The trip to South Africa 8 July 2014

Well I left you readers at the lounge, things from there did not go quite to plan, I duly went to the desk at 7 45pm but no assistance, the nice ladies offered to contact the service that would take me to the plane,  unfortunately someone had disconnected the phone, so it took a little while for her to find out I was not registered for assistance, but that this would now be resolved.
Whilst waiting  I was sat by the desk so it was interesting to watch the people arriving,  they came as you would expect in all types, but it was the ones who wanted to bring  families in without paying the extra money per person that seemed involve the most debate, it was only at that point I realised to use the lounge on a casual basis was £35 each, a room was £120 per night or £20 per hour with a minumum of 3 hours to pay.
After 3/4 hour someone came yo collect me it was just as well because I would never of made it otherwise  to the plane in time.
The staff on the plane were pleasant, I found my seat but an elderly man who obviously had the window seat was blocking my access therefore nobody could move past me, he seemed oblivious to the chaos, I moved a little further down the passage to enable others to reach their seats until he finally was settled. 
He fid not engage in conversation so I decided I would explore how the sound and audio system worked,  it was quite complex with little in the way of instructions as far as I could see,  but worse was that either their headphones or my hearing were not up to the task,  so I gave up and had a read instead. 
It did not seem that long before my evening arrived it was fruit juice, then a cucumber salad with dressing, followed by a chicken pasta dish which was quite pleasant and finally a mousse desert and to finish off cheese and biscuits, I was offered  tea or coffee but felt they would keep me awake not sure really that the Pepsi was any better.
The elderly man had finished his meal before me donned his eye mask ear plugs and blanket and was fast asleep,  when I looked at the clock it was past 12 so decided to follow suit. I must of slept for a couple hours, as everywhere was dark and quiet. I had a further go with the music but  quality of sound put me off. I slept on and off for a number of hours.
At some point the staff came round with breakfast,  I had a full english, this also came with fruit juice, a danish pastry and a yogurt so according to , my friend Brian thay constituted a full 4 courses LOL they were stingy with the coffe so only got one cup. There wad an announcement I did not quite catch so enquired it seemed someone had taken ill and the staff were seeking someone with the skill to assist, obviously not me.
The elderly man woke so I mentioned he had missed breakfast, this was brought and finally we got chatting he was telling me he does a lot of travel round the world and has bought a property in New Zealand. I mentioned to a member of staff that I would need assistance when we arrived,  she said she would sort out but for me to wait until others had disembarked,  which I was happy to do. On landing it was explained that we would all have to wait until the medics had dealt withe the sick person.

The Adventure Begins 7 july 2014

Well the driver arrived early in a Mercedes saloon, very posh, loaded case, then even opened the door for me, off we set, just for a change I chatted to him, maybe if he knew would of preferred I had fallen asleep.
Time passed quickly very comfortable drive, very few delays, only took just over 4 hours in total.

Had case wrapped in cling film but forgot to lock it so lets hope nobody is that desperate for my clothes, security swift, oh forgot to say had mentioned at check in about help, but also was going to lounge first, it was agreed I would ask for help there to get to the plane.

Lounge again posh but quickly sorted, mentioned help needed they said if any delay that they could resolve. Next nice shower and change of clothes, so diffetent to normal hanging about at airports connection with Wi Fi ok just had portion vegetable ragu, plus camomile tea, quite different to my usual Boots meal deal, seats comfortable man opposite asleep at first then onto his mobile, luckily now gone, hear now and then loud young child but otherwise not noisy, could get used to this, think I have about another hour before I have to leave so will relax and check my e mails gosh its a hard life

One more Day to Go On My Adventure 6 July 2014

Good evening to all you readers, well its here at long last, another tick on my bucket list being achieved, case is finally packed, I have never had such a long list of things that I need to take, from swimming cossie to scarf and winter woollies, Bright clothes to drab green, hope the animals appreciate my efforts. Hope that South Africa is worth it all
I start the trip hopefully at 1.30pm with a kind Saga driver taking me to Heathrow, don't know yet if there will be others in the vehicle, hopefully we will stop somewhere along the way for a break. I have found an app that is called Evernote and have listed things I need to do when I get to the airport, just have to remember to use, maybe will do a couple of Post It notes in case, firstly have to to get the case wrapped in what seems to be cling film in the hope it discourages theft, then to check in or drop case off, I have tried to check in today but it seems Virgin will only let me do 24 hours before and already I cannot have a window seat, even if I try.

Then I want to use the airports support service to get me to the lounge where I hopefully can have a shower then relax, having something to drink and eat whilst waiting to board, I believe they have free Wi Fi so I may take the opportunity to let you know how the trip down went. Then its onto the plane, unfortunately I will have to refuse the champagne and settle for something else. I have plenty of reading matter as well as a supply of music, hopefully I will need neither and be able to use what the plane provides to keep me occupied until I fall asleep. It seems by the time I eventually get to my destination I will of been travelling for over 20 hours, for most people not a problem but the trapped nerve in my right shoulder is still causing issues and possibly sitting for all these hours will set off my bad back. Gail my physio has told me to keep doing the exercises she has given me, just hope other passengers and crew do not find it an issue. hopefully my flight socks will help cope with preventing DVTs. Hope there are no screaming children or drunken adults to cope with, not sure if will prefer someone sat next to me who is chatty or quiet

Only 2 more weeks to go to safari 22 June 2014

Well its not long to go now before the big adventure,  I think I have most the things I need like insect repellant, South African Rand money, I have just paid for a lounge pass for the airport so I can relax and have a shower hopefully before the flight, but also ordered flight socks and sorted out my seat on the plane. Just found out my international plug adaptor is not right, so back to thr shops for another.
Think I have all the leads and adaptors for camera etc and hopefully have enough memory cards for my camera and camcorder. How times have changed over the years,  when we used to send postcards from our destinations and never thought of being in touch whilst away whereas now by the magic of technology I will be able hopefully, to keep you readers up to date with the help of the internet and Wi Fi.
I have yet to check everything will go in my case, I would prefer to take the one, but have a luggage allowance to take either a larger case or two smaller ones. It's going to be hard to decide just how many and type of clothes that I will need, for the variation of temperature and environment, plus sunscreen,  aftersun extra shoes and layers of clothes. I have yet to put a range of music on the tablet for the trip but have enough in E books to keep me going for a long time.

Safari here I come 9 June 2014

Well folks the safari to South Africa is not far away, I did worry last month when I had problems with my health,& mainly my back started to play up but also I started getting something that felt like electric shocks down my right arm. Luckily due to Gail and Andrea the physios things have improved, just now have to do more exercises to prevent a re occurrence.
I have had all my inoculations, I had read about monkeys being about the lodge so decided to have the rabies one as well but after buying it was warned I could have a bad reaction to it, so at present have vaccine in my fridge, sob sob. I did contact Saga who are arranging the trip, their view was, if I dont bother the monkeys, they will leave me alone, maybe I should of contacted them first.

I have bought a camcorder for the trip, couldent believe how small it is but can be used as conventional camera also. I have had to buy extra clothes for the trip, that are dark colours for when on safari, but also needed a mixture of warm for the early and late trips out but lighter for the middle of the day, have a list of things need for the trip such as special adapter for their electrical sockets, insect repellent, luckily was able to get this trip in a malarial free zone so one less tablet and adverse reaction to worry about, but have strong painkillers from GP just in case I need them for other aches and pains.
I had decided that when I found out I was travelling with Virgin that I would upgrade on the plane to their economy plus both there and back, because it would give me a better seat and more legroom on the 10 hour flight, I also joined their frequent flyer scheme in the hope it would help for future trips, also Saga had arranged for me to be picked up from home by car and transported to London by them. It was only the other day that I realised how much travelling was involved on this trip. I am being picked up at 1 30 pm on the day, then down to London for the evening flight at 9 30pm, then there is a trip of approximately 3 hours after to the lodge so it looks like in total is will be in excess of 20 hours before I reach my destination.
Well I will close for now but give more background on the trip as I get closer.

The big trip later this year

Some time ago I mentioned about a long complicated trip I wanted to do whilst I could this year. It started with wanting to do a trip with my son to belatedly celebrate his fortieth birthday, when he said he would like to visit the Grand Canyon. This should of happened a couple of years ago but for my health problems, but they made me realise that this was a chance to fulfil some of the places on my Bucket List as well.
So on investigation it seemed we would have to travel to Las Vegas to do this, which suited me because although not a gambler I had always wondered what it was really like,  plus the shows and the Strip intrigued me. Son was only able to have a number of days holiday, plus it needed to be towards the end of the year.
I decided if I was going to do a trip such as this why not do a little more whilst away, so the plan for the big adventure started, I then thought well why not stop off at New York on the way, because previously I had not managed to see all the places I wanted and for reasons I cannot explain I had always wanted to travel on Staten Island Ferry and see the Statue of Liberty close up. I contacted son and asked would he like to add this to the trip, he did not seem to need much encouragement to do this also, so now we had two destinations.

When I looked at Google maps I thought maybe it would be a good time to travel further, so considered Hawaii and a visit to my friend Sofi, who had met up with me over here some years ago. I e mailed her a number of times but have heard nothing, so decided to cancel that but to continue the trip to Australia,  somewhere I had planned to return to many years ago but not got to again so far.
I thought about this and decided again on my list I would like to visit Sydney,  Ayres Rock and maybe the Great Barrier Reef, I then had another look at maps and decided I could indulge myself elsewhere and visit my friend in Penang which I had wanted to do for a number of years, also to see the Christmas Lights in Singapore,  which again had been on my list for many years after a brief trip there back in the 1990s when they were starting to put them up.
WOW this was going to be some trip, but I had realised if I did not do it soon, my health age and travel insurance costs, may prevent me from carrying it out, at this time I had not planned a particular length of time for the trip or a budget, so decided to contact my friendly travel agent Sue and talk it through with her as I did not think I could visit the places I wanted with conventional tours. She came to visit me and gathered information on duration of visits and the path I intended to take and went off to explore options for the trip, it now lookef as though it was on.
When I had time to reflect I thought that there were a few negatives for the trip, firstly, after my son went home I would be on my own with no travelling companion to share the experiences with.But previously when I had hoped to do it with someone special it had fallen through, so maybe doing on my own and seeing who I met on the way would add to the experience, the other things I have had to consider relate to my health, firstly how will my back and pelvis cope with all this travelling, also as I now wear hearing aids it maymake it harder to hear and fully experience some thongs, plus it may make me more vulnerable ad a lone traveller

The Ups And Downs Of Health 2 June 2014

I am sorry readers that I have been so quiet for a while,  but my health has interfered yet again. About two months ago my back went into spasm  and I kept getting pains down my right arm that were like electric shocks. I was aware at the time that I was spending far to long on the computer trying to sort out my holiday in November,  but more of that later in another blog.

The effect on things I could do was quite dramatic, I cannot explain how troubling the pains down my arm were, luckily if thats the word I had had a similar pain in the past and that prompt physio usually resolved it. So off to my two favourite physios Gail and Andrea for treatment, these were topped by Silvain another physion if and when the others were not available, despite their best efforts the pains down the arm did not abate for some considerable time, i am still getting twinges now in fac, it was possibly six weeks or more seeing one of them at least twice per week before there was a lot of change,  but at least they managed to reduce the pain in my lower back. To help  I was taking strong painkillers but only when pain was really bad because I knew the effect they would have on my quality of life and the limited quality of life I would have, also they did little to help with the pains down my arm. The other thing I was doing was having hot and cold compresses frequently through the day to try to reduce the inflamation.

This was all a wake up call and from discussion with physios I realised that I needed to do more exercises myself at home and also to work on my very poor posture as that was making things worse. It seems my right shoulder is coming forward due to this and my arthritis and needs a lot of effort from me to slow it all down. Also I now worry about what would happen when on holiday particularly when I go for my long holiday in November.

The other thing I realised was the need to cut down on computer use and to look at using Dragon voice recognition software more often to carry out tasks. This is quite ironic as I have been doing a fair bit of work with a number of charites etc to do with Cardbox a database facility, in fact for one of them I have now been appointed as Database manager, not quite sure yet what this involves. For some reason the effect of using the tablet does not seem at present to have as much effect on hand and arm, so doing this on it.

Therefore only today I  have Sean  from Sue Jensens company to do some training with the Dragon, coming to help go through better ways of carrying out tasks on the computer. I have only just realised, that the position that I sit in when watching tv and the angle is making my back and posture worse, so I have now ordered a bracket for the wall to raise it to a more sensible height, I wonder why they make these stands so low when as I have now found the middle of the screen should be at the same height as my eyes when sitting, no wonder my posture was worse, there is nothing with the tv to warn of this. More generally when out I am trying to improve my posture,  but after a lifetime of it being so poor its hard to change and sit properly.

My latest trip to London for the wildlife photographer of the year award exhibition 21 March 2014

My latest trip to London for the wildlife photographer of the year award exhibition 21 March 2014

I joined our U3A photography group, a little while ago, we have visited a number of venues, but this one to London seemed particularly interesting, given the fact that I’m going on Safari in the next few months, so I was hoping that this would give me inspiration as well as be a pleasant trip out in good company. The first thing I realised was I would not be ale to achieve a full day with such an early start, so common sense made me realise that I should that I should travel down the day before and then meet up with the others.

Because I have done this trip before it was going to be easy to book the train tickets and hotels, while the train tickets were not a problem other than the fact that I adopted for E tickets and had problems printing them out, but that was quickly solved, trying to find a hotel in a suitable location, at a reasonable price was a much bigger task, but eventually I booked one with travel Lodge, which was not too far away.

I did as I had done previously and went on Facebook to where a group of friends I have in London post I mentioned my trip, for most of them, unfortunately they were unavailable on the day that I was free, which was a shame booked, I was would find other things to do, fortunately close to the date a man called Dave volunteered to meet up and show me round and Maggie, who was been brilliant in the past, at showing myself and others the sights of London, said she would also meet up, but suggested the Tower of London experience as a good place to spend a couple of hours, I had had confirmation from my U3A friends that we would be meeting on the Saturday lunchtime going for a meal and then to the exhibition, so all was arranged.

On the day there were no problems on the train, I met with Dave at Euston, we decided because I only had a backpack not to go to the hotel first but instead to travel to the tower bridge, it’s funny how the brain does not work sometimes properly, the bus we were getting on was what I believe is called the Route Master, a real old boss, complete the conductor that you boarded at the back, it wended its way through the streets of London but then seem to get stuck when we looked out of the window realise we were close to the tower, so you might as well get off, it was only then I realised the bus was something to take a photo of because there are so few of them now, unfortunately, by the time I had got my camera out it had sped off into the distance, never to be seen again.

We walked over to Tower Bridge bought our tickets and spent a couple of pleasurable hours looking at the various exhibits and taking photos, it was interesting to listen to Dave about his various trips and career and life, I had sent a text to Maggie to confirm where we were so we met at about 5 PM, just as it was starting to get dark, which gave me the opportunity to take a series of photos of the tower, Tower Bridge, the Shard and various other places illuminated at night. We then went from meal, which was quite pleasant but in the short time we were there, it quickly filled up and Maggie explained this was typical of London, I felt it was time now to book into the hotel, the other two decided they would travel with me, part of the way which was very kind of them, I could not believe the length of the queues for a ticket on the underground, but once bought there were no problems and Maggie parted with us. I think at Victoria, I really do appreciate the effort she goes to to make these trips so memorable. Dave offered to see me all the way to the hotel, so we continued to Euston and then walked to the hotel, luckily he was able to use his phone and Google maps to find it for us, once booked in I parted with Dave and said I would be in touch when I got back home, but thanked him for his time and effort and kindness.

Went to my room it was a very basic compared to some I had been in, but there again, given its location, not too expensive, luckily it had a bath so I could have a good soak and a drink of tea before resting and watching TV before going to sleep. The hotel did say on its website that there was some traffic noise, even without my hearing aids with the window closed, it was still intrusive, but initially I slept quite well,despite the strange bed that seemed to rock, but woke in the early hours, so found it difficult to get back to sleep again. Eventually did. I got up about eight get washed and dressed, then went looking for somewhere for breakfast, those of you know me will not be surprised that I ended up at McDonald’s. I then went back to the room to sort my things out, then travelled back to Euston to meet up with my U3A friends. We could not believe the queue to get down to the underground and how many people wanted a ticket, including me. Eventually, this was sorted, luckily one of us knew where we were going, so off we went. It was decided we would have a meal first which was very pleasant and again those that know me will understand when I say how pleased I was to find carrot cake was on the menu, I think if I remember correctly it was a Lebanese restaurant.

We then joined a great big long queue to get into the museum, eventually we were inside, again , lots and lots of people and lots and lots of noise, we first went to a talk by a young man who, when he was 14 had been the young wild life photographer of the year, for one so young. He was exceptionally talented and knowledgeable about his subject. We then went to look at the photo exhibition, I had never realised how dedicated some people are to their photography, the time and effort some spent looking for that elusive photo was truly incredible, having said that some of the people lived in areas of the world where it was more conducive to the photos that they took than others. After this we parted with one member who was going on elsewhere, we had a short walk round a small part of museum before it was time to go back to Euston for our train.

We had a drink and cookie there then it was time for the train, we chatted on the train so the time passed quickly, when we got back to Manchester. We got the Metro to Piccadilly gardens and just by good luck the Fountains were working, and displaying in a range of colours which were quite spectacular, so we took a few minutes to get photos before going for the other tram, at Bury. I had just missed my bus so got the taxi, then the task of unpacking doing washing and catching up with those usual day-to-day tasks. It was all a very enjoyable trip in good company, I think I would like to go back to London again maybe spend more time looking at the buildings at night time, but we will have to see.

A Totally New Adventure A Safari At Last 23 March 2014

I promised I would write a blog about the plans I had for a Safari to Africa, so here goes. I had been talking for years about a trip to go on Safari, whilst at Disney, I did go on their imitation Safari, it did have Lions, elephants, giraffes and all sorts of other animals and even had imitation poachers firing guns, but the animals seemed totally disinterested, so I thought the other thing to do is the real thing.

I started to look at holidays and the first problem was to do with medication and travel insurance because of my health issues, in particular, malaria and and malarial medication and its effects on me, the other problem was I was still being investigated for various health issues so was unable to go at that particular time. Last year, I looked again, but unfortunately needed an operation and then something else came up which would have prevented me from travelling that sort of distance, so again the trip was cancelled.

At long last, my health seems to be not too bad at present, I feel my back with the help of painkillers if needed will cope with the holiday so all I had to do them was book it. Not quite so easy as I thought it would be, it seems most people, book their holiday a year or two in advance for this sort of thing, so with only a few options with Saga who given my age and health seem to be the safest option as travel agent, as I was travelling on my own. I contacted them and discovered they had the sort of holiday, I wanted this year. In June, it would be in South Africa for nine nights (two nights flying there and back) so effectively only seven nights, this wasn’t a problem as I felt I would not be able to do a Safari every day and could rest in between.Also I decided to upgrade for the very long flight as it is 10 hours, so now in Economy Plus, bigger better seats,

I also wanted to visit Cape Town on the advice of my physio, so I mentioned this when making the booking as it seemed an exciting add-on to the holiday. The company was able to accommodate me, but the cost for three nights would have come to £1000, I did explore through the website, The Man in Seat 61 travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town by train which would have been a 24-hour journey, but what a fantastic experience to see, unfortunately the dates did not fit in with the holiday, so in the end I decided to discard the Cape Town element maybe to look at that another year if I have enough money.

The holiday will be in the month of July, originally was going to be June, but it appears they did not have enough people, then came the next shock in the letter confirming the holiday, when it explained this is this areas winter period, so don’t forget to bring winter woollies, but also not to bring bright, white, or black clothes, so that was my wardrobe of outdoor gear totally unsuitable, but never mind. It was an excuse to buy some more clothes, while mentioning about buying it has also been a good excuse to buy a new very clever camcorder for the trip. (Still trying to work out how to use it, it’s me not it) I have made an appointment to see the nurse at the GP surgery about any inoculations etc, so I will be ready for the trip.

Well that’s a taster of the planning, I’ve paid my deposit just need to pay the balance, and wait for July to arrive, well actually, maybe not. I am sure there are other things I’m going to have to deal with between now and then to do with the holiday so will keep you up-to-date over the coming months, as usual I hope you enjoyed the read.

Latest News And Ramblings Of My Life 23 March 2014

Firstly I must apologize to people about the delay in posting on here, its just that life seems to of been so busy the last couple of months as, some of the things I hoped to do this year seem to be getting closer to happening after all sorts of setbacks, more details in other blogs, plus other new doors seem to be opening in other ways, so off we go hope you enjoy the Blog.

Those that know me will have heard me many times talking about this Safari. I am one day going to do in Africa. Well after lots of thought. It looks like it might finally be happening, hopefully in July of this year, it will be to South Africa for nine days, what I intend doing is writing a blog about the ups and downs of planning the trip, but then to tell the story as I get nearer and then ultimately let you know how I go on with the trip.

The other thing I have been trying to sort out since my son’s 40th birthday was to finally get round to indulging his wish to go to the Grand Canyon, this will fit in with my interest in visiting Las Vegas, well it looks like this is finally going to happen this year, but is now become a much more interesting and exciting trip than originally planned, guess what I’m going to write a blog about it. How this seems to have taken over my life at present despite the fact the actual holiday is not until much later in the year and has become a sort of round the world trip, so more information to follow.

At the start of the year my life seemed to be going along a fairly even keel with not too much to challenge me, but a plan to make more of my life and to find interesting new challenges. Well, that seems to of happened, now the problem is how to fit everything in, given the restrictions on my health.

Last year, I was introduced to Mindfulness, some of it I feel I have taken on board and have done things to change what and how I do things. Sadly, I find it difficult to stick to the exercises which I am sure would help me even more, unfortunately I have always struggled with sticking to exercise regimes, maybe partly to do with the ME that I have and poor short-term memory.

I also joined the local U3A and now attend regular meetings, as well as joining the photography group and found this is opened all sorts of new and exciting experiences for me, the latest being a trip to London this weekend which was to visit the world wildlife photographer of the year show at the Natural History Museum, but more of that in you’ve guessed it, another blog to follow soon. The group was looking to creating a database of members, by coincidence I was aware of a product that would suit their needs, so became involved in creating this with another of the members, who was now taken it to something much more sophisticated and complex, which seems to be serving the committees needs. About a week ago I got a phone call asking did I want to be the new database manager, well-being, the shy, retiring person I am, I immediately agreed, fame at last, and only after asked the details of what I would need to do. It also seems that I need to join the committee so that I can have access to the members details, so reluctantly have done this. Speaking to the chairman the other week, he was delighted that I had joined the committee, which gave my ego a marvellous boost, err uum, no, it was so there was another male on the committee, as well as himself so we will have to see.

It looks like it’s going to be the year of committees for me, as I am now on our local ME support group also, mainly because they were struggling, good or bad I don’t have a role with them other than to add useful suggestions, attend meetings and other odd tasks. No, wait a minute, I am doing a similar exercise for them for their members database as well as creating a resource database for them. This will help people to find out what resources are out there and how to access them within our ME group. I’ve also joined the Facebook group for our ME group, which has a mixture of very serious and fun discussion on a day-to-day basis. I forgot to say I have a new friend on Facebook, much brighter than me by the name of Filbert Bear, I feel very privileged that he has befriended me has been giving me such helpful advice on a whole range of subjects.

From the Facebook section for the ME group, I have come across a couple of really excellent blogs, one is by a person call Smallfry182, I really enjoy the blogs that she writes, she seems to have a natural talent, although I am not sure that she would believe that, she tells of the ups and downs in her life, she seems to have the ability to write about her life as it is, with the ups and downs, but with a sense of irony and humour that makes it an enjoyable read. If my writing, has made it interesting for you, then below is the link to her blog, I am sure if you are into blogs and learning about people and their lives. This will be a good read.
http://smallfry182.wordpress.com/author/smallfry182/


Well I will leave this for now, because I have to do a blog about this weekend’s trip and then over the next few days, maybe finally start working on a blog about the Safari in July and my other trip towards the end of the year, as usual I hope you have enjoyed the read.