Tag: Shopping

The Virgin Islands, or Where They Used to Be

The Virgin Islands, or Where They Used to Be

This morning, I was pumped and excited, I work up stupid early so that I could emerge for breakfast and grab some amazing, red sky in morning, photos of the island as the sun peaked over the horizon. For this morning, I wanted to be ready to go early and quickly plate loaded from the buffet. I then returned to my cabin to shower and prepare the day bag with everything I needed, camera, phone, tripod, sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, and wallet. I really had no plans at all what to do and I had no US cash on me so the vague plan was to get off the ship, find wifi and catch-up, post some pictures to make those at home jealous, and find a bank. Today I arrived at the port of Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands. I got off the ship and it was a nice close walk to the Tortola cruise village. It was actually quite obvious that the cruise village was a fake example of stereotypical island life and all the usual shopping. I sat on a bench in front of Diamonds International and got on the wifi there. It was pretty good wifi,…

The Irish Finale

I departed the Enterprise starving, and in pain a bit from the ridiculous amount of walking in Belfast. I went down the stairs to the tram station and the Google Transit app said there were no more trains but there was a dot-matrix display showing next tram in 7 minutes with a group of at least fifteen people waiting for the tram. Then a local said to the group no more trams tonight and the screen was for the next station down the line. A vocal man with an American accent convinced the group of people that the local was wrong. I looked at the sign and noticed it said “Busáras” and the blank one said “Connolly”. Since I can also read perfect Gaelic, I recognized that Busáras means Bus Station and Connolly was the name of the train station. I decided the local was right and since I didn’t know where the Bus Station stop was, I just followed the track, and it was not even a block away. My plan for the night was to go to an Irish Pub and grab dinner there, but once I got off the Luas (what Dublin calls trams/streetcars) near my hotel…

Europe 2018 #33 – Part 3

After a well rested night, it is now my birthday. I slept a bit late and left the hostel to wander around Dublin. The most important first stop was the local Costa Coffee shop across the plaza, and to pump up some energy for the day, and to Facebook creep what was going on in the world. After coffee, I went to the waterfront (river the passed through the city) and walked towards the area that the hostel said was where all the tour tickets could be brought about a 25-minute walk away. I took a lot longer taking photos and resting due to my limitations every couple of blocks. It was at this point that it hit me that, I was near no one I knew, in a place I knew nothing really about. This got me really sad. The first bridge I came across I thought was the famous (according to my map) Ha’penny Bridge. I Facebook Live posted a video going across it. (Which had no viewers.) Then as I continued on to the next bridge it had a sign that it was the Ha’penny Bridge. It looked cooler but yet less impressive and had about a…

Mobile Ordering

Mobile Ordering

Today I visited the local coffee shop in the mall. The line was very long and the people started to appear frustrated or tired, but there was the pot of gold at the end of the line to make it all worthwhile. Correction, it was coffee, not gold but in the eyes of the patrons waiting it was more valuable than gold. Meanwhile, I enter and walk past the line and pick up my coffee there waiting for me and leave to sit in the mall and watch the people and write this. The people watching began before I could even leave the restaurant. The scowl of disgust on their faces as I did not lime them join in the ancient, or present-day British, the tradition of fair queuing. I participated in the modern “there’s an app for that” method of placing my order using my phone and picking it up. Although I used an app this is nothing really new. For all my life you could call up and arrange for pick-up of take-out restaurants. Today’s purchase was at Tim Horton’s using their app. When it comes to ordering their app is pretty good. It is very straightforward and…

Buying My First Car

As it was becoming clear that I needed to get motivated to go to work. It was also clear that getting up to catch a bus was not really physically possible given my state. I was going to need a car. I had set in my mind from two years earlier that I wanted a Mazda 3. That was going to be my car, but I wanted to test drive others first. Since I was not convinced of my abilities I wanted to take the first round to sit in the cars and then shortlist a few to test drive. The car buying experience if not the most friendly for those that don’t know exactly what you want. The experience typically goes like this. You enter the dealership, you get greeted by the fastest moving sales guy. Then you blow at least a half hour as he gets your information, then starts suggesting features, and financing options before you even look at a car. Then you only get to look at what the sales guy wants you to look at. Then you realize the car is missing some of your must-haves, then the blow off that the must-have is not…

Damaged in Berlin

Damaged in Berlin

It is September 10, 2016. They day begins with a nice British Breakfast on the ferry from Dover to Calais. It was a sunny and calm day. I have just taken the compulsory photo of the White Cliffs of Dover. Followed by a coffee just to tip and clear out my UK Pounds. I have yet to mention this but with two exceptions to be mentioned later in the story (Several posts from now), I have a habit of blowing the rest of my currency as I switch currency zones. After passing through customs and getting my passport stamped, it is a several hour drive to Amsterdam. I stayed at Nieuw Slotania Hotel in Amsterdam. I took a walk to the supermarket across the street where I found they sold Brunswick Sardines that come from my home province. While waiting in the lobby I ran into Nunu my driver from my 2011 tour and was so excited to see him. We had a few more run-ins as the tour progressed. That night we went out to see a live sex show at the Casa Rosso. While waiting out front it was hilarious people up in the hotel across the canal…

Every Turn A Surprise, With New Horizons To Pursue

Every Turn A Surprise, With New Horizons To Pursue

This is part 9 of the series, with my 7th time in London. (Err Camden, and Westminster) The title of this post will make sense later in this post. We are on September 7th as this portion of the story begins. I arrived by bus to the Victoria coach station, where I found a pay phone and called my bank collect to get my credit card to work again because like in Sweden, it was cut off again. After that was taken care of, I went to the nearest Underground station “Victoria” that involved going through Victoria Train Station at rush hour. This station has 4 overground and 3 underground lines and it looked like every line arrived at once and like bees in a hive, all moving very efficiently but looked nuts to figure out. I took the Victoria Line then transferred to the Piccadilly Line to Russell Square. I checked into the Generator, had dinner there, and went down the street to The London Pub at the Royal National Hotel. I met up with a few Contiki groups, drivers, and team managers, and had a couple of British beers. There is something about British beers that mess you up.…

A Smooth Package

A Smooth Package

I love when I get a parcel in the mail and that day happened yesterday. My order came in from Harry’s. I ordered a new Truman handle for travelling, the stand for my Winston handle, and most exciting of all 16 of the new style blades. Even though I still have 2 of the old style blades left, I tried out a new one last night. The improved flexibility in the blade was the most noticing everyone improvement and gives a great 5 blade shave. There is now an extra precision blade on the edge. Although, I personally don’t understand the need for a precision blade but it is a perk. I’ve now been using Harry’s for about 2 years and the savings and ease of having really good blades sent in the mail is a big perk. The only downside is that the purchase is in US Dollars even though it is shipped from Toronto, and they don’t have the free shipping in Canada like they do in the USA.

A Cheezy Post

A Cheezy Post

Today I went to the local grocery store and wanted to try a new cheese. I decided on the Mango Ginger flavoured White Stilton cheese. I only got a small block because you never know with unknown cheeses if you will like them. I brought it home and unwrapped the plastic wrapping and placed it on my tongue and let it set. OMG! The flavour was incredible! It was not to strong or mild and had the nice mango and ginger flavour, and crumbled in my mouth since it has a low moisture. It was so good that I had a flavour blackout an when I came too again the whole block was gone. It gets a 4.5/5 from me.

GlymmMan Box December 2012

GlymmMan Box December 2012

My December GlymmMan box arrived on Christmas Eve. There was not as much in it as there were in past months. There were 6 items, the 7th item was replaced with a $20 gift card. The missing item as Joico Ice Spike which I would probably not have used anyway. Most of the items were from a brand êshave a 15g bottle of pre-shave oil, a 30g container of shaving cream, and a 30g container of after shave cream. Then from Lys Parisien Professionnel, there was a 60ml bottle of moisturizing shampoo and, balm (Argan Oil conditioner). Then there was 2 2ml O2 Anti-ageing treatment. In my last post on the issue, I had promised to give feedback on the items in the box. The Atelier Cologne was really good and I still have some left. The Vitamine & Sea Mineral Clay Mask smelled truly terrible I never finished that. The Bentaberry G-1 moisturizing Face cream made my skin feel much better. The Evolvh UltraShine Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner was some of the best I have ever used. The John Allan’s Slick Water made shaving better. The La Fresh Body Soother stung very badly when it got in my eyes in…

My First Glymm Man Box

My First Glymm Man Box

This month was my first Glymm Man box. It is an online subscription that for $25 they sent eight sample sizes of products quarterly. In this month’s box was Atelier Cologne, Vitamine & Sea Mineral Clay Mask, Bentaberry G-1 moisturizing Face cream, Evolvh UltraShine Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner, John Allan’s Slick Water, La Fresh Body Soother and Vasanti BrightenUP!. So far I have only used the Cologne and Slick Water and am quite pleased. I will write more about each as I use them.

Most Expensive Purchase – My Rebel 2000 SLR

Most Expensive Purchase – My Rebel 2000 SLR

Name the most expensive personal item you’ve ever purchased. The most expensive personal item that I ever purchased was my Canon Rebel 2000. I would have to say that it was not really worth it. To date I might have used 7-8 rolls of film in it. I just took it off the shelf tonight and the battery was still showing that I have 24 images left on the 24 image roll of film. I’m pretty sure the roll of film is a Black and White as well. Or, really the fake version that ends up sepia. When I turned it on the batteries were dead. This is amazing since it took 2 “L” batteries and the batteries were new when I inserted this roll of film. The main problem I had been that film is expensive to get developed. Most of the shots were too dark, too light, too narrow a depth of field, or some other issue of not getting to know the camera well. It was within a few months that I also bought my first digital camera after spilling shampoo in my point and shoot film camera. I have since bought 6 digital cameras bough have…

LED vs. LCD

This week I was looking into buying a new TV. I know for sure that I’m not looking at a plasma. When the sales representative was explaining the different TVs she started describing LED TVs as better TVs. This led to the question, isn’t a LED TV a LCD display. The answer I got was no it is better than a LCD, that it worked like a LED stop light that the LEDs change colour. This is wrong! All LED TVs are LCD TVs but all LCD TVs are not LED TVs. What is LCD? It is basically like the old fashion calculators, as an electric current hits a liquid crystal (the LC in LCD) it rotates the crystal changing the wave lengths to make a RGBK {Red, Green, Blue, and Black} (or in a few RGBYK {adds Yellow})  to the back light. Then what’s the diff? The difference is in the back-light. A TV referred to by the store as a LCD TV is in-fact a lit in the back by a fluorescent back-light. This back-light will last a ;long time but will eventually burn out.  This is similar to the monitor that you are likely reading this on, like a laptop or cell phone screen (most…