Tony wanted me to drive him to a pub that was having a beer festival and I dropped him there and said I would be back after 2PM to collect him. I took the opportunit to go to Merry Hill and have a Starbuck’s Venti Mocha Frappuchino. How I love them. I discovered them in Seattle where there is always a Starbucks every 50 yards. Since coming home I have the choice of driving 6 miles to Merry Hill or 10 miles to Wolverhampton to get one. I also took the opportunity to top up my Starbucks card with another £20 to feed my addiction.

As it is a Bank Holiday everyone decided to go to Merry Hill and there was traffic chaos there and parking was very scarce. I managed to spot someone leaving and grabbed their parking space. I had hoped M & S were selling off their summer stuff cheap but if they were I couldn’t see it! I did see a shop with some cheap trainers and T-shirts but it was so crowded I will go back tomorrow to get a pair. £15 for a pair of Fila velcro fastening trainers is too good to miss. I may get some gym gear too as I am due to start at Action Heart soon or I may go to the leisure centre at Wombourne as they also have a swimming pool.

For some reason I am obsessed by our future Caribbean cruise and spend a lot of time on eBay searching for items of clothing and other useful stuff. My watch list is 2 pages long! I have bought some shorts and tried them on this morning. I bought a size smaller than usual in the hope that I might shrink into them. They fit perfectly. What happens now if I lose weight?

Today I am also transferring my CD collection onto my MP3 player. I don’t use it enough but plan to take it on holiday with me. Yesterday I bought some earphones for it. I hate the ear bud things as they really hurt my ears. These are the ones I bought:

I also got this as I cannot for the life of me find mine and if I am to use it on holiday I need to be able to charge it!

Hopefully these two products will arrive in the next days or two and I can set about using my MP3 player to the fullest.

Over the last few weeks there have been a number of threads on the NCL forum that have shown me just how narrow minded and petty people from the USA can be. It is true to say that they are a conservative lot at the best of times but recent postings about how what other people wear and how they can be offended by other peoples clothing have made my mind boggle. Todays offering  Who wears Speedo’s on their cruise? is a typical one. To put it into simple terms what most are saying is that any man who does not have a perfect body has no rights to wear a pairof swimming trunks unless the trunks are of the shorts type. They definately do not like anything that may show the shape of the male appendages nor do they like it if a man has a hairy back.

The question posed was:
What type of cabins do speedo wearers book?
What are they thinking??????????????
Do you look?
Do you look away and laugh till you’re sick?
Do you look and grieve?

LOL I personally think speedo’s are worse than chair hogs! They really hurt my eyes!!!

OK.. what do you think is appropriate for men to wear in public to the main pool that includes women, teens and children?

Clearly from the tone of the original post and the way the question is phrased it is expected that the answers should be negative towards the wearers of brief style swimming gear. Most of the replies have been of the nature expected except one. A Canadian has pointed out that such an item of clothing is the clothing of choice for German and Australian nationalities and that Europeans are less hung up about such things. At last someone is pointing out to them that actually the rest of the world is far less bothered by such things and more liberal in their attitudes.

Maybe everyone should dress in full Muslim gear at the pool. Second thoughts, that would totally freak them out! Perhaps I am being too harsh about the poor lambs. It is a sad but true fact that many of them have never been exposed to other cultures and the TV programs churned out by American broadcasters do little to educate about life beyond their own borders. I have always been a firm believer that travel broadens the mind but I need to modify that and say only when the mind is open and not closed to the ways of the rest of the world.