Buddy's Blog

Howdy!

It wasn’t too bad. One of my small trees blew over:

Thanks for your concern.

Just now the wind is blowing pretty good here, but I’ve seen worse. I’m worried about my friends in Tallahassee.

Hearing Michael Perry sing again inspired me to post some of Buddy Valentine’s old numbers. See the link in the menu bar?

This strip didn’t appear.

It looks like the storm is going to miss us. I’m worried about my old friends in Tallahassee. I got to run out now and buy 24 rolls of toilet paper.

Don’t you hate it when they target ads to you?

A week ago last Saturday I went to to a luau at an old friend’s house. She moved down here about three years ago. It was quite a feast and wild time. A bunch of old friends came down from Northern Virginia for the party. My old friend, Dyanne, even had a roasted pig and an apple in it’s mouth. For a while I thought I was on Bango-Bango with the Cannibals. And what a wild time.  But as I mentioned a few days ago, my old friend and fantastic musician, Tom Saputo, provided the music. Is he ever terrific. He bunked with me and Frau G while he was here. Another special treat was that my old friend and incredibly gifted performer, Michael Perry, from Las Vegas was there. I took a video of him singing my favorite that he sings, The Isley Brothers’ Shout! Wouldn’t you know it, my IPhone just went blewey and I lost all my photos and videos. Michael’s  voice just blows me away. He has a bunch of videos posted on YouTube, for example this one, Percy Sledge’s When a Man Loves a Woman.  My personal thanks goes out to our hostess Dyanne, and Tom and Michael.

We sailed back to NYC on the Queen Mary II. If you’ve only cruised on one of the other lines you don’t know what you’re missing. The QMII was quite elegant compared to other ships that I’ve been on. On our trip over we were on a Princess. We had a little tiny room, and it wasn’t cheap. No place to sit except the desk chair and the beds. This was our stateroom on the QMII:

The food on the Princess was mediocre at best, and you can believe me when I say I know what good food tastes like. The meals on the QMII were excellent. There were two formal nights wherein the ladies got all dolled up and many of the gentlemen wore monkey suits. I was a little embarrassed in my coat and tie. The entertainment on the Princess was mediocre. There were seldom seats available in the theater unless you got there at least an half hour ahead of show time. For example the big extravaganza was dancers dancing to canned music, and, not all, but a lot of lip syncing. On the QMII there was always space in the beautiful theater:

The entertainers were fabulous. They danced and sang to a live orchestra. The solo performance by the violinist blew me away. I thought I was listening to Isaac Stern. Ditto the pianist was like Horowitz. There was a huge ballroom where the orchestra played grown-up music and so many people danced. I had tea there one afternoon. Check out the ship’s library:

This was just one row of the bookshelves. As I recall it held about 8000 books. No kiddie slides or goofy golf or basketball courts. But a very serviceable swimming pool. And they even had a planetarium.

Of course, The QMII is a Cunard vessel. They also sail the Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Anne and The Queen Victoria.

Finally back to New York after seven weeks away from home:

Buh-bia Buh-bia Buh-bia… That’s All Folks!

Leroy, the Cannibal ctd…

The Isle of Wight is a 25 minute ferry ride off Portsmouth Harbor. It’s often a vacation destination for the Brits. Remember “When I’m 64”?

There’s lots to see that we missed, like the goat rescue farm, but we did see two of the best spots. First was Queen Victoria’s summer cottage, The Osborne House:

The inside was nice too. Statues and artwork galore:

Nice furniture. No IKEA.

Another place that is worth a gander, the miniature village in Godshill. The little town itself has a few old thatched cottages:

And here is the miniature village:

The Royal Naval Museum is loaded with exhibits. I’ll just show you three more. First is the submarine, HMS Alliance,

The HMS Victory was the English fleet’s flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar. That battle defeated the combined Spanish and, under Napoleon, French battle fleets, and saved England from being invaded. Trafalgar is off the coast of Spain. The Victory is undergoing restoration. Most of the interior is intact.

The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII’s flagship. It sank in 1545 and was salvaged near the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor in 1985. There isn’t much of the ship left, but the wreckage was loaded with artifacts.