Nicki here for the weekend

Nicki joined us tonight � she's been on holiday this week and staying 'til late Saturday night and then driving home. I'd quite forgotten that we hadn't 'done' Christmas pressies with her (as we didn't see her over the Christmas period) and it felt really strange doing this in February!

She also bought us some lovely silver anniversary gifts � silver napkin rings and a beautiful cat-couple ornament.

With all the pressies sorted, Jo and Janet arrived - just in time to see the chicken pie that Ann and Lee had created come out of the oven � I think it was about the size of Corby!! Guess what I'll be eating next week!!!!

The food was fab, especially the pie � I think it even surpassed previous creations in terms of flavour! (Ahh, our secret ingredient). We ate and ate, but the pie still blocked out the light coming through the window in the dining room!! We managed to squeeze round it it, into the kitchen, and served up lemon meringue pie, ice-cream and another culinary masterpiece: Nicki's home-made American brownies (a slightly different recipe this this time � more chocolatey and chewy in the middle). Fantastic food�and most of us felt guilt-free as we're giving up all the comfort food for Lent next week.

We all collapsed into the lounge and I put on the DVD 'Heat' starring Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer and John Voight. For some reason, I thought this was a new film, but about three-quarters of the way through, after commenting how young all the stars looked, we all realised it was about 25 years old!! Doh!!!! It was a bit slow to get going, but if you like 'slow-burners' and want to see possibly the longest gun-battle scene ever, it's worth a look.

Midnight: We're all very tired and totally porked-out. Time for bed. Trip to Ely tomorrow.

New Year's Eve 2009 - Martinique

7.00am local time. It looked a bit cloudy as we anchored in Fort de France, Martinique on the west side of the island. (Historical note: Martinique is not a colony, but actually part of France. Those living here are considered French and it's one of the few islands in the Caribbean that has always belonged to France. Currently it has a population of around 360000).

Ann didn't sleep too well last night, and we think it's not enough food nor alcohol! :)

We had breakfast on the ship as normal, and then took a walk into Martinique town. It was only a short-ish walk - 15 minutes or so, but it felt longer because of the heat! We saw a sign as we sat sipping coffee - 33 degrees and it was only 10am!

Martinique was very different to many of the other Caribbean islands we've visited...as 'buzzy' but it was clear there was more money around here. Designer shops and BMWs, Minis and Mercedes cars were the giveaway! It was a literally a piece of chic-France (Ann described it as 'chavvy') transplanted onto an island!

We found a shorter walking-route back to the Ship - which was a good thing as the day seemed to be getting hotter!! Luckily, the Bar on-board was soon was in sight and we collapsed over beers and bitter-lemons!!



12.10. We're leaving Fort-de-France and sailing south round the island, heading for the beach at Les Anses d'Artlets. We grabbed some lunch - a full Asian Buffet today - and then noticed it was POURING WITH RAIN!!! So, we sat out on deck in the shade for a while and decided to brave it to the Beach. The irony was, that on landing on the beach, it was such a small area that we couldn't find anywhere to pitch our towels that would be warm enough to enjoy the Sun, but provide some shade when we needed it! Ralph decided to brave the elements and stay behind, whilst we three jumped on the next Tender back to the Ship!

Once back on board we found a good shady spot on-deck.

Time to get ready to see the new year in...

We decided to eat a little later so that we'd be awake for midnight. On arriving at the restaurant, it was already very busy - as we think others had the same idea as us, and it was therefore difficult to get a table for four. However, the waiter ushered us into a separate room together with another group and although we got to sit together as a foursome, we were somewhat detached from the main centre of activity. Consequently, when the Captain (who we've now affectionately dubbed Captain Meercat because of his accent) made his speech, we couldn't see him.

The food was its normal high quality fare - we all had extra courses to make the meal last longer (another strategy to help us get through 'til midnight!) After the meal, we wandered up to the Tropical Bar when a talent contest was in full swing made up of passengers and ship's crew - everything from juggling waiters (that's waiters juggling bottles not waiters being juggled!!!), energetic male-waiters' dance routines and songs dedicated to Grandmothers - Simon Cowell would have felt right at home!

We had a few more drinks and then wandered up onto the main deck to see the sails unfurl and hear the now familiar Vangelis theme blast out on the ship's speakers. Captain Meerkat appeared on deck to count us down to midnight - three minutes...two minutes...one minute...30 seconds...10 seconds...5...4...3...2..1...
We made it - under a full moon (a blue one as it happened) and full sail, 2010 has officially arrived!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! - SEE YOU IN 2010!

Tomorrow it's St Lucia...

St Vincent and Bequia

We both slept well, although Ann woke with a pretty bad head - must have been the alcohol last night! 

Another day, another island! Well, actually, we get two for the price of one today - St Vincent and Bequia (later today).

As normal, we had a lazy breakfast and then took the Tender ashore. St Vincent looked pretty sleepy from a distance - but we were going to be surprised!! On landing we were surprised at the rather sophisticated Cruise Terminal - quite a few shops and some places to eat. 



We left the terminal and headed into the town. That's when it all came alive! Ralph made a new friend - although not deliberately - who led us into the main shopping area. Once we got to the centre, he asked for some money, but when we declined, he disappeared into the distance!

After a quick look round, we made our way back to the Terminal, stopping-off for a drink in one of the Bars in the Terminal. It was quite humid, so we sat outside, enjoying the through-breeze from the town to the sea.

After a thorough chill-out, we went through the rather simplistic security area and waited for the Tender. We were back on board for more food! :) and to see the Ship sail for Bequia.

Ralph and Karen explored Bequia, but as Ann's head was still bad, we went to bed in an effort to shake it off. I went out like a light (as normal!), but Ann just couldn't sleep. We got up about 6pm to get ready for the evening meal. Absolutely NO ALCOHOL for Ann tonight!!!

The meal tonight was excellent and Karen and I even managed to persuade our Waiter to go off-menu and get us some rum-and-raisin ice-cream...Perfect!!!

We stayed up late tonight to watch the Ship's music-quiz, a rather manic affair on deck where the objective was to collect dominos (as points) for every correct answer. As always with these things, it was taken very seriously by those taking part and half the fun was watching the behaviour of the contestants.

We called it a night around 10.45pm.

The ship arrives at Martinique tomorrow morning at around 8am.

Tobago Cays - Lunch on the Beach

We had a later breakfast and then took the Tender to the beach. It was another gorgeous day, although thankfully, slightly cooler than yesterday - only 26 degrees!

The beach was your typical 'Robinson Crusoe' type, sand, sand, palm-trees and more sand. Perfect!!!


"South of Canouan and west of Mayreau lie the Tobago Cays islands, like giant turtle shells rising from the crystal clear water. The coral reefs are an unforgettable experience for all visitors..."

We seemed to be one of the first to arrive, so we therefore managed to get the pick of the shady-spots and after being lent a rake from a local, created a nice area between two trees for the four of us - perfect..just enough sun and shade! We chilled out there as the island began to fill-up and before long, lunch was waiting!

The Ship's catering team had laid on an impressive spread - salads...burgers...ribs...hot-dogs...tea...coffee...Coke...fruit juices...rum-punch as well as bread-and-butter pudding...chocolate cake and lots more desserts.

We finished our lunch, chilled-out for half-an-hour or so, then caught the Tender back to the ship admiring the blue-ness of the water along the way. 


We laid out on deck in the shade for an hour-or-so reading waiting for the ship to sail at 4pm. The main excursion from the Island was late back, so we didn't get away until 4.30.

Dinner in the restaurant again tonight. It was a pirate theme and a lot of the guests and ALL the staff dressed-up accordingly - our waiter spent the evening with a cutlass through him!!! It was another good meal - we all had steak. After the meal, we resisted the temptation to watch the crab-race at 10pm as we were all quite tired.

The Ship is now heading for the islands of St Vincent and Bequia and we dock at St Vincent by 8am tomorrow.

The Island of Grenada

We woke just after 7, to a cloudy-ish sky - I wonder if it'll rain? The Ship docks in Grenada today around 12 noon - it's the smallest independent country in the western hemisphere and is home to 160000 residents. St Georges is the capital and home to The Carenage, noted as 'the most beautiful harbour in the Caribbean'.


After breakfast, Ralph climbed the rigging on the ship whilst the rest of us watched!

We decided to spend the rest of the morning reading and settled in the Piano Lounge - only to find it converted into a AV presentation area a short time later, for the Captain to recount his life as a salty old sea-dog!!


I had a short snooze whilst Ann visited the Gym, then we all had lunch. Afterwards, we boarded the Tender and headed for Grenada and The Carenage area. The cloud has given way to a really hot day. It's 2.15 and already about 80 degrees.

We'd been here before, on another cruise, but it's changed quite a lot and now has a dedicated cruise terminal. Lots of shops and totally free internet access - pity I didn't bring the lap-top from the cabin! Everywhere we looked, there were people making use of this free facility - I don't think I ever seen so many laptops in one place (apart from PC World!!)

We wandered into the town - a really busy, bustling place. full of life! The residents obviously like sounding their car horns and were using it to denote 'get out of the way', 'hello', 'goodbye', 'want a taxi?' and more-or-less any type of initial communication!

It's getting even hotter - now 85 degrees - and we wandered right round The Carenage, before turning round and finding the nearest Bar. After seeking refuge there from the heat for about 45 minutes we made our way back to the Terminal and luckily, there was a Tender just arriving. We were back on the ship by 4.15, just in time for a rest before our evening meal.



We're going to try and stay-up tonight - until 10pm!!!! - as there is a steel band coming aboard. I thought I'd be OK, but as 10 approached, I was just too shattered, so I hit the pillow around 9.45. Apparently, they were very good.

It's the island of Tobago Cays tomorrow and lunch will be a beach BBQ.

Union Island, Grenadines

Overnight (and for much of the morning) we headed for Union Island - Grenadines arriving at Noon. We avoided the rush to get off the ship by spending time soaking-up the sun and then having lunch on-board.

We then jumped on the Tender (only a short wait) and headed for the shore. The beach area wasn't particularly large, but it was a good spot to chill-out for an hour-or-so - the sand was beautiful but the mobile phone reception was crap - Well, you can't have everything!!! :)

About 3pm, we caught the Tender back to the Ship and spent a short while in the bar drinking. Ann and Karen tried out the gym whilst I exercised my typing skills. :)

I then decided to have a short snooze...which turned out to be much longer than I thought - Ann woke me up at 6.15!!!! I took me ages to 'come-to', but after a quick shower I was ready for more drinking and eating. We decided to meet Ralph and Karen in the Tropical Bar, and then eat slightly later. The Restaurant was busier tonight and it was trickier getting a table just for four (but we found one!). The food was great again tonight. I had the stuffed turkey whilst Ann opted for the steak and chips again.

After the meal, we went our separate ways - Ralph and Karen went back to their room, whilst we went to The Piano Lounge and caught up with various bits and pieces on our iPods.

10.15. Time for bed...

The Ship is sailing for tomorrow's destination - Grenada.

Christmas Presents 2009

As we're away this year, we only took a few of the pressies with us.

Mum
Vouchers - John Lewis
Vouchers - Boots

Jo and Janet
Odeon Cinema Vouchers

Carol
Incense Burner

Mae and Denis
Blue-Ray DVD: 'Snow White'
Blu-Ray DVD: 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
CD - Carpenters Ultimate Collection

Bev
Spicy Sauce Collection

Roger, Jane and Oliver
Blu-Ray DVD: 'Star Trek'
Blu-Ray DVD: 'Blade-Runner'
Blu-Ray DVD: 'Sleeping Beauty'

Nicki
Molton-Brown Toiletries

Ann to me 
Clarins Scruffing Lotion
Givenchy 'pi' After-shave
Givenchy 'pi' All-over-shampoo
Launer of London leather wallet
3 x stripey shirts

Ann pressies from me
Classic iPOD
Two pairs of headphones for iPOD
Tommy Cooper Joke Book
Book: The best of Matt 2009
Book: The White Queen
Audio Book: Wolf Hall
Audio Book: Miss Marple's Last Case

Lee and Bertie
Vouchers - M and S

Christmas Day 2009 - Barbados

I was up about 6.30 and took a shower. It's already getting warm here - very UN-Christmassy!! :)

We started phoning round the family (UK is four hours in front of Barbados)...Mae and Denis first...then Roger, Jane and Oliver.

At his stage, we're not sure of our plans today. We've only bought just a few pressys with us, so we won't be doing the massive pressy-opening session that we'd normally do at this time.

Another leisurely breakfast - we ate outside - and then back to the room to ring round the rest of the family and open our pressys, before we take our Christmas walk.

10.15. Leaving Sweetfield Manor, we're off, heading for 'the boardwalk' a sea-view walk along the coast.

Initially, the walk, was through the back streets...past a Church and then the racecourse and a very pink house...boy is it hot!!!...must be 30 degrees.


 

At last, we found a Bar - no food yet, but it's a start! Some more walking and we eventually found one selling food - 'Can-Ai' - Fantastic!!

A long leisurely Christmas lunch of salad for Karen and chicken pieces in a slightly spicy batter with chips and salad for the rest of us - how traditional!! :)

1.30. Lunch over and there is no way we're walking back!! We eventually flagged-down a taxi but he'd not heard of Sweetfield Manor, so we gave him directions!! Fifteen minutes later and we're back at the Manor. Time for a shower and some chilling out! Phew, it's still 30 degrees here...

Annie is doing tea and cakes at 4 - yummy!

We spent the rest of the evening reading and chatting. It was still quite hot so we tried out different places around the house to find the coolest spot. We ended up on the monkey observation platform hoping to see some... but no luck today!

We then settled in the Bar for an hour-or-so. But by 7pm, I was shattered, so we retired for the evening!!!

TV: Doctor Who - "The End of Time"

Tomorrow at 6pm� (Part 2 is on New Year's Day).

Barbados - we're here!

After landing at the Airport we were confronted with 400+ people in front of us all trying to get through Immigration. It was due to a flight being late and us all turning up at the same time. We must have been there for about an hour...just queuing and queuing... Luckily, us Brits are used to that sort of thing, but the temperature was starting tom take its toll by the time we were let through.

Ralph quickly identified the driver who would take us to our BandB. We quickly loaded our cases and were on the road. It was already starting to get dark and were pleased, some 20 minutes later to arrive at just after 6pm to arrive at Sweetfield Manor. 

Phew! Is it hot! we've gone from 28 degrees F to 28 degrees C in less than 24 hours!!! :)

George and Ann the hosts have mad us feel very welcome and we've already sampled the local rum-punch and Ann's home-made rosemary bread!!!

They're both lovely people and have made us all feel very welcome. We're in the 'Island Room'.
 

We've had a short tour round and are now un-packing. We then went downstairs for a final drink (hic!)

Time for bed... we're shattered!

Christmas TV

TV at Christmas is always a highlight for me, although in recent years, there seems to be less stuff worth watching (or is that me, just getting older?). Here is our short-list.



Whilst we'll be away over the festive break, suffering 30 degrees of sunshine (!!!), the SkyPlus box is also getting hot, hopefully doing its stuff, ready for our return.

No TV Times and two types of Radio Times - ehh?

  I usually like to buy a copy of both the Radio Times and TV Times and compare how they've covered various programmes during the festive season.

I didn't think I'd left it too late this year, but obviously I did, (in fact, looking back to last year, I bought them during the first week of December in 2008). I managed to get a copy of the RT, but not the TVT. And just to make things more complicated, there seems to be TWO versions of the Radio Times being distributed this year, each with a slightly different cover - can you spot the difference? 'simples' ehh?...and more importantly why did they do this...? As far as I know, it's the first time there has ever been different covers - still, it evened up the blog nicely!! :)

The Packing continues/Salvation Army Concert/Ice Age

We spent part of the morning continuing to pack. It all seems to fit (but the kitchen sink was a bit of a problem!!) � so we should get away with being under the weight limits for BA.

Job done! We're all packed apart from a few last minute bits and pieces.
 
We're ahead of schedule, so we watched Ice Age 3 on blu-ray DVD. Not a bad film but perhaps not as good a story-as '1' and '2', but the animation was stunning � surely the cutting edge of what is currently possible � we think we could see every hair on the mammoths! Brilliant!!!

We drove down to town to go to the 6.30 performance of the Salvation Army Christmas Carol Concert. Snow�carol singing�Salvation Army Brass band � lovely!!! It doesn't get more christmassy than this!!!

David and Val were there and so were Val's Mum and Dad, Rose and Mike. Jo, Janet, Helen and Frank were also there and we also saw Joan and the guy who runs Windmill pet Supplies.

It was as usual, a great event. Good music, a great choir, and some well placed and well-thought-out religious messages. The event finished at around 7.45 and we took a slow and very careful drive back home because of the icy conditions. We then went round to David and Val's for toast (done the proper way, over an open fire) � a great end to a productive and enjoyable day!!!

Cats in/Holiday Prep

Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr

This is our final weekend before the holiday, so there is plenty to do � not least the packing! We had a productive morning, mostly cleaning and generally tidying-up.

Additionally, we took the cats to the Vet for their final injections. We decided to get to there slightly before the 2pm opening time, to avoid the queues � a good move as it turned out, because it got much busier as as we approached the hour.

Both Biscuit and Bon-Bon demonstrated a degree of catittude when meeting the vet � and they growled (yes, Persians growl) through the whole process. Still, it's 'job done' for another year and at least they're both protected for any cat-lurgy!

Time to put our feet-up for a bit as we've got ourselves pretty well organised. So-much-so, we'll probably start packing tomorrow, just to make sure it all fits!!!

TV time: We watched the final episode of series 2 of Merlin (recently commissioned for a third series), and the final of Strictly Come Dancing.

More snow is forecast for tonight and so we've cancelled our get-together with Mae and Denis at Downtown tomorrow for the annual presents-swap. It's not been above �1 here today and with more snow coming, it's bound to make the journey very difficult. We've rescheduled it for Sunday, January 10th.

BA Strike deemed "illegal"

Good news� I think! Judges have declared the BA strike to be illegal, and so things are back to normal and there won't be a strike over Christmas.

Phew!

"Someday I'll Fly Away�"

�or maybe not. After believing that we would probably be OK to fly on the 23rd because the Gatwick staff are on different working contracts, (and therefore the BA strike wouldn't impact on us) when we spoke to BA's PR department they said our flight had been 'flagged for cancellation'.

They advised us to ring on a daily basis for the latest news!

The 5ive get together for Christmas

 

My �eat-fest� continues. I headed down to London for 12 o�clock to meet up with some of the �gang-of-5ive�, Well, actually there was only four of us this year. Antoinette, Angela, Philip and I met for coffee at �Les Pain Quotidien� before trying out �des Pain� just a few units along � a bad move as it turned out!!!

Although the food was OK, the service was worse than lousy. How difficult can it be? Although places like this are quite busy this time of year, they were actually very quiet (maybe we should have taken that as a sign!). Initially, they forgot our order, then they didn�t bring enough plates for the four of us. Then, when we came to pay, no-one knew how to use the till to split the bill four-ways. Then, if that wasn�t inefficient enough, they announced they couldn�t provide individual credit card slips for each of our payments!!!! Arghhhh!!!!

Having said all that, it was good to see everyone again and reflect on the previous twelve months for us all.



We decided to finish off at the Bar in the St Pancras Grand restaurant upstairs. It was altogether a better experience although I did have gulp down my glass of wine in  a hurry, in order to catch the 3.30 back to Kettering!

Ann picked me up and we were back home by 4.45.