Cruising the Three Seas, part 1

Dubrovnik ~ Day at Sea ~ Malta

Back in January my Mum turned 80. She said for her 80th birthday she would like to go on a cruise with her three children. We settled on the Tui Three Seas cruise on the Marella Explorer 2, which would take us to destinations in the Adriatic, Mediterranean and Ionian seas. 

And so it came to pass on the 14th May that the four of us headed to our embarkation port of Dubrovnik. Technically we hadn't set sail yet, so I'm not sure if it counts as day 1 of the cruise or not. However, we arrived at the ship, dropped off our stuff and then had some free time to take a taxi ride into Dubrovnik and visit the old city. 

Our first view of the old city was
from the bus to the port!

First ice creams of the holiday

It's a proper 'wow' experience; a heavily fortified city that oozes history. Much is made of it being a primary filming location for Game of Thrones, but as I haven't seen Game of Thrones, I just appreciated it in its own right. There is a weighty depth to the place, with the sense that those streets have seen some things, including not too long ago, a bombardment during the Balkan wars of the mid-90s. There are plaques up highlighting places of interest related to that recent, bloody history. 

After wandering around the old city for an hour or so, we went back to the port and started to explore the ship, ready for day 2, which was a day of sailing. Our luggage had been delivered to our room by the time we got back, just one aspect of a very smooth functioning system that took incredible care of us throughout. I really can't praise the service enough. 

Our sea day started with a mini-golf tournament up on the highest deck of the ship. It's the first time I have played mini-golf at sea.

It was a clever little course, and the wind added to the challenge. I also met Niamh, the member of the entertainment team managing the tournament. Niamh is from Swansea originally, and she was also running the afternoon activity that I went to with Mum - a beginner's guide to Welsh!

19 people turned up for the session, which Niamh said was a record. Most were from Wales, turning out in Cymric solidarity. There were some interesting reasons given for attending. One chap from Aberdare said his grandmother spoke Welsh but his mother wouldn't let his gran teach him Welsh because it would "hold him back". A couple from Newport said they were made to learn it in school and didn't like it, but now feel they have missed out. Another couple from Menai Bridge said their translators - their grandchildren - had left to go to university so they needed to learn a few words themselves. Another couple, from Wigan, had grandchildren growing up in Wales who now spoke Welsh, which they approved of - "as they should!", said the grandma - and they wanted to know a few words. And there was a guy who now lives in Colwyn Bay who came along because "my wife's in the spa!" A short session of Welsh clearly the more preferable option!

The evening of 'sea day' was 'Dress to Impress' night, and we so we did. Here's us looking smarter than normal! 

We then went to dinner at the Latitude restaurant and were seated at the perfect table number. (If you know, you know!)

After dinner, we went to watch the evening entertainment, a show called Musicals featuring various songs from musicals. Mum ducked the evening entertainment as she was a bit tired, so it was just us sibs. All the evening entertainment was delivered to a high standard. 

We rounded off the night at the silent disco. It was 60s,70s and 80s versus 90s, 00s, and 10s. It didn't matter which channel we were on, the songs were all bangers and it was fun switching between the channels.

FYI: Alleged footage of me dancing is a deep fake

The next day we called into our first port of call - Malta. I expected great things from Malta as people I know who have been there have raved about it. However, our excursion - a bus trip of 'Panoramic Malta' - was a bit disappointing. We went to the 'three cities', but honestly had better views of them from on board ship, we went to a very touristy 'picturesque fishing village' that we had to walk to along a road that was distinctly unpicturesque, and we went to see a very large church but weren't given time to go inside.

Three cities backdrop

The eye on the prow is a good luck charm dating
from Phoenician times

Red phone box - legacy of British government

Although the tour was disappointing we arrived back at the port with enough time to take the incongruously modern elevator up to the main part of Valletta. 

Big chrome and glass elevator!

The priest behind us was rushing to church

Playmobil did a model of a Knight of St John,
the crusader order that effectively founded Malta

We had been told that Valletta only really had two streets, so we walked a loop of them both and then headed back via the cannonade.

The crowds were too large to see the 4pm firing of the cannon, so we took advantage of the lack of queues for the elevator and headed back on board in good time for the evening sailing. On the way out I saw a crane in the port painted like a giraffe!

Next stop, Sicily!

Our scary cute Hallowe'en

Cathy has arranged some suitable toys on our mantelpiece for Hallowe'en.

I particularly like how Jack Skellington is next to Sally... Brown from Peanuts. Is he moving on to a new Sally squeeze? 

This chap is new to the mantel this year.

And the mummified Grogu is also a new addition.

We also have some spookified Cars characters - Luigi and Guido.

A Lego Hallowe'en scene

A vampire mad scientists lab with Frankenstein's monster in Playmobil. (The ghost also lights up!)

A Sylvanian Families little cat in a ghost costume (cuteness overload!)

And a bucket of bats who can zipper their wings together to keep warm!

It might not be very scary but I love our seasonal display of toys!

And if you want to see the mantel on TikTok, you can!

Hallowe'en Decor

Noson Calan Gaeaf Hapus / Happy Hallowe'en. 

I thought this year I would post a few pictures of the mantelpiece after Cathy arranged some themed items for our All Hallows Eve amusement. Brace yourself for some treats. (If you follow my Twitter you may already have seen these pictures.)

The little Sylvanian Families house with the cat in a ghost costume was a present from Cathy to me. I gave her the large pumpkin in the picture below for National Pumpkin Day last year. It's made by Jellycat

All hail the Pumpkin King!

With the lights out and pumpkin nightlights on, it looks very atmospheric.

The Playmobil ghost also lights up in a colour change mode. Meanwhile Sally Brown was bought on one of our American road trips. We have several other Peanuts characters dressed for Hallowe'en, but Sally is the only one to appear on the mantel this year. 

Have a splendid Hallowe'en everyone. 

October 2021 - End of month review

We are now ten months down, past Hallowe'en, the clocks have gone back, and it feels like the end of the year is nigh. October was another busy month. I had some big meetings in work discussing possible changes, which prompted some very passionate discussions. Thankfully I had plenty of football to take my mind off things, including my first ever visit to Frome with its delightfully named stadium.

Other football-watching trips included Flint in North Wales and Merthyr Tydfil. In Flint I think I saw my long-passed paternal grandfather in a photo on the clubhouse wall. I attended seven games in the month - a new record for October. 

There were also some other milestones, including my 50th Barry game (a 3-0 defeat at home to Newtown), my 10th Grange Albion game (a 4-0 defeat at home to Aberdare Town) and my first ever Futbology badge for the first game at a new ground, which was also my 75th football ground that I've visited. (And blogged in detail here.)

In terms of another milestone, I posted my 394th blog post on my blog called Point 394. That felt very meta. I have been working my way through a large consignment of baseball cards and managed to post every day in October. 

Life is starting to get back to normal... ish. I went on my first trip to the tip in a year and a half. This sign amused me so much I took a photo. "Swmpas" is my new favourite Welsh word.

Another bit of normality was a cinema trip. I saw the new Dune movie with my friend Bryan. I am still processing my thoughts on it and will blog about it when I have time. 

I engaged in a bit of retail therapy as well. Playmobil have released their version of the A Team with their iconic van and I went and bought one. It's fab!

I also succumbed to temptation and bought yet another kit that I don't really have time to build - this time of a Treeman player to bulk out one of my Blood Bowl teams.

(Yes I bought him mainly because of the squirrel on his shoulder!) 

Although, really, technically, I should now buy the correct team who would have a Treeman player in their team. But I have several teams who have never actually played a game yet...

One other thing we have started doing is sorting through my late dad's stamp collection with a view to selling it on behalf of my mum. It was very disorganised and needed quite a bit of work just getting a rough idea of what we have in the various boxes. We have managed to reduce the bulk of it down quite a bit - originally we had two full car loads of philatelic material. 

I find it interesting seeing how much stamps have changed over the years. They are little time capsules that reveal a lot more about their cultural milieu than people might expect. For example, I found these stamps that were issued in 1979. This wording would not appear on a stamp today.

I'm going to keep some of the stamps. But not this one!

Toy mash-ups - are companies 'jumping the shark'

Anyone who has been to my house, or followed this blog, will know that I like toys and buy far more than the average child-free almost-40 year old.

Toy mash-ups have become a thing in the past few years, mainly because big companies like Hasbro and Mattel own a number of lines and the easiest way of developing new products is to take two things that work and wang them together. I'm not talking about branded versions of popular toys like Minions Monopoly, or even the licensed Lego sets that are produced featuring Lego versions of film and comic heroes. I'm talking about taking two toys and merging them.

Sometimes these work. I own a Star Wars Transformer that transforms from Boba Fett to his spaceship, Slave 1, and back. I also own several Mr Potato Heads dressed up as well-known film characters, including Darth Tater, Optimash Prime and Spider-Spud. (I'm not really sure these actually match the definition I put in the previous paragraph, but it seems right to refer to Mr Potato Head toys as mash-ups!) Hot Wheels have recently produced car versions of Star Wars characters and Marvel characters. These work better than you think.

But then you get things which take two franchises and mash them together and it just seems redonkulous. Today, I have seen some toys that I think show toy manufacturers have 'jumped the shark'. I give you... DC Comics versions of Thomas the Tank Engine toys.

In a 4 pack

In a 9 pack

And something to stick them in

This is WEIRD. Firstly, are really little kids - the primary target for Thomas - going to want DC Comics branded characters? Will they know who Green Lantern or The Flash are? Fisher Price have had a series of small-person suitable figures for a while, but will little kids get the cross-over?

Secondly, will this upset the Thomas purists and put them off? I occasionally visit a model railways forum and the moaning on there about how Thomas has been developed since going into American ownership is only going to get worse. Adults buy toys, and grandparents are the ones I think would be most likely to buy Thomas toys. I'm not sure these will appeal to that demographic.

Thirdly, is this even a mash-up that makes sense? In the Thomas series we know the good engines are the steam engines and the diesels are the bad guys, kind of. But here we have a Green Lantern diesel versus a Sinestro steam engine. The Batman-themed four-pack are all steam engines, but two are done up as the Riddler and the Joker. This makes it very confusing by ignoring the natural fault-lines that currently exist in the Thomas universe.

I don't know, maybe this will be a massive hit and children will be pestering their parents for them. There possibly is a link between the kind of people who like railways and comic book nerds. This could be the toy line of the year. But I have serious doubts.

On the other hand, this car from Playmobil is golden.

Playmobil Porsche 911

I quite like Playmobil, but I don't recall them going into licensing much before. They certainly don't so it as much as Lego, who also have Porsches available. This costs £30 and I honestly think it's probably the best value of the new toys I have seen come onto shelves in 2016. The lights work. It will be a solid, play-resistant model and it looks very, very good.

It also comes with a Porsche garage interior and a mechanic. From the looks of the box you can swap bumpers, spoiler and wheel trims to customise it if you so want. The garage bit will also make a nice backdrop if you wanted to display it.

Reverse of the box

Playmobil doesn't have the following the Lego or Star Wars figures both have. But I imagine the fact this is a Porsche will make it a highly desirable toy well after it goes out of production. It could turn out to be highly collectible and I am seriously weighing up whether to buy one.