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Menu by Eriksen
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| Holidays
HOLIDAY 98 - BOUND FOR TENERIFE
We had all saved hard and were on our way to Birmingham Airport, hooray,
we parked the mini-bus for the week and checked in at 4pm and we all had a
coffee and went through to the departure lounge headed for the duty free
shop to stock up on goodies. From there we went to the gate for boarding,
but then things began to go pear-shaped, the depature time came and went
first we were told the cleaners had not finished getting the plane ready,
time passed on and an hour later they said it was a technical problem, another
2 hours later we were back in the departure lounge as a part for the plane
had to be fetched from Manchester airport. By the time the part arrived it
was too late for us to take off as the crew had run out of their working
hours for that day and as that could not get a replacement crew we would
not be leaving untill the next day! we were very upset and also the
wheelchair users amongst us had been sitting down for over 10 hours and had
very sore botties.
After much consultation we were taken to the Birmingham
Metropole Hotel just after midnight and told that we would be collected at
8 am the next day and oh I nearly forgot we had to leave our duty free at
the airport as it is not permitted to leave with it, also our wheelchairs
would not go on the ordinary busses so we used the airport bus, however
we did feel important as we had a police escort to the hotel complete with
the flashing lights.
The next morning a fleet of taxi's arrived to take us to
the airport and after another short delay we were finally on our way,
and then had a wonderful week at the Hotel Noelia Sur in Playa de las Americas,
a holiday we shall never forget, told by Ian White.
Hello, my name is Andy (I'm on the right ) and this is my friend Simon.
I would like to tell you a little about the Phab Club holiday that I
have just enjoyed (3rd September to 10th September 1999) we took off at 23:55
from East Midlands airport, during the flight I was able to go to the cockpit
to see the pilot but not allowed to fly the plane, much to the relief of our
party and the rest of the passengers, but I still found it very interesting,
we landed at Tenerife about 03:50 after a good flight.
Once in the terminal building we went to find our baggage, for a while Tom,
Ruby and myself lost the rest of the party but found them waiting in the bus
that was waiting to take us to our apartments in Los Christianos about a 15
minute drive away. When we arrived at our apartments and got sorted out
after a little bother with the door locks we finally had a look around and
got to bed and woke up after only a few hours sleep. Some in our party went and had a look around
Los Christianos which consisted of restaurants that played live music from
early evenings onwards and some with live entertainment. One night at the
local restaurant that we visited there was a parrot show,thay had the parrots
counting and riding a bike etc and after that you could have your photo taken
holding the parrots this was not really an option but you did have the option
whether to buy the photo or not. Then it came to my turn and while holding
one parrot the other one on my shoulder decided to peck off one of my shirt
buttons, Í now have a dífferent view abot parrots.
Getting back to what was in the area besides restaurants there was the usual
shops, banks and a short walk down the hill was the seafront where the local
Africans set up their boxes or spread blankets on the ground to show their
goods for sale which ranged from sunglasses, tee shirts, baseball caps,
wooden animals and figurines. During the week we had two trips one on a coach
that took us around the Island and up into the hills and above the clouds,
where at one point it rained a little. We saw Mount Teide and the forest
area. The other trip was on a boat where we had chance to see dolphins, told by Andy Tuck.
Millenium Dome
On the 1st July 2000 eight of us went to London for 3 days to see the Millenium Dome and the London Eye, we stayed at
the Youth Hostel at Rotherhythe, a place we have stayed on a previous visit to London. It was an enjoyable break
with decent weather. We all enjoyed ourselves and I particularly enjoyed the London Eye, very different to what I had
expected and when we were at the top we could see for miles in many directions.
London July 2000
Phab at Butlins September 2000.
On friday 15th September a group of 12 members from the club enjoyed a holiday together at Butlins,
Skegness, because of the petrol crisis we had a meeting on the previous Monday to discuss if we should go
as we couldn't be sure of getting enough petrol to get us back, anyway the result was that we should continue,
9 of us went in the minibus and Mandy took her car, I unfortunatly arrived with the back of my car smashed
in, so that started the holiday off well, anyway this is what some of them thought about it! The first words that Paul
Crocket said was " this looks boring" but he was soon chatting up all the ladies as usual and enjoying every minute,
his poor mum was rushed off her feet. We had 3 chalets with 4 people in each. We all visited Eastgate Market,
Fantasy Island and Skegness Town and on the Sunday we all went for lunch together. Other avtivities included
swimming amusements, shopping and the Skyline Pavillion seeing various shows. There was lots of laughter
and we came back with a lot more stuff than we went with, all told everyone wants to go again, told by Amanda Corden.
Phab at Costa Darada
October 2000, Six of us from the club took our holiday together in Salou on the Costa Darada,
unfortunately Tom and Ruby had to cancel at the
last minute due to illness. We had a trouble free flight to Rues
airport where there was a local taxi strike with only a small number of them working, but we weren't delayed for
long, then about 10 minutes to our hotel in Salou, we arrived in time for the evening meal.
After a short time in the hotel bar we all decided to have an early night. Next morning we got up to glorious
weather and started a ritual that lasted the whole week, we would have breakfast get ready and then wheel and
walk to the town which only took about 10 minutes.
Polis Cyprus
Six of us went to Cyprus on 15th March, although not a really a Phab Holiday, I have decided to include our
experience. It was great to leave East Midlands airport in fairly cold weather and a few hours later arrive
in Cyprus to fairly warm weather which throughout our week was between 68 and 80 fahrenheit. We found the local
people were very friendly and helpful, the food was fairly priced and very good. On the way to the beach some
picked oranges from vast groves full of trees, there was also oranges everywhere including around the apartments
were we were staying. On a trip around the Island we had time in Paphos and the place of Aphrodites pool.
Blackpool
In July 16 of us went to Blackpool for 3 days, the weather was awful with very high winds and a little rain. We
used the services of a booking agent and were very dissappointed, knowing that we had about 5 wheelchair users, they
booked us in a decent looking hotel but it was about 2 miles out of Blackpool which caused us many problems. The breakfast in
the hotel was quite good but the evening meal was always luke warm and not appetising, 7 of us on a table of 8 sent our
cold apple pie back one evening because it was cold, was the other OK, no I don't eat puds. It wasn't a total disaster,
we went to see a show starring Joe Longthorne, Orvil with his minder and Billy Pearce, he was hillairious and had us in
tears. We stayed at the Norbreck hotel.
All other reports by Gerald Wilkinson
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