Hello, Southampton

Southampton

to the left? -- Food         to the right? -- Luggage

If one hangs out over the balcony and looks down when the ship arrives, there is the sight of two kinds of activity: foodstuffs being loaded onto the boat; luggage being taken off the boat.

The time one actually gets off the boat depends on whether you are willing to hand carry off your luggage, or if you prefer to pick it up in the terminal after leaving the boat.

Rebecca was taking a bus right to the airport and a flight to Yellowknife for a conference oSy with her.

Southampton -- a desirable launching place for a great vacation

Our train tickets had been packed by her – in Steve’s luggage in a white envelope.

You can see where this paragraph is going.

That envelope wasn’t visible to Steve or to me, no matter how many times he took his luggage apart and put it back together – either in the terminal or at the train station.

So he finally purchased new tickets for us and we headed home.

Programmable stuffy -- a joy to give as a gift

The treasured purchases from the trip included a new watch for Steve, a small replica of the Collesium for Rebecca and a monster stuffy – purchased by Duncan for David Camps.

I am hoping that David likes his gifts slightly used, for this one has a programmable voice box – messages can be put on and erased so who knows what the new message will be when the monster is squeezed next. Duncan has been enjoying it as much as I am sure David will.

I have had the programmable box sneak up behind me on the street to blurt out its message, half scaring me to death – so that mechanism must be going to school and back with Duncan, separate from the stuffy that usually holds it. Duncan said it will take him a couple of weeks to get back to normal from the cruise – since he is used to ordering his meals from an exotic menu each day.

I am having the same withdrawal symptoms.

Arta