Merry Xmas and Farewell 2014

Well the holiday season is almost done and it's soon time to go back to work. It was a green Xmas here in Newfoundland which was especially welcomed because last year, winter was very very long, very very cold and there was A LOT of snow. A green Xmas means we can hope that winter will be more kind this year. I did put up a Xmas tree to conform to social conventions but its down now and I instantly felt better when it came down. I did decorate it with zombie gingerbread people that I made :D I woke up early Xmas morning and drove to my sisters house so that I could watch my 1 year old nephew open his presents. He's still very young and didn't really understand it all. He's fascinated with the vacuum so Santa brought him a kid version. That was the first thing he opened so nothing else really mattered to him! I'm glad I only bought him a couple shirts. How can I compete with a vacuum! The snow finally has decided to arrive. If it had arrived earlier, I would have tried to learn how to snowboard but alas, I'll have to wait until February. Tonight is New Year's Eve. I don't have big plans. Once again, I'll be headed to my sisters place and hang out with my nephew (who really needs to stop giving me colds BTW) and drink and eat and then fall asleep on the couch. I have no idea what 2015 will bring. I suppose that's part of the fun. I've enjoyed my 2014 adventure and I look forward to my next adventures. I love seeing that my little blog still receives visitors. Thank you for reading my ramblings and looking at my pictures (I think I like groceries more than the average traveller!) If anyone has ideas for new adventures. Let me know. Happy holidays and a prosperous & healthy 2015 Leann

The 3rd Week Crazies Has Set In!

It is officially the no-mores. What are 'no-mores'? You ask. No-mores are that exciting last week of work. It is when single digits just isn't enough of a countdown. No-more Tuesdays, no-more Wednesdays, etcetera becomes the countdown of the day. Sadly to get to no-mores you must pass through week three which is also when people start to get a little loopy. Since I'm probably a little more loopy than most even on a good day, it's slightly harder to tell that my crazies have started. Fortunately, it's a good ship and a good crew so even at it's craziest, it's mostly entertaining! This third and fourth week has been relatively mild on the crazy scale (but again, I'm high on the scale!). The weather hasn't been the greatest but spirits have been high (no not the metaphysical or liquid kind of spirits). Random rumors have started right on cue. Hard to believe that on a ship with 22 crew, rumors can start but they do. Most rumors involve the same theme: crew change day! You were expecting something salacious weren't you. Sorry, it's not a soap opera ship. Everybody has insider information that they've heard indirectly from an un-named important source, as to exactly when we can get to port for crew change. Mostly, it's wishful thinking and pure entertainment to see if you can get someone to believe you. Hey, if you say it enough, maybe crew change WILL be yesterday! Nope. I'm still here. The only thing that is certain, is that crew change day will arrive and it will be four weeks after we joined. We will be the mostly tired but smiling faces, standing by the gangway, eager for our reliefs to arrive. They will be the refreshed and slightly frowning faces walking up the gangway as we walk down. The themes for this trip has been wind and water. It's November/December in the North Atlantic after all so there is no getting away from the wind. But as far as winds go, I've been in worst and I'm sure I will again. Water was the engine room theme. If a pipe had water in it, it found a way to drip, leak, break, gurgle, burp or sputter. And in each case I'm sure I learned a little something new about each drip and leak. And water was a much better theme than my last trip, which had an oil theme! Topics at coffee break included: the latest rumor and everyone's two cents on such rumor; each two cent opinion more valuable and important than the last, random crazy conspiracy theories and most importantly, what was for lunch/supper! The conspiracy theory was that aliens are google, run google, use google or some variation thereof. I must say, this theory was no thought of by me (so please don't hurt me google aliens) but it was probably triggered by me. I like that this blog shows me stats on where people are viewing from. No, not in your underwear, on the couch in your parents basement (I don't think the google aliens are that good....yet!). But it does tell you from which country and city. When Santa Clara started be a frequent city, I started to get excited that I might actually have someone that looks at my blog regularly whose name wasn't "Mom"! I was then promptly told that Santa Clara is where google headquarters is located. I was then sad that I didn't in fact have a real person intrigued by my random blogs but instead, google was stalking me. OK. Most likely a google bot pinging the blog. But this lead to the whole, google-alien conspiracy theories. Me, again being slightly more crazy (let's say imaginative), was not bothered by a google-alien partnership. My thoughts went to, zombies are a head-shot, werewolves are silver bullets, vampires are a stake through the heart but how the hell do you kill a google-alien??!! No one else seemed as concerned as I was and the less imaginative just said "Unplug the internet". I fear for her life in a zombie, werewolf, vampire apocalypse because she might cover her eyes and say "If I can't see them, they can't see me!" And I'm concerned that my house has far too many big windows to be zombie proof! See, the third week crazies have set in! Waiting for crew change day and crushing rumors, Leann