Ya'll Raise a Cheer and wish The Judge good Health

[villaridge]

The Judge and Washerwoman went to London for New Years, They made it safely back to Malta, but The Judge got extremely sick, he's feeling a bit better, but as he told me, "lots of snot involved". I wish him well, and good health. Now, who can send some chicken soup to Malta?

[thejudge]

Well it cost a lot to visit London for the fireworks on New Years Eve, but was it worth it? Judge for yourselves.

Flight booked for 31st from Malta to Heathrow leaving at about 7.30am....so we had to be there for 5.30.
I was chivvied awake by washer at about 4 am after 4 hours sleep (washer was so nervous about missing the flight she had no sleep at all).
Flight was Ok and on time.
Got to the hotel (which was also ok), dumped luggage and went str8 to the pub across the road...a few soothing pints and the world seemed a better place.
Back to the hotel ...about 2 hours sleep (which seemed to make us more grumpy rather than helping) and off on the tube to the restaurant (which was part of the allin price.....i.e meal and boat trip).
The restaurant was more like a school canteen , in fact my school canteen was better. Almost impossible to believe they got so many tables in such a small area.The service was totally chaotic with waiters running around like chickens with their heads cut off. giving people the wrong meals,main course b4 the starter etc....The food was actually quite good but in general the whole experience was a disaster.
Left the restaurant and headed to the pier where we hoped the boat was leaving (difficult to tell from the meagre info the company running the whole thing had given us). Luckily we guessed right and finally made it onto the boat.
We had been told that the best view would be from the back of the boat so we got on quick and nabbed 2 prime seats at the back (bow), which would have been nice if it wasn't for the amount of foreign tourists weilding huge cameras who were determined to get as many good shots as possible.This involved people stepping on our feet constantly and the occasional smelly underarm being shoved in our faces. After half an hour of this torture we gave up and moved forward which turned out to be a good idea as there was a lot of free wine on offer. which we proceeded to guzzle.
The amount of material available to comedians wishing to make money imitating stereotypes was huge.
There were too many to mention but one lady stood out. She spent most of her time screeching things like "get me another drink babe!!". She was a rather large lady of about 50 squeezed into a tiny black cocktail dress about 8 sizes too small which caused some pretty frightening bulges to appear.She wore a massive watch encrusted with fake diamonds and earings to match and to top it all she was teetering around on 6 inch high stilletoe shoes ....her tree trunk legs did not really go with the shoes.The overall effect was of a screeching black christmas tree with two trunks. Her husband (or whatever he was) was dressed more normally in jeans and a short sleeved shirt, which was fine,apart from his constant laughter.He seemed to find everything hilarious (perhaps brought on by the seemingly inexhaustable amount of vodkas he was drinking).Remarks like " where's the toilet?"he seemed to find exceedingly funny.Strange laugh too ...very HoHoHo.This demented Santa Claus kept this up all night...grrrr.

Anyway we managed to get to the back again in time for the fireworks which were pretty good.

Off the boat and back to the hotel (free on the tube as Boris (the Mayor) had deemed that all travel would be free for 4 hours following the fireworks).
watched tv and drank Baileys for an hour or so b4 dropping into an exhausted sleep. Woke up 2 hours later feeling extremely sick and threw up over the side of the bed (no time to make it to the toilet).

Next 2 days were spent with friends and we had a jolly nice time.

Arrived back in Malta with no further disasters on the Monday night.
Bit of a cough on Tuesday but nothing serious.

Wednesday .......urrrgh ...full blown flu took hold Coughing and sneezing at the same time...very messy.
Also managed during this period to pass it on to washer, so by Thursday we were both dying.

It's more or less gone away now (still coughing a bit but much better)...washer is also on the mend.

Anyway the moral of this story is ...Don't go to England during the christmas period ....The place is obviously riddled with disease.

Hope this rant didn't bore u too much

Mark

[Washerwoman]

No, that pretty much sums it up, judge, apart from "ho ho ho's" mate who kept running in and out of the bar shouting "we've won it!" for some strange reason...

I think they were from Essex...

ahh

[Outby1]

Hope Mark is feeling better!

Haven't been around much. Our home was robbed on Dec 28th. We are still getting things fixed and have to replace my Lap Top yet. Using a 10' notebook at present just to drop this little message to say will return in the future.Finally have the door and windows that were damaged replaced yesterday and an alarm installed so things are feeling more secure now.Still have alot of things to replace and the clean up is pretty much complete.Closet doors still need to be replaced but all in good time. We just need to calm down and adjust to all this. The thiefs had the nerve to return on three occassions to try and steal our car as they also stole our second set of house and car keys.So yes we had to have all locks changed including car ignition and doors. What a nightmare. But we are holding up well for now .Just wish the shits had been caught.

See you all at the tables soon.


Patti.

[Washerwoman]

Hey, Patti! What an awful thing and at this time of year! It's not good

Yes, it is amazing they returned so many times, but some of these people are just "brazen" as you say.

Glad to hear you are getting things sorted and you'll be able to put it behind you soon.

Great to see you back again!

Take care, WW

[thejudge]

That's awful Patti....sorry to hear it...Glad u changed the locks...Shame the cops didn't catch them.

Hope things improve now....(I hope they didn't damage the snooker table...lol)

Gl on the tables ...Hope u both come back soon....we missed u.

Mark

[Outby1]

Snooker table is fine Mark Lol! Bar got raided though Lol! They were thirsty I guess.Will be back to the games shortly

Thxs Patti. Tc. Chat later.