Sunday 31 May 2009

FUNNY PIANO PLAYING BY VICTORIA WOOD

Anyone remember this wonderful piano playing and funny song by Victoria Wood??  Stumbled across it this morning, I had forgotten how wonderfully funny she is.  She writes all her own music and lyrics, a very talented lady.  Of course this is pretty old stuff, you’ll notice that by the hairstyles and dress sense of the audience!!  Such a shame they never continued with the series she did with Julie Walters, “Wood & Walters”, it was so funny.  Well enjoy the clip and let me know your thoughts.

Saturday 30 May 2009

THE WEATHER IN FRANCE IS HOT, TIME TO COOL OFF

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Just love this picture of our pool, it was taken by our very first customers who stayed in our gite.  I got up this morning to the most beautiful day, sun shining, clear blue skies, birds singing.  The weather is sooo hot at the moment, I think we are in for a very long hot summer.

The kids are lucky this weekend as there are no customers in, so they’ve got free run of the swimming pool…They need it to cool off in this heat.  Glad the weather is so good as we’ve been invited to a barbeque tonight, so looking forward to that.IMG_8097 

A few pictures walking around the property.  There are plenty of wild shrubs and flowers.  I like that as it attracts butterflies and other pretty insects, all in abundance here.IMG_8096

It’s hard to keep the grass green in the heat of the summer.  Constant watering does the trick, but there are often water restrictions when it hasn’t rained for a long time.IMG_8128

The kids love the outdoors, and as you can see, there’s plenty of room for them to let off steam.  To the right the swimming pool, and the much used swings.IMG_6740

And to finish off, there’s nothing like a good old fashioned French game of “Boules”, before retiring to the terrace for a barbeque and a nice glass of red.

Thursday 28 May 2009

THE APPRENTICE FUNNY VIDEO EDIT

For those of you who enjoy the apprentice, or even those who do not, or do not know what it is, I was passed this edited video done by an amateur and it is hilarious.  I wanted to post the actual video on my blog but for technical reasons, reasons beyond my control, or maybe I’m just plain dumb, I couldn’t upload the video.  So here’s the link, just click on it if you want a good laugh;  http://cassetteboy.wordpress.com

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!!!

Wednesday 27 May 2009

THE WEATHER AND OUR VILLAGE IN FRANCE

IMG_6309 Today is such a beautiful day, the sun is shining and the sky is blue and cloud free.  Some pictures of our village, still and beautifully frozen in time.  The sun is making the grapes grow ready for more lovely French wine.

IMG_6283 When the sun shines on the old church it makes it look brand new.

IMG_6231 The grass is growing and the crops are planted, lots to harvest at the end of summer.

sunny day flowersThe pretty colourful flowers bowing at the suns heat, almost transparent to it’s rays.  Our village is beautiful, and the sun just makes it that much better.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

THOUGHTS ABOUT PLACES I’VE VISITED

I found this map on Face book and was able to pin point all the places in the world that I’ve visited.  Unfortunately i couldn’t copy the whole map as you needed to scroll left or right so some of the countries or cities are probably missing.  When I had finished pinning, I was very surprised to see the amount of places I’ve been, 96 in total in 46 different countries!!  All that thanks to working on cruise liners, notably the QE2 and the love of travel.  What places have you visited and have you ever thought about compiling your own travel map…you might be surprised at the outcome…

Monday 25 May 2009

BRITAINS GOT TALENT, SO HAS SUSAN BOYLE?

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Last nights Britain’s Got Talent results didn’t come as much of a surprise to me, and possibly not to anyone else either. Susan Boyle, the singer, was voted through by the viewers first choice, and Diversity, the dance group, by the judges. there seems to be a bit of Boyle mania going around the world and everyone’s talking about her, even here in France I heard them chatting about BGT and Susan Boyle on the radio, and that was local radio! I’m not sure if it really is singing talent that has made her so popular or if it’s more to do with, firstly the shock of hearing that voice come out of her, or secondly guilt because everybody laughed at her before she began to sing, thinking “oh, here we go, another loser!”. Personally, I liked Diversity, young, very talented and very different to any other act. Reckon they might be hard to beat come the final…

Saturday 23 May 2009

F1 MONACO GRAND PRIX BUTTON DOES IT AGAIN

Lewis_Hamilton_2007 Where did that come from??  Just watched the qualifying for the Monaco Grand prix and Button wasn’t doing particularly well, in fact he only just scraped through to Q3, he didn’t do too well then either and it looked like he might not have a very good grid position.  All of a sudden, with just seconds to go, he pulled a blinder of a lap out of the bag and secured pole position once again!!  Sadly, our other British driver and current world champ didn’t fair so well.  It’s a shame really as he had been doing so well in practice, and it looked like maybe Lewis Hamilton would be back on pole for the first time this season, but because of driver error he crashed out in Q1, and will start 16th on the grid.  Not a good starting position in Monaco!!  it’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow, and I for one will be glued to the TV at 1pm when the program starts.  So nice to see our British boys on top again…Go Jenson and go Braun………!!

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Thursday 21 May 2009

LAST MINUTE SPECIAL HOLIDAY OFFER

gite 2 The heat is on to find that bargain holiday deal at the last minute.  With the recession I get the feeling that everyone’s leaving it until late before booking, if they book abroad at all.  The new craze this year in the Uk is not Vacation but Staycation, because everyone is feeling the pinch at the moment.  All we hear about in the papers and on the news is the credit crunch, bills, expenses, businesses going bust etc..  Well, if you fancy a nice holiday in France, at prices that won’t break the bank, then look no further.  We are offering our beautiful, luxury holiday cottage at prices reduced to 2008 prices, for this 2009 season.  We are in a most beautiful part of the Vendee on the west coast of France, a sleepy little village not far from the big cities & towns, and also not far from the sandy, west coast beaches.  A perfect spot for a perfect holiday!  Just click on the link top right of this page for more information and more photos on our own web site, or visit Owners Direct property ref: fr2302.  Well, a girl’s gotta try…hasn’t she??

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Wednesday 20 May 2009

A VERY BUSY BEE, BUZZZING ALONG

bee I have been a very busy bee today, so much so that I haven’t had a chance to update my blog properly.  Remember the Gite I talked about in earlier posts, well we have our first customers of this season arriving the day after tomorrow so everything has to be ship shape.  It’s also Wednesday, not only are the children off school here in France, but one has an appointment a half an hour away, another is going swimming with a friend and the other has brought a house full of friends round.  So as you can imagine I have been multi tasking again, as all mothers do!

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But I have to add that as I write this they’ve all gone out, all gone out now that I’ve finished!  The house is quiet now…all I can hear is Deal Or No Deal in the distance.  Ah well, I’m going to take full advantage of the peace & quiet and veg out a bit on my lovely sofa§  I’ll try to think of a more interesting post tomorrow……

Tuesday 19 May 2009

STAR TREK BEAM ME UP SCOTTIE

Yes, it’s the movie everyone’s talking about, and I haven’t seen it.  Unfortunately things take a little longer here in France, and even then you have to watch it dubbed….it’s not the same :( .  i see our friend, (or fiend!), from Heroes is playing Spok, think that’s how it’s spelt, what a great choice of character!  Wouldn’t it be freat if life really was like that.  Transporting from one place to another in an instant, phaser guns and all that…how exciting!  Anyway, can’t wait to see the movie, but I’m afraid if I want to see it in English I’m going to have to wait quite a bit longer!!

Sunday 17 May 2009

EUROVISION 2009 NOT NUL POINTS THIS TIME

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So Norway did it, they won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009…and very deservedly so!  Alexander Rybak did a fine job on stage and off as I believe that it was him that actually wrote the song.  Young vibrant and with a very catchy tune, i think it was a forgone thing.  Great Britain, though excelled themselves this year with an equally talented Jade Ewen.  i think she has a beautiful voice, kind of reminds me of Leona Lewis a bit.  5th place is not to be sniffed at especially when we’ve done so dreadfully in the past I don’t know how many years!  mind you, I tend to agree with Sir Terry Wogan on that score, definitely a lot of political underhand stuff going on there.  Not that I’m a Eurovision fan or anything, in fact I dropped off before half time but that’s nothing new……..it just gets more boring every year, especially now that we don’t have Terry and all his snide comments.  You gotta love him!!

Thursday 14 May 2009

CRUISING OVER TIME TO SETTLE DOWN

ben As I’ve already mentioned I met my husband on board the QE2, so when we got engaged, also on board, we decided it was time to call it a day and ended our cruising lives.  These wonderful beings are our creation, so meet the family.  At the top is our eldest, what a cutie, he is now 15, and growing too fast.  He’ll soon be leaving school, doesn’t seem time yet!  He was born 1 month early weighing just 4.5lbs, and now he’s nearly 5ft 8!

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These two are our twins, so lucky to have a boy & a girl, aren’t they gorgeous?  Well I would think that I’m their mum!!  They are now 11, and also growing too fast.  Coping with twins was very hard work at first, especially with a little one biting at your ankles at the same time, but once you’ve found a routine it’s down hill all the way!  They were born 2 months too early and weighed just 4lbs each!!  Just goes to show that good things really do come in small packages!!!

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Wednesday 13 May 2009

THOUGHTS ABOUT BECOMING A CHEF DE CUISINE

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My eldest son has taken a week out from school this week to do his first work experience, (they start them young in France).  After months of swapping and changing his mind about which field to work in he finally decided to follow in his mother’s footsteps and chose the hotel/restaurant trade.  This surprised me as normally he doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, but, and in his words, “I love to eat so being around fine food all day would be good”.  I’m not sure it’s good enough reason to become a chef but you never know.  So he started in the kitchen of a local hotel on Monday.  The hours are pretty cool, 10.30am to 3pm, but invariably I get a call at around 2pm saying that he’s finished early.  Unfortunately I have been unable to get him to do anything else for the rest of the day as he’s too tired after, “A long hard day at work”!  4 hours…4 hours in a kitchen and he’s good for nothing!  I think that maybe next time I’ll sign him up for work experience as a parent..cook, cleaner, manager, chamber maid,  juggler, taxi driver, accountant, referee etc..the list could go on forever, in fact by doing all that he could become a highly qualified person!!

Tuesday 12 May 2009

THE QE2 WASN’T ALWAYS PLAIN SAILING

qe2me4Whilst there was lots of good sailing weather, this wasn’t always the case. I was fortunate enough to have good sea legs, and I’d already worked on other liners and never suffered with sea-sickness. Unfortunately for others as soon as the ship keeled even just a little, the queue outside the doctors surgery was enormous. I have it on good authority, though, that the good old doc had a very good cure! The weather was particularly bad on this occasion, as we were travelling across the North Sea, originally to Norway, when we got an emergency call that an oil rig had collapsed and people needed rescuing. We were the nearest ship so the captain changed course to try to help. Unfortunately we weren’t much use as the ship was too big and caused more damage than good. A lot of the passengers missed all the excitement as they were ill. If I remember rightly we had a brilliant viewing spot as the Queen’s Grill was totally empty, along with all the other restaurants.

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But seasickness or not, it wasn’t all bad for the passengers, as you can see there were some pretty good shows to keep them entertained.

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And this is me in one of them….I’m the one in the white uniform, by the way!!!

Monday 11 May 2009

FROM THE SUN DOWN UNDER TO THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

q1 These two pictures I took in Sydney, Australia, the top one was taken from one of the upper decks of the QE2, looking down on all the people who had travelled to Sydney Harbour to see her sail in, don’t they look tiny.  Strangely enough, whilst I was up there taking that photo, somebody on the quayside recognized me, and I could just here this tiny voice above the din calling my name.  It turned out to be an ex crew member of another ship on which I had worked who was on holiday in Sydney..small world eh??  Below you can see the ship in the harbour with the Sydney Opera House in the background.  

q2 q3 One of many busy High Streets in Hong Kong, look at the signs, if you can see them, it seems that they are very keen to make people leave the country, there are an abundance of Travel Services!!

q4 Ah, the New York skyline as it used to be, pre 2001, on Trans-Atlantic crossings New York was a second home.  And below the famous Statue of Liberty, kindly donated by the French, I might add!

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I passed my lifeboat pilots test in Alaska, and also my class 1 firefighting certificate… the fire thing sounds really swanky, but it’s really just the basics in case of a fire on board.  But the lifeboat, I was first in command of my own boat it was pretty important stuff…But thankfully, apart from regular fire drills, I never had to use it!

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Above, the beautiful Fjords of Norway, the land of the midnight sun, and they’re not kidding, it gets dusky but never dark.  It got pretty confusing sometimes when there was a party on deck, we lost all track of time and before we knew it, it was morning and time for work!!  Happy days!  And last but not least the beautiful clear waters of the Caribbean, year round sunshine and blue skies…can’t be bad!

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Sunday 10 May 2009

A QUICK TOUR AROUND A PRINCESS

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A few shots of the inside of the Royal Princess.  One of the upper deck suites, the most expensive ones!  You can see how neatly and prettily the towel had to be folded in the bathroom, and the king-size bed above

royal5royal4 And here the dining and lounge areas, very posh.  Talking of posh, did you know that the word posh actually comes from ship life, it means “Port out,Starboard home”.

royal3 royal2 royal1And finally to the upper deck swimming pools & spas, very swish…Ohh I could just jump in there now!

Friday 8 May 2009

QE2 ADVENTURES AND OTHERS

As I mentioned, the view from the glass bottomed helicopter was pretty scary, but amazing. Here you can see the Pacific Princess underneath us as we were coming back to land. It really is a huge ship but it looks so small from way up there!

Next are some turtles I snapped in Aruba in the Caribbean, aren't they just gorgeous, they look so peaceful, lapping up the warm water in the sun.

I suppose it's a relatively small iceberg, at least on the surface, but the ship did sail incredibly close to them! This picture was taken on board P&O Pacific Princess.........Remind you of a famous film maybe??

Taken on board P&O Royal Princess going through the Panama Canal. The passenger all eagerly watching for wildlife on the shore side. There was always a commentator who boarded ship before going through and sometime he would joke that there was a crocodile or bear to the left or right. It was fun seeing the passenger suddenly run to one or the other side of the ship, cameras in hand!

The proud P&O Pacific Princess, which was used to film the old series "The Love Boat", any Americans reading will already know this!

Her sister, and newer, ship P&O Royal Princess. Larger and more modern than Pacific. The suites were far more grand and the crew areas much more fun!!

And finally, the last ship I worked on, the QE2. Proudly docked and pictured with almost all the crew on her deck. I met my husband on board, he worked in the engineering department, and I worked in the hotel & catering department. I did the world cruise 1991, as well as many other trans-Atlantic, Caribbean and European cruises. I was doing a map on Face book the other day to see how many places I had visited, the result...I have visited 97 cities in 40 countries...I am a very lucky girl!!