It was a case of me being ‘over-ambitious’.  What am I talking about? Read on…
Ok, I know I haven’t posted for a while, and I recently promised (on facebook or twitter) a string of new posts which haven’t yet transpired.   So let me just bring everyone up to speed.

Cruise
You might know by now that we went on Independence of The Seas for a second time in May and you might be wondering where the promised review is.

Well, first job was to upload the photos to my facebook account so hopefully you have trawled through those.   My next job was to download the masses of video from the various SD cards to my network drive, a task that took days not hours!

And you will know of course that I have then suffered from the death of my faithful laptop and eventually bit the bullet and splashed out on an all singing all dancing Intel i7 laptop, which isn’t having any difficulty at the moment handling the huge video files.

So where’s the video?  Well, again, my old video program wasn’t up to editing 4K so I’ve also had to upgrade the software, and I’ve plumped for WeVideo online editing, which was relatively cheap compared to purchasing a new software package, works really well, but even so its taking me a bit of time to learn my way round.  Plus the video files are just huge!  I’ve been on it a month now and I have the first 5-10 minutes sorted.  I think there’s going to have to be more than one video – I’m not a great fan of 1 hour long you-tube films, I’m sure that puts people off watching them.

And the written review?  I can only apologise, I’ve pushed that to one side in the eagerness to get started on my first video, and now I know that’s going to be a few weeks in preparation I’m going to set to work on my post instead.

Bournemouth and Poole
We recently set off for the weekend in Bournemouth and Poole, stopping on the way at Whittlebury Hall and staying for the duration of the trip at Holiday Inn Express Poole. Reviews of both hotels to follow, although to be honest we are committed to Holiday Inn for the time being via our IHG credit card which is yielding good discounts over most website prices, the downside being that the reviews are going to sound very much ‘samey’ because the hotels are, well very much ‘samey’.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a great stay in Poole.

As far as the resorts are concerned, its a different matter.  Poole wasn’t all we had hoped and less than Sue remembered from her childhood days, and we actually had a nice stay and forgot to take many photos, so there isn’t much to post on here.   We also had big plans for Bournemouth – Park up for the day, stroll around the beach and town, afternoon tea in a local tea shop, and then the Jane McDonald concert in the evening – the principle reason for the trip.  However, we hadn’t counted on the £15+ parking fee levied by the council on all the parking, and there was no free parking in site, so we turned around and headed for Poole.  Which was still not free, but considerably less for the day.

Now you may say that after driving 300+ miles and spending £300+ on accommodation, it was a bit defeatist to NOT visit for a measly £15.  But come on, I’m about to spend money in your town, supporting your local businesses.  Why the high parking prices?  Probably no-one down there notices, with their range rovers, merc’s and porsches.

So, unfortunately no review of Bournemouth.  Except to say the Pavillion is a nice theatre – We had very good seats for the concert.

Beaulieu – National Motor Museum
It had been our intention to visit on the Monday and post a review, but on waking found it pouring down with rain, and not really the weather for walking around the grounds.  We decided instead to have a leisurely drive home, stopping somewhere nice for lunch on the way. And promptly ran into a 3 hour long queue due to a 7 car accident on the M3.  It took  three hours to move the 0.9 miles to reach the next exit for Winchester, and with probably every other car on the M3 we crawled through the city centre to rejoin the A34 further up.

Lunch turned out to be the Little Chef just before the M40, and god was that bad.   Apparently they are closing down and they were just crossing everything off the menu with a red pen.   It was a trial just to get something to eat.  The staff were pleasant but it must be so demoralising to have to work in that state.

It took 7 1/2 hours to make the 4 hour journey.  I was well impressed, and well tired.

So there you have it.  Pear shaped doesn’t really cover it.  Sometimes you have great plans, and they all turn to ….. Well, you can fill in the blank.

Interruptions
Sometimes family life can be a real pain.   When all I really want to do is get this video finished, instead I’m having to take advantage of the good weather to sort out my garden, plus there’s housework, inside and out, and my kids have a pile of jobs lined up too.  And then there’s outings and parties – why can’t people just leave me alone!

So what’s coming up?
I’m currently trying to plan a weekend away with my friend in Czech Republic – We are on a pilgrimage to visit Colditz Castle and one or two other locations close by.  That’s not working out well but I’ll sort it eventually.

We’ve got a trip to Jersey booked and planned – I’ll try to make sure we review that properly!

We can’t book next year’s main vacation because our timeshare company haven’t yet posted 2018 dates!  Incredible, I know!

Plus we have a couple of weeks left in our 2017/18 vacation calendar which are yet to be allocated, I’ll let you know where we end up.  I hope you’ll stay tuned, stay patient and pop back regularly to check for updates!