Hello! I don’t usually like to broadcast to the internet that I am on vacation, but some of you may have noticed that my posts have been sparse. Yes, I went on a glorious two and a half week vacation to Florida for three days and then on a two-week Caribbean cruise. I had originally planned a whole routine of how I would sneak in some work while on vacation and put up a few posts a week and perhaps get some writing done but that proved difficult as the social activities abounded and I had such computer problems with my website while on the ship.
I bought an (expensive) internet package and as though that weren’t enough, the lag in between getting pages up was eating up my minutes hungrily. I managed to eventually get my emails up every morning ( in slo-mo) and get onto twitter and for the first four days I did manage to get here into my website. One day I could no longer log in to my site, a box came up that it was a malware site and I look like a robot and the ship’s internet provider wouldn’t let me access it. I went crazy. I spent time in the internet room with a tech, complained to guest relations but their internet provider, apparently a military provider based in the United Kingdom, deemed my site not safe. I then had to resort to days when we were at port and lug my laptop to a cruise terminal to try and pick up free wifi, but two ports proved to be bogus wifi. It seemed that hundreds of people were seated on the floors in these terminals, trying to connect to the outside world thus hogging up too much wifi and again I couldn’t connect. Although I did manage one more post as my determination was fueled to not be forgotten and managed to connect for five dollars in the terminal in Saint Lucia. I once again lugged my laptop and purse and shopping bag, trudging through the extreme heat in search of some wifi. That was my last post as the remainder of days were at sea and I was S.O.L. in accessing my site.
Some of you may have noticed that I did still respond to any comments though because I did manage to find a way to get up my notifications by logging into to some of your blogs (thank you), I just couldn’t open my main page. I complained a lot to the front desk, to the point where they credited my account and gave me back tons of minutes for wasting my valuable time and paid minutes trying to log in. It seems that no matter where I am, I have these website woes. I was convinced that “Murphy” had sent some distant relative to accompany me on vacation so I wouldn’t forget him. I had visions of my readers wondering where I was and if I just abandoned my blog without notice. I think in future I may just post something like my friend Carol when she went on holiday. She put up a picture of a palm tree and wrote “Taking a Break”. That just seems so much simpler.
DGKayewriter.com 
I am glad you had a break and relaxed for a little bit. That’s a great idea with the palm tree picture and you could put something else, made by you, something you like.
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Thanks Little, I’m definitely going to do it different next time. 🙂
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Oh I hope you did get some restful time in! Sounds rather stressful with all that rushing around and lugging laptops with you.
I found much the same when I did my NZ trip – nearly a month away, and they don’t so free wifi over there unless you can find a MacDonalds or some such! Only one hotel that did it free, the rest were so extortionate I limited myself to emails and the odd tweet.
Thankfully that was before my first novel came out, so not as stressful as it might have been.
Chill now – enjoy being home 🙂
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Thanks Deb but lol, the only ‘chill’ I’m getting is from the temperature. We all know what it is like to come back from a great vacation and get buried back in the abyss of our work, that’s where I am now. As for the next vacay, I’m going to do what you did. Emails and the odd tweet and still that is work enough keeping up while trying to tune out. 🙂
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Maybe Internet woes are a way of saying, “Leave the computer at home and enjoy the sun.” I hear similar stories from others travelling outside Canada. Internet service being spotty at best and costing a lot of money. My sister who went to Mexico in the fall said that she had to buy a package just to email. It sounded expensive to me, and then there was no guarantee she could access it.
If I ever get to go on vacation in the years to come, unless I start hearing different stories, I think I’ll just leave all my devices at home and avoid the frustration and expense.
I hope you enjoy the trip otherwise. I’ve never been on a cruise, but the Alaskan one looks very appealing. Maybe some day.
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Yes Di, I have lived and learned. Next time I shall just take it for what it is…a vacation. And btw, I am told by many fellow cruisers that the Alaskan cruise is fabulous. So maybe food for thought. 🙂
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LOL The universe is reminding you to cut the cord and enjoy the moment. I can see your photo posted on the ship as “Beware: Internet Lady.” 🙂 I hope you had a lovely time, and I’m thrilled to see you back. Oh, don’t mind the extension cord hanging off the ship, I’m just connecting to a modem on shore. 😉
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LOL Jeannie my friend. Always nice to go away but nice to be back even though I must sort myself out of a mountain of work. There is a price for everything. 🙂
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Your vacation plans sound like a nice change but without the right cooperation.
When I go away next month I don’t plan to keep in touch. I believe I’ll be toast at the end of the day. If I can sent my family an e-mail, I’ll be happy. I hadn’t planned on trying to keep up. Now I’ll have to find out how to stop incoming e-mail for 25 days. *grins*
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Yes Tess, I have learned the hard way. But next time I will still keep up with email because even if I blocked it, it would all rush in when I returned. That is a price to pay when you have a platform and subscribe to must-read publications. Enjoy your trip and worry about it later…trust me, lol. 🙂
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I can hardly keep up e.v.e.r.y. day let alone after 25 days away from my keyboard. 🙂 How did you ever manage?
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It will be a challenge but if you can at least find a way to log in to your email every few days on free wifi while you are out and about you can avoid the pile up. I deleted the personal ‘joke emails’, looked at what’s important, tweeted good info then left a ‘flag’ beside those mails that I needed to read in more depth and keep in my info folder for my return. If you organize it like that you can get through them in about fifteen minutes. I had spent more time reading blogs and commenting which took a lot of time and because I didn’t let anyone know I was away I didn’t want anyone to feel as though I abandoned, especially here on my page. Monday emails are always the heaviest with the blogs I follow coming in from wordpress, over 140 emails, lol. But since you are clearly announcing your absence you can travel guilt-free 🙂
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