Monday, 11 July 2016

Take me home country Rose

Referring to a song we heard everywhere in Hawaii (the island and the state , I know it took me time to get my head around it)


Yup thats me taken with a pre digital camera using film


Every decade or so when its a big anniversary we celebrate by having a big Holiday this one was Hawaii, 9/11 happened between booking it and going. I have never travelled on such empty planes. Americans being used to getting on planes the way we get on buses could not come to terms with heightened security. The security people were lost , it all being new to them and I remember one bloke with a roll of guns complaining at not being allowed to take them onboard . Nonetheless we had seats to ourselves on all flights and were thanked in Hawaii for our support .

LITLE CHAPEL Ah ha !Ah ha !



Tropical islands except or those ones a few feet across are rarely what I expected 







We stayed at the hilton Waikoloa Village waiulua bay Hawaii and the PrincevilleResort Kauuai and they were luxurious especially by the standards of someone whose normal lodging when forced into a long weekend somewhere against my will , normally for a wedding , is a motel chosen from some chain becuase it has an offer on. But beware , like cruising not everything id included and its not just Hawaii that takes your breath away if you are cavalier with the extras .


The people who stay here or some of them do not need to ask the price and you can if you wish spend all your time within the resort ignoring Hawaii completely and some did . Imagine that to become so inured that you dont want to leave the complex.



I think the staff recognised our social standing and were particulalrly nice to us , of course they were extremly friendly anyway though I think whilst out and about I did get ripped of when I gave a barman $100 in mistake for a ten telling him to 'keep the change' which he seemingly did . It was only that night in the hotel whilst checking my depleted reserves I realised I could not account for $90

It is expensive on Hawaii , you have been warned





There were native Hawaiian artifacts on display along the halls and in the meeting areas of the Hotel all under glass on discussing them with the manager he said they used t be on display but he had caught a guest trying to set fire to a cape made from bird feathers with a disposable lighter and since then all artifacts had had to be protected.











We took a flight over Hawaii , originally it was to be by helicopter but we could not afford it so we took a small plane flight , the Pilot had a southern drawl with a humorous set of quips  and was extremely entertaining for the whole flight with endless , facts and asides. He made the flight for us herein and to allow one small brag pre takeoff he did the safety talk part of which was putting on and wearing the lifejacket (unlike the major airlines we had to wear them whilst onboard. As I once read that by the second flight most of the lifejackets on a commercial flight have been stolen we were slightly better off actually having a jacket)  he explained how to put the lifejacket  on and only Sue and I did it , everybody else stood there in various states of confusion , holding the end of the ties which they managed , in some cases, to make look like an advance origami course. One person actually had their head and arm in the same hole. Amidst the  general confusion and in some exasperation the pilot looked at the confusion then at Sue and I and said well you guys are OK so you can get on board. He smiled as he said it and we realised why - it gave us choice of seats so we got pole position so to speak. These pictures are from the plane


One thing, we had as I said intended to take a helicopter trip thinking it would give a better view ,      I spoke with someone who did it and he said the view was very restricted and only those in front could see anything , everybody in the plane had a window , so my tip is take the plane.




A genuine Hawaiin village of the sort Captain  Cook was eaten in*














* I know but it is a good line - I wont tell you what the Hawaiians did cos this is a family show , but it was a mark of respect , sometimes being a wallflower is preferable. Talking of wallflowers Daisies grow everywhere in the world except Antarctica.







Actual lava - there were  places where you could walk on the lava with the molten stuff flowing by underneath in someplace's it was open and you could see it running by your feet .


















Cant remember if he was king of Kings - I think he was sen as the founder of Hawaii.



Plants naturally are unique I was told that none of the plants or animals originated there they all got there by hanging on something or being blown on the wind or drifting ashore from the sea.

Agatha Christie went surfing there. I was also told but cant find it that there are 13 climatic zones in the word and Hawaii has 12 of them. It is certainly possible as you drive to experience all kinds of weather and up in the mountains is snow.
Country Rose is a song sung by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole during our flight over the island.







Saturday, 9 July 2016

Distrust

In general I have a distrust of what anyone representing a company tells me. This scepticism can be counter productive but generally I find what I am told in answer to my question to be questionable , the vodafone incident for instance , wanted to unlock a old handset to take with me on my journeys and put local sims in. Simple enough you would think except after waiting 40 minutes for a Live Chat the information I was given was wrong. I walked into town to the vodafone store to get my phone unlocked and they said we don't do it anymore we have to send it off , then they said you have to fill in an online form . He was telling me to walk home fill in the form and bring the phone back but as I subsequently found you don't have to send the handset so that was wrong. The technical help at vodafone said they could not do it because I had to be a customer for 30 days and no matter how much I explained I was a customer I wanted a spare handset unlocked they just kept sending me the standard paragraph to say you must be a customer for 30 days in the hope I would finally understand. I managed to get someone else and now they (Vodafone) say they will do it . Point is though at least 2 people in that organisation cannot understand a question and do not have any customer skills .

My son was locked out of his lloyds account, he is in NZ but the number they call for you to enter confirmation that it really is you trying to get into your account is the home number here in Basingstoke. So he text me the code , I answered the phone here and typed in the number so he could access his account there... I phoned Lloyds in preparation for my own travels and they said I can delete the landline number , she didnt sound sure and I am not sure I hope not to need to find out .

I spelt Lloyds with 3 L's I misclicked and added it ot he dictionary but there is no button to edit the dictionary so for perpetuity Lloyds is llloyds , Mind you misclicked is in there so there's a plus/

The real problem is so many organisations rely on scripts as a means off answering questions , they record the messages for training so why oh why doesn't the course say LISTEN . I have on occasion told the person that they do not understand my question and would they please listen only to have them tell me they do understand and then prove they dont..

You dont want to get involved with the fraud people either they are unhelpful , obstructive and rude , my duaghter had her card stolen in Aus and they wouldn't talk to me quoting the data protection act . I worked in data protection I know the rules these people don't but the point is they use it to do nothing its a disgrace .. I wrote listing my complaints and suprise suprise they never replied

Nostalgia


Throw that lumber overboard and so we have been , as the top levels have been removed and discarded so things I thought long gone have come to light here a autographed  picture of the fab four.


I cant actually remember all the detail on  how I got this , it is now 54 years at least since I got this. I did not send off for it , never been a joiner, as far as I recall  my mum brought it home from work and she said her friends daughter or something worked for a fan club and they were sending out these pictures so she brought this in . Having said that I think she said her daughter and her friends were paid to sign the pictures on behalf of the Beatles . If they are genuine signatures they look more like pictures of pictures of signed photos..

Item 2 is this O,level exam paper from 1964, I passed ! I tried to do the questions just now and failed , I mean comprehensively failed