In/Out Board

[oggbashan]

You sure do get a lot of holidays, Og! Have a blast!

I'm old enough to have retired, from three consecutive careers.

This holiday is through a UK Red-Top newspaper, The Sun, that offers hundreds of thousands of cheap caravan holidays throughout the UK and Europe by collecting coupons from the paper. The cost of the newspapers to get enough coupons is about three pounds (say five dollars). The holidays are less than 10 pounds per head, assuming a group of 4 people. Since we are two, the usual price is less than 40 pounds.

So far, through The Sun newspaper we have been to Paris (twice), Normandy (twice), The Netherlands, Sussex (three times), South Wales (twice), Suffolk (twice) and this will be our second visit to Essex.

Each time we have been to France, whether to Paris or Normandy, the cost of fuel for the car together with the toll road fees have totalled more than the cost of accommodation.

If I had booked this week's holiday any other way, even through a late-booking site, I would have paid two or three times the price to rent the caravan. Because we have to pay for a minimum party of four, we get a caravan to accommodate four or more and can spread ourselves.

 

[Shagly]

I'm old enough to have retired, from three consecutive careers.

This holiday is through a UK Red-Top newspaper, The Sun, that offers hundreds of thousands of cheap caravan holidays throughout the UK and Europe by collecting coupons from the paper. The cost of the newspapers to get enough coupons is about three pounds (say five dollars). The holidays are less than 10 pounds per head, assuming a group of 4 people. Since we are two, the usual price is less than 40 pounds.

So far, through The Sun newspaper we have been to Paris (twice), Normandy (twice), The Netherlands, Sussex (three times), South Wales (twice), Suffolk (twice) and this will be our second visit to Essex.

Each time we have been to France, whether to Paris or Normandy, the cost of fuel for the car together with the toll road fees have totalled more than the cost of accommodation.

If I had booked this week's holiday any other way, even through a late-booking site, I would have paid two or three times the price to rent the caravan. Because we have to pay for a minimum party of four, we get a caravan to accommodate four or more and can spread ourselves.

But does it include Scotland?

Some of my clan is still in the Highlands.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Some of my clan still fights over land with swords and hammers!

 

[oggbashan]

But does it include Scotland?

Some of my clan is still in the Highlands.

They do offer holidays in Scotland but the hassle of getting to Scotland from the SE extremity of England is a deterrent. Our local airport is now offering flights to Edinburgh and maybe we'll go there next year, but I'm not enduring the stress of Gatwick or Heathrow to get to Scotland.

With Eurostar trains through the Channel Tunnel I drive to my nearest Eurostar station, park, board the train, and be in central Paris before I have driven to Gatwick, parked, booked in and been loaded on a plane for Edinburgh (or Paris).

 

[YoursSINSerely]

I'm old enough to have retired, from three consecutive careers.

This holiday is through a UK Red-Top newspaper, The Sun, that offers hundreds of thousands of cheap caravan holidays throughout the UK and Europe by collecting coupons from the paper. The cost of the newspapers to get enough coupons is about three pounds (say five dollars). The holidays are less than 10 pounds per head, assuming a group of 4 people. Since we are two, the usual price is less than 40 pounds.

So far, through The Sun newspaper we have been to Paris (twice), Normandy (twice), The Netherlands, Sussex (three times), South Wales (twice), Suffolk (twice) and this will be our second visit to Essex.

Each time we have been to France, whether to Paris or Normandy, the cost of fuel for the car together with the toll road fees have totalled more than the cost of accommodation.

If I had booked this week's holiday any other way, even through a late-booking site, I would have paid two or three times the price to rent the caravan. Because we have to pay for a minimum party of four, we get a caravan to accommodate four or more and can spread ourselves.

Have a WONDERFUL time! See you when you get back.

 

[oggbashan]

Have a WONDERFUL time! See you when you get back.

I'm back, but shattered.

The cold I went away with turned into a running temperature and a cough that wouldn't go away, and was worse when I was laying down. Not good for sleeping.

The caravan was OK, not one of the best we've had, but a long way from the worst - but it was positioned under a large Oak tree that was carrying a heavy crop of acorns. Until the first night. Then the wind blew and acorns showered down on the caravan, all night long. The acorns would bang on the metal roof and then roll down the camber towards the rain gutter, dislodging other acorns on the way.

During the first night several hundred acorns hit the roof. There were less on subsequent nights because the wind had dropped, but when we left half the acorns were still on the tree and the forecast is for high winds this weekend.

I'm glad I'm not in that caravan tomorrow night...

 

[SweetWitch]

I'm back, but shattered.

The cold I went away with turned into a running temperature and a cough that wouldn't go away, and was worse when I was laying down. Not good for sleeping.

The caravan was OK, not one of the best we've had, but a long way from the worst - but it was positioned under a large Oak tree that was carrying a heavy crop of acorns. Until the first night. Then the wind blew and acorns showered down on the caravan, all night long. The acorns would bang on the metal roof and then roll down the camber towards the rain gutter, dislodging other acorns on the way.

During the first night several hundred acorns hit the roof. There were less on subsequent nights because the wind had dropped, but when we left half the acorns were still on the tree and the forecast is for high winds this weekend.

I'm glad I'm not in that caravan tomorrow night...

It's the curse of the acorn cough. Rest and recuperate.

 

[trysail]

In less than thirty-six hours, I'll be in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.


I shan't return ( for a bit ).

 

[voluptuary_manque]

In less than thirty-six hours, I'll be in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.


I shan't return ( for a bit ).

Watch out for aliens . . . or, more problematical, tabloids!

 

[trysail]

Watch out for aliens . . . or, more problematical, tabloids!

Wise words, VM.


It is alien abduction that most concerns me ( oh, and the occasional 300,000 DWT ULCC tanker in the middle of the night ).

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Tomorrow I fly out to Vegas. I will be back on Tuesday (just in case I forget to post tomorrow morning).

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Hammer those cards, Thee.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm off to London for the weekend.

See you all on Monday.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm off to London for the weekend.

See you all on Monday.

Repeated. My youngest daughter is taking my wife to the theatre.

I'm going on a pub crawl with my eldest daughter.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm back after a cultural weekend in London: Science Museum, Museum of London and National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

I also saw more than I wanted to of Seven Dials in Soho while waiting for my daughter to arrive. My wife had gone into the theatre early. I walked around the Seven Dials area until my daughter was due to arrive. Then I stood by the Seven Dials Monument for 40 minutes because she had been delayed by a major traffic incident.

By the time she arrived the pub crawl turned into yet another walk around Seven Dials looking for food, a couple of drinks and then collecting my wife from the theatre...

Seven Dials isn't like it was in the 1960s - more money, more upmarket shops and less music.

 

[trysail]

I'm back after a cultural weekend in London: Science Museum, Museum of London and National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

I also saw more than I wanted to of Seven Dials in Soho while waiting for my daughter to arrive. My wife had gone into the theatre early. I walked around the Seven Dials area until my daughter was due to arrive. Then I stood by the Seven Dials Monument for 40 minutes because she had been delayed by a major traffic incident.

By the time she arrived the pub crawl turned into yet another walk around Seven Dials looking for food, a couple of drinks and then collecting my wife from the theatre...

Seven Dials isn't like it was in the 1960s - more money, more upmarket shops and less music.

I could enter the Maritime Museum at Greenwich and not re-emerge for days. I've spent entire days in there.

It's nice to see that the Cutty Sark restoration is nearing completion. The web site says she'll be reopened to the public in the spring of this year.

 

[oggbashan]

I could enter the Maritime Museum at Greenwich and not re-emerge for days. I've spent entire days in there.

It's nice to see that the Cutty Sark restoration is nearing completion. The web site says she'll be reopened to the public in the spring of this year.

We went to see the small Arctic Convoy exhibition. My mother in law worked in the Ministry of War Transport helping to organise the convoys to Russia. She didn't like talking about it because so many of the ship's officers she met were killed.

She was also involved with trans-Atlantic convoys but the attrition rate was not as high.

We would have liked to go to the opening when many veterans of the convoys were present, but other events got in the way.

PS: As I was driving around looking for a parking space I saw that the Cutty Sark's masts had been erected. It looks more like a ship now.

 

[oggbashan]

Nelson's Uniform

The Maritime Museum at Greenwich has on display the uniform that Admiral Nelson was wearing at Trafalgar when he was killed.

Next to the uniform is an interactive display explaining the damage to the uniform and the blood stains that are still visible. Most of the blood on his stockings wasn't Nelson's but that of another officer who had been killed earlier. Nelson fell on the bloody deck.

They also have the actual bullet that was removed by the Victory's surgeon.

 

[trysail]

Gone sailing.​

Courtesy flags to be hoisted on the flag halyard to the lower starboard spreader:

http://www.doyleguides.com/files/FLAGstv.JPG http://www.doyleguides.com/files/Gdaflag.jpg http://www.doyleguides.com/files/FLAGSslu.jpg
http://www.doyleguides.com/images/domini28.jpg http://www.doyleguides.com/images/Sabaflag.jpg http://www.doyleguides.com/images/statia2.jpg
http://www.doyleguides.com/images/guadflag.jpg


​

 

[trysail]

Back. Beat up. Howling tradewinds and 45 blinding, rainy knots of squall made life "interesting" amidst pleasant and diverse anchorages that ranged from depressing, grinding, third world to tropic idyll.


It is difficult to see places where the prospects for life after age 13(?) consist of endless boredom with no hope of improvement. Why would one be surprised by drug-addled, listless vacant stares? I don't recall having ever been explicitly solicited for sex; a woman offered herself to me for the U.S. equivalent of $0.75.

 

[oggbashan]

...

I don't recall having ever been explicitly solicited for sex; a woman offered herself to me for the U.S. equivalent of $0.75.

Did you accept? Or just give her the $0.75 for trying?

 

[trysail]

Did you accept? Or just give her the $0.75 for trying?

*chuckling* Are you kidding? It was quite clear that our "friend" was abusing "controlled substances." All I wanted to do was quietly vamoose without creating any trouble; it was a very third worldy place.

 

[oggbashan]

I remember those third worldy places.

Whenever I was ashore I'd leave anything I wasn't prepared to lose - on board, in the Purser's safe.

There was no secure place to carry valuables on your person - if you wanted to retrieve them in public.

 

[trysail]

I remember those third worldy places.

Whenever I was ashore I'd leave anything I wasn't prepared to lose - on board, in the Purser's safe.

There was no secure place to carry valuables on your person - if you wanted to retrieve them in public.

This one may have "cured" me. Between getting beat up by Mother Nature and seeing stuff I'd just as soon not see, this one might have been the last one. Sometimes we go to sea to remind ourselves not to go to sea.


The deck should stop moving any day now.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

This one may have "cured" me. Between getting beat up by Mother Nature and seeing stuff I'd just as soon not see, this one might have been the last one. Sometimes we go to sea to remind ourselves not to go to sea.


The deck should stop moving any day now.

When the deck stops moving is when it's time to go to sea once more.