Decisions....decisions..and more decisions

Spring has well and truly arrived at the marina

Well Spring has finally sprung here in South Derbyshire and although the marina’s 6,000 daffodils have come and gone, the tulips are now taking over and the trees and bushes are frantically budding. The Canada Geese have finally settled down after a month of choosing their mates and warding off rivals, and it’s finally warm enough to sit outside the marina’s Boardwalk bar, with our pontoon pals. Now all they have to do is to get some decent beer in.

Our pontoon pals on "J" and "I" enjoy a Sunday afternoon drink outside the marina's Boardwalk Bar

We have now been back in the country some six weeks though it seems a lot longer. Before we left New Zealand, we had formulated a plan, and had a clear idea of where we would be in one year, three years and even had a long-term plan in place. We like plans.  I like to have some sort of structure and Pat likes to plan and is rather good at dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

Well, most of these plans have gone out of the window in these few weeks – the time scale has been accelerated, and the way we live while in the UK has taken a bit of a U turn.

Realistically, we should have been out cruising by now. We have certainly had the weather for it, but we put it off until the 1 May, to carry out some remedial work on the boat. That’s now slipped another week or so, as the marina is hosting a bit of a bash for its volunteers next week and we have been invited to attend.

Last weekend we headed south, back into Hertfordshire, and stayed with our dearest pals Bob and Penny in Mill Hill, a leafy suburb, high above North London. I think we visited four or five of our pals as well as relations, while we were there, many of them coming up to retirement. Most were having to make some pretty serious choices about the way their lives were changing and the ramifications of their decisions, so we are clearly not alone in that area. It was also good to see our son Kev, and are delighted that he is coming up to the boat over this weekend’s Bank Holiday.

Our "Enterprise" hire car. Quite a novelty to be back on four wheels 

I have mentioned on more than one occasion in this blog that we were considering applying for “Residential Status” in New Zealand. We don’t really need this as we can stay up to six months in any one year, but it would be very handy to have it as we get older, if we want to spend more time there.

So this week we have filled in an “Expression of Interest” form – some 24 pages of it. On receiving this and scrutinising it, the relevant NZ department in Auckland will then either invite us to apply for residency or turn us down. We remain quietly confident that we fulfil most of the main criteria, but are also conscious that life is not always straightforward and we could be turned down.

Only 20 more pages to fill in

That said, we have had to adopt a timetable of events and have decided to sell our home of 30 years in Welwyn Garden City later this year and plan to move back into the house over the August Bank Holiday weekend to decorate and tidy it up. We had planned to keep it rented for another 12 months, but an opportunity has presented itself here in the marina, that we feel we cannot ignore.

Our present view of the lodges on the opposite side of the marina

We have decided to buy a lodge. There are 12 of these facing the water, on the other side of the marina from where we moor, and two plots remain. The marina has offered us a number of inducements which include five-year’s free mooring for “The Cat’s Whiskers”, and a substantial discount on the normal price. Some of the lodges are residential and some are rented out as holiday homes, which the marina manage. We would live in ours for two to three months a year and rent it out for the rest of the year. Our pals on the pontoon are already planning a New Year’s Eve party!

One of the lodges, that is rented out. This one only has two bedrooms, so the lounge area is a bit bigger.

As an investment it is not perfect. Nobody has sold a lodge yet, so it is uncertain what the lodges might fetch. What we do know is that the owners of the marina are planning another 20 or so similar lodges, in a different part of the marina, once the last two are sold, and they will be £20,000 more expensive.

Pat works out where my ukuleles might go

I suppose we both realise this is not the perfect answer to our lifestyle, but it is about as close as we can get at the moment. The lodges are very secure, within a gated community, so we have no worries about security while we are away. We enjoy the community spirit that exists here at Merica and really like this bit of the country. Over the last few days we have visited several of the lodges, both the rented ones and the residential properties, and have been impressed with what we have seen and heard.

Our plot where the lodge will be located

They are very well built, and insulated, with all main services. We can go out on the boat for a week, or a month, and then return to the marina and enjoy all its facilities, either on the boat or in the lodge, depending on whether it is rented out or not. Deposits have been paid, and Pat has been busy planning the layout, which will be three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Whether we will be able to moor the Cat’s Whiskers at the bottom of our garden remains to be seen but we hope that all our pals will come up and visit us once we are in.

Last Saturday we joined a few of the marina volunteers to plant out a meadow between the marina and the canal. Armed with herbs and small trees we planted several dozen plants, before rain stopped play – the first rain we had experienced for several days.

Pat and Magda (our artist in residence) go tree planting

This mild weather has really helped our maintenance plan and I have polished both sides of the boat, touched in the battle damage from last year’s Northern Campaign and am currently painting the bilge (around the engine) and treating the rust that has started to appear.

So we have decided to ditch our journey on the Upper Thames but still come down the Oxford Canal and spend a bit more time on the Grand Union. We will need to get the boat back into the marina late in August and I will have to return a few weeks later and move her the 15 miles back to where she was built as it’s time for her to come out of the water and have under the waterline treated with what is known in the trade as “Two Pack” and have the anodes replaced. Then she needs to go back to Mercia so I am looking for some volunteers.

Toodaloo chums

"Spring"ing into action

I find that when we meet folks from around the world who have visited our fair shores, their abiding memory of Britain is often how much rain they had to endure. This is further reinforced by foreign travel guides, with their principle recommendation to always pack a sturdy umbrella, whatever time of year when visiting the UK.

Pat in action at the marina's Easter Monday craft fair, collecting on the local Air Ambulance stand

Now I am well aware one of our national pastimes is to obsess about the weather so I will be true to stereotype and whinge away. Well, maybe not whinge but comment, as it seriously affects what us boating types can get up to. Especially as we do not have a car at our disposal.

There has been a lot of rain about since we got back to the UK, and an awful lot of wind. Last week we had white-topped waves scudding over the marina as we were lashed by 70mph winds. Today it is glorious, as it was yesterday on Easter Monday, but I guess that is not particularly unusual at this time of year.

The change has meant I can get on with the remedial work needed on the outside of the boat. Nothing serious, but if you leave the scars and battle damage that goes with extensive cruising, then you are asking for a rusty boat.

Our roof top box (where we keep our chimney and excess wood) was one of the first targets. As you can see from the first picture it was pretty bashed up. I contacted a few canopy makers in the Midlands and they all wanted over £100 for a replacement. Pat went to Dunhelm, and made it for £15, and it looks good. The girl is a genius with a needle and thread. I am in awe.

Our old roof box cover 

replaced by our all new, Pat-built, cover

When it has been fine, we have been out walking. The tow path is always muddy at this time of the year, but we have a number of good walks of various lengths and the sound of new-born bleating lambs is never more than a few feet away.

These little chaps live just across the road from the marina

We have already welcomed our first guests. Vic, an old school friend, who divides his time between New Zealand and the UK. He visited us last weekend with his partner Liz. They are actively looking for a narrowboat to live on over the summer months, a bit like us, and were on their way round the dozens of brokerages and marinas in the Midlands, looking for something suitable.

At present the marina is hosting an art boat, and one of their community-based projects has been to construct a willow spiral in the field between the marina and the canal. It’s a bit like a maze that curls around itself. So we spent last Saturday morning cutting and bending local willow into shape. It looks pretty “pants” at the moment, with lots of holes, but it’s already budding and I am sure when we come back into the marina in the autumn it will have some shape.

Planting out the outline of the Willow Wheel, helped by our first guest of season, Liz

Easter has come and gone and after a cold and cloudy start it picked up. We took part in an Easter Egg hunt at the marina on Saturday lunchtime, though spent more time in the pub than walking the towpath looking for clues.

Searching for clues along the towpath, with Ian, Louise and Sarah, on Saturday's Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Sunday was surprisingly warm and on Easter Monday we volunteered at the marina’s craft fair. I thought we would be put on litter or car parking duty but we were asked if we would help on the local air ambulance stand and I am really glad we did. We had a very good four hours, talking to boaters and visitors who flooded into the marina. Mercia is certainly a real magnet for visitors when the sun shines, and it was the first time we had really seen the marina bathed in sunshine. The local air ambulance is a popular charity and many visitors were very generous. This essential service receives no government funding, which surprised many people - £20 keeps the helicopter in the air barely 10 minutes and it turned out that Pam, one of our neighbours on the next pontoon, is one of the helicopter doctors that man the service. She popped along to say hello.

"Give us yer money"

We have also had a visit last week from a marine engineer that our boating pals Eileen and Ian recommended. Even though we changed our propeller last autumn, after hitting several subterranean objects in and around Manchester, bending one of the blades, I am still experiencing excess vibration through the tiller bar. I have also been getting a lot more water in the bilge that I should.

I feared the prop shaft might be at fault. He lifted the lid, looked at the engine and told me it was clearly out of alignment. He can sort it out, but has recommended we get a new Centraflex coupling to replace what is already fitted. We have a chandlery on site and the price is over £300, but luckily they are having one of their “Freaky Fridays” this week, where everything is 20% off.

Hopefully, he can fit it before we leave the marina at the end of the month.

Toodaloo chums

  

Back In Blighty

Well, we’re back, and apologies to our pals who regularly read our blog and thought we had fallen off the edge of the globe (though I suppose on most maps NZ is shown as being on the edge of the world.)

The main reason for all the inactivity is that my eyes have been playing me up of late and it has been very uncomfortable using a computer, watching TV or driving.

Livi does a spot of gardening around her herb garden

Two visits, first to an optician and then an optical specialist in Wellington revealed that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with my eyesight and they both thought I had “Dry Eye”, though the principle symptoms with that condition are watering eyes, which I don’t have. But on doctors orders I’ve been popping eye drops since, and I must say things are gradually improving, but as you get on in years, ailments take longer and longer to right themselves.

It didn't really spoil our time in New Zealand with the family, but it handicapped me as I couldn’t drive and we cancelled a couple of weekends away because of it.

Pops reads an early morning story to Livi

Ben has just worked out how to roll over on to his tummy

I must admit I really didn’t want to come back to the UK this time. Wellington and the whole of New Zealand has had a warm, sunny summer, with little rain, and we have been able to get out and about with the family, and especially the children, on most days.

Karori Park from way up on the Skyline ridge. Erica and James place is on the right behind the trees

The First Mate and myself relax at one of the free evening concerts in Wellington Botanical Gardens

I’ve lot a bit of weight too, due to lots of walking and laying off the beer, mainly due to the fact it is around £8 a pint! It’s all right, but nothing to get excited about. However, the NZ wines are not to be sneezed at.

I suppose the highlight of the trip was our weekend in Napier at their annual “Art Deco Festival”. We were entertained by two Kiwis who we met while cruising into Liverpool last summer, John and Dianne. We stayed at a backpackers and they picked us up and chauffeured us around in John’s 1938 Austin.

Napier was struck by a major earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt in the Art Deco style, making it unique and the world’s most complete example of this architectural genre.

John & Dianne beside their 1938 Austin

Vintage cars are everywhere during Art Deco weekend in Napier

Art Deco in central Napier

Every February the city steps back 80 years, and everybody, and I mean just about everybody, dresses up in clothes from the period. We knew about this but thought it would just be the die-hards who donned blazers and braces. We felt quite underdressed. There is music on street corners, a huge parade of vintage cars that cruise around the city and impromptu displays of dancing. A wonderful weekend.

Balmy evening music in Napier.

Pat, Vic and Val on Rabbit Island. Nelson is in the background

We also flew down to Nelson on the South Island. Both Pat and I rate Nelson as a very special place and it is an opportunity to see our old pals Vic and Val (Vic and I went to Junior school together, and is about to become a UK narrowboater.)

Our new grandson, Ben, is now six-months old and is a delight. I am not really a baby person but I was quite taken with the little fellow. He seems a very happy, contented child, and has just started rolling around the carpet so he’ll be crawling soon, and our granddaughter Livi, who celebrated her third birthday while we were there continues to delight us talking non-stop.

The family in the back garden. The park is immediately behind us.

Erica and James house backs on to Karori Park and every day there are one or two cricket matches going on. Our visit, this year, coincided with the Cricket World Cup, being held jointly in NZ and Australia, where England lost every match they played. We had heard that an international side were coming to the park to practice, but when I looked out over the park and saw the Waitrose logo on the shirts and realised it was the England Cricket team practicing I thought I’d better shuffle across and see what was going on, which was not much.

Playing on the beach at the "Great Gatsby" picnic in Napier

Livi emulates her "Pops" at Te Papa museum in Wellington

Oriental Bay, just a stone's throw from the centre of Wellington, on a sunny afternoon

Ukulele wise, it was a successful trip. I got to play with “The Ukes Of Wellington” a few times at their “Sunday Strums” 8/10: The Nelson Plinkers, a very sad 3/10: and at the Art Deco weekend in Napier I joined the local group playing old standards on the beach at the “Great Gatsby Picnic”. Another 8/10.

The journey back was very uncomfortable even though I had booked myself an exit row seat on both flights; from Auckland to Hong Kong and then with Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Heathrow. 26 hours in limbo is no fun.

We should have gone straight back to the boat but decided to see some friends and family on the south coast while we were down south, which on reflection was a bit foolish.

I rarely suffer from severe jetlag, but this time it’s been awful. Here we are seven days in and I am still only getting one or two hours a night and I am stressing about it.

We are staying put in the marina now for a few weeks. There is a lot to do on the boat and I would rather wait until the weather becomes more settled.

Toodaloo chums

Roger

Haeri Mai, everything is Ka Pai

Wake up Pops. Let's read a story.

Kia Ora my friends. Well, it seems like we’ve come home, which is a bit strange, considering we are over 3,000 miles from Hertfordshire and the UK, but that is the definite feeling we both have after a few days here in sunny Karori, Wellington, NZ. In fact everything is definitely Kai Pai (look it up in a Maori dictionary).

After a very pleasant and peaceful two weeks on Vancouver Island with Pat’s family we decamped across the water to see some other pals Sue and Norman, who live above the city in North Vancouver, in a lovely spot overlooking the city. We were only there two days but they gave us a great tour of the city (including a look and a taste at two of the city’s many craft breweries). They certainly looked after us and we hope to see them in the UK later this year, as they are intrepid travellers as well and regularly come to Europe.

Susan and Norm. Our hosts in Vanouver

Pat and I beside BC Place. It's a balmy six degrees.

It’s a 12-hour flight from Vancouver to Auckland and on the way you gain a full day, though I must say, I still haven’t completely got my head around how that works. On previous expeditions I have managed to buy myself an exit row seat, which makes these long flights bearable, but we missed the boat on this one and, although we had an aisle seat each, it’s still a real squeeze when, at  six foot three inches tall, you try and prise yourself into your seat, especially if the person in front has their seat reclined. My eyes have been really sore over the last two weeks, so watching a movie, just inches away from my face was no fun. So it seemed to me a very, very, long journey, and no matter how I try, I just can’t sleep on planes. Just about anywhere else is fine, in fact I can normally drop off on cue, but not on a flight. It’s not fair.

We had several hours at Auckland airport waiting for our connection and the original plan was to dump the cases and catch at bus into the city, but in the end we hung around the airport and grabbed some zzzzs. We have been to Auckland a couple of times, and it was very expensive to catch the bus in and back for just a couple of hours.

So now we are in Wellington:  it’s mid-summer, the sun is shining and beyond the back garden we can hear the clink of leather on willow as the cricket season is in full swing. Amazingly, for Wellington, we have a wind-free day and we have just returned from the city after buying some new ukulele strings, a pay as you go card for my phone and a “Snapper” card for their bus system, which we use a lot. It’s only a 15-minute journey into the centre of the city by bus and they are very frequent.

Livi, our almost three-year old granddaughter, is keeping us entertained and exercised at the same time with a never-ending programme of hide and seek, jigsaw puzzling, singing songs on my uke as we march around the room, playing in the sand pit, watering her plants and flowers, cooking on her over in the garden, etc. She is a real cutie, and quite the little “bossy boots” at times. Her baby brother Ben, is now four months old and smiles a lot. This was our first encounter and amazingly, he didn’t cry when we met.

Baby Ben. Definitely a "Big Time Cutie"

Livi does a bit of tidying up around her garden

So we have now settled down and are evolving a routine that will no doubt include lots of shopping, going to the zoo, and travelling on the bus into the city with its many distractions, including the Botanical Gardens, which is our favourite day out.

A belated birthday Brownie cake. (Half way through it a cap on my tooth dropped out into the bowl)

We also are planning two away expeditions. One, back to Nelson on the South island (I can’t come to NZ and not go to Nelson) to see our old pals Vic and Val and family and we are also heading north on a big sweep of the Cape after visiting Napier and the Bay of Plenty. Not much on the Cape but Maori villages, so it should be an interesting journey. We’ll finish close to Hamilton to see our Kiwi pals Helen and Kevin. Hear huge storm is coming across the Atlantic. Keep safe everybody.

Toodaloo everybody.

An unusual Chrstmas present

Well, what presents did Santa bring you last week?  Something festive I hope. He certainly didn’t forget the Calder household here in sleepy Parksville on Vancouver Island.

He gave me a delightfully debilitating chesty virus, which sent me to bed during Christmas afternoon. Boxing Day was just a blip on the calendar.  I did manage to creep downstairs to say hello to some of Garry & Monica’s pals who popped round during the afternoon, but all I wanted to do was sleep, sleep sleep.

I managed to hang on for everybody to arrive and it was great to catch up with the Calder clan. It’s been around 10 years since we had seen Stephen, Brian and Terry Lynn, and despite asking them not to, we both had a number of gifts thrust upon us. I particularly like my “Canucks” ice hockey  hoodie. That will get some good use when we get back on the boat. Especially when we encounter the Canadian crews who inhabit the waterways during the summer flying their maple leaves from their tiller bars. I was really looking forward to the Christmas spread, but only managed a bit of turkey and a spoonful of Terry Lynne’s Brussel Sprout, hazelnut and bacon dish, which I was really looking forward to. And the glass I am holding in the picture is the only drink I had over Christmas. A tragedy!

The Calder family clan gather on the porch on Christmas morning

Everybody gets stuck into the present opening

I don’t know if I have passed my germs on, or where I got them from, for so many folks are suffering from coughs and colds over here at present. I just can’t get rid of my cough and just hope it disappears before we get on our next flight next Wednesday. Pat has so far resisted the germs. She was a little poorly on the drive up the Pacific North Coast and considering the fall out around us she remains remarkably perky.

So it’s been a low-key holiday season for us. The lull before the storm, so to speak, for when we get to Wellington I am sure there will not be a lot of lazing around with a three-year old to entertain. And despite coughs and sneezes, we have had a very restful time here and it is still a novelty to have so much room to operate in, after the confines of the boat for so many months. Though there are four of us in the house, I can normally sit at the far end and practice on my new uke without offending anybody when I play the same song over and over in an attempt to get the changes fast and slick.

 We had booked a New Year’s Night of entertainment at a local community hall here in Parksville and on arrival, it was fairly obvious it was not quite what any of us had in mind. After an hour or so, an elderly couple sat down with us and we ended up going back to their apartment to see the New Year in. They had just moved south from Fort St George, way north, so the minus-one conditions were positively Mediterranean to them.

Princess Pat wears her New Year crown

We saw 2015 in at this delightful couples condo, Jaye and Cecelia, who we had met two hours earlier.

A feature of New Year’s Day in coastal British Columbia, is the annual charity Polar Bar swim, which many seaside towns run each year. They had 160 participants at this year’s Parksville event and we joined a big crowd at mid-day to watch the spectacle. The girls were threatening to go in for a paddle, but despite a balmy three degrees, they somehow  forgot to bring a towel with them. Funny that!

It’s hard to get our heads around just how busy this town is in summer. There are numerous motels, campgrounds and RV sites along the highway north and come July and August the sleepy population quadruples with the roads jammed  for miles around.

Ready, Steady....

And the annual Parksville Polar Bear Swim begins

Next Blog from down under.

Toodaloo chums

Trains, planes, automobiles and a ferry too

California has been suffering drought conditions all year… and then we showed up. In the last ten days a third of its annual rainfall fell from the skies and each evening we have been tuned into the Weather Channel on TV  in our motel room in an attempt to dodge the downpours. And by and large we have been successful.

Locals we have encountered, as we have have made our way north from Los Angeles to Vancouver have inevitably commented “You guys must right at home with this weather”. It’s certainly been colder than home, that’s for sure.

Our first day driving north from LA up the Pacific Coast Highway to Morro Bay was amazingly dry though, but pretty overcast, but by day two, after a night at Morro Bay, a rock slip closed Highway One, a few miles short of Big Sur, and we had to make a 50 mile detour to get round it.

We check out Muscle Beach, below the pier at Santa Monica

In Morro Bay with Morro Rock in background

Morro Bay with our Chevvy Equinoz SUV

We rolled along in a big Chevvy Equinox SUV; a bit of a gas guzzler compared to what we are used to at home, but very comfortable and it stuck to the wet road like glue, which was just as well, with the dozens and dozens of hairpin bends we had to negotiate, often with a big drop down a sheer cliff and not much of a barrier between you and the roaring Pacific.

We got to Santa Cruz on my birthday. I know Santa Cruz as the Ukulele capital of the US, though we saw no evidence of that as we roamed around, just an awful lot of elderly men and women looking for hand-outs in around its famous boardwalk.

The following day we arrived in the Bay area of Oakland for the weekend. We have been to its more famous neighbour San Francisco, across the water, so were delighted when a family friend in the city of Oakland invited us to stay. Carolyn turned out to be a great tour guide and pulled out all the stops to show us the area, despite student riots upsetting her schedule.

Her pal Kate popped over bearing a variety of acoustic instruments, which included a uke. Being a Beatles fan we found a number of tune to play together and it was great to get my hand around a guitar again – it’s been a while – especially her very rare 1938 Martin which sounds fabulous and is in great condition. She thinks it is worth several thousand dollars! We had a great weekend with Carolyn, went to a concert in somebodies house, which was unique and very intimate, visited Berkeley and the old state capital Benicia and even found time for Sunday lunch in a traditional American diner.

Lunch in diner in Oakland. Not too sure about having fruit on the plate, but this is California

Kate on her 1938 Martin and me go through some old Beatles tunes.

We swapped the very “hairy” Highway One for Highway 101 on leaving Oakland, after a quick stop in Sonoma in the driving rain. 101 swoops between hugging the coast and cutting though the forests of giant redwoods which line the road and are a feature of the coastline. It certainly is a spectacular route, rain or sun. We drove some of this road back in 2003 but I couldn’t remember much of the detail. However, we did stay one night in the same motel that we did 11 years ago, for it was difficult to forget it. The Curly Redwood Lodge in Crescent City is constructed from a single giant redwood, so was a refreshing change from the Motel 6’s and Days Inns we were inhabiting most evenings.

Cruising through the forests of Giant Redwoods

By the time we crossed into Oregon and got to Florence, the weather was really starting to be a concern, so we ditched our coastal road and heading inland to pick up Interstate 5.

Now we were really moving and soon got to Portland and into Wahington State. We overnighted in its neighbouring city of Vancover, Washington. The city father’s there crow in their tourist literature that their Vancouver was founded 30 years prior to its Canandian upstart 150 miles to the north over the border. It was a pleasant stay and we could escape the rain in the giant Mall, beside the hotel.

An early morning journey on the Amtrak Cascades service from Seattle to Vancouver

And to finish our US leg we spent much of last Friday in Seattle, a city we have visited several times. Amazingly (for Seattle) it didn’t rain until we left the following morning. I like Seattle, though not driving around it. Pat is not quite as much a fan as I am. It’s the home of Boeing, Microsoft, Kurt Cabain and Starbucks though it’s main tourist claim to fame is Pike Street Market where they have turned selling fish into a comedy routine that involves a lot of throwing salmon, crabs, and other creatures of the sea huge distances between the traders to great cheers from the assembled crowd. Our overnight accommodation was in Chinatown and we had a crazy meal, ordering stuff we were not at all sure about, though we gave the “Bulls Balls” and “Pork Bladders” a miss. We worked those out. Everything we had ordered arrived in one huge bowl. Very tasty is was.

Part of the entertainment at Pike Street Market in Seattle

A three-hour train journey on the Amtrak Cascades line, brought us very comfortably, but very slowly into Vancouver Saturday lunchtime. Our internet research into how to get from the station to the ferry terminal north of the city, helped us considerably and despite driving rain, it was a smooth crossing across to Vancouver Island.

So now we are in Parksville, which is a few miles north of Nanaimo, on the islands west coast, where we are staying for Christmas and New Year with Pat’s sister Monica, Garry and all their family, who we will see over the next few days. Parksville is a coastal resort and I am looking forward to seeing it, if it ever stops raining.

Finally, I spent much of last night playing with my new uke, which I had built in the US and shipped here. I have been hoping that I would not be disappointed with it. I had high expectations… I was not disappointed.

Toodaloo chums