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.......idle jottings continued


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But it is okay to besmirch yours truly with unwarranted allegations that he inhales smoke from those funny plants in his greenhouses? Medical treatments I might (or might not) engage in are extremely personal and should not be a subject of public discourse.

 

And while I am writing, let me thank you for the hospitality you showed Ernest when he arrived to pick up the package of sofa gleanings. I'm sorry if he depleted your Slivovitz stock. But I hope he explained the incident with the chambermaid and the lobster.

 

Haha

Comletely un-founded alkegations and wholly un-true but Hum drops a hint towards spurious recreational accompaniments just to see whether you are still with us !

It seems you are.

Ernest was very interesting indeed and Hum can never look at a lobster in the same way ever again !

 

Blondie and Hum send our love to you and dearest Zimmy.

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Haha

Comletely un-founded alkegations and wholly un-true but Hum drops a hint towards spurious recreational accompaniments just to see whether you are still with us !

It seems you are.

Ernest was very interesting indeed and Hum can never look at a lobster in the same way ever again !

 

Blondie and Hum send our love to you and dearest Zimmy.

 

Oh, yes, I am always here, but I wait until I have something really significant to say before I respond. Of course, if everyone did that we would still be on page 3 of IJ vol 1.

 

The chambermaid won't look at a lobster again, either, at least not without melted butter.

 

Zimmy and I miss you, too. We will be on SD1 right after New Year's. Maybe we will run into you in Barbados?

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"Now, how is the knee ?"

 

Thank you for asking. The knee will heal eventually. But the soul, my God man, the soul! It has been fully exposed to the baleful glare of reality for over two weeks now, with no balm or succor permitted. And there is another two full weeks to go, desiccating under the cruel light.... No hoppy haven in sight, no soothing, cool cellar within grasp.

 

But we CC'ers are made of stern stuff, so I will bear it as stoically as possible from here forward. Will only wail like newborn in private :D

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"Now, how is the knee ?"

 

Thank you for asking. The knee will heal eventually. But the soul, my God man, the soul! It has been fully exposed to the baleful glare of reality for over two weeks now, with no balm or succor permitted. And there is another two full weeks to go, desiccating under the cruel light.... No hoppy haven in sight, no soothing, cool cellar within grasp.

 

But we CC'ers are made of stern stuff, so I will bear it as stoically as possible from here forward. Will only wail like newborn in private :D

 

Are they really serious about that absolutely no beer stuff or is it like Italian stop signs: "merely a suggestion".:eek::D

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Serious. Getting heavy duty IV antibiotics every day :(

 

Plus getting off morphine as quick as is safe. Stuff works well on pain but has some bad side effects. By the way, having the nerves in your knee chomped on by vicious bacteria hurts more than you can, thankfully, imagine :mad:

 

Jimbo, you need to come up with a high alcohol tequila, good for both sterilizing arthroscopes and getting a surgeon all the way through a procedure, without having to take a nip from his flask (hidden in his skivy shorts) :eek: There'd be a lot fewer staph infections in the world if you do... You might get the Nobel for medicine!

 

 

(PS - am kidding, mostly, about docs and medical equipment, since a root cause for the infection has not yet been determined. S. Aurelius (sp.?) is supposedly found on some peoples' skin, etc. Once I'm up and around, I'm pretty determined to discover what happened. As I would not wish this experience on my worst enemy... With this as a possible outcome, "minor arthroscopic surgery" should be struck from the medical vocabulary.)

Edited by Ragnar Danneskjold
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Hey Hum - that cheeky Drib gave you a mention in his latest Dribnuts cartoon on the antics on the Bravo TV series Below Deck - check it out over @ http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51078156&postcount=59

 

or a080_below_deck.jpg

 

Although he may decide to change the content at any moment as he is apt to do....

Edited by Bodogbodog
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Serious. Getting heavy duty IV antibiotics every day :(

 

Plus getting off morphine as quick as is safe. Stuff works well on pain but has some bad side effects. By the way, having the nerves in your knee chomped on by vicious bacteria hurts more than you can, thankfully, imagine :mad:

 

Jimbo, you need to come up with a high alcohol tequila, good for both sterilizing arthroscopes and getting a surgeon all the way through a procedure, without having to take a nip from his flask (hidden in his skivy shorts) :eek: There'd be a lot fewer staph infections in the world if you do... You might get the Nobel for medicine!

 

 

(PS - am kidding, mostly, about docs and medical equipment, since a root cause for the infection has not yet been determined. S. Aurelius (sp.?) is supposedly found on some peoples' skin, etc. Once I'm up and around, I'm pretty determined to discover what happened. As I would not wish this experience on my worst enemy... With this as a possible outcome, "minor arthroscopic surgery" should be struck from the medical vocabulary.)

 

You describe your condition in more realiistic terms and very sobering reading it makes too.

We wish you well and quickly.

Are you laid up or can you hobble about ?

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Oh, yes, I am always here, but I wait until I have something really significant to say before I respond. Of course, if everyone did that we would still be on page 3 of IJ vol 1.

 

The chambermaid won't look at a lobster again, either, at least not without melted butter.

 

Zimmy and I miss you, too. We will be on SD1 right after New Year's. Maybe we will run into you in Barbados?

 

Look TrapperZ, if Hum waited around for something vaguely intelligent to post.......well, well, there would'nt be an "idle jottings" and that goes for Jim too (especially Jim these days...."arf, arf, arf" !).

 

Heck TrapperZ, you are even swopping ships these days to avoid Hum !

You know Hum is banned on SDI after that incident with a crustacean and Head of Housekeeping !

 

No meet ups in Barbados unfortunately.

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Hey Hum - that cheeky Drib gave you a mention in his latest Dribnuts cartoon on the antics on the Bravo TV series Below Deck - check it out over @ http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51078156&postcount=59

 

or a080_below_deck.jpg

 

Although he may decide to change the content at any moment as he is apt to do....

 

Well it's so nice to hear from you old chum !

G'day !

 

Oh yes Hum remembers that programme "Below Decks".

It was referred to before and assumed to be similar to SD !

Which of course it is'nt !

 

Dribnuts is a genius.

Kindly pass on Hum's thanks to him and Keith.

Hum cannot find the specific post with which to do so himself.

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Well last night, the mini-drought and humidity suddenly ended in "Poshland" as it began raining in "dollops" !

Gentle "dollops", the sound of which is akin to the noises emanating as the contents from the back end of cows fall onto a farmyards concrete hardstanding.

Splat !

Splat !

It was welcomed and sounded beautiful.

Hum's patchwork of sandy brown and green lawns were glad to feel the water penetrate through the dry thatch and into the soil beneath.

And the smell was divine.

We went to bed with windows open and lay in the darkness, silently, listening to the rain fall and gurgle along cast-iron gutters before falling into downpipes from where they discharged the excited water rush into clay gullies protected with grilles which was the local meet point for the garden snails.

Water at last they shouted !

As they danced about in gay abandon.

Hum imagines.

Hum has a vivid imagination.

 

Next morning.

Last minute packing.

Securing the Manor.

Instructions to staff.

And paying a bill.

Driver arrives.

And we are off.

 

Arrive at London Heathrow.

Greeted by our posh travel agents and whisked through whatever we are supposed to be whisked through: lots of uniforms and silly questions was all Hum noticed.

"Pack the bag yourself, sir ?"

No, Jeeves does all Hum's packing.

"And who is Jeeves, sir" ?

The ruddy butler, woman.

Detector goes off as Hum forgets he has a belt on.

Frisked very intimately.

It's been quite a while.

And as we are collecting stuff of the conveyor belt following x-ray examination, an excitable young man says to Blondie "its you, its you off the telly on that travel show, I loved it, loved it"!

A very pleasant young man who says he has started up a high end, bespoke company for the LGBT traveller.

And before Hum begins to explain he is not transgender and submits that the cross-dressing thing was all a mis-understanding.

He gives Blondie his card and asks her to email him: he wants to pick her brains.

Her brains ?

What about Hum's brains ?

Obviously he must have thought Hum was too important.

We would be delighted.

What a nice chap.

 

Enjoyed two delicious croissants in the BA Club Lounge but sadly no bacon rolls !

Is this to appease the hundreds of Muslims that work at the airports AND whom do a fantastic job.

 

Boarded, delayed, so replied to an email from Commander Courageous and then off.

The meal onboard was first class.

Possibly the best meal Hum has ever had on a plan.

OK, the tray was tiny but the food was divine.

Divine.

Pork belly and a chocolate tart and Stilton !

All ingredients were such a high standard.

Michelin ? Yes !

Pork belly: this would have been prepared by Muslims.

People's faiths are not respected by Hum in the least even so social integration is respected and Hum congratulates the Muslim community.

 

Athens airport is brilliant. Clean, tidy and well signposted.

We wait an age for one bag meanwhile Blondie is "gabbing away" with an English couple who will also be joining the ship tomorrow.

A very nice couple too (better say that just in case they read this awful drivel).

We are collected by a ruddy nice chap who whisks us to the port.

Blondie enquires whether the limousine was not available as we are being transported in a six person people carrier !

But the A/C is blowing out divine cold air and tee driver is wonderful.

We only have to travel for 40 minutes, so we remain silent.

Maybe a word with our posh TA on our return.

The hotel is very nice, clean and the staff are wonderful.

It is a basic hotel but has all we need.

 

A very pleasant evening and to bed and sleep and awake looking out onto a lovely morning in the port of psoriasis, sorry Hum means Piraeus which is Greek for "Pirate Town".

Photo of magical vista below.

The huge ugly building to the right perplexed us.

Was it being built, being demolished, being vandalised or was this the "urban realism" the heroin addicted architect whose wife and family had all left him and he was living in a crack den with his mongrel dog Demetrius, was this the look he envisioned ?

It was darn ugly.

Black bits flapping from the sides.

Yet the soft, orange hue sunshine was truly beautiful.

Hum would like to share it with you and brighten up your lives of quiet desperation and hopelessness, not forgetting Raggy who is also in excruciating pain becoming slowly addicted to morphine.

 

Hum picked up one of those US papers (The Wall Street Journal) in the UK airport to check out the shocking claim by a very, very dear SD chum that ALL the supposedly highly respected American papers were completely slanted against one of the candidates in the forthcoming US presidential elections.

Could this really be possible that these noble papers had descended to being bought by one of the other Presidential nominees ?

Hum was shocked.

Hum loves American news reporting and is always quite impressed though Hum fell out with the New Yorker a while back (no, cant remember).

So Hum scoured the paper to discover this alleged bias but unfortunately or fortunately it was not in the paper, well not for that day anyhoo.

 

But dear chums, what WAS in the paper and what may be of interest to you is that the port of Piraeus has been sold (51%) to the Chinese !!

Hum could'nt ruddy believe it.

This one success in the whole of Greece but which is in need of investment had been SOLD !

And there was Hum bleating on how useless the Greek government was.

They have finally done something and are beginning to invigorate their economy.

Will the feckless, over indulged "work force" (forgive Hum for laughing un-controllably) actually respond ?

They are heavily unionised after all which in plain language means they are all ruddy idle buzzards !

 

Great first steps people of Grease.

They (the Chinese) have also invested in a coal fired power station in the north of the country too.

Great for employment, bad for the planet.

 

The darn Chinese are buying up the infrastructures EVERYWHERE in the world.

Every square inch of Australia is owned by the Chinese.

The Brits have just given up nuclear energy production to the Chinese in the world's biggest agreement by another country.

 

The song "Turning Japanese" was wrong.

We are turning Chinese.

China will soon own the planet.

Old Mao-tse-tung would be turning in his mausoleum !

 

Is this right ?

No, of course it is'nt.

Weak leadership.

But for Greece......they really have no option.

 

The news was reported on Greek television.

Yes of course Hum speaks Greek.

The Chinese chairman of the company, a Mr. Ho Li Fuk, spoke about the future and re-assured the news reporters that the cheap operation would be completely safe and introduced the Head of Safety, Mr. Sum Ting Wong who spoke at length offering re-assurances.

 

Sorry no photo

Edited by ho-hum
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Great intro to trip! Do you have a pic you can share of Piraeus over the stern as you are speeding away? We really enjoyed sipping wine on the aft area of Odessey as she sped out of Piraeus. Keep up the detailed travelogue!

 

(Off morphine now, only Tylenol until the end of the month, then I can have a real "Painkiller" :p)

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Great intro to trip! Do you have a pic you can share of Piraeus over the stern as you are speeding away? We really enjoyed sipping wine on the aft area of Odessey as she sped out of Piraeus. Keep up the detailed travelogue!

 

(Off morphine now, only Tylenol until the end of the month, then I can have a real "Painkiller" :p)

 

Sorry mate, we left Piraeus yesterday.

Passed thro' the Corinth Canal last night.

Stopped off in Itea from where 40 guests went to Delphi.

Just come down from the TOYB where there are 40 bopping away and some crew have been dragged in to the dance too.

A wild crowd, barman in overdrive, music pumping and guests having a lot of fun.

A beautiful warm evening.

Full moon last night.

 

Photo of Itea

Apologies chums, the photo aint great is it.

For some reason the usual larger photos are not working.

image.jpg.ab8f77af15816b65b6a1c4847db9e5fa.jpg

Edited by ho-hum
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Sorry mate, we left Piraeus yesterday.

Passed thro' the Corinth Canal last night.

Stopped off in Itea from where 40 guests went to Delphi.

Just come down from the TOYB where there are 40 bopping away and some crew have been dragged in to the dance too.

A wild crowd, barman in overdrive, music pumping and guests having a lot of fun.

A beautiful warm evening.

Full moon last night.

 

Photo of Itea

Apologies chums, the photo aint great is it.

For some reason the usual larger photos are not working.

 

Excellent travelogue Ho Hum. Enjoying it immensely and it's only just begun. What fun. Very safe travels

Cheers, Millie

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Well Hum said he just wanted a quiet voyage.......just chill out.

And wouldn't there be a bit of a subdued feeling anyway what with the events on SDI ?

 

But even before we raced up the ramp to the ship there was much excitement outside with the guests milling around the Port entrance building where chums were meeting up with other chums.

Windstar was boarding too but the commotion the SD guests were making overwhelmed the passengers heading to Windstar.

Wasn't too sure whether the Windstar guests were feeling relief or envy as they glanced over at us.

We chatted, laughed and introduced ourselves to one another through security with the Greek officials joining in too.

The raucous trail spilled out of the building and surged towards SD's security guy who also hugged guests (well those he knew well) and then up the ramp onto a very crowded deck where there the earlier formal line of ship crew beginning with the Captain had soon dissolved into a scrum and all formality, order and dignity had completely broken down and it resembled a crowd of football supporters on their way to the match. !

Champagne glasses were grabbed along the way and damp brows mopped with cold blue flannels as more frenzied hugging of any crew member in the line of sight ensued. The Thai spa girls who always look demure and bow were also caught up in this excited tidal wave of guests as the "herd" diverted between deck and Main Salon and a few smart old timers headed off to the Main Reception to get processed before the rest (Hum decides to split along this route: the quieter of the three).

 

Into the Main Reception and over to the line of Filipino lady housekeepers dressed in black skirts and white blouses for hugs and group hugs amidst much giggling, then over to be "processed", documents to sign, a new lengthy waiver of responsibility for just about every eventuality onboard, credit card for registering, passport handed over, stupid photo taken and more hugging and kissing with Spa manager, Casino manager, Hairdresser, Shop manager, head of Housekeeping, Activities assistant, Concierge ladies !

Boy a guy feels great when smart, attractive ladies greet you in this way !

It never happens to Hum before so Hum is going to take every advantage.

Of course Hum adores them all and is most respectful but what a welcome !

A new Philippine housekeeper escorts Hum to his cabin and Hum frantically unpacks, showers and changes into relaxed attire and climbs the stairs to the TOYB.

FISRT one there !

Hug the barman and begin the session with a vodka based "Bloody Mary".

Aaaahhhhh.

Seconds later another but with gin.

Gaggles of never seen before passengers emerge up the stairs and Hum introduces himself as bar stools are quickly occupied.

It is a youngish crowd and the older passengers are young at heart.

Hum introduces those that arrived to others arriving as if he were back at the Mansion.

Yes terribly bossy of Hum but at least the party is beginning to gather apace.

The struggling barman calls for reinforcement and as the additional barman arrives in disbelief at the numbers and noise we are making, he too is greeted with hugs and is pushed towards the bar to serve this raucous, excited mob !

 

We finally break for "muster drill" and Hum must say everybody takes it very seriously.

 

And then we are back up the TOYB.

Yes with life jackets still on !

Bashing into one another like dodgems.

Most are completely pickled by now.

Hum, not thinking he is too pickled begins ramping up the sociability with extremely cheeky comments.

The bar is attempted to be closed but the mob insist on one or two drinks beforehand !

The bar guys concede to fresh cheers.

And then we must leave.

We have ALL missed the Club Director's "blah-blah" of where we are going (he comes up to Hum later and exclaims only 10 people turned up for the talk ! He is utterly amazed. There must have been nigh on 50 at the TOYB, that's why Hum tells him. He is still perplexed).

 

Hum and many others miss the talk before dinner too.

 

After dinner we are back up the TOYB and the festivities continue into the early hours...

image.jpg.367db4abb1362b4fbb8c4d890fa6c694.jpg

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Sounds as if ho-hum mistakenly boarded the Gargantuan of the Sea. So many people crowded around the bar that you have to elbow your way in to get a drink, and it takes so long that you miss the Cruise Director's announcements about bingo and the art auction. And then they run out of vodka and you have to get your Bloody Mary with gin. What gives with that? And all those crew members who reach into your back pocket while you think they are hugging you.

 

I'm sorry. I'll stick to SeaDream, where the waiters know what I drink (seltzer and lime) and bring it to me wherever I happen to be sitting.

 

And by the way, h-h, we are not abandoning you to sail on SD1. That is our mother ship. The two sailings we did with you were the only times we were on SD2. But we do miss you (and especially Blondie) who made those trips such a delight. Here is to SD1's quick return to sea.

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A good start to your voyage, you old Ho.... Ti baci

 

Hum has a special and exclusive treat for you and the boys from Amsterdam!

So glad to hear from you dearest of dears.

Hum wishes he bought that urn.

We have finally assembled the champagne stand we bought whilst we were on our glorious travels with you !

Very happy memories.

 

There are quite a few Canadians onboard from Toronto of all places (of Italian, German, Welsh and Dutch stock......utterly charming people......as always)......bacio ritornio

Edited by ho-hum
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Sounds as if ho-hum mistakenly boarded the Gargantuan of the Sea. So many people crowded around the bar that you have to elbow your way in to get a drink, and it takes so long that you miss the Cruise Director's announcements about bingo and the art auction. And then they run out of vodka and you have to get your Bloody Mary with gin. What gives with that? And all those crew members who reach into your back pocket while you think they are hugging you.

 

I'm sorry. I'll stick to SeaDream, where the waiters know what I drink (seltzer and lime) and bring it to me wherever I happen to be sitting.

 

And by the way, h-h, we are not abandoning you to sail on SD1. That is our mother ship. The two sailings we did with you were the only times we were on SD2. But we do miss you (and especially Blondie) who made those trips such a delight. Here is to SD1's quick return to sea.

 

Yabba, yabba, yabba .......... the crew are all back onboard SDI waiting for a silly part.

"Missing Blondie especially" comment was grievously pointed dear chum but Hum will survive......somehow.......Hum knows not how.

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