Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 1 October 2017

HAPPY NEW WEEK and HAPPY NEW MONTH!

I hope everyone has a wonderful autumn. 

The Full Moon -- the Harvest Moon -- is Thursday. 

Western Tanager
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Photo labelled Public Domain (Copyright Free)

  • Good Morning, All.  Dry and bright here.

    I hope Harelady has a wonderful time with the family, and AQ copes with her family invasion, too.

  • OHs last day of nearly 3 weeks holiday so we hope to go to Sutors at Cromarty for lunch. Drs appt first i am afraid. This time for a bad neck and back and shoulder which has been problematic for over a week. Worried it might be connected to my oesteopoenia.  Good to read everyones news and see Lindys pics.

  • Sorry that you're going to be off to the Docs, Dibnlib:  Hope it's nothing too serious.

    My OH came home tired yesterday, and enjoyed his sausages and baked potato. He's gone off to golf today and then will be off to the allotment to see what needs doing: he sometimes mentions recently that he might give it up as its too much work, but I know he enjoys doing it.  Will try to persuade him to just grow less stuff, to make it easier. There is no obligation there to fill up your plot (which is quite large) but they do expect you to try and keep it weed free.

    Sunny intervals here and trying to drizzle occasionally. Not sure whether to try and put my laundry out.

  • Next installment of my hols:

    We had three lovely, lazy days at sea after leaving UK waters:  lay on deck, surprisingly, as the sun came out and it was warm enough if you kept out of the wind.  We looked around the ship a little more and I discovered the shops!  There were activities including dancing lessons in the mornings, yoga & keep fit (very early!!) and lectures on various subjects including the ports of call we would visit later on. Every afternoon they showed a film in one of the club venues, but others told us it was hard to see the screen properly unless you sat at the front.  Anyway, there were over 80 films on call on our TV in the cabin if we were bored (we wern't!)

    In the centre of the ship was an atrium where most general activities took place - dance lessons in the mornings and actual dances in the afternoons, plus some demonstrations.

    There was a seating area at the bottom, plus various bars on different levels where you could watch what was going on. Also glass lifts, but these were not as big as the ones in the last ship we were on, nor was the atrium as large which surprised us as this was a bigger ship.

    I was annoyed with myself as I kept missing the Line Dancing class, and I have been to lessons for those, so would have enjoyed it. MY OH offered to learn to rhumba one afternoon but we were somewhere else when that was going on, too.

  • On only our second day, as we crossed the Bay  of  Biscay, there was a sudden announcement on the tannoy:  someone had noticed a whale breaching!  We got off our lazy loungers and went to have a look:  I joked that if I shouted "There it is!" about two thousand people might come to the rails and make the ship lean over....

    After gazing at the sea for a while we nearly gave up, then we saw it!  It was coming up and blowing at intervals, as we sailed past its position.

    My best picture, as we nearly left it behind:  what a treat.

    All that remained, sadly was a slight change in the water where he was lurking:

    Next day we were on the very top sunbathing deck, and I took these pics of the rear of the ship: This is the smallest of the four swimming pools on board, which also included one under cover in a solarium.

    We were doing about 15.5 knots, as the captain didn't want to get there too early!  Other times we noticed as much as 18 knots. There was very little motion for the first few days, then on about the third or fourth day I felt a bit queasy in the afternoon and had to forgo having a glass of wine with my evening meal plus eating things which seemed as bland as possible, just in case.  I was OK, however.

  • Linda - I feel queasy just looking at your pic from the top!

    I'm somewhat weary, early to bed  methinks, after a fun time with Little People & Dau. Twins ate their tea, mostly. Miss6 must have hollow legs, she had twice as much as grownups. Her b-day last Tues. Where did those 6 years go?

  • Hi, all. Happy Full Moon -- Harvest Moon! It's today at 7:40 p.m. in UK, 2:40 p.m. in the eastern U.S., and 11:40 a.m. in California. Sorry, AQ, my brain's too tired to figure your time. :-)

    Lindy: That's a beautiful ship. Glad you saw the whale!

  • Thanks, Diane.  Hope things are going well for you. The ship looked glamorous outside from the front, and rather a tub from the back! But the inside was made as dramatic and as comfortable as possible, with plenty of places to sit everywhere, inside and out, beautiful polished wood rails and staircases, art work, marble floors, chandeliers, the lot!

    Some people told us they'd seen a school of dolphins at the prow, keeping up with the speed of the ship, and I kept looking out but never saw any. My OH shouted "look!" during lunch one day as he saw two fins going by. But I missed them :-(   (I have seen dolphins off the coast of Tenerife on a boat trip once, years ago, though)

  • AQ - Glad the visit went well. How they grow so fast is a mystery. Our Tomasz is going to be the grand old age of 7 in December.