Holiday Fund Courtesy of Mr T

Been to Tesco today and got another couple of hundred points. I'm on the 20k mark this quarter, as my target was 30k I'm right on track. 30k in points will give me £300 in club card deals or T£1200 towards another holiday :O) (T£ are Tesco pounds lol)

The aim is to go back to Jamaica in 2010, so I will probably need about £7000 as I'm paying for at least 5 of us. By my reckoning it will take 18months to do but as I have T£950 left over from the Maldives trip & another T£1200 in November we should be able to book a holiday just before Christmas next year (fingers, toes, legs & eyes crossed).

I need one of those thermometers, that they have outside churches when they are collecting money for the roof fund. Then I will have something that will show how far off the target we are.

Stargate Atlantis

Every evening since returning from Teresa's I've rung Elena. Every evening we've spoken for nearly an hour, goodness knows about what, just chit chat really. Telling her what we've been doing, she's told us what she's been doing, what we've eaten, who we've seen etc. It sounds as if she's having a great time and I know she loves Teresa like a second Mum, who wouldn't, she's the most loving, kind hearted, thoughtful person you are ever likely to meet. BUT I think she's missing us like mad. I suppose I would be a bit worried if she wasn't wouldn't I :O)

Andrew's turn to be excited as the new series of Stargate Atlantis starts again tonight. He loves it and is glued to the TV when it's on. A bomb could go off & he wouldn't move from in front of the box lol.

Phoned Virgin holidays today and asked them to price up 2 weeks in the Maldives. Spoke to a lovely young man who was very helpful but nearly fainted when he told me the price ... £7135.35!! I have £5000 in Tesco clubcard vouchers but if we spend another £2000 on that holiday I can't afford to stay with Chris in Florida at the end of the October. So, we're back to the drawing board!! The lovely Virgin man suggested Mauritius but I think I'd prefer to go back to the Caribbean. Andrew's in agreement too. So I'm hoping by the end of this week we will have made a decision :O)

Received a postcard from Elena this morning. How thoughtful is that :O)

Clubcard Virgin

Oooo I'm so excited, Mr T has sent some clubcard points, quite a few actually ;O) Now comes the hard bit of converting them all into money to spend in the Virgin catalogue. This is what I'm contemplating, what do you think? It's a little Island called Chaaya Lagoon Hakuraa Huraa. It's a 140km seaplane transfer from the airport at Male in the Maldives. It looks like a little slice of heaven doesn't it :O) I'm hoping it's small enough to walk round in a day lol. The girls want us to leave Elena at home because we are going there for our Silver Wedding Anniversary but I don't think she's old enough to leave on her own & Andrew wants a snorkling/diving partner and I don't breath underwater even with the use of a snorkle or breathing masky thing. I have tried but it feels as if someone is trying to suffocate me.

Now if that wasn't fantastic enough I have a second holiday planned later on in 2009 ~ Florida. My gorgeous cousin Chris has offered to bake us in Floridian sunshine & bring ice cold drinks to us complete with little umbrellas :O) In return we hope to do our fair share of washing up etc. Now anyone that reads this today has to hope & pray that the Hurrican about to hit Florida is a mild one and that Chris and all her friends & neighbours stay safe. We're all thinking of you sweetie xXx

I was thinking ...

Have you ever seen the film Shirley Valentine? She talks to the wall in her kitchen as everyone else is out & about doing there own thing. It's funny!

I have enough people to talk to but sometimes it's just nice talking to the computer as all it does is listens, never butts in or starts talking about something else. It's not an ideal companion but it does help to sort stuff out & it's much less obvious than talking to the wall lol.

When we were on holiday in Jamaica back in May, Andrew's sister Claire sent a text message saying that his Auntie Edith had died. Auntie Edith was brilliant, she was one of Andrew's Dad's sisters and we were more close to her than any other Aunt or Uncle. Edith made all the flower arrangements including my bouquet, when we got married. She crocheted a gorgeous white blanket for Gemma when she was born. She spent hours tracing her family history & sharing it with us and everytime we went back 'home' to Chinley we would visit and always be made very welcome. Her grandchildren adored her, she would text them or phone them on her mobile phone or e-mail them. She had a web cam installed & would talk via MSN etc. to her two sisters in Australia. She kept up with all the modern gadgets, which is quite cool for someone born in 1940! What I'm getting at is, she always said she would come down to the Isle of Wight to stay with us for a week or so, but sadly she never made it.

So bearing that in mind, I had a really great thought yesterday. Next year why not have 2 holidays! There's only really 2 things stopping us, money & holidays from work & school.

Elena goes up to High School in September so holidays will be a bit difficult. Andrew has loads so he's no problem and I shouldn't have school holidays at all because that's our busiest time. So what if we went to the Maldives at Easter as we are never very busy then and like Andrew says, not many people get the chance to take their children to the Maldives so it shouldn't be fully booked. Then, in the October half term, visit Chris in Florida. We could get a flight, stay in a cheap & cheerful hotel & take Elena to Disneyland (which I've been promissing her we would do for ages). It would mean she may have to have about 8 days off but it would be split between 2 different school years.

Now the money! We should have enough Tesco points to pay for 2 weeks in the Maldives (we have just over £5,000 worth at the moment). So all I would need to do is save up for Florida. I managed to save up for Jamaica so I'm pretty sure I can do it again.

I wonder how much money we would need? We'd need the flight, hotel, food, car hire, entrance to Disneyland & maybe a couple of other theme/water parks like seaworld & Blizzard Beach. I have no idea where these places are in Florida so a bit of research is needed. Maybe we could just pick a few thing that would be close to where we stay. I know Andrew & I would be quite happy just chillin' near a pool or the sea but Elena needs some excitement :O) I've heard that Busch Gardens is lovely but again I have no idea what it is.

Chris, if you're reading this, we may be picking your brains ~ a lot :O)