August 28th, 2008 by Andy Feltham
Just a quick update for those that care. We now officially have moved the longue into the dining room and that means carpet is up and a big mess has been made! The fireplace was rebuilt today and later I’ll be working on the new units for the DVDs. Until then, the following is our ‘new’ longue!
August 26th, 2008 by Andy Feltham
This week I will not be at work for a number of reasons, one of which being that I wanted to start work one the long awaited decoration of the lounge. Although plans aren’t exactly final yet as you can see from the photo work has already begun! And we have to do it now that we’ve bought a tv to fit the space! At least I have access to a pool, sauna, steam room and hot tub to relax my tired muscles!
Distance swam yesterday : 800m. Arms , sore!
August 11th, 2008 by Andy Feltham
For those that follow this site, you’ll notice that apart from a recent few there have been a distinct lack of posts. There are many reasons for this one of which is time to post. Recently you’ll also notice that i’ve purchased an iPhone and i really think that this might change a number of things.
Everyone has their own opinion on the iPhone – if its useful or not – but at the end of the day its usefulness depends on your lifestyle and ultimately their connectivity to the web. Before i bought it i spent a lot of time making sure that my calendar, contacts and tasks would sync with my iPhone and that reasearch paid off.
What i didn’t bargain on was some of the additional tools that would pop up. Tools such as Wordpress. I hadn’t expected it, but it makes sense for a phone that is always connected to be able to update a blog any time of the day and so i downloaded the application. The first impression’s weren’t great as it kept crashing when loading my blog but after the upgrade to version 1.1 worked fine.
The application is a faily simple one and doesn’t allow you much ( at the moment ) in terms of formatting, style or tagging but having said that works very well. The Pullpit rock post a couple back was actually done from the phone and i was pleasantly surprised with the support for adding images. In fact, at the moment other than style for images that i attach i can’t think of anything else i’d add to the application. And this is great. I’m hoping that with this kind of application i’ll keep my site up to date a bit more and be able to post more frequent and perhaps shorter posts about what i’m doing and have done. And isn’t that what the iPhone is about? Its not about being online all the time, but its about being able to do the things you normally used to do, but when and where you want to do them. I like that idea.
August 11th, 2008 by Andy Feltham
As most will know i suffer from a nut allergy and anyone ( that one person ) thats been reading the site recently will know that i have recently been on a cruise. Given that this is basically a floating hotel i was always going to be interested to see how that hotel coped with an awkward customer. For those that don’t want to read any further, i couldn’t have been more pleased. True they slipped up once but in general P&O couldn’t have dealt with a nut allergy any better.
From the first night, one of the head waiters came to our table to make himself known. He came with the next nights menu and asked that i order what i wanted for the next night. This would then be ensured to be nut free. Pretty unheard of. When you then consider that they also sent the next nights menu to any of the other restaurants i visited you really felt that they actually did care that i could choose what i wanted and that it was nut free. They even saved me a load of cakes – nut free cakes – from the Chocoholics evening that was run on the boat.
Most places claim traces of nuts in food and although i’m sure its difficult to 100% guarantee that there are no traces of nuts in food for 2000+ people its was clear that P&O did everything they could to minimise the chance that would happen. Putting it blankly, P&O set an example for everyone else out there who covers their own backs by claiming traces of nuts.
August 9th, 2008 by Andy Feltham
Friday as a day planned to military precision. One of the very popular sites in Norway is the famous pulpit rock which is essentially a huge cliff face which sits 650 meters above one on the fjords. Part of the organized tours was a boat trip that allowed you to look up at the rock and admire. That didn’t sound like our brand of vodka though and so the other option was to organize our own trip, make out way to the rock and climb up it ouselves. And that is what we did.
Of course the problem then arrises when you realize that to get there you need to gets ferry, which only goes at certain times of the day, drive 50km, and then spend 2 hours walking just to get to the top! Coupled with the fact that the cruise was leaving at 530pm and only let us off at 9 am we were really pushed for time. However equipped with gps, lots of maps and ready prepared we set off on our little excursion.
As you can see from below we made it there and back – actually with about an hour to spare. The views were amazing and the only complaint might b that we spent significantly longer walking than viewing from the top. Having said that if you could spend a few minutes looking up rather than where you were putting your feet you weren’t disappointed!
August 7th, 2008 by Andy Feltham
So what is more strange, me running or me actually on a holiday on a cruise? Well amusingly this week I’ve combined both. Having been on a week long cruise I’ve found that cruising is about filling time and so unusualy I decided to go to the gym and do some running. This was a very strange experience becuase as you are running the boat is swaying from side to side. Certainly makes you concentrate!
Most of the week has been spent watching the scenery pass by and it certainly is great watching. The other thing to do is the various activities planned on board. Unfortunately most of these have been targetted at the older audience and so choice was slim. One thing we did do was the casino education and that’ll be something they’ll regret as I’m a whole £30 up! Woo!
Also this week was my birthday. Although the weather hasn’t been great Wednesday was the nicer of the days so far and spent in one of the nicest places so far. Canoeing down the side of the boat to the Severn sisters waterfall was a nice way to spend the day. Of course all the extra attention and singing at dinner I would have preffered without!
Of course the have been other things less good but now it’s the time or place!
All in all though Norway by boat would be something I would recommend to anyone.
August 3rd, 2008 by Andy Feltham
hmm, yes I think so!
Created by Philip Norton
