Posts Tagged ‘Birthday’

The Big Six O

Posted: November 21, 2013 in Cruising, P&O, Travel
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Slight re-write of previous years 🙂

On this day, 60 years previous, the most beautiful bouncing baby boy was born to what must have been the proudest parents in the land. And those parents did look down upon their new son and did gaze in wonderment at how beautiful their new child was. Looking down upon him they had an overpowering feeling that this boy was going to grow into a most wonderful man who would bring great joy, not only to his family but also to everybody that would have the pleasure of meeting and knowing him, and rightly, both parents were proud. So proud, they couldn’t hold back the tears of joy.

Meanwhile, in the bed opposite were two equally new parents looking down on their new baby boy (who was crying with all the effort he could muster) and with tears running down their cheeks they thought, ‘God, that boy is beautiful, but look at ours! Not bad for a first attempt I suppose but we’d better try again, I’m sure we can do better and anyway, this one will never make old bones.

Ha ha, today I fooled them all and proved them wrong. Yes, today is indeed my birthday and yes, I was indeed that ‘other’ child and yes, I have made Old Bones, for today, I AM 60 YEARS OLD. See, I knew I could exceed all expectations.

Free Prescriptions at last. 🙂

Birthday Eve in Gran Canaria

Posted: November 20, 2013 in Cruising, P&O, Travel
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Today will be a short posting as tomorrow is my birthday and I’m too excited to write anything of any detail. But I’ll give it a go.

I’m pleased to report that after leaving La Palma, we managed to sail around Tenerife and onwards to Gran Canaria where we docked opposite two Spanish Destroyers (I assume they’re Spanish). Overhead were sinister dark clouds threatening rain. But the Captain promised us a nice day so we were quite happy.

For some reason I had allowed myself to agree to a shopping trip to Puerto De Mogan. This meant an early rise and early breakfast before catching the coach that would transport us, for an hour to what I thought was going to be 4-hours of shopping! I was not happy. At least the coach trip provided a sort of sight seeing trip of Gran Canaria. Not only did we see the hills, the airport and the wind farms but also the bowels of Gran Canaria as we spent so much time going underground through tunnel after tunnel.

When we did arrive at our destination, the clouds had disappeared, the sun was shining, the sea was shimmering, the bars were welcoming and the sort of shops I was dreading were non existent. This wasn’t a shopping trip; it was some time alone wondering around Gran Canaria’s own version of a Little Venice. As we wondered around the town, we crossed bridges, walked along jetties, gazed at boats, admired the beach and even admired a couple of the sunbathers on the beach. After an hour, maybe less 🙂 we selected a nice bar / restaurant and settled down for beer and food.

Thirst and hunger sated, we then wondered around the sea front where we found a nice little shop where Mrs Me was able to plant her plates of meat (feet) into a tank of fish (for a fish pedicure). The squeals and screams attracted many people, all of whom joined me to watch as the fish gorged themselves on all her dead skin. It was interesting to note that some of this kept swimming over to the air stone (used to aerate the water), seemingly to get a breath of fresh air before returning to what must have been an arduous task. 15 minutes later, Mrs Me withdrew from the tank declaring that her feet were now all nice and soft, if not a little fishy.

The only down side to our excursion was that as it was threatening rain, I had dressed in trousers, shoes and shirt. The wiser people (everybody else) wore sandals, shorts and t-shirts. I felt more than a little conspicuous :-(.

All too soon, we had to return to the lovely Oceana. Trouble was, when we got back, so had the clouds and the rain. But am I downhearted? Of course not, for tomorrow we celebrate the birth of His Podgeness.

I’m off for a drink now. And I won’t be having an early night!