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| Cruise wear for older nurses |
What do you think of the tank top I picked up on one of my Frenchy's stops? I think I shall be a little bit of both on my vacay. The trip with my travel buddy to have passport photos taken on Monday was necessitated by the fact that we booked a cruise for April. We didn't really set out to do that when she came down to walk the dog with me on Friday and then have a cup of tea but one thing led to another and.....Vacations to Go had such a great deal on a 7 day cruise out of Tampa (where we both really wanted to visit) on the Norwegian Dawn with port calls in Honduras, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel plus two sea days from April 7 - 14th and since the price was so good, we might as well book a balcony and Air Canada (of all companies - it's usually the most expensive) had an excellent seat sale on....well you know how that kind of thinking goes and it results in a great vacation booked. We're going to spend a couple of days before and a day after the cruise in Tampa as well. A passport has to be good for six months past travel so we're in the renew mode. Fortunately the government has made the process considerably less painful now where you can fill out the two page form online and print it, then take it with two passport photos to the office - none of that guarantor stuff. Which we shall certainly do when we go to the city to visit our friend and scrapbook for the day.
Saturday was spent with two coworkers doing the Christmas Crawl in our local town and this was a chance to sample nibbles, see all kinds of neat gift ideas and enjoy a nice lunch at Charlotte Lane (my belated b'day lunch which my friend treated me to) with an additional former coworker. So this is what retired folks do eh? We got back in time for me to walk the dog and head out for a 60th birthday celebration for another coworker. We played games from childhood (I landed flat out trying to skip and fell over at hopscotch) followed by visiting and a great potluck meal. The shore captain joined us a bit late as he was dealing with the tides and grounding out / floating a boat to put a buoy catcher around the prop.
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| Beauty eh? |
Sunday I gave myself permission to have the day off. I had intended to go the writing group meeting but.....there are only so many hours in the day and days in the week. So I caught up on my unread newspapers and emails, downloaded an e-copy of Echo Heron's latest book - it's not a nursing story it's a historical novel called Noon at Tiffanys and I can't wait to get into it on my new Kindle, walked the dog - beautiful sunset here on the right - and generally enjoyed myself. Baked some cranberry scones for the life partner from the milk calendar - recipe link here - they were yummy:
Recently, in addition to the power Frenchy shopping (and ooh la la I have made some great scores) the results of which shall not be revealed publicly until after Santa visits, I have been doing some serious online research for DIY projects and procuring of supplies. These two endeavours are in keeping with the 'buy nothing new' decree for Christmas this year. Everything must either be self created or repurposed. I can attest that it has relieved a great deal of seasonal stress - and that's even before I begin all the creating.
I have been shopping online as well for some items on my to-do list. My ethernet to usb adapter for use north of 60 arrived from Apple yesterday - UPS was getting so insistent on trying to deliver it they left warning sticky notes as it was the second attempt so I had to direct them to my neighbours. My clinical practice guidelines textbook arrived - if something sounds too good to be true, it likely is - and it's an earlier edition than I 'thought' I'd purchased. Inattention is the hazard of late night shopping online. Tonight I ordered a travel light therapy lamp (on the suggestion of a professional) for dealing with the 24 hours of darkness I'm heading to in January - to reset my circadian rhythms and reduce disorientation. Not cheap but....if it works. I was reminded of my return to the top of the world by this article both online and picked up by the provincial newspaper about judges working in Nunavut:
On a less humorous note I was reminded of the reality of traveling in the north by a FaceBook post from a coworker who was heading back to Kitikmeot the following day. She brought the crash last weekend of a small plane to our attention - the men were being flown out of a mine site near Snow Lake, northern Manitoba to Winnipeg. The pilot was the fatality and there were another seven injured. The small planes, the over whelming work at the health centre that day was sobering for those who travel frequently:
Today I took the car in for servicing - got to maintain it until summer is the plan - shopped at Frenchy's while I waited then accompanied a friend to clean out some old RNANS materials stored at the hospital and we rewarded ourselves with lunch at the bistro where the food is good and the service rather uneven. Got caught up on all the news. Came home to walk the dog with my buddy and as we returned down the driveway we were met by....Gary who had just been out for a stroll himself. I don't think he's learned to open the door, he likely escaped (and influenced Stanley to do the same) while I was bringing parcels in from the car but it was disconcerting. And Stan being such a fraidy cat was hiding until dark, then skittish and had to be coaxed in and is finally recovering from all the excitement now. Those kitty boys!
Well, enough catching up. Oh, as well my swimsuit (obviously NOT for the north of 60 but for the cruise) arrived from LLBean and it looks good - my self esteem isn't strong enough tonight to try it on and look in the mirror, I'll think about that tomorrow. As well as try to straighten this place up a bit as I've had notice of a visit tomorrow afternoon from a coworker.
