Not feeling it

Hi guys and gals.  This is going to be a quick one today, I’m nursing a shocking headache and really just aren’t feeling it.

I worked out this morning, which was fun, I’m a little sore, but I did much better than I expected given I’ve had 5 weeks off from my normal routine.  Which came as a little bit of a surprise, but a pleasant one.

Other than that, I’m trying to slide back into my normal life, and get this place sorted out.  Unpacking, bed building, the usual stuff.

Well, that’s it, I’m going to wander off and wait for these pain killers to kick in.

Hooroo!

Driving myself crazy

Well driving anyway, that’s pretty much all I seem to have done today.  But admittedly it’s been fun.
The day itself was pretty spectacular, but now I’m home and ready to unwind, as tomorrow, I have to assemble the new bedroom suite I bought today for the guest room.

Oh, and it’s my first day back at the gym in over 6 weeks.

I’m gunna be sore!

Hooroo!

Back in favour

Well, although I may have skipped jet lag by having a holiday from our holiday in Hawaii on the way home, the cats ensured last night that they reclaimed their ownership of me by keeping me awake almost all night by being overtly affectionate.

It’s nice to be missed, but to say I’m a little tired this morning would be an understatement.

I’m not complaining though, it’s much nicer than being completely snubbed.

Gotta run though, tonight’s our first night back at bowling, and I still have to go collect Mark from work, have dinner, and then hit the lanes.

Hooroo!

Reunited!

They’re home, after being left at the boarding kennel for 5 weeks, Mulder, Dolce, Vita and Oliver (all names are in order of introduction into our lives), are all settling back in to their normal routines.

Not withstanding there were some issues with the boarding kennels, for some reason despite my writing out the dates several times, and then going over them, AND hand packaging and labeling medications up until the 23rd of April, the kennel staff still had us listed as collecting the pets on Sunday 20th April.
Not that they called to see where we were, and they had all of my contact details, and I had a phone with me at almost all times.

Nevertheless they’re home, and I haven’t paid for the additional 6 days of accommodation that they tried to charge me, as I’d pre-paid before we left.  Their clerical error is not mine, and I explained several times, and until this afternoon I was under the impression that I’d paid for the entire time we were away.

I will however reserve any judgements on what I think of the facility until I’ve spoken with their Manager tomorrow.

I will say this though, they pets are healthy, happy, and despite having Chronic Kidney Disease, Mulder is happy, well nourished and a picture of health, so as far as how they look after the pets, I certainly have no complaints.

Clerically speaking though.  There’s a lot to be desired.  There are no printed receipts, no computerised date services, nothing is itemised etc.

But, thank you to Kayla the Assistant Manager there for sorting out the issues this afternoon and allowing us to have our pets back without further financial expenditure.  I know it can’t have been fun for her to have two angry pet owners there, but on my part (not Mark’s) I retained my composure the whole time, especially when I could see she was also visibly upset.  No foul there, I can’t fault her, she was helpful, listened the whole time and on every other occasion I’ve been to the facility she’s been great.  Unfortunately, when I checked in, someone else helped me, and that’s where it all went wrong.

So while I won’t recommend them right now, I’m not going to be negative either.

The pet’s are all healthy and happy, and I have them back!

Colour me happy!

Hooroo!

Obscenely early!

How excited am I?  It’s 3.42am in the morning in Hawaii, and I’m awake, and packing my last few items in preparation for our transfer from the Hotel to the Airport in readiness for our flight back to the mainland.

Hawaii to Los Angeles, then back to Seattle.  We should arrive in Seattle some time around 8.30pm this evening…

Urgh!

As sad as it is to be leaving, it won’t be long now until I’m back in my own bed, and then reunited with the pets.

It’s hard to believe that after all the waiting, and the countdown until I left for this holiday, to believe that it’s all finally coming to an end, and that five weeks is over.

Time flies when you’re having fun…  and when you’re not sometimes too.

So, farewell all, adieu, cheerio, next time I type here it’ll be from the mainland of America, and more than likely from Redmond, Washington.

Hooroo!

Airborne on the last day

Well this is it.  It’s our last full day on vacation in Hawaii.  The culmination of 5 weeks of touring around the world.

It all started back on March 20 with a flight out to Edinburgh, Scotland for my close friend Luke’s wedding, then a brief stay in London, then off to Paris, down to Melbourne to spend time with family and friends and to meet my new nephew; Jack, and Mark’s new niece; Chloe, on my home turf back in Australia, then to Northern Australia; Darwin for my friend Tammy’s wedding, then off to Japan for a few days, then Waikiki, Hawaii for 6 days to recover and unwind from it all.

So here I am.  The Hawaiian Gods appear to have pulled out all the stops, the skies are clear, the ocean is crystalline, the weather as always is awesome, and to top it off, the day started with a one hour helicopter tour around the island.

Now, we’re back at the hotel, and while I have every intention of getting as much swimming and sun time in as I can today, I also have to do the drudgeries of packing again for our final trip home.  Which commences around 4.00am tomorrow morning for our transfers to the airport.  Argh!

But, don’t think we’ll be back in Seattle too soon, due to flights and a layover in Los Angeles, we won’t be home until almost 9pm tomorrow night.

The best part, will be that the morning after, on the Sunday, I’ll be straight in the car and off to collect and reunite myself with the pets.  This is the longest I’ve ever been separated from them ever.
Mulder has been apart from me for four weeks in the past, but he stayed in his own home with my house mate at the time so the disruption to his life was minimal.  He still snobbed me for a full 2 weeks to punish me though, so it’ll be interesting to see how he reacts this time.

Ok, best go, there are some more photos to be taken, things to be sorted, and as I previously mentioned, sunning and swimming to be done, and then catching up with friends again this afternoon and evening.

Until then, Aloha, Maholo and Hooroo! 🙂

Going down in the Atlantis

I’m getting pretty good at posting in the past tense about the previous day now.  Which is probably a good thing, as I really am trying to spend as much time away from my laptop as I can.  I am in Hawaii after all.

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day.  Although I didn’t sleep well the previous night due to a film crew being on the beach outside our hotel room all night filming.

I think it was for a commercial or something beach / travel related, but I am only guessing, and I only reached that assumption because in the hour that I watched, I saw the same man and woman, run, and re-run the same twelve steps of beach at least 200 times. *laugh*

Anyway, when I woke up again around 4.45am they were still at it, and were only starting to pull down the light reflectors at 8am in the morning.  A long night for them, and a long night for me since the light they were using kept me awake most of the night, despite the curtains of our room being closed.

Lack of sleep wasn’t going to stop me from getting out and about though.  We showered, went downstairs to the Hotel restaurant; Shore Bird to the breakfast buffet, then grabbing our cameras head off along the beach to Atlantis Submarine tours where we’d booked an underwater tour in the submarine that they call the “Premium; World’s largest recreational submarine”.

The ride starts with a 15 minute trip from the shore to the submarine, during which we’re all briefed via video on the safety precautions.  Think jets.  Where the hostess shows you where the exits are and oxygen masks.  It’s much the same, but with a lot more water involved. *laugh*

Once out to the sub we all boarded, took our seats, each with our own porthole.  The trip itself lasted for roughly an hour taking us to a depth of 105 feet.  We saw several artificial reefs, sunken ships and fighter planes, and all the assorted fish that had taken up residence around and in them.  The highlight though were the two sea turtles we saw resting on one of the boats, one of which swam off as we cruised past.

Very exciting!  Again, as always, there are plenty of photos that I’ll upload once I’m back on the mainland.

Once back on the island from the tour, it was salad for lunch, a short rest, then off to the beach for a swim, then back to the hotel pool for a hot tub, another swim, and then to read for a while on a lounge chair while we waited for our friends; John and Brian to arrive, as they’d just landed on the island earlier in the day.

Reunited with them, we hit the bar for a couple of drinks before going out for dinner at a brilliant restaurant called Roys, across the road from our hotel.  Then back to our Hotel bar for a final evening drink before saying our goodbyes, and hitting the bed and lapsing into much needed sleep.

So, here I am, that was yesterday.  Today is well and truly on the way, we’ve had a relaxing breakfast, are enjoying the sights and sounds of the beach below, and about to go out and spend another relaxing day on the island.  Probably not until I’ve done the laundry.  Which isn’t that exciting given our location, but the gym is next door so I think I’m going to have a much needed workout while the washing goes through, then hit the beach afterwards.

Before I go though, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JAMIE AND DAVID!  Hope you both have a brilliant day!

Cheerio!

For they are jolly good fellows…

Dear Jamie and David,

CONGRATULATIONS and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

If my calendar isn’t telling lies, it’s 11 years today (Australian Time)!

Wishing you both all the health, happiness and joy you both deserve, and I’m happy to consider you two of my closest friends.  You’re an awesome couple!

My Mum thinks you’re alright too! 😉

Again, Happy Anniversary Guys!  Hope you have a very special day, and I’ll be thinking of you as I laze in the sun, drinking some fruity alcoholic cocktail from a pineapple in your honour.  😉

Cheers!

Island monotony

Bloody hell, it’s yet another nice day here in Hawaii.   I don’t know how these people live with it.

Blue skies, crystalline blue seas, the sounds of waves crashing on golden yellow sand, it’s terrible.

<Insert raucous laugher here>

Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day, aside from being dragged by Mark to an “Island Activities Orientation Breakfast”.
For those of you who have never experienced one of these, be warned.  I won’t say don’t do one, as they’re actually quite informative, and we got a bit out of the first one, but being forewarned, is definitely being forearmed.

These breakfasts themselves are essentially a method for corporations to tap into the tourist market to sell their products, essentially in this case, tourist activities.  This not a one-way street, for the tourist there’s quite a lot to be had.  Firstly you get a free breakfast, you do have to be up early in the morning, and you do lose a couple hours of your day, but then you have the option to book activities often at a cheaper price.

What you do get though at the end, is the big opportunity to receive some form of reward if you commit to sitting through another lecture on timeshare accommodations.  Now obviously there’s some benefit for some people, I’m not one of them.  Even during the educational portion of the breakfast (on both occasions now, more so the second one since I had a “been there done that” mentality, oh and the presenter was as boring as Bat Sh_t)

The first time we attended one of these was on our first visit to Hawaii back in October of last year; 2007.  We booked a tour of the Big Island to see the sights and the volcanoes.  We expected Lava, we didn’t get it, they neglected to tell us until we were actually part way through the tour, that if you want to see lava, you need to hire a helicopter.  Let’s just say I was pretty pissed off.

I digress, something that I’m apparently very good at. 😉

So, you can see with a free breakfast, and trip bookings these orientations are not a complete waste.  In fact with our last booking we also were given a voucher for future accommodation, and we’ve used it.

The second breakfast…  We were invited to this one as it was part of our travel booking, we slept in and missed it.  Shame!  You can imagine how heart broken I wasn’t… 😉

Unfortunately though, two activities that we were interested in (one more of Mark’s choice, I’m still not decided yet) we’d been unable to locate elsewhere.  So Mark contacted the people who ran the orientation and they told us that if we found our own way to the venue we’d be allowed to join.  Since it was literally 2 minutes away on foot, this wasn’t going to be a problem.  So next morning (yesterday) we woke early, dressed and joined the “party”.

Unusually for Hawaii, there were no smiling faces in the welcoming (or not so welcoming) party, the breakfast was a “full American”, bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns and two token pieces of pineapple.  I ate the pineapple and a mouthful of eggs.  I have to insert here, of all the things the Hawaiians excel at, scrambled eggs is not one of them, they always have the texture of rubber!  Anyway, everything on the plate appeared to be dripping with oil, so I passed on it.

The presenter of the activity information was a nice older Hawaiian man, who welcomed everyone heartily, but doled out information in a manner too slow and too wordy for my liking, but as I’ve mentioned, this was not my first orientation, so I wasn’t really interested.  I’d also told Mark he should go by himself, but he apparently needed me to be there as well – grr!

So while trying to appear fully engrossed in the proceedings, I busily chatted with my friends via SMS and email on my phone to entertain myself.

The short story is, that after flicking through the activity guide, I identified that the two activities we were looking for, were not on offer, so I sent Mark to go and ask one of the other staff if they had any information.  He instantly whined “why do I have to ask?”, to which I replied/snarled “you dragged me here, you ask the question”.

He did, they didn’t, we left.  Probably leaving a few people feeling jealous that we’d escaped while they hadn’t.  😉

So, don’t be put off by the idea of an Orientation Breakfast, they’re a fantastic resource, but do be aware that they’re time consuming, and often come with a catch; timeshare at the end.  But it doesn’t cost you a cent to say No either.

There’s much to be gained, at a the price of your time.

Oh, the activities we were looking for:  Water activities on the ocean inclusive of boat ride to the location, jet ski’s, parasailing, snorkeling etc, and shark cage diving.  The latter activity is the one I’m not completely sold on.  I am completely fascinated by all things sea related, and am engrossed in all things shark…  I just don’t want to swim with them.  I really should have paid attention to my parents as a child when they told me NOT to read the book; Jaws.

Oh well.  I’ve swung back and forth on wanting to do the shark dive for days now.  Some moments yes, the rest NO!

Sadly (yeah right!) the shark activity is booked out until the Monday after we leave.  Awwww! 😉

We have however booked a one hour helicopter trip around the island, and a submarine tour of the reefs.

The submarine tour is today, and I can’t wait!  It’ll be great fun, and my preferred way to see sharks! 😉

Although who knows, maybe next time I’ll go through with it.

Hope your day is awesome wherever you are!

I’ve a beach with my name on it that I have to get to.

Tuesday and it’s bliss!

It’s yet another stunning day here on the island, and I’m taking the time while I digest my breakfast to blog.

If you’ve not been to Hawaii you have to, it’s awesome.

But, rather than sit here and attempt to describe it, I’m going to go get my towel, bathers and head down to the beach and get some sun, surf and sand.

There’s no point sitting in a hotel all day blogging when I can be outside enjoying it.

So Aloha! 😉