The Falls Penthouse Suite

A few weekends ago I had booked some weekend jazz gigs with the military. I’m not a member of the forces and I guess they ran into some problems with this.. because I received a phone call saying “The Gig has been ordered to Stand Down!” Sir! Yes, Sir!

Which was a shame, really.. but then I got a call to volunteer to play for the Hospice Society at a benefit they were having.  They were hosting a Penthouse tour with the proceeds going to the local Hospice. This penthouse was at the Falls building in downtown Victoria. It was extremely spacious and my favourite feature was the gas fire pit on the landscaped outside deck. Here are some photos:

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Valentine’s Day for Raccoons

On Valentine’s Day there were some raccoons noisily courting in our tree. I am pleased to announce that we will be expecting baby raccoons soon!

Kids, you might want to close your eyes for the next photo:

A Zorb Ball Adventure in Davao City

Davao city is quickly becoming a mecca for adventure tourism. New attractions are opening all the time, such as the Deca Wakeboard Park and numerous ziplines.

Filipino bloggers seem to have their finger on the pulse of what’s going on, and skimming their blogs one day I saw a concept I had never heard of before – a Zorb Ball. I knew I had to try it!

Davao Zorb Park is in the Crocodile Park development. It’s near the airport and very accessible from downtown Davao.

I can’t remember the exact price of a ride in the Zorb, but let’s just say it was under $20 for the two of us.

Here is the Zorb Ball up close. In case you haven’t figured it out already, what they do is strap you inside the ball and roll you down the hill.

The Zorb Ball fits 2 lucky people, who are strapped into place with velcro.

Note: Be sure to remove ALL loose items from every pocket of your cargo shorts! I spent the ride dodging Sherwin’s pocket knife..

 

 

Once you are strapped in, they proceed to roll you down the hill. This is the comedic part, for the observer. Watch these guys chasing the Zorb down the hill.




It turns out that the Zorb ball originated in New Zealand.

Crazy Kiwis!

Snowdrops

The snowdrops are out!

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Nice big photos on WordPress!

I’ve just moved my blog to WordPress.

Now I wish that all of my imported photos could be so big! I like wordpress so far.

>Still around!

>

Hi everybody! Thanks for all your comments. I’m still here.. I’ve been off the cruise ships for about a year and have some nice gigs on land. I am also learning to be a piano tuner which is quite exciting for me! I haven’t felt much like blogging lately but it seems a shame to quit. I guess the advance of social media has filled the gap that this blog used to fill. So maybe it’s time to get started again slowly. I might move to wordpress, I like their designs.. I still have a lot of great stories to tell.
Stacey

>Maybe it’s because I’m getting older?

>Maybe my Japanese friend knows I just had a birthday, because today after the show he presented me with a new variety of Stockings:

>Piraeus, Greece and the end of Asia

>The biggest excitement of Pireaus was that it marked the fact that we were finally leaving the Asia season for a small stop in the Mediterranean before our long Scandinavian summer. Were we ever weary! We were resolute not to spent a penny in Europe as it was so expensive. Even though we had no qualms spending on all that seafood in Asia.

I didn’t go into Athens, see the Acropolis, or anything. Me and Sherwin had some time for Greek food at my favourite Pizza place (we must have forgotten the camera!) and later I just took a short walk from the ship as I was busy working most of the day.

I did see an interesting display case belonging to a seafood restaurant!

And I believe I saw a big Greek wedding.

This bonsai in a nearby store was lovely. It looked a little like a Baobab tree.

>Kusadasi and my Turkish Favourites

>

Long time no Blog…

I am very busy, mostly with packing for my first long vacation in I don’t know when! As you can tell, my blog is about 3 months behind the times. I just had a really great tour in Iceland that I am eager to show you! But I guess you will have to wait. Here is one post to appease the masses so I can go about my packing. See you folks at home in one week!

I was eager to go ashore as soon as possible in Kusadasi – I love Turkish food, and the shopping, and a Turkish bath would have washed off all that grime from Asia. No offense.

But of course the first thing on my mind was finding that elusive geocache.

Pigeon Island is a nice little escape about a kilometer walk from the ship’s dock. It is a small circular island not far from shore, with a causeway leading to it so no need for ferries.
It is home to a few restaurants, a swimming/suntanning place, and a large old fortress. It is nice to enjoy lunch there and of course it’s free to walk amongst the ruins.

The geocache was found easily, somewhere in the ruins, but this is not important.

I took my bike to town in search of some of my favourite Turkish breakfast foods.

I finally found the elusive Burek, which usually disappears at noon. Below they have many varieties – but basically it is a breakfast pastry of different shapes filled with meat, cheese, or spinach.

I took a lot of Burek to go, for only $5. It was a big bag of all different varieties, which I was hoping everyone onboard would share my enthusiasm for (they didn’t)

Right nearby I found my other favourite Turkish fast food and sat down and had it for breakfast. I am not sure what it is called, but it is a flatbread filled with spinach and cheese. They cook it on a surface that looks the same as what you might cook a crepe on.

After this, it is time for a turkish bath.

I walk past the mosque to the baths. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the bath. I went into the beautiful little bath room with marble slabs and a white domed ceiling with light filtering in through small moon-holes in the dome. I picked one of the many running fountains to sit beside and soak myself, running water over myself with a small bucket, waiting for the lady to come in and wash me. When a giant hairy Turkish man walked in with another male, and announced that he would be the one to wash me, it was time for me to leave. I was pretty insulted – It had always been an only-women’s experience in the past, and no men entered the women’s side of the bath. I have no idea what they were thinking but apparently this bath doesn’t have seperate sides, which they told me I should have deduced from the picture in the brochure. I left that bath so fast, and can you imagine they asked me to pay for my 40 mins wait.

I got an ice cream to soothe the trauma. It is a special hand-made Turkish kind, which was quite gummy and I couldn’t really finish it.

And finally, for some shopping.

This man had a very interesting store, with all kinds of antiques and knick-knacks.

He had an amazing collection of old rings, some heram rings, and some from Sultans no doubt.

I really like the Turkish designed pottery and I have never seen hot plates before!

>Alexandria, Egypt, where we didn’t go.

>We never made it to Alexandria this year, due to a strange combination of pirates and swine flu.

It is usually the base for our tour departures to the Pyramids, but the guests instead did an overnight tour and missed the Suez canal – however they did get to see the light show on the pyramids!

Alexandria was a very famous city in the ancient times, holding one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – its lighthouse, which no longer stands, and the largest library in the world. It seems to me like it might have once been a crossroads of the world.

Luckily for us, I still haven’t published my photos from last year.

It was prayer time.

I suppose this would be an ordinary shirt, turtlenecks covering both your neck and arms.

I got a veil, now I don’t even remember why. The ladies in the shop pinned it for me.

Of course what’s the use in having a veil with bare arms and legs.