Today is Joshua's first birthday! And what a great year it has been.
He is 84cm tall, weighs 11.98kg and has 7 teeth. He also started to walk all by himself 3 days ago (on Monday)!
Today we held a birthday party for him with all his little friends and tonight we will have a braai (BBQ) and drinks with his bigger friends. OK, so they're my friends.
Below I have added a collage of Joshua's first year!
HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY SON!
Chat soon,
DelBoy
I'm very excited! My photoblog has been nominated for an award!
Please vote for me! (Whether you like my pics or not! ;-))
Chat soon,
DelBoy
It's back! Foto Friday returns with a panorama from my recent travels.
The town of Soufrieres on the island of St Lucia. Behind the town is a smouldering, active volcano. To the right are the two famous "Pitons" after which the local beer (tastes like Corona) is named.
The island is a magnificent green jungle! Loved it!
Chat soon,
DelBoy
While I sort through my 700 photos, I thought I'd tell you a little more about the good, the bad and the ugly from my trip.
The good:
The food - American's sure know how to eat! Cheap food, fast food, HUGE portions!
The shopping - one word: "cheap". Everything. But especially food and electronics. Ipods over there are half the price they are over here. Same with digital cameras and laptops. I was in geek heaven!
Miami Beach - We spent 2 days here before sailing off to the Caribbean. It's unlike any other city I have visited. Very Latino. Some shops even have signs in the window which read "English spoken here!"
Convenience - London has some 24 hour corner shops and nightclubs, but Miami had 24 hour restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, shops, pharmacies and more.
Beaches - In the Caribbean. Not one bad experience. They were all amazing, but my favourites were Barbados and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas (a private island owned by the cruise line)
The bad:
Madrid Airport - Even though we were in transit, we had to pass through passport control. Fine, except that I had bought a litre of Jim Beam in the UK duty free shops and since you can't travel with more than 100ml of liquid through European airports, the b@$t@£d$ at customs took it off me! "Drink it or we must destroy it". I was tempted, but it was 8am! On the way back to the UK, a bunch of South Africans on the flight were caught out 'cos they didn't have Schengen visas to enter Spain! But they weren't actually entering Spain, they were in transit to the UK!
US Taxis - Besides the rip-off prices (all up we spent around US$250 in airport transfers), we always had trouble finding cabs that would carry us 'cos we had a baby and they won't take you without a baby seat in the cab. :-(
Pedlars - the only thing that I didn't like about Barbados. On the beach you never got a minutes peace and quiet. "You wanna buy jewlry ma'n?", "You wanna go snorkelling ma'n?", "You wanna...?"
Sea sickness - Not me. But while we were out on the dive boat, 3 of the other divers fed the fish. LOL
The ugly:
Iberia - We travelled with the Spanish national airline. Never again! The service wasn't bad 'cos it was non existent. The food wasn't very nice. There were no TVs in the back of the seats, only communal ones. My earphones didn't work anyway, so it didn't matter. There wasn't even any running water in the toilets on the way back from the USA! Somebody threw up in one of the toilets and the stewards left it. You can imagine the smell permeating through the plane!
I have posted some photos on my photoblog to whet your appetite while I resize the rest for the web.
Chat soon,
DelBoy
I'm back. Back to work tomorrow. Soooo looking forward to all that catch-up. Emails, paperwork, orders. I have to recruit new staff and my assistant manager is leaving too for greener pastures.
Now that you all feel sorry for me (not!), I'll tell you what a fantastic time I had! Beautiful white sand beaches, warm Caribbean waters, 5* service on the cruise ship, free food served 24-7 (I ate pizza at least once every day!), cheap booze. It all adds up to a great holiday, great tan and an extra 5kg on the waistline!
I scuba dived on one of the best wreck dives in the world and I even managed to do some geocaches!
I promise that the pics will be posted soon.
Chat soon,
DelBoy
I'm outta here again! Tomorrow is my last day at work before we fly to Miami and then head off on our Southern Caribbean cruise.
Today was spent geocaching. For those that don't know, it's a techy way of hunting treasure. Check out this website for more info - geocaching.com. Today I hid my first cache.
Last week I went to watch a football/soccer game. It was the first time that I saw my side (Tottenham Hotspur) play. What an experience! I'm not really a soccer fan (more a rugby man), but the atmosphere was fantastic! The crowd, the noise, the lights - wow! I'll post some photos when I get back from my holidays.
I'll catch you all soon guys. Don't miss me too much!
Chat soon,
DelBoy
