Washington Post

(Warning – photo overload, please be patient as the page may take a while to load!)

Not the newspaper but my version! Well, we’re back after a fantastic week in the capital city of Washington DC. Boy was it cold! For the most part we had lovely sunny days and blue skies but they were accompanied by a biting cold north wind, the weather stats said an average of 16 degrees c (61 f) but it didn’t get above 6 c the whole time we were there – we even had snow on Sunday morning!

After a flight punctuated by a screaming 2 year old (nothing to do with the flight she just kept shrieking from the minute she got on the plane!) we arrived at Dulles International airport to grey skies and sleet, a shuttle bus took us to the hotel which took about an hour. Let me say right now that we booked this holiday as part of a package, there is no way on earth we could have afforded to stay at The Fairmont Hotel otherwise – the card in the room gave the room rate at $900 dollars per night!! It was a gorgeous hotel though, well placed for everything and luxury I would normally only dream of – right down to the white fluffy bath robes they provided.

So what did we do? Well, John obviously had some geo caching planned – I think we he managed 23 in the end, all of which were ‘virtual’ apart from one. The virtual meaning that you had to answer questions or upload a photo to prove you’d been there. I don’t think I have ever walked so much in my life! Despite taking the Metro to get us nearer to the attractions we trekked from cache to cache whilst taking the sites in at the same time.

It was good to see places for real rather than just on the TV and here are some of the places we saw – I won’t give you a day by day account but the photos tell the story themselves! It’s Cherry Blossom time in DC at the moment which is something of a festival for them so a lot of the photos include the blossoms, there were also some beautiful magnolia trees in bloom.

The first cache! (don’t worry – I’m not going to show you all of them!)

Taken through the railings at the back of the White House!

Through railings at the front of The White House

The Capitol

Looking along The Mall from The Capitol

Not very clear but John F Kennedy grave – Jackie Kennedy-Onassis is next to him (Arlington Cemetery)

Grave stones as far as the eye can see at Arlington Cemetery – a very tranquil place

Abraham Lincoln statue at The Lincoln Memorial

I took loads of Cherry Blossom photos but this is my favourite!

The Washington Memorial – you can see just how windy it was!

Einstein – no idea who the children are!! Another of John’s cache answers!

I’ll leave there I think – I took over a hundred photos, a lot of them very similar but I think I’ve picked out the best ones to share.

If any of you get the chance to go to Washington DC I strongly recommend it. It’s a very clean place, everybody is very friendly and, as John so eloquently put it, there’s a lot of history for such a ‘young’ country!

Pre–Washington Post

Excuse my feeble attempt at humour with the title of this post – I’m tired and borderline really crabby!

Not much to tell this week, nothing overly creative – a quarter of the last quilt is now bound and I just need to finish the hand stitching on the back but the big news is that we’re off on holiday tomorrow! Yes – I know it’s only been a few months since the last one but that’s the reason I go to work, so that I have holidays to look forward to! This time we’re going to Washington DC, for no reason other than I just fancied going somewhere different. John has a pile of geo-caching lined up, most of which are virtual meaning I will have to go with him to take a photo to prove he was there and found it! On a serious note though I am looking forward to seeing the sights that I’ve only seen before on TV.

So tonight we were supposed to be having a family meal, just us and the boys ‘cos FDIL is away during the week at the moment. The best laid plans though mean that Son 2 can’t join us because he has picked up a stomach bug, I sent Son 1 round with Imodium and he reported back that he looks really rough, poor boy . Anyway moving on, my mobile went a short while ago – it was FDIL, she often phones just for a chat which is always nice but tonight she phoned to say that she was coming home unexpectedly and could she come round as well – but don’t tell Son 1  ‘cos she wants to surprise him! Ain’t love grand!!

Meanwhile I’m starving and need to wait until later for dinner – we’re going to get a Chinese – otherwise Son 1 will wonder why I’m leaving food…….

I’m off now then, need to start thinking about what I’m going to pack – yeah, yeah I know last minute and all that but that’s how I roll. I may post while I’m away as John has agreed( ) that I can take lappy with me – only so that he can log his caches of course!

Welcome to 2011!

Happy New Year everybody! It seems that this years ‘thing’ is to have a photo montage of the past 12 months – I tried to choose one photo per month but found that was difficult as some months I’d taken more than others but here is my contribution – in no particular order!

2010 was a good year, we had three great holidays, I completed loads of crochet projects and I learnt to quilt – mostly self taught and through books but also with help from Nicola both remotely and in person! I haven’t blogged as much this year but I’m getting the impression that this is a natural progression from newbie blogger to feeling more comfortable with only the occasional update. 2010 also saw us become empty nesters as both boys left home which has taken some getting used to – as Son 2 has so recently left it’s something we’re still learning to cope with! In my mind I have a post prepared about what I miss about him – I’ll try to commit it to the keyboard in the next day or so!

Today we’re off to friends for our belated Christmas/New Year celebrations – before I go I just need to finish quilting my latest project so I can show them!

Here’s to another great year in Blogland – hope it’s a good one for all of you!

A holiday update!

At last I hear you all say – well I hope that’s what I hear!!

This must be one of the longest times I’ve gone without blogging which has felt a little strange. We’ve been home from the holiday for about a week now and with one thing and another I just haven’t got around to writing anything.

So, let’s get going shall we, no more dilly dallying. We had a lovely early morning flight from Stansted on the Friday morning which seemed like a good idea at the time, you know, more time in resort and all that. However that meant checking in by 5.15 AM. John & I cheated and spent the night before at an airport hotel although we still had to be up just after 3.30 to make sure we were all ready to catch the shuttle bus at 4.30!

One thing that amazes is me is how easy it is to actually meet up with people in a busy place! We were due to meet our friends at 4.45 and had agreed to phone them to arrange a rendezvous – the conversation went something like this ‘Hi, we’re by the letter H’ ‘I know I can see you’!  Even at that time of the morning we’d managed to be so close without any real coordination, I looked round to see Linda waving through the glass door (no, not literally I mean I could see her through the door!)

A four hour flight took us to sunny Tenerife in the Canary Islands and a short coach trip from the airport took us to the beautiful Bahia Princess hotel in Costa Adeje. John and I went to the resort about three years ago and stayed at the sister hotel to the Bahia which is just behind it. We preferred the Bahia as it was much smaller and less busy.

The week passed in a blur of sitting beside the pool, mainly in the shade, reading and people watching and not a lot else. We wanted a chill out break so deliberately avoided the usual coach trips around the island. We did however book on a free ‘promotional’ trip. We knew it would be a sales opportunity but  figured we just needed to say ‘no’ to any sales pitch and enjoy the free coach trip! The promotion was for a ‘sleep system’ which was actually very tempting, so tempting that John decided that we should by one of the mattresses as it would solve all of our aches and pains! There were people on the trip who, yep you’ve guessed it, already owned the product and absolutely swore by it, saying it had relieved their aches and pains and improved their quality of life no end. Now – am I a cynic? Do I think that these dear old souls had been ‘planted’ on the trip? They were very convincing is all I can say. The good thing is there was a two week ‘cooling off’ period which meant we could cancel the order when we got home. After a spot of ‘Googling’ we decided to cancel the order, we were a little concerned to find a very small print clause of having to pay 30% in the event of cancellation. My heckles rose on that one because it wasn’t even hinted at in the presentation – thankfully when we phoned to cancel there was no request to pay, which was just as well because we have no intention of doing so anyway!

And here is what I’m sure you’ve all being dying to see – the photographs , there’s not many just a few to give you a taste!

Guess what Son2 had planned while we were away?

 

Of course John had to do a couple of Geo Caches – this one involved a leisurely stroll along the beach and then a climb down a shingly slope, needless to say I stayed on terra ferme  and zoomed in for the photo!

Isn’t this a beautiful sight? There are 52 steps from the pool area to the top, yep 52. No matter how you say it whatever language you use they were tortuous! I confess I only managed them once and found alternative ways of getting up and down – they were relentless! Made of marble, no ‘half way’ respite they were evil!

 

I let John go off to play by himself and trusted him with the camera – I think this picture was taken from Los Christianos on his Geo Caching jolly.

And just to confirm those steps – there were definitely 52 of them, even in daylight!

I think that’s enough for now, I’ll update with other stuff soon – it’s been a very strange week this week for a variety of reasons and I’m really glad to have a day off today!

My American Experience 2010 (part 2)

Now where was I? Oh that’s right – listening to that awful football match on our way from Lincoln, Nebraska down to Neosho, Missouri!

After more miles than I care to remember and several hours later we arrived in Neosho at our ‘home from home’. Black clouds have threatened for several hours as we worked our way south and we were not disappointed to hear rumbles of thunder in the distance. Summer in Neosho is lovely except for the really high humidity – a good downpour really helps to clear the air. And that is just what we got – a good downpour for several hours! It’s amazing to sit on the front porch and watch the weather roll in.

Our time in Neosho is generally spent relaxing and shopping, Walmart is a real favourite as is the nearest mall which is in Joplin, about 30 miles away. I love Bath and Body Works. I probably spend more there than I would ever spend on soaps and stuff at home but they are just so nice! As the summer sale was on I managed to get some bargains plus a saving of $10 on $30 spend – John said we’d never get the $10 off, he was wrong. I ended up with about $70 worth for $25!!! And then there’s Hobby Lobby – I wish we had them over here in the UK! I could have so many hobbies!! I bought more yarn but I really need to get going and actually use some of it – I’m running out of storage space!

To give our hosts a break, John and I took ourselves off to a lovely place called Eureka Springs in Arkansas for an overnight stay which we spent at the Red Bud Manor Inn where we were very well looked after by the owner, Deb. She recommended good places to eat and we opted for Italian at Ermilio’s. It was absolutely delicious and the waitress was so fascinated by our accents we got very special service that evening!

                                      

We had a very comfortable night and a delicious breakfast on the side porch before paying for our stay. Panic. John’s wallet had an empty slot where his Visa card should be! We backtracked and remembered that the last time he had used it was the previous night – slight problem in that they only opened between 5-9pm. Deb kindly phoned and somebody was there and they confirmed that they did have the card.

A few days later we all went off for a day out of a scenic railway. The alarm went off at 5.15am as we had to be at the station for 7.30 and had an hour and a half drive! We were headed of to Van Buren, Arkansas which I’m sure is a lovely place. If it’s not raining cats and dogs. All day long. We had left home unsure of the weather as it was still quite dark but by the time we were half way there the heavens opened – we spent the day hopping (in my flip-flops) from shop to shop avoiding the puddles and trying to keep dry. I did have a lovely time in a fabric store though – and ended up feeling that I was more than able to make a quilt, after all there was a lady in the store who only started quilting four months previously and had made about six quilts now – and they were amazing. I bought some fabric. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to using it – I am not a sewing type. Crochet – yes, cross stitch – yes (well, not lately ‘cos I can’t see so well!), knitting – yes. Sewing – well, no not really. But I do want to. Really. Anyway, I’m rambling – again!

And then of course we had July 4th! As it was a Sunday this year most celebrations were held on the Monday but we did go to fireworks in a small town called Granby – they do quite a good show for such a small place and the people watching is second to none!

I just kept clicking until one came out better than the others! 

Thanks for sticking with me – almost done now! We always go to a show in Branson when we visit and this year we saw Jim Stafford (remember ‘Spiders and Snakes’ from the 70s?) which was a really good show.

Sadly all good things must come to an end and so we end up back at Kansas City airport for our return flight. You’ll never guess why take-off was delayed! Bloomin’ Air Force 1 had priority over us! Can you imagine, did they not know how important we were?

So we’re back in blighty, on the bus from the airport to the car park when John says ‘Where’s the small black bag?’ he’d only gone and left it on the luggage trolley! So we weighed up whether it was worth the hassle of trying to track it down. It was only books and hairbrushes. And the camera – too right we had to get it back! Almost three weeks of memories were in  that bag. And do you know? It was the easiest thing to get it back, the staff were so helpful and within an hour of discovering the loss it was back in our hands. Thank you Terminal 3 at Heathrow!

All those miles of interstate and freeway and then the M25 near Heathrow!!

So that’s it for a while, back to normal now work, work and more work. Never mind that’s what makes the holidays worth waiting for!!

Long time no chit chat

Where does the time go? Apart from the obligatory memes I haven’t posted anything general for ages. It’s been busy chez Sparkle, John has returned to work after six months of leisure. He’s joined the staff bank at the hospital  and has spent the last two weeks working his socks off in the medical records library – it’s really hard graft, he’s used to a more sedentary work life so it has come as a bit of a shock to him. But I think he’s enjoying himself – if that’s the right word to use.

This of course means that I’ve lost the housework fairy – he was really getting quite good as well *sorry John – no offence meant* which results in a mad rush at the weekend to catch up with everything – sadly the reduction in income means that I can’t commit to having a lady who ‘does’ again!

I’ve spent most of the afternoon setting auto posts for Alphabe – Thursday (it’s the only one where I know in advance what I need to do!) as we’re off on holiday again next weekend and I don’t want to get into Mrs Matlocks bad books for not handing in my homework (yes, I can hear you all, I know I’m mad!). I did however spend a little time in the garden giving it a bit of a spruce up before we go away. Last year I sent off to the daily paper for a 'Free for every reader’ offer of ten dianthus – they arrived as tiny little plugs of plants that I didn’t notice the postman leave on the front door step. I managed to resuscitate them but only had a space to plant five of them – I wish now that I’d put the others into pots and grown them on. The photo below shows why – I am amazed that they have grown so well from such humble origins.

I decided to cut all that were blooming because they would be gone by the time we came back anyway, the darker pinks have been in flower for about six weeks already. The Salvia in the background have been in the garden for about five years but this is the best year I have had from them.

And I just have to share this beauty with you – it greeted me first thing this morning, yesterday it was just a tight green bud, such a shame they only last a day or so – especially with the strong wind we’ve had here today!

I think these must have been gifted to me by a very generous bird as I have never had this colour poppy in the garden before, I normally just get a gorgeous pink.

In case you haven’t already entered (or even if you have) don’t forget to enter the giveaway that I am hosting for a £50 voucher – click here for more details – please enter, I feel silly only choosing from a few people plus you don’t want to see Janet winning again now, do you?? (Sorry J – only joking!!)

I’m off now *sigh* another week at work beckons, but at least it’s the last one for a while. Have a good week all!

Viva le Caribbean!!

Well, it lived up to all of the expectations! Lots of R&R, warm sunshine, blue skies and good food!

We flew out to Barbados where we were picking up our ship, the MS Oceana, part of the P&O fleet. The flight was OK – a charter flight but unusually plenty of legroom. The only downside to the flight was the elderly lady in front of me who kept putting her nether regions in my face every time she stood up which did not delight my olfactory senses one little bit – she clearly had that little problem that older women get!

That aside we reached the ship about 7pm local time which was midnight to my poor tired body – all I wanted to do was eat and sleep but international law dictates that muster station drill must happen before we set sail! After a very light snack and the drill we retired for the night – consequently waking at stupid o’clock Saturday morning, I persuaded John to make a drink, all was well until he said ‘Oh there’s only brown sugar’ as he emptied the sachet into the cup containing the only Earl Grey teabag. It wasn’t sugar. It was coffee – the smell finally gave it away! Ho hum – just managed to salvage the tea bag to make another very weak drink and went back to sleep.

Saturday was St Lucia – a lovely island, blue skies, sandy beaches and lovely people! We opted for the island tour day trip which, on reflection was a little ambitious because we were soooo very tired still.

The view from the cabin as we were docking

I fell for the age old trick of the island vendors – they wait for the coaches to pull up and pounce on you with jewellery and the like, telling you that they make these to keep their families – and brought a necklace and earrings which are very pretty, trouble was they were available on countless stalls in every port we called at – I’m a sucker!

The very place that I was sucked in – a view of the ship from one of the view points

I am useless at remembering the details of places that we visit and I failed this year at writing a daily journal. I know that we visited a very smelly place that was a crater inside the volcano and that the smell was sulphur – the water ran black down the sides of the volcano and bubbled away furiously at very high temperature. The pictures below don’t really do it justice.

 

It was steaming – honestly!

Back at the ship it was time for the first formal evening of the cruise (there were four in total) and our first opportunity to meet our fellow diners – we had a table for eight and there were four sitting down when we arrived, strangely the other two never materialised. Jack & Elsie were a lovely couple in their seventies with many a cruise between them and Jeremy and Cathy, a little younger than us, (well me, anyway!!) on their third cruise. Thankfully we all hit it off and got on well together – otherwise it could have been a nightmare!

Sunday saw us on St Marten which is half French, half Dutch which makes it very unusual  - we opted for a half day trip this time which freed up time for an afternoon snooze!!

The border – even the language changes! 

One of the many market stalls in the French capital – they all looked identical!

Monday saw us on Tortolla yet another lovely island, again we took the half day tour option. This tour was a real experience on very hilly mountainous roads – eyes closed, fingers crossed type journey! The transport was open sided buses which were quite difficult to get on and off – but we survived!

Met this bloke there – there’s something very familiar about him!

Him again!

The beach at Pusser’s Landing

Our last Caribbean stop was Antigua which was British until relatively recently. We took the whole day option this time and saw a lot of the island, which included a lobster lunch at the historic ‘Nelson’s Dockyard’ , followed by a relaxing hour at the beach – shame it was too hot for us to sit out!

Miles away!

Just one of the many…

Away from the islands we then had five whole days at sea! Yes five! The first couple of days were OK weather wise, we managed to sit out on the deck and the sea was quite calm, after that it was a touch rougher and the rain came in – we were pleased to see land when we got to Madeira – even though it had been raining when we got there! Madeira is known as the garden island but sadly we were a couple of weeks too early to see it at it’s best. You may remember that, in mid-February, Madeira was hit by terrible rains and landslides which wiped away huge tranches of land leaving scars of red clay in it’s wake. In an amazing show of unity, the islanders all pitched in and started to do their part to repair the damage in time for the tourist season – they’ve done an amazing job so far.

 View from the highest point in Madeira

One flower in bloom anyway…

After Madeira it was another three sea days – if we thought it was rough before…a force 7 was recorded on one day and that was before we hit the Bay of Biscay! We weren’t too badly affected, although, believing that prevention is better than cure, I took tablets just to be safe. Trouble was the tablets knocked me out and I ended up spending half the day asleep!

Anyway, Friday came around too soon and we docked in Southampton on a grey morning – holiday over and back to normality.

It’s nice to be home although I’m still not fully up to speed with stuff – even my Twittering has been slow! Never mind – back to work on Tuesday and I’m sure that will bring me down to earth with a huge bump!

J is for

…oh, it has to be John – doesn’t it?

John is my much maligned other half. We’ve been together now for 27 years and married for almost 26 years.

We met at work and I would be lying if I said it was love at first sight. It was probably just the opposite. I couldn’t stand him. he was opinionated and arrogant. Always there putting his views across in a way that I just couldn’t take to. But then there was the evening social event that we both went to and had nobody to talk to. Except for each other. He offered me a drink and then, rather embarrassingly, discovered he had no cash – and neither did I. To cut a long story short, we spent the evening chatting spurred on by the fact that other people were staring and pointing at us, decided to leave the venue together to wide eyed stares from colleagues. On the way out John said ‘If you fancy going out some time, give me a call’ I think he was being polite. My response was ‘Oh I couldn’t do that’ to which he replied ‘OK – what are you doing on Friday?’ For some reason my answer to that was ‘Do you want to come back to mine for coffee?’ I don’t know what I was thinking but that was all I could say.

Anyway, coffee over and he left after a very chaste peck on the cheek. I hardly slept all night. I had butterflies. I was restless – what was going on – I didn’t even like the man. Or did I?

Less than six months after that evening he proposed to me and seven months later we were married. A whirlwind? Yes I suppose you could say that. There have been some very tough times, especially when the boys were young but we overcame everything and are now getting used to spending more time on our own again.

As this post appears in the ether we are nearing the end of the first week of our holiday together – just the two of us this time – so if there are any reports of an Englishman being thrown overboard in the Atlantic – it may just be him! Only joking – of course that would never happen…

I is for …

…Ignorance, and I don’t mean lack of learning.

I mean bad manners, inconsiderate, idiotic behaviours.

For instance – drivers. Why do some drivers think they own the road? You know what I mean, you’re pootling along quite happily and then some idiotic, inconsiderate person decides you’re in the way and cuts by you, forcing you to take evasive action. Or if you’re on a narrow road (as a lot of local UK roads are) they pay no heed to who has right of way and just charge towards you just squeezing through without doing any damage.

Another example, people who walk through doors and don’t even think about looking behind themselves to keep it open for you to walk through.

And another. People on mobile phones, talking soooo loud it makes your ears hurt and showing absolutely no respect for a single soul about them.

And manners! It’s not just young people so I’m not blaming any particular generation here. people who can’t eat properly, can’t use cutlery, talk with their mouth’s full of food – euukkkk!

Just a short ranting post from me this week! Check out the other contributions at Jenny's blog – I’m sure they’ll be kinder than mine this week!!!

(Oh, by the way – off on my holiday tomorrow so won’t have the opportunity to visit many posts for a couple of weeks. I’m setting mine to post automatically – fingers crossed it works – and I’ll ask somebody to link me back so that I don’t get into trouble for not keeping up with the work while I’m away!!)

Red Sea Magic

We left Gatwick on time in a very cramped plane – I'm no expert but I think it was a 757 – two sets of three seats across and a narrow aisle! Things didn't start too well when John felt water dripping on his shoulder from a panel above his head. The crew were fantastic and promptly placed tissues in the offending area and explained that it was due to condensation from the air conditioning unit.

We landed in Sharm El Shaikh about 5pm local time and were amazed at how quickly the sun went down – no twilight, straight to night. The Egyptian authorities were very hot on paperwork in preparation for entry to the country – we had to fill in about three forms before we even entered the airport – only for the security guys to throw them all into a big box without looking at them!

The ship wasn't a patch on the other two that we have been on this year but it was OK – we made the wrong choice of cabin by choosing deck three which was incredibly noisy – very close to the engines plus a tortuous noise coming from the fittings in the cabin caused by the vibration. It was like Chinese water torture! Just as you thought the noise had stopped another one started! Never mind – got used to it by Tuesday!

Our intention was for this holiday to be a total chill in readiness for the Great British winter so with that in mind on Saturday we took a coach trip to Petra in Jordan (please click the link – I can't do it justice with my description) what an absolutely amazing place – it needs to be added to everybody's list of places to visit before you die along with the Grand Canyon. To think that the ground we walked on had been walked on in biblical times was absolutely incredible. The coach stopped a few miles before we reached Petra and I took this photo – you see the white speck on top of the mountain? That is the tomb of Moses' brother, Aaron!

I took loads of photo's in Petra and these are a few of them – I can't remember the details of them all but hopefully you'll get an idea of the magnitude and history of the place.

After a day at sea we arrived at Port Sokhna for our transfer to Cairo and Nile River trip followed by a 'Sound and Light' show at the pyramids of Giza (again, please click on the link). The abject poverty of the people living along the banks of the Nile was something that I hadn't expected, the photos below show the shacks that people were living in along with a beautiful sunset and the feluccas ferrying people (and an Ox which I wasn't quick enough to capture on camera!) across the river.

So much for our relaxing time! Next day was a trip described as 'Shopping and Show' in the resort of Hurghada - not my idea of shopping! Constantly pestered by young Egyptians who were desperate for you to go into their shops and buy their tacky souvenirs, it was the equivalent of walking round a Spanish market back in the eighties! When they realised we were English they have to practice 'How Now Brown Cow', 'Loverly Jubbly' and bizarrely 'Asda Price'!!!

On to the show which was, erm, interesting to say the least. Started with a belly dancer, followed by some bloke twirling for ever (apparently telling a folk story but nobody knew!), a snake charmer and some bloke who ate fire, laid on a bed of nails and walked on broken glass! Not the best value for money trip we chose.

Sadly the next day we were unable to go on our planned trip because John had succumbed to a stomach bug and had to see the ship's doctor – he was quarantined in the cabin for 24 hours, which gave me the perfect excuse for a day on deck on my own with a book (more to come re books separately!!) The ship sent in a special cleaning team to deep clean the cabin – the poor guys arrived with overalls and masks looking very embarrassed, they removed the curtains, bed trims and proceeded to fumigate the cabin while poor John sat there watching – actually a very impressive effort!

That takes us to Thursday and departure day. We were very impressed that we were able, for a small fee, to keep our cabin right up until we left the ship at 3pm, that's the best disembarkation we've experienced so far – very relaxed no need to rush and we got the benefit of almost a whole day that we hadn't expected.

Sharm airport for departure was an experience – we queued outside to even get into the terminal building and had to put our cases through the x-ray machine before we even reached the check in desk! Better to be safe than sorry. On to the plane and I bet you can't guess what happened? Well, if I tell you we had the same seats on the plane as on the way out...yep, got it in one! This time, however, the cabin crew were not so considerate and I thought at one stage I thought I was going to have to restrain John especially when the 'Customer Experience Manager' told him to 'lay off the crew' – I feel another letter of complaint coming on – wonder if Thomson will read this, I have noticed that they have visited since the last little problem!

I'll post more pictures via Facebook soon – these are just a few to be getting on with – thanks for looking!