Bubbeh

I just bought 500gm of smoked salmon (Tasmanian) for $26 from Woolies. Pretty proud of myself.

While I'm very much an advocate of packing for every possible scenario, we do sell clothing here and on most cruise ships. Some of my favourite cruise wardrobe has been an unexpected on board purchase. I've also been known to buy a cardi at an op shop when the weather turned cooler on an excursion and then leave it at the next op shop in the next port. Basically what I'm saying is, if you get caught out, you can always buy something to tide you over.

I'm not a big fan of Singapore, been 3 times now I think almost always as part of a tour group 'enjoying' a few days between boarding a cruise or getting off a cruise and going home. It's not the heat or the humidity, I just find it to be a very sterile environment and the general populous tend to not want to interact. No smiling at randoms here. Anyway, we're off there again next month for 3 nights before taking the P & O Adventure to Sydney for a week. I actually broke 3 toes leaving a Radiance cabin in 2018 and I was very lucky to buy some Nurofen (all my pharmaceuticals had been packed and were already off the ship) at a chemist in the shopping centre next to the airport. At first the pharmacist wanted me to take my shoe off to show him my foot, I explained that if I did that I would not be able to get it back on. He nodded sagely and sold me some strong fast acting ibuprofen. When I eventually got home I had purple, black and cobalt chipolatas where my toes used to be.

My apologies. I meant not offence but have taken your remarks on board.

'Nuff said. 🤮

A winery area is a winery area anywhere in the world. Margaret River is a highly touristy region with prices which reflect that, in addition to a rather unpleasant attitude from the locals when they spot a tourist in their midst. We used to holiday there for a fortnight every year when the kids were young and it was glorious. These days we go once a year to stay a week in a caravan park on our way to Augusta and that's pleasant enough but, I'd give it a big miss in terms of its reputation. If you can come further north I'd try the Bickley Valley for an unspoiled wine area.

Next time we're visiting our daughter in Melba, I just might take you up on that. You never know your luck 😁

Any chance of a dinner invitation..........

Salmon would have to be one of my favourite proteins. I like it cooked through though. Went to a very posh restaurant once and the salmon was gooey in the center, apparently this is 'the how a talented and experienced chef presents salmon' (yes, said to me by the waiter) I had to leave it. It almost made me retch, can't do sushi either.

How true!

A very practical consideration. Having said that, I'm sorry for your negative experience.

About 15 years ago I started a 'Car Jar' into which I put every spare coin (including $1/$2). Also, if I bought something on special I'd put an IOU for the difference in my Car Jar eg, say I bought a $4 loaf of bread for $3.20 I'd put an IOU for 80 cents into the CJ. It took almost 5 years but I eventually saved almost $22k doing this and that together with my Toyota Starlett (known in the family as Starlett O'Cara) as a trade, I bought a new Jeep Patriot which I just loved. Unfortunately, I only had it for 18 months when I retired from work and we moved to an apartment with only 1 parking bay. We already had two cars and a motorbike so we traded both cars on a new Ford Territory (best car ever, over 9 years we only put a new set of tyres on and replaced the battery) and kept the bike to make Grumpy happy. These days the only time I have cash is when I'm washing the sheets/towels in the machines in a caravan park and I need $5, my RVs machine is not big enough for these items. For everything else, I use my credit cards, I rarely pay a fee as I tend not to patronise places that charge that except for ALDI which, when you consider the overall savings, is well worth the minor percentage.

And they try to tell us that alcohol is bad for us. Oh, piffle!

Hush yer mouth!!!!

Good for NZ! For me however and as unpopular as my opinion seems to be, I'm a QANTAS girl all the way wherever possible. Certainly domestically, would consider anything else.

Aha, now you've lost me. I've drunk far too much dry wine and whiskey to enjoy sweet anythings. Indeed, if I found out I'd killed my sweet taste buddies I wouldn't be surprised.

In what must be a first, I don't bother with bidding for an upgrade, This little princess is perfectly happy with her mid-ships balcony cabin located on a deck with upper and lower being cabins also. Once accepted an 'upgrade' and found ourselves under the ping pong table on the pool deck! No peace or sleep for the wicked on that particular 35 day cruise. Grrr....

Pickled cauli sounds nice but then I am a vego so that probably explains it.

As an Aussie it took me longer to locate my bags than it did to get through Customs.

Well, that's a bloody relief!

We had a late night on NYE, watched two episodes of Call the Midwife and an episode of Vera then into bed at 11pm. Almost made it to the bewitching hour 😉 . Mind you we did better than the last few years when we barely made it past 9:30! And to think I used to laugh at people that didn't party on the 31st, I swore that I would never get that old and fuddy duddy. Oh, the arrogance and folly of youth!

Us too.

That's not stingy, that's smart.

A cruise simply cannot be too long for me. The longest we've taken so far has been 47 days from Fremantle around the Indian Ocean to South Africa and return. Could have easily stayed on board twice as long. In terms of the boring necessary admin: We usually get a town car from home to the Port and pre-arrange for something similar to pick us up at the conclusion of our trip, whether that be to the same port of a return via air. If we're in a situation where we leave and return via air in order to reach our embarkation Port, we'd drive to the airport and leave our car in the long term parking which costs $99 for each 30 days. Our mail is picked up and by a neighbour and our bills are paid via direct debit. We live in a secure apartment block with any maintenance arranged via the Strata therefore, no impost on individual owners. We don't have pets so that's not something which we need to make arrangements for. Voila, stress free long term travel!

Wishing all here a safe and peaceful Festive Season. May 2024 be filled with joyous adventures for you and yours. Dee & Tony (aka Grumpy Guts)