Sunday 29th Nov. Cartagena

We sailed into Cartagena and from our cabin we saw this

And then we saw this

The skyline is very modern with white skyscrapers on the other side of the docks. We opened the patio door of our cabin and the heat hit us at 8.15 am. We were told it would be hot and we would need sunscreen and mosquito repellent as well as comfortable shoes and a hat. Check. Down the gangway where ladies in traditional costume were waiting with baskets of fruit on their heads, no not to sell but to be photographed with.  On to a coach with our guide, Sergio, a Bill Cosby lookalike both in appearance and humour. We set off for the mangroves with a short stop at a fortress.  

It was built by the Spanish Conquistadores to defend the colony against the French and English. Built by African slaves over a period of 140 years, it is massive and has 42 kilometres of  tunnels underneath. At some point Sir Francis Drake came to have a pop at It with 24000 men but was driven back by only 3000, led by a local hero with only one arm, one leg and one eye. We were impressed that he didn't fall over let alone beat Sir Francis Drake.  Colombians from the Caribbean region see themselves as completely different from those in mountain areas like the capital Bogotá. Sergio explained that in Colombia, there are pure whites, mestizos ( White Spanish and indigenous)), mulattos (white Spanish and African) sambo (African and indigenous) pure indigenous and pure black., I think.  But wait, they are classified even more. Every year a Government official come see to your house and asks all about your income, family, savings, house etc. Then you are given a class number from 1to 5.  1 and 2 are working class, 3 and 4 are middle class and 5 is rich. This number goes on your ID card. One of the major outcomes is that if you need medical treatment, your contribution to the government health scheme varies. Number 1s pay nothing, number 2s pay 10% and so on.  Number 5s pay half. You cannot retire unless you have worked for a certain length of time in your life and paid in a percentage of your salary.  If you haven't, it's tough because there is no other welfare system. Our guide said, You work or you lie down in the street and die. There were lots of young men buzzing up and down on mopeds carrying spare helmets. They give rides for payment and we saw a lot of people on the back with shopping bags.

We arrived at the canoe place where we were advised that it was 4 people per canoe. I sat behind a massive man with a goatee and a scarf over his head covered in skulls.  

Every time I tried to lean to one side to look ahead to take a photo, the punter said, Sit in middle!  We sailed across the river and into a canal in the mangroves. There are 4 sorts of mangrove, red, brown, white and black.  I asked the punter what colour these were and they were red but the all looked grey brown.

The mangrove is tidal and the water level goes up quite a lot. Someone spotted a creature a bit like a raccoon but I missed what the punter said it was.  Lots of birds though, egrets, herons and others I didn't recognise.  Sergio said one was a diving duck???

Lots of tiny fish and big ones jumping out.  But my favourite was the Holy Dog of Cartagena which we were lucky to see as he was out for a walk on the water.

A fisherman was parked out on the river and we all gathered round to see a demonstration of how he caught snappers. He didn't catch anything so he whipped a couple of sardines out of his canoe and said these were some he had caught earlier. Fisherman always lie about catching fish, don't they?  He also showed us some fiddly little crabs he had caught in cages.

Back to land for a demonstration of local music which sounded very African and dancing which was a bit Spanish looking. Free coconut water to drink from the shell.  Very nice.

On then to the old town for a comfort break and shopping. The shops were for tourists and housed in the old dungeons, one shop per dungeon.  There were emeralds of all sizes for sale alongside the usual tourist tat. The lady assistant told Sandra she would give her a good deal for 50 dollars but Sandra wasn't tempted, more a diamond girl. 

 So then a walk through the Casco Antiguo, the old town, surrounded by high walls in pretty good condition dating from the 16 century.  There were some lovely houses, colonial Spanish style with many balconies covered in flowers. Sergio told us that Cartagena is the most beautiful city in the world and recorded at length the cost of these houses.  He said one was worth 6 million dollars. Methinks he was exaggerating a bit. 

 We arrived in Bolivar Square which was lovely with a statue of Bolivar in the middle. Couldn't hear what Sergio was saying about him because of a group of young man who set up a ghetto blaster and started doing breakdancing before coming round with a hat.  I did hear him say that the square was surrounded by the Cathedral, the emerald museum, the gold museum and the House of Inquisitions.  Well, we weren't expecting the Spanish Inquisition! 

 On to San Pedro Claver Square with some interesting iron sculptures.  Named after Pedro Claver, a Spanish monk who allegedly converted some 65000 Africans to Christianity in 1622 ???

We are melting by this time in 80 odd degree heat with 90% humidity. So it was nice to get back in the air conditioned bus though we had to navigate a path through dozens of street sellers of coffee, necklaces, sunglasses, tablecloths, tee shirts, cigars and assorted tat. 

Sergio asked repeatedly if we had enjoyed the tour, was it worth it, had he been a good guide, did we appreciate the coach and driver.  We wondered whether there was a subtext?

Back onboard, lunch and bag a prime sunbathing spot for the afternoon.

And today's re enactment is Sandra's choice, the ever popular film. Hairspray

Dinner served by a lovely girl, Gaby, from Peru and then on to Explorers Bar for Panama Carnival with a band playing salsa music. Fantastic couple dancing salsa.

After that there was the third round of a talent show, don't ask. 

Entering the Panama Canal tomorrow at 7.15am. So must be up in time.

Monday 30th Nov. The Panama Canal

I am up and running by 7am as are most of the other passengers.  All the balconies are full of lock spotters.  It's hot already and there are lots of little tugs and pilot boats buzzing up and down around us.  This is a photo of the construction of the new bridge over the inlet.  Apparently the lake after the locks was once a fast flowing fiver which was dammed to create Gatún Lake

  

There is a very interesting commentary on our progress through the canal on the ship's intercom but too much info to tell you. Look back to my blog on Thursday or Friday for a few facts. On deck now as we approach the locks. We get raised 85 feet in a series of 3 chambers. Oil tankers cannot fit into the chambers  because of their length but there are lots of container ships waiting in the lake. There is also a width restriction, the Panamax, After the locks we arrive in Gatún Lake some 2 miles away.  Wow I can't see how a ship of this size will fit in the chamber, although they are 1000 ft long. Photo taken through tinted glass so looks a bit dark. The container ship directly ahead in the right hand side of the transit is already in the third chamber. 

The gates are opening now. They weigh 700 tons and have 8 million rivets.  In the mornings, both 

chambers only allow southbound traffic but later in the day, two way traffic is allowed. The gates have opened and the ship is gliding slowly into the chamber. We are hooked up to 8 mules, two at the front and two at the back. These are stubby electric locomotives on rails running along each side which are not dragging us, just bracing the ship to stop it bumping against the sides of the chamber which are VERY close, the info just said 2 feet at either side .  The mules will travel with us into the next two chambers at 2.8 knots, in 1992 one of the mules was pulled into the water by the ship. It had a woman driver - the info man just had to say that, didn't he?   

I am now watching as the ship leaves the third chamber and it has taken two and a half hours to complete the climb of 85 feet. 

I took this photo from the highest deck 16 but it was impossible to get to the very back.  On the deck below is the spa area where for 40 dollars a day extra,you can escape the hot poloi.

We are now sailing into the lake where we will weigh anchor ( do they still do that?) and be tendered ashore

. It seems that most passengers are going on shore excursions today and this will take some time to ferry us all ashore.  Hoping to find a wifi cafe to post the last couple of days of my blog.

We have been tendered ashore and I must say it was a really well executed procedure getting 2500 of us on to dry land. Bit like a school trip with stickers on our chests only much bigger.  On the coach now and setting off foe a scenic drive through the countryside to Panama City where we will have a guided tour of the old town. 

Been on the coach for an hour or so. The scenic drive turned out to be the main highway from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side. But we did see the excavations for the new canal which will allow more and bigger ships to pass through

The guide is not overly interesting. Again, obsessed with house prices. There is not an awful lot to see but he did promise us a big surprise.  This turned out to be a subway sandwich and a bottle of warm water but better than nothing.  The coach has parked up and we are walking through the old town. There are lots of black uniformed police with sub machine guns s the Presidents Palace is nearby. The old town was built colonial style in 1680 and is a UNESCO site.  We walked to the main square. Plaza de la Independencia.

The cathedral is moderately interesting but not much else. Many of the buildings are just a facade and crumbling and deserted and it is EXTREMELY hot. And the toilets have no paper or soap though they are clean and not smelly. We walk on in a heat haze and I am rapidly losing interest. We go past a crumbling arch and I'm not sure whether the decision to build the canal was taken here as they felt that it was a safe earthquake free because the arch was still standing.  Does that make sense?

We wander on a bit more and stop for shopping which turns out to be more stalls selling local handicrafts and very expensive drinks. We wander off and look at the two faces of Panama. The new

       And the old. This building was on the Main Street.

We are not particularly impressed. The best thing was that we are with a party of 38 Americans, moaning about the restrooms, the walking, the lack of burger stops etc. But as we walked down the decrepit narrow streets, they certainly looked after each other. When there was a hole in the pavement we all had to pass it on to the ones behind and when a car came from behind, we had to call " Car" to those in front. But I may be being unfair.  On the way back to the coach we walked through a lovely square with cafe tables outside under the tree and beautiful buildings. This begs the question why did the guide not take us here?  As we approached the coach, we noticed dozens of vultures planing over the sea.  Some of the coffin dodgers in our party looked distinctly afraid.

Tuesday 1st Dec. Limón

Well the day started badly. I have 4 large mosquito bites from the last stop in Panama Old Town. We had driven through the the new city which is spectacular I have to admit. Reynaldo, the hopeless guide, insisted we had one last look at the ruins of the first city on that site, of which there were just a few walls and a clock tower. The ruin is in the background, not Sandra of course, though how she managed a smile I don't know as we were both exhausted by that time. But what there was a lot of, was mosquitos and you could see them flying up from the grass as we walked over it.

As I said, the guide was useless, he had 41 of us queuing up in 81 degrees for one toilet. I wanted to punch him but Sandra, ever soft hearted gave him a tip and said thank you. Then I wanted to punch her.

Anyway we had learned yesterday that our trip to the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica had been cancelled and the shore excursion office was closed so we had to choose another excursion and leave the filled in booking form in a box on the desk. We chose a river ride and visit to a banana plantation.  There were 2 times offered, 7.15am, ridiculously early!  And 12.15pm, ideal!  When the tickets arrived in our cabin, we were booked on the earlier one and again the excursions office was closed. We both wanted to punch the excursions officer.  So we had an early night and ordered breakfast in our cabin to save time. Right well we are up to today now and the ship was delayed docking. Look at the ship's hull at the bottom.  Oops, who's a clumsy helmsman?

So nearly an hour later we climbed aboard the coach, set off and bang, there he was in a tree, a sloth. Got my camera out and the battery was dead. I wanted to punch myself. Not only that but I have only brought one part of the charger, so no photos today or for the rest of the cruise.  Punch, punch. Will have to use phone or iPad.

The guide, Alonso, was the opposite of Reynaldo, really knowledgeable and funny.  We arrived at the Tortuguero River which means, home of the turtle. Sadly the turtles were on their holidays as they only come here once a year to mate.  The downtown area of Limón is a shanty town. All low buildings as the earthquake of 1991. 7.5 on the Richter scale, destroyed most of the tall buildings yet miraculously there was only one fatality. Limón is not named after lemons but the local rock is limestone.

We arrived at the river and boarded a low boat with a canopy to protect us from the sun which by this time, 9.15am, was scorchio.  First thing we saw was another sloth high up in the canopy, in his typical hanging upside down pose. Alonso then gave us chapter and verse about sloths.  This is just some I remembered.  The name in Spanish is perezoso, lazy one, and there are two types, two toed and three toed on the hands only as both types have three toes on the feet.  The three toed has long arms and short legs and is ungainly at walking but good at swimming.  The two toed has arms and legs of similar length, good walker and poor swimmer, bearing in mind neither of them move about much anyway. Indeed they stay in the tree until they need to defaecate, when for some reason they descend but that's only once every three weeks or so. The three toed has algae in its fur and the two toed doesn't but I can't remember why.  It rains every night in the rainforest and the sloths can get wet and cold. When the sun comes out, they need to warm up or they may starve to death even though they have a full stomach. This is because their digestive system is very slow and they need the heat to get the digestive hormones working, I think that's what Alonso said. 

We also saw a large cayman in the water.  Apparently there are crocodiles too, up to 5 or 6 metres long, but no alligators. Sometimes a crocodile will find a swimmer and pull him under the water to drown him. However a croc often finds the human body too hard to bite, so it leaves it in the water to rot before trying again.  We saw a large green iguana  basking in a tree about a 100 feet up.  They call it the chicken of the trees.  The boat driver pulled into the shore, got off and came back with a tiny frog on a leaf, maybe an inch long, bright red with black dots.

 Can't remember it's name but the indigenous people used to collect the frogs and boil them up in a pan and dip their darts into the liquid as their skin gives off a deadly poison. No one wanted to pet it.  What else?  A couple of howler monkeys which were dark brown with a redder bit on their back. Alonso said he could tell it was a male because it had a long white scrotum but again I forget what the significance of that was.  There are also capuchin and spider monkeys in the rainforest but we didn't spot any of those.  We saw a green lizard with a big ruff round its neck, a Jesus Christ lizard, so called because it looks as if it runs across the surface of the water, and blue butterflies. Oh yes and three more sloths so I am very happy.  We saw lots of birds, kingfishers, a tiger heron which is grey but the juveniles are striped like a tiger, a blue heron, snow egrets, a large flock of parakeets, toucans and lots of little swallows darted backwards and forwards near the boat, picking off the mosquitoes which were attracted by our smell. But today I was ready for them, the little beggars.

Alonso said there were over 900 species of fish in the river and surrounding waterways, both salt water and fresh water as the mangrove swamp floods with sea water for 12 hours everyday. There were water hyacinth floating everywhere and beautiful white spider lillies. He rattled off the names of trees like mangroves, golden coconut, eucalyptus, raffia palm, bloodwood, balsa wood tree etc etc. as well as banana, more of which later. 

An interesting mangrove tree with huge aerial roots.

After an hour and a half on the river we returned to the jetty. Sandra and I were at the back of the boat, so last off. There were big people, old people, people with walking sticks etc struggling but when Sandra started to get off, the driver got a stool for her to descend on to.  We don't know why.

Slices of fresh pineapple and a glass of the local beer, Aguila, were very welcome. I was so happy I had seen sloths that I bought a teeshirt with a sloth face on it and Costa Rica's motto. Pura Vida -pure/natural life. I also like the idea of live slow.

On to the banana plantation owned by Del Monte.  A surprisingly small factory. There are 150 varieties of banana and none is indigenous to Costa Rica so the local monkeys don't eat them.  They were brought from Asia by the Chinese railroad workers who planted them by the railroads for food. A plant takes 9 months from a shoot sprouting to produce a bunch of bananas. It doesn't produce anymore but sends up new shoots and the process begins again. The flower comes first and attached to that are tiny rows of female bananas, rows of hermaphrodite bananas and male bananas. The male bananas only contain pollen so they are cut off as being useless.  I'm saying nothing.  As the other bananas grow into a bunch, they are covered in perforated blue plastic bags for 2 purposes.  1. To heat them up and kill off scorpions, spiders and snakes and 2. to stop them falling to the ground as the bunches grow to over a metre long and can contain over a hundred bananas.

They are cut down green, sprayed with hose pipes to get rid of insects and we saw a big spider come out, cut into hands and dunked in water to cool and clean them. Women wash and sort the hands and they are packed into boxes and load onto refrigerated container lorries.  The whole process takes maybe 10  - 15 minutes.

Back on the coach and Alonso passes round samples of coffee bean branches, red flowers which are used to make the food dye annatto (?), a cocoa bean pod and finally a bunch of mini bananas which we all scoff and declare delicious.  Half way down the coach he says these are only for looking at, not eating.  Just joking, I hope!

Sandra decides to re enact that favourite old song "Yes, we have no bananas!"

He gives us a few details about life in Costa Rica.  People are categorised as in Panama. The army was disbanded, can't remember when, so there is no military. The people decided that if they didn't need to buy uniforms for the military they would buy them for their children. So all children must go to school, it's free, and they all have a free uniform.  And Christpher Columbus came here in 1502 but didn't find any gold.

I absolutely loved today. Completely made up for yesterday, though I am still going to punch the cruise director when I see him.

A couple of hours relaxing on the super padded sun beds and the Island Princess sails away into the sunset for Jamaica. We have a day at sea tomorrow and no doubt Sandra and I will definitely be going to the gym without fail. After all, we have brought our exercise clothes and trainers with us and it would be silly to bring them half way round the globe and not use them, wouldn't it?

Tonight the Love Boat Disco under the stars is happening. Can we keep awake?

At the disco.  Hello sailor!

Just got back from the disco but first I've got to say that the Head Waiter, Moises from Portugal, turns out to be a really nice man. We have a chat with him every evening and he is married to an English girl from Swadlingcote(?).  He is hilarious and dances all the time. Lovely dinner so we decide to round it off with a bit of dancing at the disco under the stars. Great fun, - Up Town Funk, Blame it on the Boogie, Satisfaction etc. Thought we would take a cup of tea to bed so down to the buffet. There I am, making my tea when a deep American voice behind me says "Tea, huh?"  "Yes," I say, "I'm English," (what a dopey thing to say). "Hey, Danny, get over here.  This lady is English and having tea,"  he announces as if I'd been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Danny ambles over.  "Really?"  he says, clearly impressed. "Nice dress," says he, leaning in. "Thanks" , says I and scuttles off.  Sandra is laughing like a drain. 

Wed 2nd Dec. At sea

Today was forecast to be 87 degrees and it does feel very warm and humid but there is strong breeze. This means that the sea is a bit choppy and I feel a teensy weensy bit sick so I dosed myself and am having a lie down. That said, it didn't stop me from having a chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce instead of lunch. I'm working on the principle that a little bit of what you fancy does you good.  Earlier I watched a demonstration of vegetable carving by the chefs. So artistic and skilful. A bald eagle, a goldfish hiding amongst weeds, Ratatouille, the cartoon rat, a penguin and lots more. I thought I might have a go at home and then I thought, Why?   Later on one of the chefs was doing a large ice sculpture but I didn't wait to see what that turned out to be.  Will check later in the dining room.

So today, as there is not much to tell, I thought I would give you some random thoughts about anything and everything on this cruise so far.

I imagine that many of you are saying to yourselves " This history, culture and wildlife is all well and good but what about their hair?"  Well, my own hair dyer won't work on the ship's voltage and the one in the cabin has a rectangular nozzle which just blows your hair all over the place so my hair has reverted to its default holiday style of Coco the Clown's wig.  Last night after dancing on deck, I looked like Shirley Temple on a bad day.  Sandra reports that though she is putting in her rollers at every opportunity, her hair is like Olive Oil's with the added benefit of flicking out in all directions.

The food is very good, indeed quite eclectic, there was even 'tripes à la mode' on the menu last night but we didn't have it.  Everything is beautifully served and the stewards are very attentive. We have had some nice chats with one waiter from the Philippines, Bien.  He complemented us that we looked beautiful and slim, not like most of the American women on board. He said his mother was 68 and very slim with no wrinkles. How does she manage that? we asked.  She only eats vegetables, no meat or rice or alcohol and she gets 8 hours of sleep a night. We would like to meet her as she sounds a barrel of laughs.

Last night Sandra ordered our now, 'usual' wine at dinner.  Bien said it was a very popular one and hoped it didn't run out.  Sandra said that perhaps he could put a few bottles away for us and he said he would.  Came back shortly after with the bill for 3 bottles of wine which he has put away for us.  Oh no!  now we've got to drink them.

At dinner a couple of nights ago, we got chatting to two Canadian ladies about that day's shore trip.  "Oh," says Naomi "Have you just joined the ship tonight?"  Yes we have.  We swam out with our luggage overnight. Doh!

We are finding that increasingly things are getting lost - comb, specs, headband but the good news is that the other part of my camera charger has turned up.  The bad news is that my cabin card to unlock the door keeps failing and they are sick of me at reception asking for another one, so Sandra won't let me keep it. She is looking after it for me.☹

Having been on the ship for a week now, I have just noticed that the ladies' loos are all on the left side of the ship and the men's on the right. Wish I'd realised that before, would have saved miles of walking. The other thing I noticed, and I said this in all naivity,  "Have you noticed Sandra, that whenever we are sitting on our balcony, the ship is always going in the the same direction?"

A word on the shower in our cabin.  The bathroom is bijou and in the shower cubicle, if you stick out your elbows sideways, you can touch both sides. This comes in handy for bracing yourself as the ship rocks and rolls while you are trying to do your ablutions.

Sandra and I are both concerned about putting on weight.  We seriously considered cutting down on the cocktails but both agreed that the vitamin C in the fruit was doing us good.

Tonight is the second posh frock night

Me

And Sandra

Usual round of cocktails followed by dinner which was lovely.

 I ordered beef Wellington and the waiter asked would I like a side order of king prawn and lobster tail. Why not?  The show tonight was Motortown, all the hits like Heard it on the Grapevine, Dancing in the Street etc which we sang along to.  And finally a quick bop to a band in one of the lounges. Alan managed to collar us for a while in the buffet before we headed back to our cabin and our usual 10 minutes on our balcony watching the sea go by under the stars.

Thursday 3th Dec. Ocho Rios

We were docked in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. when we awoke. No rush as our tour didn't start till 10.50am so we had a leisurely breakfast. I read over the notes I had made about the destination from the presentation the day before. Columbus probably stepped ashore in Ocho Rios, seems he got everywhere in the Caribbean. But in 1655 Oliver Cromwell drove the Spanish out, not sure that's right but that's what the guide said, and Jamaica became a colony. Although it is now independent and they have a woman prime minister, they still recognise Elizabeth as their queen. The name means 8 rivers but it's probably a corruption of the Spanish word for waterfalls because there aren't 8 rivers.  The falls are actually part of Dunnes River and are 600 feet high.

We headed off the ship to pick up a minibus and were fitted with a blue wristband to let us into the falls and Dolphin Cove which we visited first.  On the way down to the sea, we met 2 parrots who lay like babies in our arms. Sandra was not 100% comfortable.  Her face reminds me of this emoticon 😬

Then in a group of 8 we were fitted with life jackets and after a bit of hanging around, when we got to see some local boys handling sharks, I think they were nurse sharks, we headed down to the dolphin area.

 It was part of the gorgeous sea, turquoise blue, but with pontoons for the trainers to stand on. We got in the water and were shown what signals to make with our hands to let the dolphin know what we wanted.  Then we saw her, Misty, and she swam slowly past us and allowed us to stroke her as she glided by.  She was like lovely soft leather.

  Then each of us in turn put our arms out in front and patted the water with our hands.  Suddenly Misty rose up out of the water right in front,

facing me and let me hold her flippers while she swam back to the pontoon on her back, pulling me along with her.

 Such a huge thrill. Then I had to put my hands up on my chest and she came alongside and kissed my cheek

and let me kiss her nose and hold her flippers.

All this was photographed and I have it on a DVD.  I will upload a couple of photos when I get home.  Misty did lots of other thing for us.  When we waved our hands she came right up and made laughing noises and sticking her tongue out, then when we turned round in the water, so did she as if she were dancing.

She made clicking noises with her blowhole and screeching noises when she wanted a fish.  I absolutely loved this morning. One of the biggest thrills of my life and I will always remember it.

We had to wait for the DVDs to be burned so we had a Red Stripe and I had a swim in the sea and found some rocks and coral for my garden collection. By this time it was after 2pm and we were worried that we may not have enough time to see the falls at Dunnes River. It was literally across the road and then up a short hill but the security guard wouldn't let us walk so we waited for a minibus. We were on Caribbean time and no one was rushing. Yeah mon. So by the time we got there we had about 20 minutes. Such a shame as we could have spent several hours there. We did get in the water for photos but didn't have time to do the climb,

Sandra meets a nice young man, sadly not quite Johnny Depp

And today's re enactment song is "I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts"

A lady asked me if I would like my hair braiding, (I told you it was a mess, she probably felt sorry for me). "No thanks" I said, "too old".  "You not hold, you yong". Yeah mon!

So sorry that we didn't have longer to spend here, it really was lovely but the ship was due to leave at 3.30pm and it's a long swim back to the UK.  Bye Jamaica.

Tonight is the 50th anniversary of Princess Cruise line so there is a reception in the atrium with a golden balloon drop. Can't miss that.  

We had dinner after leaving the theatre early as the comedian was not too funny. Well we didn't think so anyway

.  

Dinner was great and we found out that we have been missing the petits fours every day so we had two each to make up for that.  On to the atrium where the balloons were poised

Look a bit like frog spawn. Great dancing music so we did our stuff for 40 mins until the balloons descended and we all went silly 

Flagging a bit now so off to the buffet to get our usual tea and hope that Danny and friend are not there.  It was such a balmy evening that we decided to watch the movie under the stars while we drank our tea.  Ant Man.  Have you seen it?  Don't bother.  We agreed it was the worst film we have ever seen but it was great to lie on sun beds under the stars on a warm evening.  We met a man from Romford tonight, now living in LA.  Small world