Shattered Dreams.....

As you may or may not have known, I had dreams of going viral with my new found artistic talents.  This piece was inspired by the artist Hundertwasser and under the watchful guidance of Willemien, I created a masterpiece!!  Next stop was a painting class on Friday night, I was sooooo excited, my chance to really prove myself...  to be discovered..... 


Firstly, there were no introductions, no instructions, just... ''ok you can start now"  start what?  where? how?, ok first glass of wine consumed (it was a paint and bring your own beverages night).  I can do this...  I gathered some paints and put some brilliant strokes on the Canvas, all was going well until my neighbor ( you know who you are!! ) decided that flicking paint at the canvas was much more fun.  After the second glass of wine, I had to agree... this was great; my creative juices were really flowing... wine, wine, flick, flick, wine, flick, wine... this is great fun.... more wine, more flicking and then one last second of semi-sobriety to realize my painting career was over.....  

(it looks better here than in real life - trust me)

 
In all the madness I left the poor ladybird legless, a little bit like how I felt myself at the end of the night.... still though eh - it was GREAT FUN!!!
 


I still had the golf to fall back on right???  I've had some lessons; I'm hitting a little better...... I could be......  NOPE, that dream is gone now too..... that was shattered within five minutes of entering the Ladies Professional Golf tournament in Carlsbad on Saturday (I wasn't actually participating by the way).  Marie-Jose and I were watching them practice at the driving range, all sorts of warm up actions which we would never even think of doing and then casually hitting the ball so far that it was incredible.  The beautiful ''ping'' from the stroke as the ball flew in the air every single time.  It was a crushing blow...  an acknowledgment of the cruelest kind.... We then followed the leader for the first nine holes.  She was brilliant; the consistency was impeccable.  It was a lovely day, followed by a lovely meal at chez van de Camp.

Shattered dreams must always be replaced with new dreams, I know I'm good at something, it's just waiting to be discovered... maybe it's line dancing....  yeah that could be it!!!  I'm off to Google the ''Cow shed" now......  oh that fire of hope is starting to ignite again... keep dreaming everybody! 

Yani Tseng of Taiwan, going into the final round at 12 under par. 

Vegas Baby !

It was all getting a little too boring for the crumblies ...

... so we knew we had to step up our game.  Where better than Vegas !  None of us had ever been there before; no one had a clue how to get there, so it seemed like the logical choice.  Road trip !

A-maz-ing !  It's all so very over the top you just have to be blown away ... as the evidence confirms.  I'm pretty sure we'll be heading back at some stage.

The view from our hotel room ... a sign of things to come?

Alma and Joe express their joy at being in Vegas ... together as best chums.

The New York skyline condensed into a relatively small area.

Our hotel.

The totally over the top water show at the Bellagio

It might look out of place, but Venice has been recreated on the FIRST floor (of all places !) of the Venetian hotel

In total, we stayed two nights.  On the second night, we all headed to see the "Phantom of the Opera".  The term 'headed' somewhat understates the pace at which we had to gallop there.  We finished up eating pretty much on time; assessed the distance / traffic situation and decided in all our wisdom to walk the strip as far as the Venetian rather than getting a taxi or jumping on the outrageously overpriced monorail.  The minutes passed; the pace quickened.  Before long Mary and Joe were starting to feel the pressure.  By the time we actually got there (3 minutes too late), the show wasn't exactly the highest thing on the crumblies priority list - an oxygen bottle on the other hand was.  Still we had made it.  The show itself was fab, with chandeliers 'crashing' down on top of the audience, unbelievable sets being moved in and out, up and down (how did they get it all to fit?!?) together with blinding bursts of flame, fireworks and dry ice to give the stage an eerie watery feeling.  Well worth the heart attacks !

The Hard Man

It was the day after the big birthday party.  Joe, still numb from the alcohol decided he was going to take on the Pacific.  Paying no heed to our frenzied "don't you know it's freezing out there" warnings we were directed towards Solana beach.

Alma accompanies the 'hard man' towards the water's edge.

Shortly afterwards, Joe's left wondering where Alma's gotten to.

Liquid N2 'Hardy' prepares to face his first big wave head on.

Hmmm - well let's just say up to this point, it looked like it had promise.

The Birthday Party

It happens to us all eventually ... you reach the big 40; a time to reflect on your life, buy some tight leather pants and invest in an over sized motor bike (the latter two not necessarily being connected in anyway whatsoever).

It all started one day when Alma - affected by a dose of the happy hormones - offered to stage a birthday party.  "Off you go", I thought - but the extent of my input was going to be pretty much limited to showing up on the day (assuming I didn't have to work).  In all fairness she put on a screamer.  On the sly, she had contacted some old and new friends (now ex-friends) as well cousins (who unfortunately must remain cousins due to family blood lines) to join in on the reflection process and put pen to paper.  The result was a culmination of hilarious abuse sprinkled with a topping of embarrassing archive photos.

Back in the day - wearing my most favorite t-shirt ever.  If only it still fit.

A sample of the abuse.  There's plenty more where that came from.

A sample of the party goers.  Good atmosphere creating folk !

Trip 2: The Safari Park

Because they managed to behave themselves so well, we decided to risk a second trip within 24 hours - this time to the Safari park.  Big cats were the order of the day ...

... before it was time to get them home again after all the day's excitement !

The Crumblies On Tour

Almost two weeks ago, the crumblies arrived - instantly packing in firsts; it was their first time in America, and their very first long haul flight.  All things considered they were in pretty good shape getting off the plane - though about 40mins later, Mary was literally ready to get sick with the tiredness.  Almost a week into their visit, the cat naps started to approach the kind of acceptable levels where we could afford to bring them outdoors.

Our first trip took us whale watching together with Thijs and Marie-Jose - who also doubled up as back up should Joe and Mary suddenly have a bout of narcolepsy.  The weather was perfect so the scene was set for an ideal day out - at one with nature.

Thijs and Marie-Jose plot how to handle things in the event of a narcoleptic emergency.

Right from the get-go my spidey senses should have been tingling.  The captain announced that we were going to have to head out further than usual in order to see any whales.  Not ideal by any means but hey - as long as we actually saw something who cares - right?  Wrong !  We were just about as far out as possible - "Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End" style, when finally two gray whales popped up for a few moments.  And not a moment too soon judging by the guide's reaction - "Oh that was so awesome!  We were (like) so very lucky (like) to get that close to the whales (like and stuff)."  And then in the same breath - "Right, let's get you folks back home before it gets too late."  For those of you wondering, the whale watching tour guarantees a whale sighting or you get to come back another time (probably mid-week) for free - hence the incentive.

The ladies crack up laughing at the guide explaining what was in store - not realizing that the replica whale was probably the closest they were going to get to the real thing.

Mary and Joe at DEFCON 2 - ready to capture any impending action.

Finally - the elusive Nessy - caught at last.

Of course, like all good Disney movies, these things always end on a happy note.  On the return trip we were treated to a fabulous dolphin show.  What seemed like hundreds of the lads were jumping around the boat.  We also stopped off to view a group of sea lions basking in the last few rays of sunshine - not quite what was marketed for the day but jolly nice to see nonetheless !

Flipper doing his thing.