Friday 2 January 2009

Don't Panic Captain Mainwaring!

Panic, what us panic???? The countdown has begun and we are now less than 7 days before our adventure starts. Sam is of course totally relaxed with one suitcase packed, knows exactly where and what else that needs to be done and will start his panicking the night before we leave. Probably realising that most of his underwear is not fit to be seen by stewards, other passengers in the laundry room or by the ship's doctor in an emergency situation and will try to pick up some good stuff from a corner shop in Southampton. He does realise of course that he is totally unprepared for most of the fancy dress evenings other than the black and white and the formal. He might just scrape through with the Tropical evenings and the Country and Western but has no hope for the 60's and 70's nights. On reflection though he always looks as if his clothes were fashioned 30/40 years ago.

Hilary on the other hand has been panicking quite nicely, to the extent that she is sitting on the settee hunched over her sewing machine making a fancy dress/shirt in extremely bright colours which is very reminiscent of Goldie Hawn in her hey day. At least she will look authentic for the 60's nights.

Confusion continues to reign over the matter of how we pay for ship's incidentals. Having gone through the palaver of setting up a new current account with Halifax and getting fresh debit cards - they arrived quite quickly - we still have no PIN numbers and so we can't use them. We have decided to abandon that idea and transfer back the money from Halifax to Barclays and use the Barclay's debit cards instead. If we (for that read Sam) had thought it through in the first place we should always have used that option, but we/he are so conditioned to using Credit Cards rather than Debit Cards that we (he) didn't read the P&O literature closely enough to realise that Debit Cards are the better option for paying for each leg of the journey. Why did we ever go for a cashless society? Give me good old pounds, shillings and pence any day.

With Christmas and New Year out of the way - and both were very good to us - we are looking forward to 2009 which, as all our family members know is guaranteed to be a year of change for us. Both Hilary and Sam were born in "odd" years, married in an odd year, had children in odd years and changed jobs and countries in odd years. So we know that 2009 will be a year of change and hopefully for the good. We have had lucky lives so far and hope that the roll continues.

The next blog that you read on this site should be from on board Oriana inside the Cyb@Study, or more likely from the bar in the Crow's Nest. Just send positive energy for smooth waters....

4 comments:

Jessica said...

Have a good and safe trip! I can't wait to read about your first few nights on the ship. Hope to see you in Hong Kong!
Love,
Jess

samw7 said...

Let's talk early this week. I am so happy that you are both taking what will be a trip of a lifetime. It certainly seems as though travel is in the air for 09 for the Woollard family. I should get my Chinese Visa back on Tuesday and be all set to go on the 28th. I am so excited.Love you both and can't wait to read about your adventures.
Love, Sam

jeff said...

Sam, this is your big chance to dress as Elvis!

Jeff

Hayley said...

Ahoy there mateys!
Hope you had a smooth run onto the ship, and you managed to unpack without bumping into each other!
Mum sends her love and best wishes to you both, and we are eargerly awaiting the first installment. Mr Blackbird, Robin and I are missing you already but we wish you the very best experiences of your life.
I managed to light the fire! and job hunting is going well so thats good. Look forward to speaking to you soon,
lots of love, Hayley xxxxx