drron29

in the 70s and 80s here in Queensland there was a very well known State politician who loved to go fishing. He had a small boat to go out on Moreton Bay frequently. He called his boat The Electorate so that if a constituent rang whilst he was fishing his secretary could honestly reply that he was unavailable as he was out in The Electorate.

That may be the case but it doesn't mean the rest of that countries citizens are happy with it. rather than tipping a lot we put that money into kiva and support the ordinary folk who live in those poorer countries we visit and enjoy. Exceptional service still gets rewarded. https://www.kiva.org/

When we travel in places where restaurants are open throughout the day we have our 1 meal at 1430 to 1500 each day. We call it Lunner.

That's because there are a lot of us travelling Aussies whose smart phones are just to smart to use properly.😉

A good day for a young fellow from Colorado today @Stumblefoot. Sepp Kuss has won the Spanish Grand Tour for cycling the Vuelta. His team had the first 3 places. And each of those 3 won a Grand Tour this year. A remarkable effort.

We live on a canal. Just now in the garden on the edge of the canal and this fellow swims past. The lake our canal runs into is not always open to the sea. Have never seen a ray here before.

I wouldn't say tipping in Australia is frowned upon but most don't tip. We pay fair wages. Some time ago it was not uncommon to dislike US tourists because of their tipping habit which was not our culture at all. These days we just shrug our shoulders and forget about it. Also I do admit I did dislike US tourists in Asia which in the 60s and 70s did not have a tipping culture but now do because of those tourists.

Yes having read the Crystal board to see their response to the "new" Crystal I was amazed at the tone. Here on the SS board even us hard liners are just so reserved in comparison. The come backs that you see here from some of the Old Crystal cruisers are typically what's seen on the Crystal boards if someone doesn't agree that Crystal is near perfection. Has convinced me we will never sail Crystal. We loved SS on our first Explorer cruise and have seen no reason to change as we still feel at home whenever we board one of the SS ships.

I have increased my walking as my weight has plateaued at 82 KG (180 lb ). Amazing bird life. One day I came across a large bird being attacked by a pair of pee wees and a flock of noisy miners. It was on the ground with It's wings covering it's head. I intervened and got rid of the attackers. forgot to take my camera out then. It took a minute or 2 for it to move it's wings and then just lay there looking at me for a minute then flew back to a tree. This is it. This one is a Plumed frogmouth which is a rare sub type of the Marbled frogmouth but the largest colony known is only 40 Km from our place. A touching scene the next day when I was close by. I heard a flapping of wings and I am sure it was this bird. It flew past me at head height and looked at me. Then when it was about 2 metres in front turned and flew left again looking at me then flew off. On another of my walks I came upon the nest of a pair of black swans. Truly a lovely place in this world,

It was called a turkey as the original European settlers thought it was the finest eating bird in Australia.

We cruised Incheon to Anchorage on the Shadow in 2011. It was meant to be from Tokyo but it was a month after the horrendous tsunami. A retired surgeon had the cabin across from us who had an ATV tour booked in Kodiak. his friends had cancelled so he generously took me along. The purpose was to see bears. Saw lots of tracks but no bears. Three weeks after returning home I got an email from the surgeon. he had enlarged a photo he took of me because he thought there was something more in the photo. In fact it was a bear looking out from behind a tree looking straight at me. I had my back to the bear. So it turned out to be a tour for the bears to see cruise passengers.

Indeed it is worthwhile. It is one of those places that is a must see. We did it though on a land trip and were really lucky as the the driver of the taxi assigned to us spoke perfect English and we used him as our guide for 3 days. He turned out to be excellent knowing the best times to visit the many areas. For example took us to the furthest temple early in the morning so we had the place to ourselves and went back to the main temple complex at 1230 as the tour groups would all be at lunch. He was right with only a handful of others for the first hour then by 2pm a real horde. There are a lot of reports on various travel sites of others having a great experience with taxi or tuk tuk drivers. So it might be a good idea to do a search in view of @Stumblefoot saying you can tour on your own. It could be well worth it.

It is indeed a willie Wagtail. He was quite likely taking some of the food back to his female partner on the nest as it is that time of the year here. And this one is a male with a little white line above the eyes. The only way to tell them apart. A couple of days previously I saw quite a few male brush turkeys building their nests. females do not build the nests but inspects the results and if it passes muster lays her eggs there then covers them. Some males build superior nests and more than one female lays her eggs there. Neither sit on the nest but the male inspects it regularly to make sure it is the right temperature around the eggs. And here is a male collecting leaves for his mound and at the same time clearing the walkway. And here is the mound when I came back the same way. Obviously not finished as the male returned to make some changes. The males have that yellow patch of skin hanging down whilst the females just have a flat yellow patch which is called a wattle. And a female finding some food. The young chicks have to fend for themselves immediately after hatching and can fly within a few hours.

I am well known for getting along with birds and i often talk to them. I have a new little friend who loves coming and sitting alongside of me when I am gardening. I disturb plenty of insects so he has a good feed. today however he decided to join us for drinks and a snack on our patio. Turns out he likes a good brie and sweet potato crisps but oat flakes if nothing else available.

Several on board now diagnosed with Covid.

We did a SALT excursion in Livorno. It was a Tuscan BBQ in a vineyard. We did want to try one and this was by far the cheapest at $259. This was from the Dawn in August 2022. When we visited Livorno in April this year on the Moon it was $369. At our price it was definitely worth it but one of the reasons was it was vintage time which made the vineyard a much more interesting place to be. great location wonderful host and food and the wine was pretty good. Even a few pics. Our host,the menu and our group. More pictures towards the bottom of this page.

and high ones as well.

It was only 2 weeks ago that Australia finally ditched it's Covid restrictions for Overseas cruise guests. So no restrictions now. https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/cruise-passengers-wave-goodbye-to-covid-restrictions-c-11729252

As long as you bring her to Tokyo in good condition. We board in Yokohama in just over 4 weeks.