Well it’s been a very long time since I’ve been back in the US for any proper amount of time. After leaving Alaska on the Volendam last year, which I’m not sure if it even counts as being in the States, I have been to Australia and New Zealand and Europe for pretty much all my time. I did do two cruises out of Tampa but that was just so short of time. It’s nice to be able to relax during a vacation and enjoy myself.

I do have some more photos to post of Europe which I will try and get done in the next week. My next contract is going to be on the Statendam. I’ll be cruising through the Panama Canal back and forth between Ft. Lauderdale and Sand Diego. That will be from mid January to the beginning of May. I’ll have make a cruise out to French Polynesia and Hawaii. Then in May it’ll be back up to Alaska. I’ll be in Alaska until the end of the season in September. Then we’ll see what happens after that but I can only take one contract at a time.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on investing money, and I’m just about to start trading stocks and options. I had been investing money with a group Edward Jones, but over two years I actually lost about $200 bucks so I didn’t feel that was worth it. Trading stocks and options is significantly higher risk than simply investing money, but I’ve prepared a lot and will be following someone else’s advise who has been trading professionally for about 18 years. We’ll see how that goes.

I had the great pleasure of having Niamh and her sister Kate come visit me in the States for a few weeks. Niamh left our last contract together a little early because she needed to go home for a friend’s wedding. That was back at the end of September, and then when I finished my contract in November she came here to visit me. We had a great time. It was really nice to be able to show her around the Midwest as she was able to show me around London last year.