HaPpY NeW YeAr 2009
from MaRtIn!
Well another year has sped past and here’s my seasonal newsletter. Last Christmas I was still recovering from my ruptured appendix so I had a quiet time at home. I enjoyed Christmas dinner with Ron & Ivor and then my friends Mike & Ant stayed over at my place for New Year. At the end of the first week of January I completed the sale of my holiday home in Parkstone for over five times what I had paid for it fifteen years earlier. I was so lucky to offload it before the property crash and the April increase in capital gains tax. In April I traded in my five year old silver Skoda Fabia for a new red Hyundai Getz complete with five year warranty.
My first cruise of the year was Balmoral’s maiden voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. The highlight was two days in Florida where I hired a car to tour Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, Fort Lauderdale and the Everglades. My next cruise was on the Black Prince from Liverpool to the Med which included seeing the dolphins in Gibraltar bay. In April I went on Boudicca to the Canaries which included tours on all five of the islands we visited. I was back on Boudicca three weeks later to go to Norway where I met Adam Cunard from Bognor.
In July I travelled to Dover via my sick aunt Elsie near Canterbury. I was so glad I made the effort to see her when she died two weeks later aged 93 (two years older than her brother, my father). I then embarked on Saga Ruby heading for the Baltic. I had tours in every port and enjoyed all the Scandinavian capitals but especially Tallinn in Estonia and St Petersburg in Russia. The day trip to Berlin from Warnemunde was rather manic.
In October I stayed over in a hotel at Stansted airport to catch an early flight. On arriving at the terminal my flight was not displayed! It turned out that Braemar had been impounded by the Italian authorities in Sicily when one of the new water tight doors wouldn’t close following the lengthening of the ship. Something similar had happened on Balmoral’s maiden voyage when all the passengers were placed in hotels for two days. So we were flown to Palermo not Rome. The ship then had an unscheduled stop at Reggio de Calabria to pick up the stores hastily trucked down from Rome. I was disappointed with ancient Olympia but impressed with ancient Corinth and Mycenae. I was disappointed with Cyprus but loved Rhodes, Malta and Crete. In Barcelona I met up with my friend Manuel who used to come to my line dance classes in BoMo.
My most recent cruise was on Black Watch to the Adriatic. It included my second visit of the year to Santiago de Compostela with tours in all ports bar two: Ravenna where I saw the famous mosaics and Kotor where I climbed up to the castle. I finally managed to get my trading name ([)oc. /\/\artin) into the daily programmes for morning line dancing classes and evening participation line dancing.
For Christmas & the New Year I shall be on Black Watch in the Canaries. Next year I’m hoping to go on a dozen cruises, including the Indian Ocean on Discovery. I also hope to go on the penultimate cruises of Black Prince & Saga Rose.
Weekends away included Brighton (twice staying at Mark’s), Clacton (four or five times staying with my father), Kingston-upon-Thames working as a dance escort and Milngavie. The latter involved flying from BoMo to Prestwick for 15 GBP to stay with Ruth & Steve. Also present for the weekend was Trevor & Janet from Stafford and Richard from London making it a real Keele reunion!
Visitors to Coy Pond included Ruth & Steve from Milngavie, Mark from Brighton, Mike from Southampton, Lewis & Kevin from Highworth with their dogs Jake & Charlie, Terry from Bradford, my Father (who came to stay for three weeks in our disappointing August) and my brother David with my sister-in-law Pam & their dogs.
Trips away included Bridport and Honiton staying at Diana & Howard’s, Lyme Regis with Stephen & Brian and Corscombe visiting Barbara & Finlay. The highlight trip of the year was a week in Florida with my friend Mike. The first three days were spent looking at apartments but I missed the boat when the pound dropped against the dollar. We had one night in Sarasota on the lovely Gulf of Mexico with Mike job hunting.
|
I visited two employment agencies in Fort Lauderdale but was disappointed to discover that none of the cruise ships operating out of Port Everglades have dance hosts on board. Sightseeing included the Birch state park, the Bonnet house and a boat trip on the Jungle Queen. I also went line dancing three times during the week there. We had some lovely meals including brunch with the Java Boys, lunch at the Soyka restaurant with Shirley & Leonard in Miami, teatime at Joann’s in Fort Lauderdale and dinner at the Canyon restaurant.
|
As with last year I have been going on Monday evening’s to Brian & Carol’s line dance class. On Wednesdays I have been going to Anglodance Toni’s ballroom/latin class with Sue from Westbourne. All in all it’s been a busy year culminating with five flights over a four week period in September!