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19th October 2009 |
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Then we were off to Nashville to the home of country music and Chattanooga station and Atlanta. A great if tiring trip. No sooner were we home than Geraint and I were off to London for a couple of days to see Cliff and the Shadows. Then it was 2 weeks in Corfu and now we are going to Tenerife with a small group. The only thing left before New Year will be the short break in London to see Mama Mia. And by the way we have some cancellations if you want a ticket. It has been a busy year for Options, it started slowly and we thought we were to share in the poor economy but then it all went mad. Please book early for next year and tell us where you would like to go so we can make our reservations early. |
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4th June 2009 |
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Geraint and Wendy are spending Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Kemble Mobility Show promoting holidays. |
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17th February 2009 |
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On the 10th of February Geraint, Kirk and
myself went to Liverpool for a holiday exhibition organised
by NeuroSupport. Several members of
Holidays For All were there and we enjoyed looking
around the other stands.
The day at the exhibition started slowly, the Mayor opened it and came round to talk to everyone. You were all there, we had picture slide shows, movie clips and the website available for people to browse. Several people were interested in China and amazed at the options available. Hopefully you will meet people who found us by visiting the exhibition. We will be visiting a few people with Holidays For All, so we may have new friends for you this year! |
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30th December 2008 |
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 We
are nearly into another year and as always we have seen lots
of our old friends during the year and made some new friends
too. Amazingly when we looked at the photos for our
25 year album we
found that we still have some of those original guests
holidaying with us now.We have had a good year despite the doom and gloom of the world situation and saw no let up in the number of people wanting holidays with us.
So hope to hear from you all soon and Happy New Year! |
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1st September 2008 |
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Well that is the end of another summer,
my 25th summer of leading holidays for people with a
learning disability. It has been really busy with so many
people looking for last minute holidays. We seemed very slow
to start this year with a few holidays having to be
cancelled for lack of numbers only to then be requested when
it was too late. A plea for you all to get booking for next
year so we don’t have a repeat of the high numbers at the
last minute in an effort to fit every one in. Please
remember we not only have to get rooms at the last minute
but also more staff etc.
Weston-Super-Mare went well in a lovely hotel which was new to us. The staff were very helpful and this makes all the difference. We also tried out the Royal Clifton in Southport as a summer venue (we have used it many times for new year). That went well including our ventures into Liverpool to the Beatles museum etc. This was so well received that we are going to do a Beatles short break next year. We then moved across the country to York where we did the ever popular soap opera holiday. We managed to take in Heartbeat country , the Royal, Emmerdale and we even did our own wedding pics at the church. We went to the last of the summer wine venues and after lunch in Sid's Café we did a coach trip to the film venues. Some of the group stayed on to see the castle and the cathedral etc. but we moved further east to Scarborough. As with everywhere this summer the weather was disappointing but we all had a good time.
The 4 weeks in Bournemouth went well and the Laguna staff did us proud as always. I am now at home ,resting before the star t of our Autumn trips. The first one is Israel and I hope the weather will be better than it has been here this summer. SUMMER! when was that? |
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11th February 2008 |
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 Well
it is some time since I wrote my last blog and Christmas and
New Year have come and gone and I have had some time at home
which I really welcomed after the busy time in the autumn.
I have just been to Prague for a short
break. It was a wonderful place full of friendly people. The
architecture was very different and the cobbled streets were
so quaint. We took a long walk, following a route which
After walking back to our hotel we were collected by a coach for a night trip on the river to see Prague by night. We were served a buffet supper on board and listened to some lovely music as we travelled along the river. We then took a coach trip through the town which was so pretty all lit up.
I would thoroughly recommend Prague as
a good trip. I wonder if any one would like to go, we have
been asked to do some short city breaks and this may be a
good place to start. Let us know if you would like to
explore the idea. Would you like to see Prague or is there
another city you have fancied going to. Email us with your
suggestions. |
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11th December 2007 |
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The last holiday of 2007 is approaching.
I am not doing the Christmas one as I like to spend that
time with my family but as always I will be doing the NEW
YEAR holiday and we will have a wonderful time. I have just got back from the Dominican Republic and that was superb. Yes we had rain at night and in the early hours but most of the time it was wall to wall sunshine. Even when it did rain it was so warm we just sat there. If you look at the diary that Jo did you will see that there was a lot to do and the highlight for every one was the trip to Ocean World we either experienced a swim with the Dolphins or an encounter. Both of these were excellent and so rewarding. I suppose this will be my last blog this year and I would like to recap on some of it as I feel it has been a very good year for Options with several new holidays. We try to change things but as well we have to fit in the old favourites. And the years seem to get shorter.
Last New Year saw us up in Southport at the ever popular Royal Clifton Hotel. The usual parties and festivities started
the year for Options with a bang. |
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14th November 2007 |
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Well I am not home for long this time. We have just finished
the American Dream when we went to New England and New York.
We had a wonderful time and we have lots of pictures for you
to see. There is also a Diary so I won’t repeat it here. I arrived home very tired on Monday and slept half of Tuesday. I then went to see Luke and Jack and heard all about Luke’s Rugby and how he was so pleased to be voted Beaver of the week. For being sensible! Those of you who know him will realize what an achievement this was as he really does not do ‘sensible’. It was jolly cold in New York and we seem to have come home to similar weather. Log fires are burning as I get on with my washing etc. for the next trip. The clothes needed will be a bit different as we are off to the Dominican Republic and it should be hot there. However after the recent Hurricane that hit there we expect a few problems but are told all is well where we are going. The Hurricane also hit Cape Cod the day we left that area but we did get the edge of it. Hope we do not get any more. I will write more when I get back so I can tell you how it was. I will then be into Christmas Preparations for our Family Christmas |
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22nd October 2007 |
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I always do it in the half term holiday and when my children were little they used to help me but now I have two new helpers. Luke and Jack. They have come to stay for a few days while we do it. |
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19th October 2007 |
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 Hi ! Here I am at home again. Isn’t this
a wonderful world? I just got back from
Corfu a couple of
weeks ago and it was summer there but back home and England
is into the Autumn with chilly winds and rain. I can’t
believe that in Corfu I was in shorts.
Well then we went to London and took in
Billy Elliot and the Sound of Music apart from seeing the
London sights going on the eye and a scrumptious tea in
Harrods. What excitement when we went to the stage door
after the Sound of Music and out came the Captain and later
Maria and we got autographs and photos with them both. My next trip is this year’s American dream “New York and New England”. That will be even colder than here so I am packing the winter woollies. I will tell you what it was like when I get back and look out for the pictures as they come in. I will be emailing them back. Another bit of news while I am at home and have time to write my blog. Many of you will remember my grandson Jack when he was a baby and came along on holidays with Kirstine. You will also know him from more recent trips. Some of you spent a week with him in Bournemouth this summer. Well he was ten today so those of you who knew him as a baby have been with us for ten years here he is blowing out his candles |
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18th September 2007 |
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 Well
I promised to send an update from my holiday. We arrived in
Snowdonia on Wednesday . We are in a cosy little cottage in
the village of Mahod.Close by
is the village of Blaenau Ffestiniog, home to one of the
great little trains of Wales. As always I think, ”would this
be good for a holiday? Would people like it?
We could walk or we could try out the wonderful trains here. Do we have people who would
like to climb a mountain?” Well tell us if you would be interested. Do not waste my holiday thoughts! YES, I DID GET TO THE TOP OF SNOWDONIA AND BACK DOWN. I did not cheat and use the train. It was a lovely walk, the weather was with us most of the way and it was only when we got to the top that we were met by the mist. The path was straightforward, steep but not too bad and we were glad to see a café half way up serving drinks to the walkers. |
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September 2007 |
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Hasn’t the summer flown! I have just finished my last week in Bournemouth. I won’t write too much about it as you can read it all in the scrapbooks of Ann Scott and James and Vivien Walker. Have a look at the pictures I took as well as the diaries and don't forget all my mobile phone pictures! We were asked to put on a Christmas holiday and as usual we looked into the possibility of acting on this request. We have been able to put it on so visit our holiday list and join John and Georgie for a great Christmas! People often ask how we decide what to
put on. This is how it works so if you want to go some where
special send in a request and we will see what we can do.
I now have 3 weeks off. It is lovely to be home. I would say it will be good to have a rest but I am hosting a Christian Aid tea party on Saturday so I have to get baking. Next week I am off to Snowdonia for the week. Last year I climbed Scarfell Pike in the Lake District and I said I would do Snowdon this year and Ben Nevis next year so I am off to have a go. If I get to the top I will send a picture. My next Options trip is to Corfu on
the 21st. September so watch out for the pictures to start
going up. |
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August 2007 |
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 The
first week in Bournemouth was a great success. We had
wonderful weather and took advantage of it. We had a group
of twelve holiday makers, nine of whom were new to Options.
Every one got on famously and within a day you would not
have believed so many of the group were new to us.
We started with a picnic on the beach in
Mudeford. Several Monday the group chose a shopping trip and a lunch out and the afternoon was spent either in or by the hotel pool with several people using the time to get postcards sent.
On Wednesday we went on the chain
ferry to Studland and to Norden where we took the steam
train to Swanage. We had lunch in a sea front restaurant,
and had a look around Swanage and the shops before catching
the train back to Norden. It was a lovely warm evening and
we went to see Thursday saw us setting off to Ringwood to the new countryside museum. It proved to be a very interesting outing, the museum covered Old Ringwood, a street of mock shops etc., old cars, a train, Iron Age round house, old dairy and a fascinating exhibit about smugglers.
I am off home for a week. Options are
still in Bournemouth, our most popular venue again this
year. I will be back down next week and will be sending
photos from my phone back so keep looking to see what we
have been doing. |
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July 2007 |
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Well I can’t believe that the summer is
half way over. Despite the wettest summer I can remember we
have had some amazingly good luck. In other years I can
recall many times when it was just too wet to go out but we
seemed to escape a lot of the rain this year. We spent two weeks in Torquay at the Devonshire hotel. It
was so sunny we booked a beach hut for 3 days each week.
Picnics on the beach were popular features which I am sorry
to say have not featured on any holidays since.We also included cream teas in the wonderful gardens in Cockington. A lovely feature of this garden is the live pianist playing out in the garden. We also went to the famous Paignton Zoo, the living coast attraction in Torquay itself; we had a train trip and a boat trip. Kent’s Cavern was a favourite with the café there being very popular.  Our Lake District holiday, where we were planning to explore the steam trains and boats, was set at the lovely Patterdale Hotel in the pretty village of Patterdale on the banks of Ulswater. The views were spectacular and the one good thing about the rain was the amazing waterfalls. We missed the picnics that we had been looking forward to but there was no way we could even consider sitting out in the beautiful rainy  hills. However we managed to ride boats and trains as
planned and the rain stopped to let us get on every time so
we did not get wet. The hotel staff were most attentive and
the food was super.We then moved to York for a 7 day look at the soap opera venues. We did pretty well with a ride on the train in Heartbeat country and a visit to Goathland where it is filmed. We had lunch in the Woolpack when we did our Emmerdale visit, taking in the church etc. When we did our Last of the Summer Wine visit we had  lunch in Sid’s café and
visited Compo’s cottage followed by tea in the Wrinkled
Stocking. We made a visit to Scarborough to see the sights
of the Royal and finished up with a visit to the vets
surgery and studios of All Creatures Great and Small.This holiday was followed by our 3 day short break in York which some people added to the Soap Opera holiday. We visited the Minster, the Castle and Museum, and the Train Museum enjoying lunch on a platform.  I am now home for a short break but due to the recent floods
in Gloucester, which did not affect our home, we had several
refugees staying with us.Next trip is the ever popular Bournemouth so I will write more after that and look out for the mobile phone pictures I will be sending to the Web site each day |
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 Over the last couple of months I have
been very busy, travelling all over the place. In April
Geraint and I set of to Israel. We had wanted to go for a
while and so I gave the trip to Geraint as a birthday
present. As always while we were there we started to look
into the possibility of taking a group there. It seems we
can never just go on holiday. We have had several requests
for a trip to Israel so we started to plan. The trip was
amazing. We visited so many places. The organizers were a
Christian group and the information on the tours was so
interesting. The guides were very knowledgeable. I just
can’t remember all the places we went but the highlights
must have been Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, Cana (and we
managed to buy a bottle of Canan wine), we went to the
garden of Gethsemane and the garden tomb. We took a boat
trip on the Sea of Galilee and swam in the Dead Sea... We
stayed in two lovely hotels and the food was wonderful if no
good for my diet. We plan to offer this holiday next year as
the folks who went on the next trip asked where we had been
and immediately several of them said they would love to go
there. So watch out for it appearing in the lists for next
autumn.When we got back from Israel  we only had 1½ days before
setting off to Italy with a group, a holiday we planned on
our last years holiday. We first spent a couple of nights in
Venice where we went on a gondola, explored all the back
streets of Venice as well as the famous St. Marks square
(where we had coffee and cakes listening to a quartet).
After a trip to the glass blowing factory we went out for a
lovely dinner. We then made our way back to the hotel by the
boat bus along the Grand Canal.We then went on to Assisi and Rome where we stayed 3 nights in a lovely hotel where we all had complete suites and lovely views of the gardens that surrounded the hotel. We went into the centre of Rome, to the Sistine Chapel the Coliseum and a tour of many of the old sights. In the evening we went on a trip up into the hills and wined and dined in an old wine cellar. We then travelled on to Pisa where we tried to push the tower up again and then on to Florence to take a tour of this famous city. We went out for a super meal there in the country side surrounding Florence. We had a great meal and the singing and dancing were great.  Our next trip was to Austria to take the sound of Music
tour. As the story starts in Vienna that was our first port
of call. Here we stayed in an old hotel that had once been
the guest house of the Emperor. It was so opulent it took
our breath away. We went to the Zoo and around the Palace.
We took the subway into the centre of Vienna and we took a
tour of the city which included a boat trip on the Danube,
where we had dinner. We also went on an evening trip which
included a ride on the famous Ferris wheel... We went for
dinner in a tavern and we entertained by excellent singers
and dancers we then travelled across to Saltsburg by train, a
very interesting trip through the most wonderful
countryside. We went on a tour of the sights that were used
to film the sound of Music, danced around the fountain and
went to a show in the evening. We went into the centre of
Saltsburg to the old town, took the venicular railway up to
the castle and saw the views of the town from the top.
 Every
one voted it a great trip although the amount of walking was
a bit too much for some, but there is no other way to see
these places.Well I’ve got a couple of weeks off now and I shall be glad of the rest after all this travelling... Rest! There’s 3 weeks washing and the garden has really taken advantage of me turning my back, the weeds are springing up every where. |
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Well
after a hectic summer we had little respite before we were
off to do the American Dream, a trip to New Orleans, Tupelo
to see the birth place of Elvis, and then on to Graceland to
see his home.
We
got some good ideas - how about
I
am going to make a plea to you all to get booking so that we
can have enough people to get searching for the best deals
we can get you as the forecast is not good and with the
pound dropping we will have to work hard and book early to
keep the prices we have estimated.
A
trip to London to see Joseph was very popular and a certain
amount of sight seeing went on as well. (we have been asked
to try to get tickets for Oliver next year so let us know if
you want one so we know how many to get.
Then
it was time for a short break at home and as usual our
grandchildren, Luke and Jack came to stay. The annual camp
in our garden as wet as usual but we still managed a camp
fire and everyone had a good time wallowing in the mud.
took us past a church with a clock that was about six foot.
There was a big crowd watching as the hours struck and then
we saw a hand with a hammer hit the chimes and everyone
cheered.
We
walked on past the Jewish quarter and the old Synagogue to
visit a church that was so ornate, covered in gilt and
beautiful paintings. When we looked up at the roof it was
painted to look like the sky as if the church was the open
air. Our route took us past the old shops full of the
bohemian crystal ornaments and along little lanes towards
the castle. We stopped for lunch in a little Bohemian
restaurant. The food there is very good, lots of different
dumplings and stews and a lot of different sausages. We
continued up the hill towards the castle where we explored
the grounds and some of the buildings.
The
next day we went to see the spectacular monastery library
and spent more time in the castle followed by the most
fabulous dinner in a restaurant that was in a pretend cave
with its own stalactites.
Last
February I went to Venice and fell in love with some little
Glass figures and bought some. I decided that this year I
would make a Christmas village and throughout the year my
Grandsons and I have worked on models etc. Many of you have
been with me as I have collected bits from all over the
world for my scene and indeed some kind guests have bought
me bits for the village as a thank you for their holiday so
I thought I should tell you that it is now done and here is
a photo.
At
this time of year we start to prepare for Christmas. There
is a lot do be done and one of the first things I do is make
Christmas cake, pudding and mince meat.
food etc .and we have hired remote control
tanks for the party
people had a paddle whilst we assembled umbrellas and a
gazebo to protect every one from that wonderful Sun! Yes I
said sun. Most evenings would see us in the entertainment
room, starting off with Bingo and then dancing the night
away to a different entertainer each night.
On
Tuesday we went off to Monkey World. Several people had been
watching the series on TV, so this was a very popular
outing.
the Wimborne model village by candle light. It was quite
magical sitting in the candle lit gardens having a drink as
the sun went down.
Friday
we set of to the shops for the last minute gift buying then
down to the sea front to the beach and lunch in a café with
a view. Tonight we were not to be dancing as we were of to
the pier theatre to see the Summer Spectacular, followed by
the famous Bournemouth firework display where we had a
grandstand view watching from the pier after the show.