Which One Would You Choose?

Today is a Very Important Day in the UK....it's the General Election! We get to choose which of these three chaps' parties will be in charge.....

David Cameron (Conservatives), Nick Clegg (Lib Dems) and Gordan Brown (Labour - currently PM)
aka

The Devils You Don't Yet Know or the Devil You Do?
or maybe...
Speak No Evil, Smell No Evil, Think No Evil?

I'd rather be voting for another 'David'....the Prime Minister played by Hugh Grant in "Love Actually". At least he knows all the right moves to get a party started.....

Still, at least we do get a choice here. If my life had continued on another path in another county, come election day I'd be faced with this unpalatable option....

Where In The World Wednesday: Las Vegas

Believe it or not, it's Wednesday again and time for Classy in Philadelphia's feature...Where In The World Wednesday. If you'd like to take part too, all you have to do is post a picture (or many like I do!) of someplace in the world. Don't forget to use the WITWW button in your post, and to visit Classy in Philadelphia later to post a comment on her WITWW, so that other participants can visit your blog too.

Today, I'm heading for the bright lights of Las Vegas. I'd always wanted to see the dazzling array of neon in Sin City, so I was really excited when our road trip through the Western USA took us there for two nights, back in October 2008.

Fremont Street Experience

The Flamingo

Luxor

The Strip

The Stratosphere

We stayed in the Stratosphere hotel, which is a little bit out of the way at the far end of The Strip. We quickly learnt that we couldn't just walk from one end of The Strip to the other. All the hotels are HUGE, as are their impressive shopping malls...making the distances between hotels overwhelming. I wish we could have stayed at the Bellagio (of "Ocean's Eleven" fame) ....

Fountain show in front of the Bellagio

Harvest display in the Bellagio Flower Court

We also quickly learnt that Las Vegas is geared to part you from your money! Every hotel has a casino....easy to get into, but try getting out again in a hurry....it's a maze of neverending slot machine and gambling tables. We did have a brief gamble, setting $10 as our budget (yeah, last of the big spenders!) and went $16 up on a slot machine, then lost it all within a few minutes. And that was the end of that....

The Venetian

The Venetian

New York! New York!

I think everyone should try and see Las Vegas once in their lifetime, but to be honest, for me that once was enough. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to see and do there, apart from the obvious gambling...the shopping malls are spectacular, the choice of shows unbelievable and the lights are truly amazing to behold.....but I was exhausted by the sensory overload and nervous energy of Sin City, and frankly quite relieved to be moving on to the green tranquility of Yosemite.

Going to the chapel....

A Welsh Weekend

Monument to Llewelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan at Llandovery
Read more about him HERE

Years ago I watched a film with the longwinded title "An Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain"...a sweet but slightly boring tale set in 1917, about two English cartographers (the pompous Garrad and his junior, Anson) who arrive at the fictional Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw ("Rough Fountain" in Welsh) to measure its "mountain" – only to cause outrage when they conclude that it is only a hill because it is slightly short of the required 1000 feet. The villagers conspire with Anson (played by Hugh Grant) to delay the cartographers' departure while they build an earth cairn on top of the hill to make it high enough to be considered a mountain.

This film was forefront in my mind this past long weekend in Carmarthenshire, where, without wanting to make a mountain out of a molehole, I was slightly disappointed to see what in my book would be hailed as hills, but are most certainly mountains to the fiercely proud Welsh. Very beautiful, nonetheless!

It was a lovely, relaxing weekend of long walks and overeating. The weather was better than we'd hoped for...it did rain (a lot!) but somehow we managed to avoid the odd deluge and hail storm with impeccable timing and even enjoyed a few hours' sunshine. Our base was a cosy cottage with log stove and beamed ceilings, the perfect place to return after some pretty strenuous hiking.

We saw ruined castles, sheep, wild ponies, sheep, goats, sheep, a cave, forests, sheep, rivers and waterfalls, sheep and lovely stone churches and cottages (did I mention we saw some sheep?). I felt at one with nature...and indeed when nature called....ladies you will be thrilled to learn....I put my hot pink She Wee to some field tests. I can report it works a treat (or should that be trickle?).

A selection of photos from the weekend (click on any to enlarge)....

Carreg Cennen Castle

Carreg Cennen Castle

Lambs

Goat and kids

Wild ponies

Foal

Usk Reservoir

Stream

Cave

Looking down to Myddfai village

Myddfai parish church (origins 14th century)

Sheep

More sheep

Cloudy evening

A different type of mountain...

Hope your weekends were as good!

Notes From Nat

Dear Neighbours' Cats

OK, I've now had enough of your crap...literally! It's bad enough I spend my days picking your shit out from my flowerbeds and lawn, but waking me up at 5am with your caterwauling outside my bedroom window is enough to give me a hairball!

What were you fighting over...who gets to crap on my doorstep?

Be afraid, my feline fiends...I'm investing in a pump action water gun!

...................................................


Dear Rain Cloud

Yes, yes, I know you’ve been a good sport and kept away for almost a month....and yes, it’s been the driest, sunniest, hottest April in history and everything is blooming with springtime delight. But could you do me just one small favour and sod off from your current position of lurking with gloomy intent over Wales? I know that fair country is renowned for its abundance of leeks, sheep and rain, but I’d be very grateful if you could let us have just a bit of sunshine for our long weekend in the Brecon Beacons. Otherwise, instead of the famous Black Mountain, all we’ll get to see is Black Cloud....and soggy sheep.

...................................................


Dear Toe Rag Who Hacked My Facebook Account

What a sad little life you must lead, spending all your time trawling the net on the off-chance that you can sneak into other people’s private email accounts and post malicious comments that you are not brave enough to write in your own name! Did it give you a thrill? I hope so, because I reckon you don’t have much happiness in that lonely, perverse life of yours. May I suggest you apply for a personality transplant immediately, and do something vaguely useful with your life?

Yours truly

Nat

Where In The World Wednesday: The Maldives

Wow, it's Wednesday already, so that means it's time for Where In The World Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Classy in Philadelphia. Why don't you take part too? All you have to do is post a picture (or many like I do!) of someplace in the world. Don't forget to use the WITWW button in your post, and to visit Classy in Philadelphia later to post a comment on her WITWW, so that other participants can visit your blog too.


Today, I am going to brag unashamedly tell you about the best holiday I ever had.... in the paradise that is the Maldives. It is impossible to describe the beauty of this archipelago nation, that is made up of 1,200 white coral sand islands, each ringed with turquoise shallow waters and sitting in the deep azure blue of the Indian Ocean. Just before starting new jobs back in February 2007, B and I spent a blissfully relaxing fortnight on the tiny island of Fihalhohi, in the South Male atoll.

North side beach on Fihalhohi

South side

South side
 

Island buildings

We splashed out and stayed in a water bungalow, which is built on stilts over the lagoon of the island....

Water bungalows

Our bungalow, #47

View back to the island from our bungalow

The warm waters of the Maldives are absolutely teeming with tropical fish, turtles, sharks and sting rays. We spent hours snorkelling every day, and saw so many beautiful sea creatures. Unfortunately, the coral reefs have been bleached by the El Nino effect, and there was much damage from the tsumani that struck the islands with horrific consequences on Boxing Day, 2004. Slowly, though, the corals are beginning to recover and we did see some bright red and purple coloured ones.
 
The highlight of the trip was the chance to try some introductory dives. I was nervous as hell the first time we went down, and clung onto the instructor for the whole 45 minutes we were down there....his hand had turned a lovely shade of purple by the time we resurfaced! My main problem was getting my buoyancy right, as, blubber makes you float and I do have more than my fair share of that! On the first dive, the instructor placed some extra weights on the top of my air tank, right behind my neck...that meant that at around 10 metres, I was pushed by the weights into a downward roll that I couldn't seem to get out of.... luckily he managed to move the weights underwater, and I could control my depth more easily. Once I'd calmed down and was finning along beside him, I could appreciate the lion fish, octopuses (octopi?) and moray eels that were to be seen in abundance at 12 metres. And my second dive was brilliant...
 

 

Learning to dive

 
Every evening, we'd watch the sun go down at the Blue Lagoon Bar at the west end of the island. Cocktail in hand, we saw some magnificent sunsets.....
 

 

  

While we were at dinner, the housekeeping staff would fold back the bed sheet (it was way too hot and humid to sleep under anything more) into beautiful shapes.....

  

 
Sadly, if global warming continues, the Maldives could sink beneath the ocean within 100 years. The Maldives government is doing all it can to fight the sea, but the fate of the country is ultimately a global responsibility. If we lose the Maldives, it would indeed be Paradise Lost.....
 
 
 

Growing Old Ungraciously

Ever suddenly found your age catching up with you? I’ve mentioned here before that inside my head I feel like I stopped getting older at about 25...but apparently, there’s no stopping the sands of time silently yet steadily falling through that great hourglass of life.

What’s triggered this bout of melancholy, you’ll be wondering? Well, it all started in the spa this weekend just past...hang on...you thought I was in pampering heaven the weekend before this one, an indulgence from my darling husband to compensate for the Amsterdam trip that got smothered under a cloud of volcanic ash? True...but I was again to be found luxuriating in the spa this Saturday just past, this time a treat for my mom’s birthday that I’d booked months ago. Yes, it’s a hard life, but someone’s got to live it...and after what I learnt on Saturday, I’ll be needing all the spa days I can get, to stave off the ravages of old age.

The setting for the spa this weekend was not as tranquil as the fabulous, exclusive Henlow Grange of last Sunday... instead, it was part of a hotel, a spa offering good treatments but unfortunately sharing the leisure facilities (pool, sauna, steam room) with the hotel. We arrived mid morning, planning to do a bit of gentle swimming and take a sauna before having lunch, with the facial and manicure treatments scheduled for the afternoon....only to discover a pool full of shrieking children! Not exactly what we’d had in mind, but we decided to nevertheless make the best of a bad deal, and went to relax in the relative quiet of the sauna.

We’d just settled ourselves into a pleasantly, heat-induced drowsy state, when we heard a little boy come running over from the pool and excitedly discover the adjoining steam room. “Come on in everyone!” he yelled back to the squealing masses in the pool, “It’s nice and hot in here!” Two little girls (most probably his sisters) skipped over to join him...but they weren’t quite as enthusiastic as he was about the steam room, only staying in it a few seconds before they wanted to explore their other options. Much to our horror, they were looking set to join us in the sauna, but they were quickly put off when their brother warned them loudly:

“No, don’t go in there....it’s full of OLD people!”

The two old people in question just looked at each other and smiled....we were more relieved about not having our sauna disrupted by fidgety children, than insulted by his ageism. Later though, his words started to rile me a bit, and I began wondering exactly how old I really do look...but I then I realised that anyone over the age of about 18 must appear desperately ancient to a boy of about 10. Thankfully, soon after this the children’s mother started rounding them up to leave, and we were left in peace to dip our decrepit old bodies into the pool....

Age is in the eye of the beholder...an old crone or a young girl?