Film stars

I'm so tired of this already :D I remember when I went to France two years ago, I wrote the perfect diary for 19 days and then I couldn't be bothered anymore :( so no one knows what happened during the last 9 days of my stay in France - so I am determined to finish this! :D just three more posts (including this one) to go + I have to write a reflective journal about it by Monday -.- omfg why man :D :D

So Day number ?? 6? yeah... hopefully :D

The first day when the temperature was really hot - or as you'd expect from Malta. Good, maybe get a little tan? Though I when looking at the brits I was too scared to bare my skin to the sun... :D The first half of the day we spent at Popeye Village which is a rather unusual and weird (in a good way) village. Me likey ;) Though for some reason I thought of Pipi Longstocking immediately... don't really know why... As the attraction is mainly for families with kids we were greeted by animators, who played the part of Popeye, pirate etc. I can just imagine them being oh so cheerful when wearing dark clothes during the summer heat... Poor people!

We started with some team building exercises (didn't really help in my opinion but oh well...) that included a relay race in firemen gear (hat, vest and a fire extinguisher). Then three of us were taped together and we had to race with the other taped group. We won!!! Ouyeah! The brits kept breaking their tape. Amateurs :D We did awesome. And the last one was giant jenga. We won again since the brits managed to knock theirs down :D

After that we all had the chance to be film stars. They gave us some old dresses ( omg the heat + the dresses = can we go now? :D) to put on and then let the filming begin! The plot was rather simple and very true to Popeye theme: Three pirates hear pretty ladies somewhere and decide to go find them and disrupt their peace. Everyone screams (keep in mind that we had 16 girls and 2 boys) :D And there's Popeye to save the day - after eating his spinach of course ;) After a lunch break we got to see the film :) Though they had cut out a lot :( the hell we were there for that long shooting the parts that weren't even remotely in the film! :D (hard life of a film star!) And the funniest actors were of course our lecturers :D omg :D Well to be fair they have done like 5 years now :D So tru professionals :D About half of our group bought the film (5 euros?) as a souvenir, I didn't :D I'm too cheap for that :D

Then we went back to the hotel and we got the rest of the day to conduct our surveys on the street and surprisingly the brits, who always have something to say and pretty much yell over everyone etc etc struggled the most in getting people to answer their questions. Ou yeah :D I was definitely gloating after realising that :D in the end everyone managed to get their surveys and interviews done and the drama of the night was the fact that Rebecca's group had lost their answer sheets. Ooooooooh Ouch! luckily they found them but yeah they were pretty upset, especially as the group research counts as 40% of the final mark... If they hadn't found them it wouldn't have been the end of the world, since more emphasis was put on the fact of presenting what we did not what we found out. Final mission of the night was to do our presentations the old fashioned way. markers and huge papers :D

Then the eastern-europeans went out for a meal :) Most of us had rabbit, since we wanted to try local food :D Didn't impress me that much though :( A lot of bones! But edible :D Donõt know if I would try it again... Maybe in a different form... :D

This is how Popeye Village looks from afar

There is something romantic about these old-looking houses :)

Popeye! 

Santa's village seemed a bit odd in there, especially in the summer... :/

This is the building that most reminds me of Pipi... 

maybe it's the colours and the horse?

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Farm life equals FOOD!!!

Day 5 started with a ferry trip to the nearby island of Gozo which was an adventure all by itself for some in our group :D It lasted only about half an hour and lets say that about half of it I stood in the toilet queue... Stay classy :D It was all because 2 of the 4 stalls were out of order... So the queue moved super slow... but if you gotta go you gotta go, blame nature. Anyway when we finally were done :D we noticed that people were standing near the doors waiting to go out. Shite! We had to run to our minibuses... ran down the stairs, but the door didn't open! Panic what to do what to do??? (at that time I didn't know that there is a huge red button hidden somewhere to open the door okay!) ran back up again, people were still on the ferry :D saw an elevator - second attempt to get to the car deck and hopefully not get stuck in the elevator (I am slightly afraid). When we were descending we could hear engines roaring. Oh god the cars are moving!!!! The doors open and the car deck is half empty... Looking around we spot our minibuses - the only ones still left on level two phew! Ran! and thanked the heavens that we made it :D Lol As I got into the minibus, I learned that the other one is still missing two polish girls. A minute later saw the blonde one also coming from somewhere and running to the bus. Oh yeah I'm not the only stupid one :D This fact always makes me happy :D So we had to get off the ferry and drove in front of the place where the pedestrians came off the ferry and luckily our last missing polish girl found us pretty quickly :) Everyone's safe, now let's explore Gozo!

Start with a typical Maltese fish market. Not our intention though and only our bus had the chance to see it since the others found a parking place and we were looking for one when we accidentally turned on a street where there is only one exit - the way we came in. And to top it off, it was a narrow street as well. Got to the end, where there were stalls with men offering fish and asked if there is any chance we could get out without having to turn around. Nope. So let the mission: lets do a u-turn with a minibus on a narrow street with cars parked everywhere, commence! :D The fish traders were really nice and helped us turn around with one actually coming out of the café to move his car so we would have more space. Aren't they nice and dark and cute :D? Yeah a lot of people were eyeballing us, fun times :D Crazy tourists :D Finally got out of there and found the other buses with whom we found a better parking lot. Got ourselves parked properly, got out of the car just to hear that oops we don't really have any time to be here and got back in the buses and drove off. Well that was useful :D

After a short drive we arrived in a small farm. Small being the keyword here :D It was as if I was transported to my childhood - the feeling that is - everything was so homely and far from the superclean lux stuff we expect to see in a tourism attraction. I was quite surprised as we saw the actual size of the farm though... no green grass anywhere, just fences and brick. And it was even smaller than my garden back at home. Not the best life for the rabbits (in cages), goats, sheep and dogs... but maybe that's the maltese way... I don't know... We all had to do a little bit work there - feed the sheep and clean up the brick floor. It was nice doing something for a change :D Was funny seeing some of the girls scream and squeal when the animals moved. And, we got to milk a sheep :O WOW it was sooo funny :D and weird. I got milk out after the first try! Yay natural :D Another tick to a box in a list of things to do and experience in life ;) After all that hard work we got a homecooked meal. Finally food (the previous days we had to cook for ourselves)!!! And so much! 2 chicken legs... oh god it was delicious but way too much! :D It was a bit hard to climb into the minibuses after ;)

The Azure Window - the most famous image of Malta probably. You could see it practically on every tourist brochure introducing Malta. And it was impressive. Especially with the blue sea and sunshine :) A remarkable view that us northeners rarely see (speaking for myself obviously). And next to it is the inner sea with its light blue water that is connected to the openwater through a tunnel in the cave. And yes before you aks - they do run boat trips in the tunnel ((insert sultry voice)of love). So cool!

Another food location? Noooooo! I'm too full! (how dare I say that???) Anyway I present you the Ta' Mena Estate: a family business that promotes agri-tourism. And makes their own wine!!!! Mmmmmm... wine :D We had a little tour of the property - saw olive trees, goats (now on real grass! :)), breathtaking view of the island and their vineyards, overly friendly dogs ( oh how I miss having a pet to cuddle with). And then!!! Wine tasting!!!! Accompanied by a truly gourmet snacks: Biscuits, tomato sauce, pesto, olives, cheese!!! And it was freaking delicious!!! Omg I've never been  a fan or appreciated these little snacks ever but oh my god did they win me over :D Our end of the table had empty bowls in no time and we slowly started borrowing them from the other side :D (obviously those people can't appreciate delicious food! ;)) And we learned how to hold a wine glass properly, how to check if the wine is of good quality and approximately how much alcohol is in there. Trust me the next time we had a meal all of us tried those tricks! :D

Back to the ferry ( and yet again for some reason I was left alone to find the minubus :D but this time I was the first one there! ouyeah!) and hotel, where we had a little debriefing and a chance to work on our own research project - do the questionnaires that we were supposed to ask from the people on the street the next day.

This is where the sheep from the first farm live and the place that we cleaned

From the outside you wouldn't guess in a million years that it is a farm

Do you know what this is?

Ta' Mena Estate also had a goat, named Polly - so cute

The view from Ta' Mena

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Visiting my future mother-in-law

I was working on last Thursday and the first hour was with my le bf, didn't really see him, which was kinda suspicious, because he always has something he wants me to do, as he really enjoys the fact that at work I have to do what he wants me to do. Anyhow, my supervisor that night was le bf's friend, who wished me a good weekend in a very weird wayafter we closed the shop, but didn't think about that until le bf asked me to take an overnight bag with me if I'm gonna stay with him that night, because we are going to visit his mum next day. WHAT??? You serious??? And you are telling me now??? Panic, big time. Then it was at least clear that his friend knew, which is why she wished a good weekend that way. And he told me that after work, not before when we saw at work just because then I have less time to worry, thanks dude, that's really helpful.
So I had at least 4 friends calming me down, Scarlet told me to put her number to a speedy dial, so if I freak out I can call her :D So first couple of hours I just panicked. Then had a shower, and then the packing bit, oh dear, hard task already and then he tells that we are going out too on Friday, he wants to show me off to his best friends, so more things to take with me. Oh, and I even painted my nails after months, god, have never ever done such an awful job, nailpolish everywhere :D
So the next day, we started driving around 2, all the snowy mountains made it to a really nice journey, and of course his fast driving, I just love it.
Anyhow, before going to her mum's he had his hair cut, because I wanted him to do so, didn't force him tho, just hinted that it would be nice :D
And finally there, her mum hugged me, and was really nice, which made me to calm down. Spend some time with her mum and her bf, I stroked their cat, who clawed me, because I was afraid of his paw, when he tried to catch my hand, so now I'm the mean bitch, for the rest of my life, because I was the one who wasn't nice to his cat. Then we went out with his best friends, from pub to pub, I was quiet most of the night, he was like, be sociable and whatnot, but what's there to say if they haven't seen like half a year and talking about their friends, who is working where and dating who and marrying when, what should I say there??? Got back to her mum's after midnight, went to sleep and next morning had breakfast and started to drive back. So didn't really spend much time with his mum, which is why I don't really have much to say about her, dying to hear what she thought about me, but le bf hasn't told me yet, or she hates me and he wants to save me from knowing that :D
And on Saturday back to work, one coworker said that he looks good with short hair, my absolute win, he was quite beaten by the fact that I was right when I suggested him to get his hair cut. At least once I was right, and that makes me sooooo happy because usually he has to be the one who is always right.

Ems

5 star hotels

Continuing with Day 4:

Earliest start so far: be ready at 8.30. Torture ;) Did I mention before that we have to take care of our nutrition ourselves. Anyway, went to see the oldest building in the world! Hagar Qim! It is not exactly sure or known what the building was for. Maybe used as an astronomical calendar, since certain tunnels? corridors? are lit up when the Sun is in certain positions. It marks:

(1) the major standstill of the Moon in Summer through the front doorway; 

(2) the major standstill in Winter through the back doorway; 

(3) the setting of the Equinox Sun; 

(4) the setting of the Summer Solstice Sun from the High Chapel; and 

(5) the rising of the Sun at the Winter Solstice from the opposite direction through a window in the front wall of the temple.

All of that is previously illustrated and explained in the museum before entering the temple sites. The museum is modern and interactive, making people more interested and involved with the temple. It shows how they used to move the big boulders and let you decide which way is easier: push them on round rocks or square ones. You can step through a doorway that is designed just as it is in use in the temple - it's small! For kids there's an activity room where they can play with clay and stack boulders. 

The pearl of the trip came when we did a group picture in front of the temple and it came from one of our lecturers taking the picture: "At least pretend you like each other!" LOL :D Omfg is it really that obvious? The feud between the Brits and Others :D :D Haha. I blame the Brits ;)

Next we entered a completely different world: 5 star hotels. Starting with The Hilton at St. Julians. Wow. This is the first time I've ever actually entered a 5 star hotel lobby or actually even been close to one. And it is impressive. We were the first group (our lecturers have done the trip for many years) who actually got a full tour and introduction of it. The memory I'll cherish forever, especially when staying at cheap hotels :D Just a little overview of the life you wish you had when on holiday ;) 5 pools! I'll say that again, 5 pools (and they looked amazing, I wanted to jump in!). The hotel is really pretty and decorated and fancy. In the lobby there were jewellery boutiques. The restaurants looked amazing: obviously way out of my league (at the moment, but I will get there! :D ). The HR director gave us a little presentation about their employment opportunities and hotel. Currently they employ about 40 students who are on internships there. So if you want to work for Hilton keep this in mind when applying! They look for attitude, personality, ambition and willingness to go the extra mile foremost. You must have a tangible goal set out because it shows your commitment. It is also good if you have read up on current industry trends. And the application for the summer ends in January. Usually they have special partnerships with different universities from where they're applicants come from - more trustworthy but independent applications are also welcome. So shall we start applying? Next year that is :( But you have to keep in mind that they are not the highest salary providers, though they have many other good benefits to compensate that and the employees really looked happy and not in a fake smile way but actually smiling sincerely. Another fun fact though: their main competitors are other countries in the Mediterranean, Hotel brand competition is second to that.

After that we visited the Xara palace in Mdina. The Xara palace is the real luxury hotel, being one of the 500 Relais & Chateaux hotels in the world. To those of you who do not know what that means: Relais & Chateaux is a renowned reference of excellence in the hotel and restaurant world.The Association's mission is to spread its unique art de vivre across the globe by selecting outstanding properties with a truly unique character. So whenever you see that association's name you can be sure that the establishment is one of the world's finest without a doubt. ( Now I'm on their website deciding if I could have a chance to work for them :D)

At that hotel we saw 5 different rooms and when I say different I really mean different. They all had different designing, colour scheme. The furniture was specially made and antique. The rooms were quite small but due to the high ceilings of the building they fitted two levels in one room ( lounge on the ground floor and bedroom upstairs, though it was initially built as one room, so the second level just hung from the ceiling). Since they were quite small rooms it was dark in them too. Really different from everything else I've seen. The definition of luxury peut-etre? Did I tell you that Jennifer Aniston and Sharon Stone have stayed there? Omg I've been to the same place as Jennifer Aniston!!!! From a couple of the rooms you could see a breathtaking view to Malta's landscape. An interesting fact: since all the rooms are different from each other they are in competition too. People want to book a certain room. The overall atmosphere was romantic in my opinion :) I really liked it and since it is not for the masses (like Hilton is) makes it even more special :)

Next a small walk through the silent city that is Mdina. Ironically when our lecturers started explaining how silent it really is the cathedral bells started ringing. Very very loudly for a good 5 minutes. When they finally stopped the lecturer continued "As I was saying, this is the silent city" :D Yeah right :D But yeah actually you can't see many people walking around there, looks a bit deserted but from my tourist perspective it is actually better to wander around and take pictures without having random people on your pictures later etc :D I like it more than masses on the streets.

Blue grotto

Hagar Qim

The doorway

A view to the Hilton

Apparently we had been so loud that the maintenance guy, who looked after the boats had to yell at us "lower your voices!" oops :D I guess rich people need their silence :D It didn't stop us from taking pictures with the yachts though :D

A view to the place the previous photo was taken from.

This is from in front of the Hilton.

 One of the pools on the roof of the Hilton.

Hilton from the inside.

Entering the silent city.

One of the rooms in the Xara Palace Hotel.

I tried to capture the two levels of the rooms 

I was half way out the door in order to take this pic.

What would you like for breakfast?

Look I found my favourite flower!

There was also a modern gym.

I just like this picture so much :D

In the silent city obviously.

 Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

77th with a bang!

Day 3 of my trip:

Today is the day we visit the capital of Malta which is ...? Oh come on you must know this! ;) Yeah, tatatadaaa Valletta :D Btw it's my birthday :) Yay, happy birthday to me! :D Rebecca even gave me a gift - liqueur chocolate candies from Estonia :) mmmm... liqueur.... :D ;)

Anyway... the first stop was the Research Unit, Malta Tourism Authority, where we were given a presentation about tourism in Malta. Did you know that:

• The average tourist who visits Malta is a 58 year old retired Brit who travels with their partner? And on in every three tourists have been in Malta before. Well my boss, who exclaimed "Why on earth would you go to Malta - it's for old people!?", makes more sense now :D He said it prior to my departure, obviously. 
• 2012 was a record year for inbound tourism, mainly because of multiple air routes becoming available and a lot of them by low-cost airlines. In total, 81 routes between Malta and the world. Low-cost airlines generated 36,4% of tourists
• The average stay was 8,7 nights. I think it's a long stay, don't you agree?
• Foreign tourists visit Gozo for a day but the Maltese stay for longer.
• They are still looking for their brand image that would make them stand out from the competitors: Italy, Greece, Egypt etc.
• During the summer high season there are about three tourists per a resident

After that we went to explore Valletta and the first attraction were the Barrakka gardens where we saw a breathtaking view of the three cities and a demonstration of cannon firing was held. It was actually better than I had expected since besides the loud bang you could also see the flame and smoke coming out of the cannon. WoW :) 

While in Valletta you must see the Malta Experience which is a film that tells the story of Malta. Did you know that during World War 2 Valletta was heavily bombed and people had to basically live underground and without any external help (food, supplies etc) because the ships that were sent to help them got raided on the sea and never made it to Malta. And because they were so brave and did not surrender, King George VI awarded the entire Maltese population with the George Cross - the first (of only two) given as a collective award and not to just one person. 

The Malta Experience is a film showed in an underground cinema, cool! :) You have your own set of headphones and you can choose from about 20 different languages to best comprehend and understand the story :) Unfortunately Estonian wasn't amongst them :( Finnish was though...

2 hours of free time to spend in Valletta now :) Our main mission was to find somewhere to eat :D and we did, eventually. But!... it was kinda crap and expensive! :( no one liked their food (mostly we ordered different pasta dishes). Though a polish girl was very content with her glass of wine! ( ;) liqueur ;) ). Then we spent some time just walking on the streets and it is a really nice and interesting city with it's levels. I really liked it. Though I wouldn't say I fell in love with it because I think I didn't really have time to fully explore and appreciate it - the downside of being in a group: you can't decide where to go and how long to stay in one place...

Then we got back on the mini-buses and were driven through the area where illegal immigrants live. Beforehand the lecturers told us not to worry no harm is going to come to us and no one will attack the mini buses and so on. I was like the heck?! Are they murdering people on the street or what? When we got there (there is always the morale issue: is it actually respectable to drive in that area and look out the windows like oooh and aaah, but it's for educational purposes) it didn't actually look that bad, I was expecting something much worse. Shabby looking houses, because no one renovated them obviously, men just hanging around the street, waiting for any job opportunities. I would say that it did not look much worse than a certain part of a certain city if I remember it correctly... By the way there are more male immigrants than female because it is easier for men to find some job and send money home than women.

In the evening there was a de-briefing and at some point I drifted off, writing some notes and suddenly heard silence... Oh snap, he asked a question... Fudge, I know he's going to ask me... Oh no, please no, I didn't hear the question "Jaanika?" WHY? WHY? WHY? why now? just my freaking murphy law luck... So asked sorry, what was the question and Rebecca started laughing out loud! The heck - be supportive!!!! It's embarrassing enough! Later she told me that the reason behind her laughter was the fact that she hadn't heard the question either :D

After being divide into the same groups as we had the day before and having to come up with a research question ( the presentation of the research is almost half of our mark for that module) and answer all the explanatory questions like why and what and who, and just before we could go back to our rooms and do whatever, the lights went off and everyone started singing Happy Birthday to me :) I think I had the biggest smile on my face :D They had bought a cake and candles ( that said 77 because apparently they were the only numbered-candles left in the shop OR he just did not know how old I am and bought those to hide it while being funny :D and it was fun :) )

Later the (polish) girls came down to the basement that is our room to celebrate with me :) I haven't laughed so hard in ages. It truly was fun :) Then all of a sudden a weird noise: like someone banging on the glass windows or heavy rain pouring straight on them, was behind our kitchen door to the terrace and since it was pitch dark outside we didn't see anything and one girl reaction was priceless: she really freaked out - she was sitting closest to the door. And she started screaming that loud and running away that everyone else started screaming and panicked as well though no one knew what was happening. Oh my god!!! I can't even describe it: it was so terrifying but funny at the same time. Btw I ran away from the door as well and when it stopped was hiding behind other girls who were sitting on the other side of the table (away from the door), and saw THE girl basically on top of Rebecca with Rebecca grasping her legs, both terrified and screaming. I was shaking for hours after that :D Although we all had a good laugh about it later and we suspect the boys, who shared a terrace with us and had the room next door and we saw one of the brit girls on the stairs with a suspicious smirk on her face! I hate them even more now! :D But since I really can't just shake those things off, I even had a mini-nightmare about it and woke up half screaming with my hands up punching the air. Woke Rebecca up :D Oops :D Funny times :D

Oops, I forgot pictures at first :D

Our hotel entrance

There is a huge cruise ship next to us!

The streets of Valletta (levels and ending with the sea)

Hunks of fun in Malta ;)

Balconies :)

Fire!!!!

Buckingham Palace?! Where are we again? :D

Going to see the Malta experience

Outside of the Ministry of Tourism

Liqueur ;)

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Playlist

So, it's my turn to create the playlist, but tbh, I have no songs what so ever in my mind, but we'll see, how it turns up in the end...

A song that I had in my head yesterday, don't even know why, because can't remember hearing it lately

Have listened that one over and over again for the past few days while enjoying the empty flat.

Something different :)

How could I forget that song :D 

And one song in Estonian to finish it off :)

Ems

Bugibba

So continuing with the second day :) 

Arrived at the hotel late at night. We have 2 rooms for 4 people + bathroom and a kitchen, where's a sofa and a little terrace, quite big actually. I shared a room with Rebecca, the other room was occupied by the Lithuanian chicka and Polish girl who actually is on an Erasmus year but was allowed to come to the trip with us. She'd gotten there earlier during the day and when we arrived she was sleeping, so we rudely woke her up. Sorry... :D Didn't get much sleep during the first night because the excitement finally kicked in. Did I mention that when we left the airport the air was nice and warm :) you know the late night warm summer feeling right? Awesome :)

Had to be ready at 9AM. So the first early morning start I've had in ages. Our first task was to discover Bugibba, the town we were staying at. It's supposed to be a tourism resort, but looked a bit shady and run down... not the prettiest but still, palm trees!! It's the first time I've ever been to warm country and palm trees are as common there as birches in Estonia. Wow. We were given a task to find certain things and were randomly put into groups of three, people were not happy about that since there's kinda three groups amongst our 18 people: the Brits, the eastern Europeans and the Asians (who keep mostly to themselves but are nice to everyone) the first two get along but there is some tension between us :D we do not really communicate with each other, at all... and well we have our own opinions about each other, if you know what I mean ;) So there was a lot of whining about that. Mostly from the Brits, like little kids that are being torn apart from they're loved ones. There're 5 girls in that group and as the rooms have 4 beds in them one of them had to share a room with other people than they're click and they actually wanted to move the fifth bed to their room. What the hell??? Are you serious? You do realize that you do not have to spend every minute in that room and can go visit others if you want to? What huge difference does it make where you sleep? And apparently during the first task when groups ran into each other, they were the ones who started complaining to each other how alone they feel and how tired they are and how they wish they could be in the same group etc. Our group had difficulty finding the meet up point but luckily saw our lecturers and ran after them. Phew! We wouldn't have found the place on our own!

The wind made it so cold! A lot colder than it looked and previously thought :( I didn't really bring any warm clothes... Walking through the town we noticed that there's a lot more Italian cuisine restaurants than Maltese one's, hmmmm... interesting... although a lot of the restaurants had a Maltese section in their menus but it wasn't advertised hugely on their signs etc. Another shock was to see Arriva buses driving around. The heck?? Why is Arriva here? Do anyone who do not know Arriva provides transport in Wales also, and people are not quite happy with their service as I've heard (I only take the train as I walk everywhere in town). The old buses had been legendary though, they were yellow and really polluting :D had like a retro sense in them but were not compatible with the EU standards so they had to be taken off and Arriva green buses replaced them. You could still see them on postcards. To cater for the elderly market, Bugibba has a lot of seating on the promenade and square. What is somewhat surprising to a person who is not familiar with Malta at all is that there is practically no sandy beaches :( they've tried creating man-made ones but they are full of bacteria as the sea water can't wash them, meh... Btw all the litter that the Maltese make is being shipped out from the island because they do not have any room for it. 

In the evening we had an external lecturer from the University of Malta who told us about Valletta's architecture and urban planning. Did you know the oldest baroque theatre in Europe that is still in use is in Valletta? It is a fortified city built on  a natural harbour. Valletta is described by contrasts: light versus shade, land versus sea and urban space versus peaceful places. And of course we learned quite a lot from the tourism management perspective that I'm not going to write here as it may not be as interesting to everyone :D

I'm sure we did something else during that day, those two things couldn't have taken the whole day... especially with a 9AM start... Bizarre :D

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...