July 28, 2007 - "Rome-ancing the Mouse Cruisers" -11 days! Part 3

[bellelinus]

But what will I do with my Mickey ears then?

Glue Mickey ears to the propeller hat!!!!!!!!!!!! BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MrsJobba1]

Hi I emailed the NIce tourist office 3 days ago just to ask how easy it was to get from Villefranche to Nice.

I go a pack of leaflets sent Free of charge. Including a map, traintimetable (although it runs out 7th July) info on places of intrest.

this was there website if you want to check it out
http://www.nicetourisme.biz/en/contact.php

 

[bellelinus]

Now I know when to book!

I will probably make a PS 30 days out and I'll let you know what time in case you want to go again.

 

[MrsJobba1]

I know this one, Helen -- it's on the Placa de Catalunya at the top of Las Ramblas.

Thanks Julie not far form my hotel then

 

[MrsJobba1]

lynn just to let you know Im thinking of you x

 

[bellelinus]

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It was totally true!!!! Every image was gone and when I checked my user CP it said it couldn't find the banned word "com" from my photobucket dot com links. Then when people would write about welcoming someone it would show up wel***e, etc., etc. It was bizarre but I did confirm with others on the board that it wasn't simply my hallucination.

 

[MrsJobba1]

Andrew DEREK UK 1,641
jlawall 1,115
MrsJobba1 1,081
eeyorelvr10 780


Luckily Laura has a bit before she catches me up aswell

 

[bellelinus]

Well...

Having seen this I thought it would be OK to share one personal "recovery" of some merit. I had purchased a rear projection HD TV more or less on impulse about 3 years ago. It was Christmas time and I had 2K I needed to get rid of quick as my spouse had just given me grudging encouragement to get my big TV since the old 48" Mitsubishi litterally blew up a week or so ago.

SO there's this Philips HDTV at Costco with an old style 4:3 square screen (but HD) - it had a mail in deal for a free surround sound system with DVD player and "I bit"... so after getting it home (they don't deliver and it weighs 260 pounds) .... and after about 3 months I noticed it had a strange projection artifact - a triangular rainbow that appeared periodicly in one corner - and the alignment of the 3 projection guns kept drifting out of alignment! I found in the next 3-6 months the artifact in fact appeared in 3 of 4 corners - and the guns needed MANUAL realignment every 1-4 weeks! It was maddening! SO at 9 months I inquired of what my options were and they said if I were unhappy I could RETURN IT!

I thought... oh, NO.... I don't wanna lug this thing back to Costco - and if I did how much would I get back? They said it was a reduced price without the receipt ~ which I did not have. Well... after another 4 months of mulling it - I selected a replacement HDTV - and arranged for a delivery service to pick it up and return it. SO - I was ready to take a 40% discount in returning it - when my spouse (bless her organized heart) produced the original receipt! That saved me about $800!

So I returned the 60" Philips square screen for a FULL REFUND after about 14 months of use! I then bought an Epson 57" rectangular screen HDTV for about the same money with an employee discount from an old friend. The new HDTV was a true HDTV format with a current street value of near $4K which I got for less then $2K... since it was a damaged box second... which was HAND picked for me by a friend of my friend. This model is a digital photographers' super toy ... as it has an intergrated dye-sublimation printer and CDRW drive for viewing, buring CDs for storage and printing photos! And, of course, I am an avid digital photographer!

So I returned an $1800 defective 60" Philips for $1800 less a delivery fee of $100 = and bought a open/damaged box $3900 Epson in 57" size with a 16:9 rectangular screen with an employee discount for $1900! THEN - I found 2 replacement bulbs on eBay for under $100 total ... and a couple dozen printing cartridge packs for 1/4 retail... I bought them all and now have 2 dozen plus packs ... enough to print 1200 prints!

Anyways... I am happy to have NOT been stuck with an ill conceived initial purchase ... and the new Epson is a newer technology 3 LCD panel rear projection system with an inexpensive method of renewal through the user replacable projection lamps.... normally $400 each but I got 2 for $50 each!

Since then - Costco has changed thier return policy to 90 days to return or exchange HDTVs.... instead of the unlimited furation satisfaction guaranteed policy I exploited! And I still have the free surround sound system with DVD player! It's not the best but better then any 'in TV" system!

So - that's one of my "fun" salvage deals!

Crash, you are beginning to love this thread so much, that i can't believe you didn't book this cruise when you were thinking about doing so!

 

[bellelinus]

Ok quick update on yesterdays swim meet. Josh scored 3 PB's out of 5 races. As a bit of an incentive I give him £1 for every second of PB he gets at each meet....so last night cost me £8 of PB money. WTG Josh

Congrats to Josh!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Ok quick update on yesterdays swim meet. Josh scored 3 PB's out of 5 races. As a bit of an incentive I give him £1 for every second of PB he gets at each meet....so last night cost me £8 of PB money. WTG Josh

Well done to him!

 

[MrsJobba1]

I really need this holiday - I know Andrew orderd the excursion kit has anyone else ordered anything?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

 

[MrsJobba1]

missed it again

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I really need this holiday - I know Andrew orderd the excursion kit has anyone else ordered anything?

Sallie and Izzy as well!

I have ordered some wines as well in advance.

 

[bellelinus]

I've just put a bid on a Lime Green t-shirt on Ebay to wear for our arrival/cruise boarding day so you can all recognise us. I think that we'll all be wearing at least 1 piece of Lime Green clothing and as me and the kids are going to Brent Cross shortly I'm going to get some Lime Green ribbon to decorate our rucksacks and maybe some extra to decorate the veranda !!!!

Of course this is assuming we don't decide to wear our group t-shirt on the frist day. Has a decsion been made about when we're going to wear the group t-shirt ?

How and when are we getting the t shirts? I have a feeling that I may have missed something about this (and never did manage to go back and catch up after the cruise with my 10 year old). Neither I nor my girls will be wearing anything remotely lime green (sorry!) but we are usually easily recognizable since my oldest girl has red hair, the middle blonde, and the youngest is a brunette. I have said this before on the Dis and right in the terminal always have people come up and say "Are you bellelinus?"

 

[MrsJobba1]

Congrats Admiral Andrex sorry I mean Andrew

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Andrew can you post the address details again of HRC. I missed them in my 23 pages of catching up.

Thanks

http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafes3/cafes.aspx?LocationID=41&MIBenumID=3&MenuID=15

Congrats Admiral Andrex sorry I mean Andrew

Thanks

 

[bellelinus]

Talking about clothing, I know that men and women have to cover shoulders and knees for going into the churches but what about the kids. My two both have thin cotton shorts in various plain colours for during the day but I'm not sure if they come right down over the knees.

I believe it's true for everyone -- knees and shoulders covered. It may only be really enforced in the Vatican and a few other places, but it is the general rule whether everyone does it or not.

 

[bellelinus]

Im so tired after the dog comp but we did really well -

Bens team got another PB 18.70 and came 2nd overall

Floss' team won the starters again

That's cool, Helen -- what kind of dog competition (sorry, I know you've probably said elsewhere)? It is show or obedience or field?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Glue Mickey ears to the propeller hat!!!!!!!!!!!! BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!

Great Idea!!

I will probably make a PS 30 days out and I'll let you know what time in case you want to go again.

I have made two already!

Thanks Julie not far form my hotel then

Just one block form mine as well

It was totally true!!!! Every image was gone and when I checked my user CP it said it couldn't find the banned word "com" from my photobucket dot com links. Then when people would write about welcoming someone it would show up wel***e, etc., etc. It was bizarre but I did confirm with others on the board that it wasn't simply my hallucination.

As I posted why?????????????????????????????????????