Thank you for thinking of me

I'm breaking off from the story of my cruise for a quick, but sincere, "Thank You" note

Of course my humans try to get me other Disney merchandise themed for Figaro. This includes trading pins. They are quite lucky that there aren't that many. Mikki keeps a sharp lookout whenever she is in a park. Yes, she buys pins but she also trades - especially with cast members.

Now I can tell you Mikki had a message from Karentan on the Disboards that she had seen a Figaro pin and was happy to send it to me if I wanted it. Wasn't that nice of her! My Mikki had spent a whole trip searching for that very pin and had finally found it on a 'suit'.

Here is a cute picture of me posing with the pin. Thanks for thinking of me Karentan!

Our Cruise

Yes, I had a lovely time on my European river cruise with my humans. Aboard the MS Amacello, we cruised up the Danube, down the Main and the Rhine and navigated the canal that connects them. I think the humans enjoyed themselves a lot - going out on deck to watch everything and even getting in the jacuzzi pool on the sundeck. All that water wasn't really a cat's idea of a good holiday but I was happy enough staying in the cabin almost all the time.

Mind you, the cabin (or "suite" as the tour company called it) was rather comfy. The company was offering very good deals - especially since we chose a cruise that started in March. The only snag was that the only cabin available was the largest and most luxurious. The space was larger than most and the bathroom had a bath as well as a shower (not something I thought important). I don't think the bed was any different from the regular cabins - but it was very confortable. Also, on many days, the cabin steward made clever designs with the towels like this one. Like almost all the cabins, we had floor to ceiling windows. so I could look out when I wanted to.

The humans had a great time on the cruise. They thought the staff were all friendly and helpful; the food was excellent (with efforts made to offer dishes reflecting the areas we were going through); and the lounge areas confortable and not too crowded (the boat was full but only took about 150 passengers). There were also lots of chances to go ashore. A big plus of river cruising in Europe is that all the contries are part of the European Union so there are no borders or customs formalities when you go ashore: you just get off the boat.

The humans visited lots of interesting and historic places. I went with them once. I'll tell you in my next post.

Figaro (the Toy Cat)

Old and New

I've been waiting a long time to get back to my diary and I hope you haven't missed me too much.

We have been very busy since I last got on the computer and I had better explain a bit about it. I'll bring you more up to date in the next few days.

The first half of April, we were away on a river cruise in Europe. After that, it was rushing to get ready for a weekend in Manchester for a Disney fan event. Then there were busy things with family and village.

And in between things, the computer went wrong! Yes, the one I use: so no blogs. We thought we had been attacked by a virus but it turned out to be the anti-virus software that had itself attacked the Windows operating system. Luckily, Mikki learned about this from a magazine before we had taken extreme measures. The other lucky thing is that all my information and pictures are on external drives and we had a spare "box" from when Mikki bought herself a new one. What we lacked was the programs I like for typing and editing the photos. By now, I have a mixture of getting Andrew to re-load some of the things I like and me learning some of the different programs on the spare "box". So here goes with getting up to date.

I thought I'd start with this picture from DAK in January. I call it "Old and New". The humans say it could apply to many things at the moment but I'm just a toy cat so the "old" is Mikki's sweater and the "new" is Tinker Bell (a relatively new addition to DAK) sitting on Mikki's hand.

I hope I need not add that "old" was not meant to indicate me. I am mature and distinguished. Mikki does like this sweater - which is about 10 years old. A few days after getting home, she was in one of our local supermarkets when one of the staff saw it; said she had a similar one; and agreed they haven't done anything quite as good since.

Ah well, if you insist I won't argue with the idea that, "the old ones are the best".