Isle of Pines

Ok I am going to talk a bit more about our cruise, kinda, I am going over the next few days tell you a bit about each of our port of calls starting with the Isle of Pines as that was our first port of call.

The Isle of Pines was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1774 on his second voyage to New Zealand. He gave the island its name after seeing the tall native pines which the island is famous for, however, he never set foot on the island but noted that it was inhabited because he saw smoke.

In the 1840's the island saw the arrival of missionaries first Protestant then Catholic along with traders looking for the precious sandalwood.

In 1872 the island became a penal colony for 3,000 French convicts, today the population is around 2,000 and its inhabitants remain extremely protected by the tribal system of old.

The language is French and Kanak dialects but many who deal with tourists also speak English, the local government is over seen by the French. The currency is the French Pacific Franc and many places also accept Australian money.

Also ancient burial sites and small archaeological relics dating back over 7,000 years can be found on the island.

The climate is usually warm and dry most of the year with afternoon trade winds helping to keep the humidity low.

Returning home, although we have now been home for a while as in a couple of weeks.

This was written on Friday the 10^th June as we are pulling into Sydney harbour and I was up and dressed at 6.30am and ready to leave the ship but our time to leave the ship isn't till 8.10 am what the hell. Tim has been up most the night as he was unable to sleep and mum said she has been awake since 5am so we are all up dressed and ready to leave the ships. Both Tim and mum have been down and collected their duty free grog.

Speaking of duty free grog when Tim and I were at Port Denarau we noticed that they had for sale the same bottles of grog mum bought for Dave and Sandy but the price was a $100 more per bottle ok the Jimmy was about a $120 more but you get the idea.

My parents bought me a lovely red purse that I really do like, they said they bought it for me to say thank you for all I did for them but I don't think I did that much. Yes I shared cocktails with mum and showed them around the ship and all but really not that much.

The trip home from Sydney to Newcastle went smoothly more or less, we did seem to drive around Sydney a lot before we found ourselves headed home, we stopped for food an hour or so after leaving the ship.

I bought Leigh a sarong she has the figure for a sarong unlike me it wouldn't go around my body but that is ok this who I am at this stage of my life. Mum also bought a sarong for Leigh.

Tim was pleased I didn't spend a lot of money on gifts for people although he did seem to complain about what I did buy I told him that nothing I do seems to be enough for him. This is the last post about what we did on our holiday.

Last day of the cruise

Thursday 9^th June 2016

Well the last day of our cruise has arrived and I woke up with a headache and feeling somewhat tired, I hope the day improves for me, this is also the anniversary of the day Tim and I met 33 years ago, Tim never forgets this anniversary nor our wedding anniversary which in fact makes me happy.

I had to ring reception this morning as Tim and I couldn't agree what the time was he said the clocks went back an hour last night I said no so I rang reception and asked them and as it turned out I was right.

While at breakfast one of the staff noticed my mini lipsticks and was fascinated by them and how small they are, I take a few different shades of the Avon sample lipsticks with me when I go on holiday as once I left a favourite lipstick in New Zealand thankfully it was well worn down and not a new one since then I prefer to take the mini ones so if I lose one it is not a big deal also I can take a few different shades.

After breakfast we all went to a culinary demonstration followed by a tour of the galley then mum and dad wanted to return to their cabin to start packing and I decided to do the same leaving out only what I need for tonight and tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow we will have to be up bloody early tomorrow morning as we meet in the Marquee at 8.10am and have to be out of the cabin by 8am so we will be up early to have breakfast and be able to comeback to the cabin and pick up stuff before heading to the Marquee ready to leave the ship.

All in all this has been a good cruise, I have enjoyed myself and yes I would take another cruise in the future but not for a few years I think well at least 2 years down the track and I would love it if mum and dad could come with us again but I will worry about that sometime in the next 18-24 months.

I am really not feeling the best today my balance feels worse then it looks if that makes any sense if not well what I mean is that I keep feeling like I am going to stumble of fall over but if I walk slow which I have done I am ok and it doesn't look like I am having a problem with my balance and my arm is also feeling very stiff today the worse it has felt in a while well the last couple of weeks but it is cooler today so maybe that has something to do with it I don't know.

A Break From Cruise Post With Nothing Much

Let's take a break from cruise posts and talk about nothing much..............

Ok just got home from picking up Leo and Natasha is going ape shit in the kitchen because its such a mess (not) and she can't cook without cleaning it (she can if she wants to). I don't need to hear it over and over again. I know my kitchen isn't as clean as she would like, hell my house isn't as clean as she would like but it isn't that bad either if you ask me. I told her that I feel nothing I do is good enough and she just went on about if I cleaned it like she asked she wouldn't be going off at me.

Kathy has just been on the phone complaining that Sydney didn't want to go straight home from school to play UNO with her mum instead she wanted to play with her friends at the park. Then when they got home she wanted to lay UNO but by that time they only had time to play one game before she had to stop and tend to Summer. So she got upset and snapped at Sydney and of course she felt bad because she loves her girls so much and like any good mother she gets upset when she loses it with her girls.

Mum was telling me that when her and dad went to the doctors dad was asked if he is having and problems with his memory and he started to say no and mum shook her head yes so dad was given the test to see how is memory was and shock horrors he passed with flying colours. He also admitted that he often doesn't remember things mum tells him because he doesn't listen he tunes out as he isn't that interested.

Noumea

Our last port of call was Noumea and we all went ashore and did some more shopping bought something for Jessica my special girl for her birthday she turned 27 while we were away.

I have to say that I really like the bag Tim bought me at Port Villa it holds a lot of stuff I will be taking it with me on every holiday we take from now on as it is just awesome.

We took a hop on hop off bus around Noumea which was $20 but let us to see some of the city without having to do a lot of walking as neither me or mum are up to doing a lot of walking, that said I did do a bit of walking as Tim and I got off and walked over to a park to take some photos while mum and dad stayed on the bus ok they didn't stay on the bus we all had gotten off the bus to go to the museum but the museum was closed so mum and dad jumped back on the bus and came back to the ship whereas Tim and I walked around a bit.

That day after lunch I went to the cabin to drop things off and get the laptop and while I was walking to meet mum a man passed me and said you always look nice, I thought have you been talking to my mother, but it was nice to hear it from a stranger.

Mystery Island

Hello all well here today going to tell you a little about my shore tour to Mystery Island and Tim, Tim & I went over to Mystery Island for a shore tour this one was the glass bottom boat tour and it was bloody awesome I really enjoyed it and I am so glad we went. Although it was bloody difficult getting in and out of the boat, so it is good that mum and dad didn’t come as I think mum would have had a lot more trouble trying to get in and out of the boat.

The night before when we went to dinner Tim had on a sleeveless shirt and was told he had to go and change it or put a jacket on as he wasn't allowed in without sleeves. Well of course this rightly pissed him off as he gets a bee in his bonnet about why women can attend with shoestrings tops or even sleeveless tops and dresses and feels it is a double standard and maybe it is but it is the policy it isn't the fault of the waiter it is just the way it is so didn’t have a go at the waiter as it isn't his fault. So he got the shits and went up to eat on deck 12 at the pantry as he didn't want to go and change his shirt although when I saw him later he had changed his shirt. Now Tim isn't that keen on eating in the restaurant he prefers the pantry where you walk around and get what you want, I prefer to be waited on a bit and not have to go around to find my food as by the end of the day I am exhausted.

While over on Mystery Island I bought a pair on long pants and Tim says they are not going to fit you, I said if they don't I will give them to my special girl as they would fit her. They didn't fit.

Dad wasn't great for a few days he didn't sound that great to me and he was so glad he brought the oxygen with him as he has needed it many times on the cruise.

It was bloody hot over on the island and outside in general but quiet cool even cold inside on the ship. The first thing I did when I returned to the ship was go and take my joggers off and change into my sandals but I didn't need to change my jeans as it is much cooler on board.

Feeling Sick

Hello everyone a break in the cruise posts for me to tell everyone that I have been sick as since Thursday, didn't stop me from doing my shopping on Friday as per usual. Although have to say I wasn't the best my balance wasn't good my hand seemed to be shaking a bloody lot and on more then one occasion I felt like I was going to fall over and had to stop till I felt more steady.

Yesterday (Saturday) saw me sleeping most of the day thankfully didn't have either Leo or Blain here, I told Leo he couldn't sleep Friday night as he slept over on Wednesday night and can only sleep over one night a week.

Kathy-Lee came over to do Natasha's hair yesterday morning and she had Summer with her but all Summer wanted to do was watch telly which annoyed her mother but I don't see a problem with it when she is at home she likes to play with her toys and such but here she likes to watch telly, this may be because I don't have a heap of toys for her to play with.

Kathy-Lee asked me what I would do when she would get really angry for no reason as a child, I told her I left her alone till she had calmed down, I didn't try and talk to her or reason with her while she was angry. She said when she is like that at home Michael would tell her to go and have a nap and usually after a nap she is in a better mood.

I know my family are worried about me, mostly my parents and sister Sandra, this is the reason I hid the tremor for as long as I did. I don't like to be the cause of worry for my family, with the exception of the last few days I generally feel well in myself the shaking of my hand doesn't make me feel unwell. Yes the balance problems are getting worse I know it but usually only when I am tired or as I discovered on Friday when I am feeling unwell.

Sandra wants me to consider weight loss surgery but it isn't something I want, and yeah I have thought about it at times but I just don't want it this is something my mum understands but most people don't.

It is another cold and wet day here, the type of day that makes one want to stay home and not go out just chill in front of the telly or go to bed, ok the going to bed is mostly because I am still feeling pretty sick. Although Tim wants us to go to Coles to get a few things soonish which of course I will do then I will be home to do nothing much at all again.

Oh I forgot to say how I am sick, I have a stuffed up head and I am very tired and have an headache so nothing serious just a general cold.

Tim's Toothache

Hello all here I am writing another cruise post only a few more to go before they come to an end just as my cruise came to an end however that isn't today so moving on.

I often would write my emails the night before after I have had my shower and spoken to mum/nan yes we still often speak for a few minutes in the evening even though we have tea together and after tea return to our cabins for the night.

On the first Thursday of the cruise I had to have a nap as I was all over the place balance wise, in fact my balance was terrible this morning at breakfast.

Natasha rang me via Facebook and we couldn't hear each other which upset me as I miss my girls and grandchildren so much I think of them often during the day. That said she managed to ring and get through a few other times during the cruise.

Dad and Tim went over to the island via tender which is a small boat and both of them had a great time although dad was stuffed when he got back to the ship. Tim hasn't been good all day he is in a lot of pain with his tooth.

He had to arrange to see a dentist at Port Denarua well what an adventure that turned out to be it turned out he has an infection and hard to take antibiotics but what a rigmarole we get the tender to the port and we were told that there would be a taxi waiting for us at the wharf there wasn't. Tim ended up getting a taxi to take him to any bloody dentist the taxi driver spent 3 hours driving us around and he did go out of his way to find the dentist and rang up and arranged for Tim to be seen even though he had missed his appointment time as we didn't know where to go. It cost $180 Fijian for the taxi $20 for the dentist and $46 at the chemist.

Then he nagged me to get one o four girls to make a dentist appointment with his dentist when we return home I was getting fed up with him and thought just give it a rest, I had asked them to make an appointment for him but still he kept nagging about it.

Then when all was said and done with his tooth I asked to have pizza for lunch but he said he didn't feel like pizza and so didn't want to pay for me to get pizza this pissed me off a lot for the next few days.

Suva

Hi all on our first Wednesday of the cruise we spent most of the day busy with our shore excursion first after breakfast we had to line up and trust me it was a long ass line to change Aussie dollars into Fijian dollars then we had to go ashore and board a bus for our sight seeing tour.

Sitting in front of us (me and mum) was (Jonathon) ok not Jono but the guy who looks a lot like Jono no reason for telling you all that other then it popped into my head. Anyway both mum and I had trouble getting on and off the bus just saying. The bus drove around the island and stopped at the museum and we all got off and wondered around the museum and after we finished walking around we sat and had a Coke Zero and a chocolate custard cake by we I mean mum and me, neither Tim nor dad wanted to try it, I can tell you it was very nice.

We then stopped at some other shops for 10 minutes before heading back to the ship, although Tim decided to walk back to the ship it was only a 5 minute walk to the ship but mum, dad and myself couldn't manage to walk any more.

After returning to the ship I came back to my cabin and took my shoes off and then I headed up to Deck 12 to get something to eat to tie me over to tea, mum and dad came up too and while there Jonathon sat near us and mum said there’s Jono well the guy who looks like Jono and then dad asked what mum said and she repeated it and of course the guy could here us talking and started to have a laugh.

After lunch we went down to deck 5 to have a few cocktails and chat which is were Tim found us when he arrived back at the ship.

Speaking of Tim he is being plagued by a toothache and is pretty doped out on pain relief, he went to the medical centre and they said he could see the doctor but there is no dentist on board and all they could give him for pain relief was paracetamol or ibuprofen and I said to him you got stronger pain medication from mum she has Panadol Forte and Endone.

He has arranged to see a dentist tomorrow when we are at port cost will be between $100-150 Fijian dollars.

Only 5 days to my special girls birthday, still have no idea what to give her in way of present.

Back to pain relief or more so pain, I have been in so much pain the last couple of days in my knees and lower back and nothing much helps mostly not all the bloody walking we have to do each day our cabin is at one end of the ship the forward end and the food is at the other end of the ship the Aft so a long way from the cabin to food in the morning.

I have been walking down the stairs when I am on my own or with Tim but when I am with mum and dad I take the lift as mum can't manage the stairs.

Oh yeah nearly forgot when I wanted to go to the toilet earlier we were on deck 5 and the toilet is on deck 4 or deck 7 anyway I went to deck 4 but forgot that, that was were people were boarding the ship so couldn't use that toilet but one of the cleaners told me I could use the toilet on deck 4 and took me to it but of course it was locked so I walked back to go up to deck 7 and one of the women who handling people as they boarded ran up and said I had to go back and go through the metal detector again and the cleaner said no no she came from upstairs not from ashore so it was ok and I was allowed to return to deck 5. I knew I would have to go to deck 7 to use the toilet I don't know why there isn't one on deck 5 which is the deck reception is on.

Cruise Post No: 2

On our third day of the cruise mum,dad, Tim and I went and saw a talk about numerology which three of us found interesting, one didn't can you guess which one didn't find it interesting.

That was in the morning after breakfast the after lunch mum and I went and had a couple of drinks while she (mum) got on Facebook and I also logged into Facebook on my phone for a few minutes. Then the men joined us and we had another drink or two before going to see a show/game called the Liars club it was suppose to be a comedy thing but neither mum or I found it that funny but it was an ok way to spend half and hour.

After that mum and I returned to our cabins to kick our shoes off and chill for a bit before dinner while the men went to bingo I am not really interested in bingo but Tim felt it was another way to kill some time before dinner.

Dad bought the photo taken of all of us when we were boarding, in fact he managed to get 4 of them for $50 he thought he was buying something different from the ones he had but no not the case anyway Tim will give him $25 for two of them. I told Tim I have no interest in having our photos taken by the people who go around snapping photos of us for us to buy we can just take photos of ourselves and no I am not talking about selfies but I guess we could try taking selfies if we wanted to.

Mum and I have been sharing drinks cocktails and soft drinks since Tim and I have the drinks package which allows us to get drinks up to the value of $12 for free, we can only get one drink at a time and any drink that cost more then $12 we have to pay for but that is ok, we just won't be getting drinks costing more the $12. Tim was worried that there was a limit to how many drinks we can get in a day so I went and check with reception and no there is no limit we can only get one drink at a time but can get as many drinks as we like in a day.

I have been in bed early again as by 7 or 8pm I am so worn out all I want to do is go to bed, speaking of bed I have been sleeping well but Tim not so much and both mum and dad said they have been sleeping well as well which is good.  

My Cruise

Hi all this is the first of my cruise posts, I will be boring you all with a few over the next week or so, we had a bloody great time, although Tim at one point said he didn't think we would take any more cruises but me I think we will if I can talk him into it and I am going to give it my best shot.

Although one thing I didn't like was there was no internet in the cabin so I has to take the laptop to the casino or common area down stairs to connect from there and send emails and check Facebook, what did we do before Facebook.

On our second day at see we had breakfast, lunch and tea in the Waterfront restaurant which was ok but tomorrow we will only be having tea in the restaurant and we will have breakfast and lunch in the Pantry yeah a strange name it is a few different types of foods such as Indian, Chinese, something called the Fat cow which has beef pork and chicken dishes with half cooked roast veggies and there is a fish and chips place and some place that has soup and sandwiches and another that has deserts like cakes and such but you have to go and line up get the meal and take it to a table and the two times we ate there we had to walk a mile (well it felt like it ) to get the food as it was very hard to find a table for all of us.

I also didn’t like much of the food which is why we tried the restaurant and yes there are more then two restaurants but some you have to pay extra and we are not doing that. We paid enough money for the cruise and I am not paying extra for food. Although I said to mum tonight that I wouldn’t mind paying the extra to get a hot chocolate in my cabin at night but tonight I got one before coming back to the cabin for the night.

Both mum/nan and I feel that by tea time we are too worn out to walk about finding food we would rather be seated and have the food brought to us.

I had a nap the second day of the cruise but that was all, Tim was having a nap or lay down he said he didn't sleep though but he was unwell for a few days with a bad toothache, I will post more about that in later posts. Dad also has had a nap a few times as he had been unwell a bit as well.

I am home

So I am home and I haven't stopped and I am in a mood, I asked Natasha Tinkabell Meadows to do two things while we were gone she didn't do either, she said she was going to clean the walls and replace the photos she didn't. I cannot find the green tub I use in the bedroom for dirty washing or the little rubbish basket that sits at the end of my bed.

She didn't think to have some soft drink here for me to drink when I got home.

Also she allowed someone I have never met to stay here in her father's office when he said before we left if anyone comes over please lock my door.

The only good thing was Little Leo was so excited to see us that it made me happy he hugged both me and papa and said he missed us soooooooooooo much and if felt like we had been gone for ever.

I will be back tomorrow

Normal posts will resume tomorrow, I have been on a cruise.