I’ve been reminded today of the humour I found in some of Tassies place names, so thought I’d post this map I came across show casing most of the ones that tend to tickle ones fancy – if you’ll excuse the pun please.
Yes – these are all real places. We showed this to our grandsons recently and they couldn’t stop laughing. Hope you get a bit of a giggle too.
It’s difficult to get reasonable group photos, don’t you think. Firstly you have to overcome everyone’s reasons as to why they don’t want their photo taken, “I hate posed photos”, “I don’t feel like smiling today”, “I don’t like having my photo taken”, “I feel dreadful today”, “Do we have too”!, I’m sure you’ve all heard similar objections.
Today, a simple plea did it. Everyone agreed, albeit reluctantly.
Next, how to get everyone to have their eyes open at the same time. How often is an otherwise perfect group photo spoiled by one person who had their eyes closed (usually that’s me). Today I asked everyone to open their eyes on the count of three. It worked, sometimes to well. But with a bit of cropping I think I’ve managed to get some reasonable photos of us all – and all eyes are open.
Sometimes the click of the camera comes to soon after the call to ‘open eyes’. I promise Josh isn’t psycho!
A day with Alice, Paul G, Tim, Josh and two of Josh’s friends. A shared alfresco lunch in the back garden, gorgeous mild sunshine – and a rare chance to snap some family photos. What a pleasure!
Easter – the crowds have arrived and Busselton and the surrounding areas have virtually doubled in population for at least a few days. The beaches are packed, as are the wineries and micro-breweries.
Raksha (grandson Josh’s band) have been down here for the week-end to record a single, and to play a gig at the Beer Farm. Alice, Paul, Tim and Josh are down here camping nearby, along with all the other members of Raksha, and some of their families and friends – quite a crowd.
We firstly caught up with the family at a local beach yesterday (minus Josh – who was busy at the recording studio).
Paul had a go in one of the boys canoes, and also checked out another canoe being used for fishing. I think a similar fishing canoe has been added to his ‘wish list’ – perhaps when we return next spring from our upcoming caravan trip.
Today we all met up again at the Beer Farm for Raksha’s gig. Paul (Riley) was enthralled at how much the band have improved since he last heard them. He was in the UK in January when the band stayed here with me rehearsing for the Busselton Battle of the Bands, so didn’t have the pleasure of becoming familiar with some of their current sounds. They’re certainly growing in professionalism, and their repertoire is becoming quite diversified. I don’t think they stick strictly to any particular style of music. There’s touches of Indi Rock, Indi Folk, Reggae, Jazz, and apparently they also throw in some Psychedelic Rock (whatever that is), or so I’m told. I don’t have much of an ear for recognition of any particular music type. I only know what I like, and having become familiar with quite a lot of Raksha’s songs, I’m quite liking what I hear.
It’s hard to get a clear photo with the all of the members of the band in it. The one below was about the best I could manage that included all of the six members together on stage. Apologies Ethan – your face is hidden behind all those lovely curls.
They only play their own original tracks. I tend to think that’s a bit of a shame when playing to an audience completely new to their sounds. Something familiar played well will always get ears tuned in the right direction immediately, whereas unfamiliar sounds always takes considerably longer to imprint into peoples consciousness. My thoughts are that if the first song is familiar and then another familiar song is thrown in every three or four songs when playing to a new audience it’ll get the crowds attention earlier, and keep their interest long enough for the band to showcase their own sounds. When it comes down to it though, I guess it’s not about achieving fame and fortune, it’s about a group of young people together having some fun. They’re certainly having a ball. It brings them a lot of pleasure to stay true to their own original material – so I guess why not.
There was quite a crowd there. Getting served for drinks required considerable patience. The meals queue was even worse. Paul queued for the best part of 20 minutes to place a meal order only to be told as he was nearing the front of the queue to come back in half an hour as they’d run of meal buzzers. We decided going without lunch would be easier than returning to queue again later. Fortunately, Alice and Paul G had ordered to much and took pity on us with a basket of chips.
The following photo of our friends Kay and Brian Love with their daughter and three lovely grandchildren took me back a few years. I can remember many, many family photos with Tim and Josh in them when they were a similar age to Mitch with the same finger pose…. Must be a boy thing!
I didn’t manage to pin Alice, Paul G, Tim and Josh down altogether for a family photo – perhaps tomorrow when they come here for dinner. I know both Alice and Tim aren’t fond of posing in front of a camera so fingers crossed they’ll all be feeling up to humouring me…. Watch this space.
Easter’s almost here. School holidays have started, which means son-in-law, Paul is now on holidays. Alice has also taken leave, and along with grandsons Tim and Josh they will be heading for Busselton/Dunsborough in the middle if this week to camp for a the better part of a week.
You may remember Josh won the Busselton Battle of the Bands earlier this year. As part of the prize, Raksha won a recording, and a paid gig at The Beer Farm, a local micro brewery. The gig is to be on Easter Saturday.
Alice, Paul and the boys are bringing their tent and their dogs down to a local caravan park for four or five nights. The rest of the band and their families are also camping there, so I imagine it’s going to be full on. Hopefully, they’ll be able to snaffle some time away to share a meal with us here, but I imagine it’s going to be rather hectic at the camp ground, so it may not be that easy. We’ll see how it goes, and go with the flow….
I am hoping to grab some time with Tim to pick his brains for some help with my blog. I’m having all sorts of problems with posts not staying in order, side bars disappearing, and categories becoming chaotic. It’s all in a bit of a mess, so I really, really need Tims help to get it back on track. So, watch this space for some family photos coming soon I hope, and hopefully, a much improved blog layout.
Don’t you just love proverbs, I know I do. One of my favourites is, ‘A stitch in time, saves nine’.
Taken literally, I think this refers to the odd little stitch that’s needed for repair, the hem on trousers that starts to unravel, the button on a shirt that’s coming lose, the side seam on a skirt thats starting to separate. As we all know, if we take action immediately it’s only going to take a minute to repair, a bare stitch or two. However, when ignored, it can become a momentous task, sometimes with undesirable consequences – the trouser hem that completely unravels and you end up tripping over it, the button that completely falls off and gets lost rendering the shirt unwearable until time is taken to find a replacement matching button, and the embarrassment of the side seam on a skirt extending beyond decency.
Reflecting on how ‘time poor’ people seem to be today despite all the wonderful time saving devices now available, leaves me wondering if it isn’t time to bring back some of the age old proverbs that used to be mantras to live by.
Extending the idea of ‘A stitch in time…..’ to everyday life beyond a needle and thread, I can think of a few time saving ideas that could go a long way to creating a few more minutes in a day to spend doing something wonderful, or perhaps, having the luxury of a few minutes in which to do nothing at all!
Here’s a few that come to mind:
Laundry: Don’t overload your washing machine (it’ll screw up your clothes too much), and use a gentle spin. Hang clothes on the line carefully with thought to minimising ironing, or better still negating any need to iron at all. Fold and hang clothes immediately they’re taken off the line, even if it’s something that does need ironing. Less time will be needed to iron a blouse that’s been hanging on a hanger,than if the blouse stays screwed up in an ironing basket. You may not have time to empty your clothes line completely all in one go. Decrease the line load – each time you go past the clothes line grab just a few items, perhaps a shirt or two that can be hung up immediately, or a few tea towels that can be folded and put away. Three such trips will make the final unload so much easier to deal with. If you have space, perhaps in the laundry or a spare room, leave your ironing board set up. It’ll make it so much easier to iron a couple of items without having to set up and take down the ironing board repeatedly.
Meals: Cook in bulk and freeze. Line plastic containers with freezer bags for the frozen left overs and when frozen, remove from the container, label and stack in the freezer. You’ll fit considerably more meals in your freezer in freezer bags than you will in plastic containers. Reheating a frozen meal in the microwave is not only more time saving that going out to purchase takeaway, it’s better for both you, and your bank balance. If you need to make sandwiches for lunches, make them in bulk with meat and pickle, or cheese and chutney fillings and freeze in sandwich bags. A small salad container can be packed in the morning to go with the frozen sandwich if time permits, if not, perhaps a stick of celery and an apple and you have a reasonably healthy lunch that’s taken no time at all.
Dishwashing: Rinse and reuse your cups and glasses until you’re turning your dishwasher on, that way you won’t end up with an empty cup drawer and a dishwasher full of dirty cups. Stack the dishwasher as you go, and teach other family members to do the same. Consider if the dishwasher is going to save time – sometimes it can be quicker to do a sink full of dishes by hand that to spend the time filling and emptying the dishwasher. When emptying the dishwasher, use the same principle as clothes from the clothes line – if you haven’t time to empty the whole dishwasher, whittle away at it. A few items removed while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil will make the full load smaller to deal with later.
That’s just a few things I can think of. I’m sure you can think of many more. Care to share…..
We loved the Blu restaurant, with it’s two massive sculptured rose walls, it’s chandeliers, it’s modern port hole multi coloured wall, and its small menu (changed nightly). We also loved the flexibility of this restaurant with no need to pre-book. Some nights we ate early and went to the late show, other nights we went to the early show and dined afterwards depending on our mood on the night.
The small menu changed each night. The food was superb, as was the service.
Some days we ordered breakfast in our room (a free service). Eating it on the balcony, how good was that! Other days we had breakfast in our Blu restaurant.
First port of call after two days at sea was the Isle of Pines. We’d heard nightmare stories of people on other ships queuing for hours to get a place on the tenders to be taken to shore. I must say the Celebrity Solstice provided an impressively efficient service. I don’t think anyone would have waited longer than 15 minutes – we certainly didn’t.
One side of the Island had a bit of a reef system ideal for snorkelling. We had forgotten our own snorkelling gear so had to hire some on the island. It was worth a look.
Then back to the main swimming beach, with it’s pleasantly warm water on the ship side of the Island.
Next days port of call was Mystery Island where we booked a guided snorkelling tour. It was deemed to be ‘extreme’, and only for experienced snorkelers. It’s always a bit of a worry when you book something that’s listed as being for ‘experienced’, as one never knows what the benchmark is that delineates the difference between a novice and someone with experience. As it turned out it did involve a lot of swimming to keep up with our guide, but we managed easily enough. The only hard part was climbing back into the boat – never easy climbing a flimsy boat ladder from out of deep water. None of us found that easy, but with much pulling and pushing we all managed.
There was loads of brightly coloured fish, and coral. Deep below us we saw a couple of rather large reef sharks that may have given cause for concern had our guides not warned us they prefer to keep a comfortable distance, and will swim away if we get to close.
Next stop was Loyalty Island, another lovely swimming beach. Apparently there was another lovely snorkelling spot there, but we opted for a short swim this time, then lay under the coconut palms for a while before returning to the boat.
The crew provided a welcome treat for all the returning passengers after each beach stop, a lovely drink of iced water, and a cool wet face cloth for a cool, refreshing wipe down. What a pleasure!
Our last stop was Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia. It lived up to it’s reputation of having nothing much there worth photographing or writing about. Some passengers did an Island tour and I believe they found it to be quite amazing. Perhaps we should have done the same, but we felt we’d had our share of swimming and snorkelling. Maybe next time…..
Then our return to Sydney.
The last two sea days on the cruise left some people on board, including some of the crew a little under the weather as we sailed back towards Sydney in the wake of Cyclone Debbie. The seas were rough with the high swells tossing the big ship around as if it was a small boat. The top decks and pools were closed I believe. I never went up to look myself – it wasn’t a place one would have wanted to be in such rough conditions.
On the second to last night sleep was a bit elusive for most on board, including us, as the ship crashed and rocked towards home. We berthed on time to a wet and rainy Sydney. Then our flight back to WA in time to drive home for a night in our own bed. As with any trip away, it’s always nice to come home again.
Will we cruise again – maybe? We enjoyed a lot of it, some of it was disappointing. It was certainly relaxing. We have friends that love cruising. Perhaps one day we’ll do a cruise with them if we can find one that appeals at the right price. That’s if I haven’t proved myself to be too much of a party pooper for them to want to cruise with.
On sea days the ship has A Bingo session. There’s a considerable sized jackpot for the last of four games, That will only be won should anyone get a full card within 45 calls.
We’ve played twice despite the high cost. I don’t really know why – I guess it’s because it’s one of the few organised activities on board that reassembles a board or card game, and I love a good board or card game.
It cost $39 US dollars for one board with three game squares, $49 for two, and for $59 you get an additional paper set of three to play on the fourth and final game.
Yesterday the first game everyone was playing for a line. There was one winner who won $147 US. The second game was played for the outside corners. This time there were two winners who shared $177. The third game was for the four inside corners, three winners shared $206. The fourth game for the full square had two winners who shared $235. The full card was won only well after the 45 calls required for the jackpot. You’d have to be really, really lucky to win the jackpot, possibly more chance of winning lotto.
Today there’s a bigger prize for the fourth square, around $1000. One fellow cruiser said that’s at least $6000 on other ships for every session, and bigger again on the final day. The attendance has dropped each day I believe. Probably today, being the last day will see the numbers jump up again though, especially as the weathers grim, and the sea rough, not a good day for outdoor activities.
I’m undecided if I’ll consider playing again today. My sense of sensibility says, ‘don’t do it’. Sometimes I’m not that sensible though, so most likely I’ll play for one final time. ‘Stupid is as stupid does’, comes to mind!
We’re nearing the end of our nine day cruise. After our last port of call today (Noumea) we have two sea days left. We’ve taken lots of photos but won’t be able to post them until we arrive home and can download to our laptop.
So – what are our thoughts?
Mixed feelings. The first two days we were both alternating between thinking, ‘this is the life’, and, ‘is this the life for us’? The next two days we were thinking, ‘Mmmm, could get used to this’, and now – well, sort of back to the original feelings of the first two days.
We are very spoilt in living where we do, and in travelling in our caravan. We can arguably be on one of the best beaches in Australia (and possibly in the world) within a couple of minutes from our home in the summer (and for free). Taking our caravan north to Broome in the winter months brings more of the same. So, the South Pacific islands, although gorgeous, don’t have the same impact on us as they do on people who are starved of turquoise waters and white sand vistas.
Saying that though, we did enjoy our swims on our three Island visits. Noumea, today’s port of call, not so much. It’s a bit grungy and frightfully expensive. We were among the many passengers who did a courtesy couple of laps on the hop on, hop off bus before heading back to the ship for lunch, where we remained for the rest of the day.
On board there is lots to like, but also a counter balance of things not so impressive. Our cabin is lovely, the bed comfortable, and the balcony roomy. The meals are superb, as is the service. We’re not so impressed with some of the on board entertainment. There’s a night time show which lasts about 40 minutes – some have been good, others rate a bare OK. There’s afternoon quiz sessions which we enjoy, so does everyone else. People end up sitting on the floor because it gets so crowded. There’s movies, we went to our first today. There’s music and dance bands scattered randomly around the ship. Each singer or band usually only plays for around 45 minutes.
So, that’s the entertainment we like, which doesn’t account for many hours in a day. After that, there’s pool games, bandeokie (kareoke done to a live band), silent discos and a few other things that we have no interest in. By far though the vast majority of the entertainment on board is presentations followed by upselling – other cruises, diamonds, watches, handbags, art auctions….. all sorts of things that they call entertainment, but in reality it’s just gimmicky marketing. The casino is also clearly a big money maker, its hugely promoted, and is very well frequented.
We’ve ended up getting some playing cards and a crib board and are playing crib in the evenings after dinner and the show. Guess we’re just party poopers!
We’ve been on board Celebrity Solstice since just after 11am. Whilst Internet is still available I thought I’d add a little post of first impressions along with some photos. However, I’m wishing I’d packed our laptop. Apologies if the format is a little different and the photos smaller. The IPad is proving a little difficult.
Firstly, our stateroom. We’re on the 11th floor, and whilst in port have a lovely view over the harbour and the Opera House from our balcony.
Our room is spacious and the bed king size. I had expected the room to be a lot smaller than the on line photographs had shown it to be. What a pleasant surprise, it’s exactly how was shown in the promotion photographs, and feels quite oppulent compared to my expectations.
We were welcomed on board with a glass of champagne, and shortly afterwards were offered an upgrade on our existing drinks package. Offer accepted, and promptly taken advantage of with a G & T each with our lunch, and later whilst on the sundeck, a Peroni for Paul, and Piña Colada for me.
Shortly we will be attending the safety demonstration, but in the meantime our bags have just been delivered, so I’d better go and help Paul unpack.
Must say – from first impressions I think perhaps I’m going to enjoy this!
Life of Riley - on whatever 