More Planning

My head is spinning and it's time for bed. I spent the better part of the day organizing all my tours in a folder and creating an itinerary to leave at home for the family to follow our trip. I had some empty slots I needed to fill in so started on that. first I added a night at the Hilton in Perth and made a mistake on the reservation and ended up calling Hilton directly as the website wouldn't let me modify. As we are staying 2 consecutive nights on March 20 & 21st, the lady upgraded us to a suite with a balcony overlooking the Swan River. This is awesome and it only cost me an additional $29.00 Australian. I had previously rented a car through Alamo for when we get off the cruise on March 15th and was going to drop off on the 22nd March so I went in to modify this to drop off on the 20th. I therefore needed to call Alamo directly and they were going to charge me a $1,000 for the new reservation when the original was $520 for 2 days longer. I wasn't long canceling this reservation so I've spent most of the day looking at other rentals and found a great deal through Avis. Now I have to decide what I want to do in Perth for two days and what I want to do while at Jill's. I decided to give this a break for a bit and have started to do a bit of research on Wyoming & Montana as this will be my next land trip probably next year. I ordered a guide book for each state but won't do any formal research until we get back from Australia

Countdown

Now that Christmas is over, I can begin the countdown for our vacation.I got some great Christmas gifts for the trip...a nice book about Australia, a new vacation photo album, new travel diary, a laptop case, travel cushion, blanket & eye mask. Today I went to town & bought a new pair black shoes and nice little silver purse to use on the formal nights for the cruise. Now I need to find a converter for Australian electrical currency. The ones I looked at had European countries but not Australia. I am totally addicted to our cruise critic site and chat every night with those going on our cruise. Most are from England, Scotland and the USA but last week a fellow wrote me as he noticed I was from Nova Scotia. He told me that he and his wife are doing this cruise as well and they are from the Eastern Shore. How cool is that. This is the first time we have had someone from our province in our cruise critic group.

Christmas Day

I love the month of December with the preparations, hustle & bustle of the Christmas season. The Christmas parties and socializing with friends. My kitchen comes alive with the smells of gumdrop cakes, carrot cakes and homemade donuts.I made potato fudge this year. It is easy and is a wonderful recipe from my Grandmother Lottie.This year we had lots of excitement leading up to Christmas with Gibby & Deanna's house completion. Lots of friends and family helped with the move beginning on Dec 21,22 & 23rd. What a beautiful, cozy warm home it is and I envy the kitchen and pantry.Our traditional family gathering on Dec 24th with my family & Deanna's family and a visit by Santa were the highlights . The little ones were excited and the evening went well. I love both Deanna's family & Renee's Mom & Dad. They are all such a wonderful bunch. This morning I was up at my usual time around 5:30 but had to wait until nearly 7 am before Gibby called to say the kids were awake. Oh the excitement to see Lucas,Hannah & Jack opening the gifts with wrapping paper scattered everywhere. It brings back memories of when Gibby & Nick were little but even better we could walk away from the mess.We also spent time with Nick & Renee, Alison & Chumly opening their gifts and enjoying coffee that I didn't have to prepare before coming home to begin our Christmas feast of Creamed lobster, mashed potatoes,peas, rolls, coleslaw and Trifle for desert. It was nice to have Gil spend time with us and we were joined by my brother Shelley, Dawn & Gene as well. Now it's time to go to the d'Entremont Family potluck.This is always a fun affair with lots of great food, and the d'Entremont boys betting on something or other. It is also a sad time as it's been 3 years ago that we were planning a funeral for Grandpere Chike. Hw was one of the most gentle men I have ever met. i feel truly honored to belong to this wonderful,fun loving family.

Christmas Preparations

We had our first snow of the season and this old body doesn't like it.The bones have been creaking today! With the snow comes preparations for Christmas. With Christmas favorites playing in the CD and war cakes baking in the oven it puts me in the spirit of the season. I am truly blessed to have a talented daughter in law that offers to decorate my house and what a job she does. I love the looks of it and I hardly lifted a finger. You are a sweetheart Renee.More baking needs to be done and the gifts need wrapping but I'll save that for another day.

The weekend

Oh My Christmas is only three weeks away. I am so not ready.My baking is not done and my gifts aren't wrapped and my house looks like it has blown up. I wonder why I can't get motivated. Last evening Dr. Clark passed away. I didn't sleep well because I kept thinking about the 11 years I worked for him and how good he was to me during those years. He was a gentle man and loved by many and there are lots of young men in the area that have been named after him. My Nicholas's middle name carries his middle name. Today I am thinking of his daughter Jill, who is half a world away. This morning I left early. Sheldon was taking Lucas to play hockey so I tagged along and while they were at the rink I went to Sobeys for groceries. I had bought a cute poinsettia to take to Gil at Nakile but later found out there are many staff with allergies. I didn't go empty handed because I did remember to replenish his fruit basket with apples, oranges, bananas & grapes. He is doing much better today and the physiotherapist from the hospital visited yesterday and today he is able to walk with the walker again with assistance. Hopefully this will continue. Now it is time to start the chore of folding clothes and maybe later I will tackle some gift wrapping.

Hump Day

Came home from work early. Have had a bad headache for two weeks. Travel plans are coming together well. Australian Visa's are confirmed. Inquired about the visa's for Papua New Guinea. Canada doesn't issue them to this country so we would need to go through Washington DC. We will wait until we get to Australia and do them in Brisbane or we can have them issued through the cruise line for $50US each which will probably be easier in the long run. Took my new laptop to customs and got the certificate which states it was purchased in Canada so now I won't be accused of smuggling. Used my gift cards to Penningtons and purchased some new fancy duds. I'm on a roll. We've both had our H1N1 shots. Now we need to get our Tetanus boosters and I need to call the VON world health to find out about Yellow Fever as we are traveling to New Guinea. After this I just need to pack...well not really but I can relax for a bit

Nick's boat MV "Gladiator"

 

Out to the sea in ships

We did the tour of the area wharfs in East & West Pubnico & my favorite home port of Lower Argyle. A ritual for us the day before dumping day. The boats are loaded & ready to go. Be safe my family & friends and catch lots of lobsters.

Argyle wharf

This isn't today's picture. Was taken a few years ago but you get the idea. Boats loaded with traps in anticipation of loading them with lots of lobsters

 

Sun at last

Sunny but windy. Do we anything but wind the day before dumping day? Hubby's off to the wharf to check things out. No boat for him this fall but he is worried, wondering if he'll have a day off to go golfing. I think I have a brain block or something equally as serious. I spend all my time thinking about traveling. contemplating a girls cruise in late 2010. Just two of us. Just in the thinking stages right now but I have looked on my favorite site and did dummy booking to see if any specials available. Oh the opportunities. Booked New Years Eve away this year. Yeah. Now back to reality for a few hours..gotta think about cleaning this house

just checking the time

hmm

Bring on the heat!

Still playing with posting pics! This is Saint Thomas my favorite island (next to Hawaii of course)wishing I was there now!!

 

just playing!!

learning how to post pictures tonight !!
this is one of my fav pics in London!

A rainy windy Saturday

A year ago we had a lot of snow on the ground. Today we have rain & strong winds. When I got up this morning at 6 am I had a big decision to make...Be lazy and spend the day reading or tackle the pile of laundry that has been collecting all week.The Dunkin Donut coffee gave me the perk I needed so after the washer started I proceeded to read the days news online, check out the emails & see what the local folks on facebook were doing and after an hour I got the courage to start folding the clothes from last week. Now I only do laundry on the week ends and last weekend I was in Halifax so the only one that worked was the washer.4 loads folded and 3 more washed and folded. Now they are sitting on the dresser. Can't do the work all in one day so I headed back to the computer.Called choice reward travel to get them process our travel visa's for Australia...that was easy only had to give them the information on our passports and they attach it to our passports electronically. Unfortunately they couldn't issue one for Papua New Guinea. Went into the Canadian Consulate web page.Got distracted and ended up reading about inoculations we should have.Added this to my growing to do list. Checked out the cruise critic site and chatted on our roll call for half an hour. About two months ago I booked a snorkeling tour on the Great Barrier Reef. I couldn't get a private tour as we are tendering so I booked thru the cruise line. I wasn't 100% satisfied because it is a 3 hr trip each way with about 200 people and it goes to the outer reef but I booked anyway as it is a life time experience but Dun isn't 100% comfortable snorkeling.I float like a harbor buoy. Well this morning I stumbled upon an awesome tour called 3 Island cruise on the inner reef which is for the full day and includes snorkeling, a submersible, a beautiful 7 mile beach and includes lunch . It is part of the Whitsundays inner reef so I canceled the ships tour & got my money back.the three islands are Daydream Island, Hook Island and Whitehaven Island Now I'm a happy broad.Did a gourmet hot dog lunch, went to town with Dun, stopped at Nakile and back home again. made beef & broccoli, fried rice and egg rolls for supper and now to read for the remainder of the evening. whew busy day.

TGIF

When you start your day by oversleeping, you just know it is downhill the rest of the day! The good thing is it's Friday. Tonight we took Lucas with us to town. he thinks MacDonald's is the best place to eat so guess where we had supper.Then off for groceries to Superstore. While I did the groceries, Lucas convinced Sheldon he needed a new toy for himself & Jack .Sheldon doesn't say no so the new toys got added to my grocery bill for the week. Then off to Tim's before heading back home. Doesn't take long to put away $150 of groceries. Now to sit back and research for an hour. Got my map that Jill sent me, and have highlighted a few places to investigate such as Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough,Cape Naturalist,Yallingup,Cowaramup, Margaret River, karridale before turning off to Jill's near Kudardup. Augusta and Cape Leeuwin are south of Jill's and Albany is another hour but has some much see things.Many more nights of research ahead and we have 82 days til we fly out. Bought some more Australian money today. It's a smaller bill than ours but I bet i can spend it just as fast.

Researching Western Australia

We dock in Perth on March 15 and expect to be off the ship by 9 am. I've rented a car and will pick up in Freemantle.Dr Clark departs Perth that day to fly home so we'll be meeting him & Lise for lunch before he heads to the airport. Decisions, decisions...should we spend the afternoon in Perth? We have an overnight reservation at a Mandurah beach resort which is about an hour south of Perth and I want to see this area. The following day we will head south to see Jill (Clark) Grist who, lives about 2 hours south from Mandurah. We'll make a home base at her place for 4 or 5 days. Really looking forward to seeing Jill. It's been over 30 years even though we've kept in contact over the years. She was my Maid of Honor. There's lots to see & do in South Western Australia and I really can't make a definite decision and it is driving me crazy

Not to Bright

Well I managed to create the blog but forgot to create the google account. Over that hurtle but still can't find the name under a google search. Thanks Charlene for helping me find it in my history.Time for me to call it quits for the day. I think I might like blogging when I get used to it.

Preparing for Australia

Time is going quickly and our vacation will begin mid February. The airline fares are booked, 6 days pre-cruise hotel is booked. Priceline bid saved a lot of money for the hotel. 17 day cruise on Royal Caribbean "Rhapsody of Seas" booked and I managed to snag a coveted aft balcony cabin with 2 lounge chairs and a table. Most of the port excursions are booked through independent tour guides. I'll go into the tours separately. Now if I can remember the name of my blog and password I'll be doing good