Day 5 - 10th of Feb

Monday - really should have been a work day... but wasn't for me.  I had worked the weekend.  I decided since I didn't have a lot of play in the game as it was going I would leave for the day and explore Malta with some others from the ship.

It was a great time.  We went to the island of Gozo where they actually raise the rabbits that I ate last night!!  By the way one of the ones I was with last night LtCol D was kidding me that he couldn't eat his friends as he had rabbits growing up. Obviously not from a farm!  ha!  I should be a little more caring towards those feelings, but the other gentleman in the group with us went to dinner with me on the last night and HE had rabbit so I don't feel so bad :)

 Me enjoying SUNSHINE!!  LOVE me some sunshine!!!

When we got to the dock we hired a cab for the whole day - it was awesome.  We had this lady fur the duration of the day - she waited for us at each stop and pointed us in the right direction to see the best stuff.  All for 80 Euro - which split three ways was very reasonable.

first stop was Ggantija Megalithic Temples - they were quite interesting - lots of history and quite small for all the stuff they got out of there... I have to say I love their LOVE of chubby women :)

 I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the actual ruins... I did on this inside, but not the outside.  Weird.  AND for some crazy reason the photo's on my camera are showing as corrupt... so if I want you to see them I have email them to myself then add them, so honestly holes in rocks are just not thrilling enough to move them over here.  Suffice to say there is quite a bit of scaffolding and quite a few VERY large rocks that they were moving around way back when before Stonehenge.  So there you go - short, sweet - go check the site for more details and photos.  Sorry folks!

Next stop was Calypso's cave.  I think it's all hearsay, but the cave itself is in limestone rock, so you can just guess what happens over hundreds of years.  Yes, it's collapsing.  It is almost falling off the face of the cliff and it's not longer able to be visited on the inside... you can see the entrance, you can peer down the hole, you can see the old brass handrails going down in, but nope you can't go there ...and you can see the HUGE crack in the surface of the rock ... and it's only getting wider as the years progress.... so that cave will soon be a thing of the past.  Wonder if they will take the cave further along and make that the "calypso" cave?  Probably not as this one is well advertised.

The view from the top of one of the more popular beaches (Ramla Beach) was GREAT!

Next up the Citadel.  It was quite impressive.

 We walked to the top of the walls and had a view of the ocean on all sides.  The one more towards Malta was more towards the pass, but it was all within view.  Very tiny island.

Top of the wall overlooking the countryside.

Up next: The Ruin of the Azure Arch (again, it's all lime stone, so it's all crumbling)

 What you see in the distance - the smaller cliff island is "Fungus Rock" it was said to be an island that was the only place a certain fungus could be found that was used for medicine back in the day.

 The blue hole was also here but I never did see it... because I was looking in the wrong direction.

There was also an 'inland sea' where the ocean can be reached from it.  It was an interesting spot, but with the amount of collapse that could be seen with the Azure Arch I would question going through a cave to get to the ocean from there - yikes - collapse?  It's always possible!!  Scary... but it's where some of the scuba divers get on their boats before heading out and where some divers dive and then go out to open ocean.  Doesn't sound like anything I want to do!!


This is what the rock looks like

 lots of crushed and captured sand dollars.

 Lots of tide pools but there was nothing in them as they were too high and would get too hot during the day I'm sure!

Next up: Ta Pinu Cathedral   They were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Pope.

Up next the fishing Village for dinner.  

BUT on the way down - we went to see the salt beds

They manually clean all of these in the spring and pump water in to ... then they will let them dry most of the summer and manually collect the salt from them.  

It was COLD in the shade, but it was very pretty - just LOOK at the clarity of that water!!!

I didn't take a picture of the pizza because it was nothing to write home about.  I got the one with Gozo cheese.  Honestly it was a harder cheese, but not crumbly... but it filled the spot.  This was the shrimp cocktail.  I'm spoiled I like them deveined, so this was very gritty and more of a shrimp salad as it had lettuce etc under it.  Very weird but not horrible.

 FUN fish knockers in the city.

Day 4 - the 9th

 Moon set over the water

 With a sunrise on the opposite side of the boat!

 And a ship passing right in front of the sunrise...

 AND by the time I came back up from my morning meetings we were docked in Malta - good morning Malta!!

We continued to work throughout the day and toil away with no windows... but by 6pm we were released and we went out on the economy to get some dinner.

We ate at a cute place called the Raffael Restaurant.  The guys I came with ate pizza.  I tried the local dish of roasted Rabbit.  It was tasty!!

and dessert and coffee!  YUM!!!

A nice walk on the docks...

Which are famous for the cats!  I have a video of a yellow tabby who loved me and talked to me... I sent it to Liz to play it for Salem to ask her if she spoke Maltese cat language :)

Day 3 - settling in (Feb 7th)

Sunrise and moon set over the ocean

THIS is why I had a headache after my first night on the boat.  3 degrees was a bit much and caused headaches.

And weirdly there is a light in the next room ... but it never bothered me.  I can sleep with lights coming in and it makes it easier to get out of bed in the middle of the night.

Day 2 - Feb 6th

 This is a small sample of the garbage that can be seen everywhere in/around Naples

 First glance at the boat

 Where are we?  Gaeta (Guy-ay-ta)

 Where we got off the bus to get onto the boat.  Short hike out there to the boat!

 The room that I am in - very different than the other rooms that are in this area of the boat.  I'm very close to the bow of the boat here.

 The lovely glow in the dark sign of what room I'm in... 2nd deck 22nd spine, 0 position in the boat meaning I'm pretty much in the middle. and L is I have no idea!!!

 I have a sink in my room as well - makes it nice for brushing teeth... and again, they think I'm a GS-14 not a GS-13.  I did mention it a few times to those when we were checking in and then again when I got on the boat.  I think I would have been down in the bowels of the ship in a smaller bunk... maybe.  I was told by a few just to keep my mouth shut and go with it.  OK, I did.  I enjoyed it.  I didn't enjoy having to crawl off that dang bunk in the middle of the night, but I did enjoy being a single in the room - I would have liked to have gotten to know someone else, but after I stunk up the room once I was super glad I wasn't with anyone :)  hahaha!

 the view of Gaeta from the boat.

 Looking back at the center tower on the boat.... looking from the back of the boat to the front.

 Proof that I did have a life vest.  We did do a muster at one point as well... just to prove we could.  Some of us had to back track to get this dang thing to go to the deck again.

 The moon over Italy...

And we're off to sea after the helicopter landed and was off loaded.

Feb 5th - off on an adventure

Believe it or not I was trying sooo hard to get out of this trip.  I was SO afraid of having a bowel issue while on the boat.  The more I thought about it and the more I stressed about it, the more I just decided to get over my fear and just GO for it.  Really - why not?  Worse case, I'm dong laundry on the boat.  

Up at 3:30am to get on a 6am flight... I actually woke up at 2:30am - couldn't go back to sleep ... sigh.  SO up early - catching 6am flight..

So day one is Tulip Inn in Naples.  Its very far out from Naples.  Getting there was an an adventure as well.  Our flight was so challenging in that we were coming in on a scholoum.  Scary Scholoum that had us coming in wallowing all the way in... then we had the flight after us be re-routed to Rome for a few hours.  In the mean time we had to walk from the airport around the corner to the base's food court - not my choice by any means, but it was somewhere to go to get out of the HORRIBLE wind and sleet.    There were 25km winds that would about knock you off your feet.

So after everyone got in findally at 5:30 the bus took us out to the Tulip.  We checked in, got settled and headed down for some dinner. 

In the mean time here is the rom I was given.  The room looks weird because it is .. it was HUGE!  The door you see there with the empty room is in the next picture...

This is the room that is empty - yes, that is just an empty room with just what you see here... and nothing that I was going to use!

With ONE chair.  Just one chair...

This is the closet... with a mirror... not that I used that either....

The bathroom was larger... but honestly for a "newer" hotel there were spots in there that I wondered who was in their maintenance crew....

This is the picture I took of my luggage for the 10 days.. yep, this is it.  I had a small fleece blanket in the duffle...and a sweater and some odds and ends.  I did have 10 pair of socks in there and 10 plus pair of underwear... then pants and shirts that I could wear twice.  So.  I made it through the whole time without doing laundry - that's a plus BUT they had a nice laundry set up on the boat for the officers.

Anyway - the stay in the Tulip didn't go so well.  I had issues with diarrhea that night and although protected, not protected enough.  Drat it.  BUT  I'm not going to cry about it.... nothing I could do about it and they did charge my card for the oops... rightly so, I'm OK with that too.  Sh*t happens and we just pay to have it cleaned.  sigh.   Went to bed early to get up and hit the NEXT boat at 7am as well.

Beauty in the frozen

Meet frozen fog. This is what happens when it’s 25-27 degrees and it gets foggy here. 

And did I mention the sun doesn’t get a whole heck of a lot higher than this ... it’s cold AND dark most of the time here. 

This morning the trees were much thicker frosted. They’re totally flicked in frost and (shhh) pretty. 

When I got home nothing had thawed during the day like it had done during the days prior. Yeah. It’s cold. Pretty but cold!!

Ultrasounds and updates

The ultrasound was… interesting… and painful.  I know that sounds weird.  But it was, of course, my right lobe.  Guess where your right lobe is located…. Under your ribs.  Yeah, that was fun.  NOT.  BUT it’s over and there was nothing of note to be said about it other than I have a fatty liver and it’s hard to see even with contrast if there are issues.  So, until there is a HUGE issue that can be seen on a CT I’m good to go.  That’s really comforting, eh?  Sigh.  I feel like I’m falling apart from the inside out.

 

Oh, and contrast for ultrasounds is bubbles… so I’m fluffy and bubbly now! Bwahahaha!  Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself who can, right?

 

What I did find out from the scans that I didn’t put two and two together on until just recently is that the raised cortisol in my blood may just have a reason.  I know they mentioned this to me way back when I was in Vegas that there was this issue with cortisol levels being higher than normal… and then I put it together with the “Minor nodular hyperplasia of the left adrenal gland” this may explain a bit more in my life… but really not… I think it’s just that I love food – ha!  Cushing’s Syndrome is something to look up and see if you think what I think… that this is a minor play in my life and my long term health – possibly.  BUT this would take an endocrinologist to confirm and honestly it’s not worth looking that up and fighting the language barrier to figure out if this is the case because the best solution is to remove that nodular hyperplasia on the adrenal gland.  Nope, not up for surgery/radiation/medications (or modified diet – hahaha!) any time soon, thanks.  I will just take it as a “this is the reason you are fat and have a fat hump on your back 😄”

 

I don’t think it will kill me anytime soon if it hasn’t already.

 

And so, the bottom line my lovelies is I’m fine.  Just fine.

Let’s take a closer look at that and monitor it...

Today was my follow up to my CT scan and now only chest X-ray every 6 months (German theory of less radiation) I think not as my chest was clearly visible in that CT..but I digress.

Last time (2yr) there was a swollen lymph node near my anastomosis.  Ok. We will “watch it” was the mode. I work myself into a mild internal freak out prior to scans.

Scan was Wednesday. I ask the radiologist after the scan about said node (I do like that they consult with you after AND hand you a disc with your CT) he said it’s there but no change...ok. I’ll take that as a “no worries”

Fast forward to today. Oncologist says there is a place of concern on my liver. CT with contrast next week. Just in case. This is going to be like my boobs. 10 years of mammograms every 6 months. I thought they would get me, but nooooooo it had to get me in the a$$ instead....I’m sorta over “let’s keep an eye on that”....what are the odds of it really being anything??  Really??

I vote I play ostrich and avoid doctors for a while....meh, who am I kidding?  I’ll go. Not happily, but I’ll go.

Summer living room.

Well I had been wanting a sleeper sofa for downstairs for summer sleeping and heat. After last summer we discovered there were a few (less than 6 days total) days that the heat was miserable in the house and there was little relief with fans and sleeping upstairs was something you put off until about 10:30 so that temps would cool down. AND sleeping with open windows is tough on an active walking road. I swear they would stop right under my window and chat. Ugh. The downstairs windows are in the back and side yards so hopefully the location will help with noise AND being below ground may help as well.

So the sofa. I put a notice out on the Facebook market groups for this area searching for a sofa and gave a photo sample of what I was looking for. I was astounded by the folks who stated the obvious of “you can get one at IKEA. Well yeah. I understand that folks, I stated if folks were leaving and selling one similar to give me first “dibs”. THEN I was notified by someone that someone was offering me a free one!  Exactly the one I was looking for!  Sweet!!!  Then the realization that I had no way to transport it. Hum. Ok. Look up rentals. Yikes 150€. Hum. Makes it not worth it. So I thought I may as well put it out there in the same venues. Then someone offered to transport it for me 1/2 the money I would spend on a rental 50€. Sweet!!!

So we make arrangements and meet at the persons house. The gentleman with the full size truck shows and he works for MARFOREUR. That was surprising. He gave me a hard time about not recognizing him. Whoops!  Well in my defense I hadn’t met the man face to face. But still how horrifying. I need to get out more!!

Anyway. We made it to the house. Carried it downstairs. Fought through putting things back together. And Wahlah a summer sofa. I will have to do a steam clean in it, but it will do great for it’s purpose!!