. One hour? I point out times and he moans what will he do with no computer, no TV. 8 am is too early for lunch out LOL.

Weather for our Yorkshire holiday was really good except for the last day when it was damp and overcast all day. Still we made the most of it by going round Nidderdale the reverse way to what we did on the first day. Never easy, we went wrong slightly but found our way back onto the road we should have been.

All holiday washing is now complete, just have to do the ironing. Must catch up with dau's washing etc.

AQ - glad you managed your nanny duties without too much hastle. Pity about those embryos, must be disappointing for those who were going to receive the IVF treatment.

Was watching live safari again today and they managed to pick up Karula (leopard) who had made a kill and one of her cubs was having a great game with it. Pretending to catch it etc.

 its a bit dark as the light was fading

Good Morning, All.  Dry here at the moment.

Lynette -lovely leopard pic. I adore big cats.

Heather -  We arranged our recent holiday so that we could miss some of A. Cousins visit! But you're right, none of us wants to burden the others with her sole care as she's such hard work. My sis-in-law comes in for a lot of it because she lives alone, but on the other hand, she does two part time jobs one of which is looking after other people's dogs and it keeps her busy, plus she has two of her granddaughters three days a week whilst their Mum goes to work -  thankfully, they are now at school but they have a heavy after school schedule of gym and dance classes.

AQ - Sorry your trips are proving difficult to arrange :-(  Hope your OH will survive without the power for a day! Sounds as if you had fun with the twins.

My OH has gone off to golf, and I have the usual housework to play with....

So I thought I would make a start on my photos.  If you would like to come with me on a short tour of the Eastern Mediterranean, here are the first pics. Scroll down if you arn't interested!  :-)

We rose at the ungodly hour of 3.30am, and were taken to the airport by a kind friend (a VERY kind friend!)

Our short flight to Venice took only two hours - we spent longer in the airport getting ready to board it than on it!  We were met by taxi and taken excitedly by a driver who wanted to talk about Manchester United football, and didn't always look at the road!  to meet our ship.

After a short bit of registration, we were allowed on board and had a good lunch which was very welcome.  After finding our cabin, and doing a bit of exploration, it was suddenly time to pull out -- we went up on deck but of course all the other 2,300 people on board had the same idea. They were all congregating on the port side so as to see Venice as we left.  We went to "the blunt end" to see if we could find a good place, and we did!

Here is a view of the large ship anchored next to us:

We pulled away and I was so excited!!  Never been on anything bigger than a ferry.....  Here's another ship:

The little tugs accompanied us for quite a long way as we made our way down the main canal -

Then we were treated to great views of Venice in the fading evening light (it was gone 7.00pm by then)

The above pics were on our LH side - this is the view on the RH side:

The many famous spires were standing out.  I have been to Venice, many many years ago when I was but 21 years old! but my OH had not.

Then we realised how lucky we were - those on the Port side could not see that on the other side, the view was of a very large white marble church, and there had been a big society wedding - AND THE BRIDE (& GROOM) HAD JUST COME OUT!  It was truly moving to witness this little bit of real life:

Notice the beautiful white floral displays.  The sun made for  a dramatic light on the water as we proceeded slowly out:

More of Venice:

The famous St. Marks Square.... hundreds of tiny people still there.

Final pictures of Venice....  the light was going fast:

Goodbye to our first exciting day, and very tired to dinner and bed!

Thank you LINDY - enjoying the pics! I've never been to Venice :-(