Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 22, 2017 16:29:29 GMT
After two false starts, it’s done.
The first booking was something dodgy and we both smelt a rat. Owner kept changing the price. We turned it down which was lucky, because we nearly booked two flights with Monarch Airlines two days before they went bust.
The owners in Menorca can be a bit shifty. They advertise their properties on internet sites and then when you contact them, the rent suddenly rises by a cool £1000 - £2000. You have to watch out when looking for places. They see you coming. Sometimes they speak only Spanish and if they don’t want you to understand, some form of Catalan. That can be a bit difficult.
Finally, we found another place and the owner was actually straight up and honest about his prices. We were so nervous, instead of just booking it, we contacted him and asked him what the real price was. He replied in 12 minutes with what you see is what it is!!! Yay. Honesty.
Since we know the area from last year, we knew the house instantly because we’d been past it a few times in the Summer so it has now been booked for four weeks and plane flights done.
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oldson
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Post by oldson on Oct 22, 2017 16:35:00 GMT
holidays are for wimps,Ian!!!! i aint had one in around 8 years maybe im spending too much on headphones?
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 22, 2017 17:08:06 GMT
Blimey Simon. I need them regularly ......
Therapy.
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Post by ronzo56 on Oct 22, 2017 19:01:10 GMT
I love to take holidays. Hawaii (the island of Kauai) is our favorite. Unfortunately my wife's job schedule the last few years has pretty much stopped our holidays. If we can squeeze in a weekend away we are lucky. In fact she's in the other room right now working on papers she brought home. Hopefully retirement will arrive in a year or two for both of us. First thing on the schedule is a nice long holiday. Somewhere peaceful, quiet and secluded. Cuitadella looks lovely. A little too far for us I'm afraid. My wife hates the flying part of every holiday. 6 hours in the air is about her limit. Luckily California has some beautiful places to visit within a reasonable driving distance. And all the stores and restaurants carry excellent wines! In the meantime it's "Staycations" for us. You three look like you have a wonderful time together. Wish we could join you! I can see your daughter auctioning antiques someday on the tele.
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jello
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Post by jello on Oct 22, 2017 21:25:49 GMT
I don't like holidays. Too many tourists. And locals. When we were in Munich a couple of years back the place was absolutely hoaching with Germans!! Who'd have thought. As you may have gathered I'm not really a people person
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Post by ronzo56 on Oct 22, 2017 22:19:30 GMT
We don't take holidays in places with a lot of people either. I need a break from people after being in a small room with 35 or more teenagers all day. My wife isn't much on people, she prefers the company of cats actually. How she stands me is a mystery. Not anti-social. Just doesn't like crowds. We have a place we really like over on the coast of the Pacific Ocean about 100 Km North of San Francisco. It's on a cattle ranch on the end of a cliff that overlooks the ocean. It's 25 Km from the main road. Isolation. We have spent an entire week there and didn't see another person. Just the sound of the waves and a distant fog horn. Wonderfully relaxing. Has all the amenities. Even a hot tub. Wish I was there right now.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 22, 2017 22:20:00 GMT
Jeez ...... The remake of El Desperado ....... El Depresso dubbed in Italian to El Expresso. Bunch of miserable old gits here
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Post by ronzo56 on Oct 23, 2017 2:02:26 GMT
Jeez ...... The remake of El Desperado ....... El Depresso dubbed in Italian to El Expresso. Bunch of miserable old gits here Old git, yes. Miserable no. We would probably enjoy Cuitadella. It doesn't seem too crowded. You have to realize we live in a State with over 39 million people. It's pretty crowded in the larger metropolitan areas. Disneyland reminds me of the planet Gideon on the original Star Trek series. "Mark of Gideon" episode 71, season 3. If you know that, you are an old git. We sit a good deal of our lives on freeways. Not moving. It can take 90 minutes to go 20 Km. Then the same thing back home at the end of the day. That's assuming no accidents. So when we go on holiday a lot of us want some space around us. Camping in the mountains is very popular here. As is camping over on the coast, or staying in a small town. It's wonderful. For Jello. Full on Victor Meldrew mode. I looked it up. inspired by Ian. Perhaps The Eagles could re-write the song and title it Depressarado. "Depressarado. Why don't you come to your senses, and stop riding freeways and move into a cave. It's a hard life, and it's not gettin no nicer, better move into a dark cave because it's too late. Depressarado, you know you ain't gettin no younger, your foot pain and back ache, you can't drive no more. And reason, oh reason, that's just old people talkin, your just a prisoner that's walking towards the Soylent Green gate. If your feet get cold in the summer time it's your circulation that's not in prime, it's hard to find your glasses than the past. You're losing all the highs and lows, ain't it funny how your hearing goes...away. Depressarado don't you take no vacations, they'll be people around you that will make you feel bad. It may be raining, but you won't see a rainbow above you.......you better let somebody see you, let somebody see you, you better let somebody see you or they'll look in the Lake." Yes. I do have a dark side to my humor. But I'm not the only one. It came out today. Back to normal tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good week.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 23, 2017 7:37:53 GMT
Ron’s favourite place ....
I saw Mark in the parade too ...... Grumpy!!
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Post by ronzo56 on Oct 23, 2017 14:05:13 GMT
Thanks for a great video Ian. Never been to the Florida parks. 25 or 30 years ago, Disneyland was my favorite place to take a holiday. Great fun and great memories. Always felt like an overgrown kid. Over the years it has become so popular that they raised prices to actually discourage people from coming. They also used to have discounts for locals, but they are mostly gone now. I've seen videos of people's trips on YouTube. Tons of people everywhere. I'd be O.K. but I'm sure it would be too crowded for my wife. Funny. Years ago they used to have an "off-season". I think we went in February once and it was very enjoyable. Not too long lines and open areas to walk. Perhaps will give it a go once we retire.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 23, 2017 15:02:58 GMT
I found it crowded Ron, but in small doses it’s ok. The locals still do get discounts as long as they are residents of Florida.
I made a large video of Florida because we actually did so much. What I really loved were the people. Really friendly and helpful tbh. Not like the grumpy old gits you get in this country. We only found one cafe where I got the feeling that the woman who ran it doesn’t like the English. We sat for 30 minutes before she came ov4 to us and then only because I was getting up to go.
The more relaxed attitude is really nice but then again, I also love Spain where they treat you so well and I’ve never in my life seen such hard working waiters.
One of the waiters from Barcelona came over to us in Menorca to ask us what we’d like. We were sat outside at a pavement table and she saw my gear. Asked me if I was a professional photographer and I said, ‘no, are you are professional model because you actually look like one!!’ She then laid down on the pavement and started posing!!!! Really funny girl but the result of that was that she then saw us on following evenings and gave us a free drink every evening. At one point, she even hid and joined us as a ‘tourist’ for a break.
Great sense of humour and fun to be with those kinds of people. Turns out that she knew another waiter that we got to know and knew of us before we arrived at the bar. He told her I had this camera so really, she knew who we were when she first came over once she saw my gear.
The parks are more geared into us foreigners and the staff are terrific. Not so terrific if you work in one of them but they are absolutely top notch with tourists and kids. I loved the way that characters in the parades made a beeline for Lucy to say hello. They are trained I think, to scan the crowds and pick out individuals, like Pinnochio in the video saw me with a slightly large camera and shaped a heart at me. And the girl and that huge headed white faced man who came over to Lucy. We had a ball with Donald Duck and when I turned round to him and said, ‘I can’t believe I’m talking to a duck’, he started to really laugh. They are lovely in those parks and they know how to make visitors feel special.
Prices though are terrible. That holiday cost us a fortune, but if I’m honest, I love the country and even loved working over there years ago. (Despite the relentless heat)
One thing us Brits suffer from though is air conditioning. They set them like freezers so there is always a lot of condensation on the windows. That gave us all a bad throat. Either too hot or too cold.
Took a load of video there on the trot. Some really rough footage, but I kept it all because it was such a lovely time. For me, videos have always been a kind of hobby so I don’t mind wandering around with the two girls into shops or whatever. I just shoot whatever I see and then have a wrestle at home to make some kind of video out of it all. Always been one of my interests.
I’m looking forward to four weeks in Menorca next year. We had a ball there as well. Funny thing is that it’s nothing like as commercial as Disney and I think all of us here are happy to just be in the sun and seeing something different.
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Post by ronzo56 on Oct 23, 2017 15:32:42 GMT
I think most of us need to take time to visit someplace different than where we live. It breaks up the routine you can get into at home, and I always appreciate the little things more when I return. Good therapy as you said. First time we went to Hawaii, I bought my first video camera. Went crazy with it. Took footage of everything. Views out the car windows, exteriors of every restaurant. Even the luggage carousel at the airport. My wife made up a jingle. "Cameraman takes pictures cause he can!" I have ridiculous amounts of tape from that vacation. Someday I might transfer it to digital and see if I can edit it down to something coherent. As it is it's almost a comic parody of a vacation. Glad to hear everyone was nice to you over here. Most folks enjoy meeting Brits. Something about the accent I think, and we love so many of your bands. I like to think it's because we are basically nice people, even if we aren't so nice to each other sometimes. Disney makes sure they hire the right types of personalities for their parks. They do a first class job. Wow. I can't imagine a four week vacation. That's unheard of over here. Even two weeks is considered a long time. Some folks don't even take them. Worried someone will try to go after their job while they are gone. They actually have done studies on it.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 23, 2017 15:44:34 GMT
I enjoy making films a lot. Since the super 8 days, when I couldn’t easily edit anything other than physically cut the film and stick it together. That kind of made me a little more economical with what I shot, but digital frees you up massively and you can take everything and cut out what you want later.
I sometimes go out with a GoPro and a sound recorder with a lav mic, and I leave everything running for two hours. Then when I get home, I cut up and edit the two hour footage into something smaller.
This was just a kiddie sports day which I did that in. It was originally two hours of uninterrupted footage and I took out what I wanted. Nothing spectacular, just a family picnic/sports day so there was nothing in particular to film.
They’re great to see years later when you notice how everyone has changed .....
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Post by ronzo56 on Oct 23, 2017 23:58:37 GMT
Ian! Your driving on the wrong side of the road! Do you have the camera lens backwards? Because the steering wheel is screwed up too. Yikes!
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 24, 2017 7:10:37 GMT
You’re very observant Ron! Helena was filming while I was driving.
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