Vict0riann

We have booked it for our next cruise. I thought I would post the menu, it actually looks quite extensive.

Good afternoon, Dailyites, I'm sorry there are sadnesses today, my prayers for all. Pat has an autistic nephew in Australia, the parents had a lot of help with their very bright son as he was growing up, and he just graduated from university a few days ago. He is a lovely lad. It has been raining for some time here, the reservoir has been at 100% for a few days, and the moss on our garry oak trees is sooo happy. (If the sky was clear you'd see the Olympics in the gap on the right.) We have been to Taormina a few times, but never from Giardini-Naxos. I'm sue there are lots of photos of other areas, so I will just show our visit to the city park which we did with DD in 2016. Beautiful views Pat was fascinated with the Italian human torpedo from WW2 in the park. Just a taste of cannoli

Bon voyage!

Good afternoon, Dailyites, Happy Birthday to @Haljo1935, Happy Anniversary to @JazzyV and @cunnorl, and my thoughts and prayers for Tana and everyone ailing! This hasn't been a good week here, but it's over now, and Pat did get his "nose job" yesterday. Actually, the doctor was quite amused by his memory of every date he has had a nosebleed, and said he must have a rare condition called autobiograpical memory. The doctor did find, hopefully, the errant blood vessel and cauterized it. My mother was born in the year of the Dragon, I was born in the year of the Dragon, and our DD was born in the year of the Dragon. Imagine having three dragons in the house! I have a beautiful wooden dragon I got at the Shanghai Friendship Store, Pat the Rat broke his tail off many years ago, it still needs regluing. But at least Rats are good companions for Dragons. A friend in China sent us this

We consider the crew appreciation fee (gratuity) to be part of our cruise fare. But say, if one is paying $100pp a day as your cruise fare, $17 is 17%, if you're paying, say, $170, you are "tipping" 10%, and so on. If the cruise line had to remove those tips and include an additional $17 into the wages of the crew that were originally covered by the gratuity charge, because of tax implications for HAL and for the crew involved, they might have to double the charge to the passenger, so instead of paying $100 a day, one would be paying $134 a day, or $204, and so on, with no option to remove anything....

I don't know why, but we have never had a problem. We stay at a more distant hotel, and arrive in a taxi, which we have found always just drives in and deposits us and the bags right at the door of the terminal. Our bags are taken and we walk right in. I'm not sure if that is the proper way to do it, but we have never asked and the taxi drivers seem to know their way around. Once you are in the terminal, you are directed to whichever line is appropriate, although the last time, I seem to remember we had to go through quite a long line and a scan of our boarding passes before they would let us go to the CO line.

Good morning, Dailyites! Thanks for all the news. I'm happy that the consensus is that Spring is on the way! I have a single little marsh marigold blooming in my flowerbed, and I have no idea where it came from, it is definitely a volunteer and I hope it is happy with us. I count that as Spring. If we had a groundhog, it would not see its shadow today, I guess we would use a Vancouver Island marmot instead. Gerry, I'm so sorry about your DH, what a worry! Annie, hope you feel better soon, and I'm sorry about Bubbles. You are such a caring cat person! Terry, I hope your household's health improves and you don't catch the bug, too. And I hope the weather improves for the Dailyites on the way to Hawaii. Well, we've had a busy couple of days. First, we went downtown to apply for new passports, I also found a couple of new needlepoint kits, they are darned expensive nowadays, but I think they will be beautiful. I can't do counted cross stitch any more, and I had to look for light coloured needlepoints, as I'm finding the darker colours difficult to manage. I do need new glasses. Then, yesterday, we booked two more cruises! Pat is getting antsy, and as the cardiologist said he was good to travel, we decided to re-book part of the cruise we cancelled earlier - just the TA, though, and I got flights to FLL using my Air Miles and Pat organized return flights in business class on Icelandair. I could only get economy for the three flights out, so I'm not looking forward to that. Just hope Calgary isn't snowed in, like it was last year. Talking to our PCC, she said she has had many, many complaints about Stockperks, and I told her we were going to try to do it the old way first! I want to ask the doctor if I should take the low dose aspirin with us, just in case. I don't know if that has anything to do with heart valve problems. And we are going out today to run a few errands, and I think I might have a look for something new to wear on the cruise. It's either that or a lot of dieting!

We had Easter Brunch in the PG on Rotterdam last year, but it was that 150th anniversary cruise, so I don't know if it was extra special! Sorry, I see it is the same as Cruisemom's menu - I should have read before posting!

And here's my picture from Rotterdam last year. It was messy, the crab legs were a lot of work, we get lots of salmon here, so I didn't eat that. No lobster. There was corn, plus clams, mussels, shrimp, potato, I couldn't eat all of it. We didn't get any discount. It was fun but I don't know that I will do it again.

Did they give you a black eye?

Good morning, Dailyites! Thanks for the news and prayers for those suffering, especially Tana and Terri. Bon voyage to the lucky ducks who are sailing. We have decided to forego a cruise this spring, we looked into some, the prices are good, but airfares are exorbitant. We'll wait until the fall. It has been raining steadily for a few days, and the reservoir has gone up to 98.3%. Good news, but as fast as it fills, we use it. My Library of Congress story. When we lived in Virginia, I took a genealogy course at the Northern Virginia Community College one year. It turned out that, although a Canadian, I was the only one in the class whose ancestors came from Maryland, Virginia and what became West Virginia. We had field trips to Baltimore, Hagerstown, etc., and found information and also many trips to the National Archives and the Library of Congress. Our first visit to the Library of Congress, we were all given computers and told to write in the name of the ancestors we were researching. I typed it in and suddenly the screen started flashing, alarms went off and the supervisor rushed over. I was in trouble! I was not invited back - my ancestors' name is "English", and the poor old computer just could not encompass all those references. (It was a long time ago!)

Good morning, Dailyites! Everyone please send bubblewrap to Jacqui! The chicken sounds good - might try it. Last night I marinated some chicken thighs in soy sauce, mirin, chilli sauce, and fish sauce (all compliments of DD, who shops on line) and then added some peas and bamboo shoots in a pancake. Pat said it was tasty, I found it a bit too spicy, but I survived. We eat a lot of chicken. But I think we'll have left over pot roast tonight, and we have a bottle of red wine to finish up. As Roy said, we joined the Grand SA on Prinsendam at the last minute in BA for the Amazon. We decided, as the ship would overnight there we could risk arriving on the day, so we used the ship's transfer and planned to go ashore the next day, however there was a strike or something going on, so we just stayed on board. We had visited BA for a few days in 2017 before a Zaandam cruise in the other direction, so we did see a lot of the city, we joined friends at dinner, where our waiter pointed to a large dish of meats that a single gentleman was enjoying and said that was their usual order for 2, but we decided it was enough for 4! We couldn't eat it all, it came with empanadas, french fries, rolls, and a large salad. I have a picture of the meats, but I think we already had had a few pieces. We walked for miles in BA, an amazing city., We found a 3-storey shopping centre overlooking the Recoleta and got pictures of it from there - a city within a city! Even crypts underground. The Galleria shopping centre had very ornate ceilings. On the way to dinner This enormous flower has petals that are supposed to open and close depending on the sunshine, but it wasn't working when we were there. Bird's eye view of the Recoleta Cemetary and wall. Ceiling in the shopping centre

Good afternoon, Dailyites, so nice to hear all the news! I hope the changes to Maurice's medications solve or at least help, @ger_77! Pat was getting really uppity after his good report, but we spent most of yesterday at the hospital emergency room with one of his nasty nosebleeds. The doctor kept trying to find the spot that was bleeding, but eventually said he thought it was too high up in the nostril for him to get at and Pat would need to see a specialist. After 7 hours on pretty uncomfortable chairs and stools, I was sooo tired, we had lunch at 3:30 after we got home, and I just made a very small salad for our supper. I am recovering today! We are in for an atmospheric river for the next few days, but at least it is quite warm outside (in the 50's) we haven't had the heat on. Pat had an English colleague (RIP) a long time ago who had been at one of the concentration camps when the prisoners were released. I asked him about it, he couldn't speak, just shook his head. It must have been horrifying. I know my father never talked about his time in the Japanese camp in Shanghai.

It’s been dropped from ours as well. I do like Sitka!

Pat's cardiologist didn't say anything like yours did - he just said that at his age, Pat wouldn't be a good candidate for the open heart surgery, they would most likely do it through the groin. I will have to do some research, but I think that means a mechanical valve. That they can do in Victoria, anything more complicated they would have to do in Vancouver. Do they do all the different surgeries in Saskatoon? It is not a good thing to be struggling for breath. I hope something gets organized for your husband right away.

Looks good, but now we need new passports - we're going to go in tomorrow to do that! There's a nice Hawaii cruise on K in April, too... 😁

Pat had encouraging news at the cardiologist, he can come off the care list! His aortic stenosis has progressed, but as long as he has no symptoms, they will just monitor him every 6 months. Next appointment in July. On the strength of that, we might book a cruise!

Praying hard for Maurice today. What a worry! Hope they can help, pdq. I’ll let you know how Pat’s appointment goes today too, but he is asymptomatic, so it’s certainly not as much of an emergency.

Good morning, Dailyites! Many thanks to all who post such interesting stuff. I had to re-read all the threads with Haifa and laughed at the memes. We have been there twice, the first time I was in isolation with noro, and DH and DD went to Nazareth and Capharnaum; the next time we had a tour to Jaffa and Caesarea with Tony and he posted pictures on one of the threads. So I won't add pictures - they are much like others here. Yesterday we had an outing and ended up at the grocery store at almost lunchtime - I came away with Nanaimo bars, butter tarts, carrot cake, brownies and oatmeal raisin cookies. Fortunately I managed to get them packaged up quickly and into the freezer but we did have a Nanaimo bar for lunch. On our drive we saw a large "V" of Canada geese - and they were flying north - they must have our same weather lady who said winter is over! I missed some birthdays, I know, so I wish all the birthday girls many happy returns, even if belatedly. I made the roasted cauliflower and broccoli the other day, it was really good. I added some onion chunks and sweet potato slices (butternut squash chunks would have been good), and I had a piece of pork tenderloin which I seared first on the stove and then added to the vegetable pan for the last 20 minutes, which was when I stirred up the veg and put the crumb topping on them, and it was all delicious, I thought. Pat didn't say anything.... but he ate it. Good use of a beer can - a gift from one of the bartenders on a bhb.

We got quite a lot of snow here, for Victoria a lot anyway!, about 4 inches. The weather lady says now there is not much chance for any more as it's an El Nino year. Winter is over!! (Famous last words.)

Good morning, Dailyites, I'm here fairly early because I didn't go to exercise; there's still a little snow on the ground, and I didn't go out all last week, so I'm out of shape and I don't think I could get up off the floor. I will practice today and hope to go to exercise on Wednesday. What a nuisance it is, getting old.. I've been reading with interest the information about who does the bookkeeping in the household, and I have to say, I need to know more from Pat. I used to share the banking duties while he was travelling a lot, but haven't kept up for years now, and he does everything on line. With this heart thing he has, I think I need at least a list of logins and passwords, etc! It has always been the plan that I would "go" first, his family was all long-lived, and no one I know in my family has made it to 90! But now... Anyway, to travel - we have been to Ushuaia twice, the first time for a few days before our Antarctic "expedition" on Quark, DD was with us and as she wanted to add Argentina to her driving log, we rented a car, and she drove us all over the place. The scenery is very impressive! Of course the number one spot to visit is the National Park, we saw so many birds! I will post some pictures, sorry, I can't remember all their names. The second time we were on Zaandam and we went ashore with CC friends and Pat found us a taxi. Our friend wanted wool, we had shopped with her in Montevideo and Stanley, and our taxi driver in Ushuaia said his abuelita (little grandmother) also used the "palillos" (little sticks) and he knew where she bought wool. He took us to a shop way off in the boonies that had wool from floor to ceiling on every wall and piled in the middle. He warned our friend not to say the prices were good, as then they would put them up. She came away from the cruise with bags of wool; fortunately they had packed a large duffel bag for the purpose! We also went to the park, but didn't see so many birds this time. We did go to the End of the World postoffice. Amazing scenery Guanaco In the park, Chile in the distance. Magellanic woodpecker - they are huge! Love birds... Plover The second time we went to the park this is all we saw - Best wishes to Bruno, @atexsix, on his care for his DD, I remember the hospice coming in for my mother; as much as it is a great help in keeping the person comfortable, it means more people in the house, and more confusion; I will remember you both in my prayers.

Or use airdrop, I guess… I only mentioned it because my Fitbit had a really hard time changing time! It couldn’t sync, either.

The only other thing I have to say , with one account and two devices(actually we usually have one account, 4 devices) is that the Navigator app on all the devices has to be set in the name of the person buying the internet. Then it is easy for any device to “bump” any other device that is using it. Another thing is that as two devices cannot be on the internet at the same time, they can’t sync, so a photo on your phone won’t show up on your iPad until you get home!

Good morning all (only just morning - 15 minutes to go). Sorry to hear about your DH, @ger_77, mine needs a new valve, too, but it's for aortic stenosis. We'll see what the cardiologist says next week. I'm hoping recovery will be quick, we have a cruise booked in October, but it's just as well we cancelled our spring cruise. I'm worried he won't be allowed to fly, or drive... Debbie, Happy Birthday to your DB! Surprise him... Still very white here, but it is raining and the white stuff is slowly disappearing. The reservoir is up to 89%, hope we reach 100% before the end of the month. As the population grows, we use more and more water. Prayers going out for everybody!

Good morning, Dailyites, or Good Afternoon, depending on where you are, or even Good Night, Colin and Graham! (Glad you got your internet back!) My arm is sore this morning from the RSV vaccination, and I had a really bad night, very achy and uncomfortable, but I don't know if it was from the RSV or the change in weather, because that four-letter word has appeared - SNOW! We have about 3 inches of it now and we are threatened with 8", though if the temperature goes up, it will change to rain and then probably freeze tonight. Shades of when we lived in Virginia! Of course the doctor phoned this morning to cancel my "bump removal" today - moved to February 14. Probably snow that day, too, if my luck holds.. We have been to Edinburgh a few times, but not by sea, and it was pre-digital, so I would have to hunt through old photograph albums to find pictures. Chicken stew sounds warming, but we had chicken last night, and I had originally told Pat he would have to cook tonight if I had both hands cut up, so now I will have to re-think it. I hope Chuck's recovery goes smoothly, and all the other Dailyites stay well, or get better.