Day Twenty Five: Good News and Good Choices

The good news is that Hilary is feeling better today, it wasn’t a question of being seasick but more of not having her head on straight, a sort of vertigo if you like but without the height. We both had a pretty good night, although I have woken with a crick in my neck, probably caused by having my pillows in a strange position. I am sure that as the day goes on it will wear off; I also have a slightly red forehead obtained when we sat outside on Deck 13 for a while yesterday and I didn’t take my usual baseball cap with me. We weren’t expecting to be outside for long but then we got involved with watching the cricket and the golf so that was when it happened. Luckily I remembered today and even though we sat outside for much longer it was in the shady side of the Promenade Deck so neither of us will have to rush for the after sun lotion. We both broke our diet today when two very nice young men came round pushing a refrigerated cart containing among other things Magnum ice cream bars; one almond and one white chocolate later we sat there wondering if this was a temptation that we should have resisted.

When you book a P & O Cruise you are bombarded with a battery of questions – it’s almost as bad as selecting breakfast in America, you know how that is: How do you want your eggs, scrambled, soft boiled, fried, sunny side up, over easy: Now your toast, white, whole meal, sourdough: then your coffee/tea, black, white, iced – well for cruises it starts with which deck, inside or outside cabin, balcony or not, forward, aft or amidships and finally the cabin layout, single or double beds. Now these are tough choices that have to be made in a hurry when you are booking and the only way you can know if you chose correctly is by peeking in other peoples’ cabins as you walk the corridors. It is a great game and is played by the majority of the new boarders and by a very scientific analysis, of me looking through as many open doors that I can find, we have got it made. For a start we chose to have our bed made up as a double and that is a rarity from what I have seen – we did overhear one couple explaining to the maid that “we have changed our bed layout from singles to a double, but we may change it back.” Then the wife added, “it was his idea,” I will have another peek next time I walk past and their door is open to see their configuration. We also chose a cabin with a window; I can understand the argument that windows are not necessary as only short spells are spent in the cabin, but for us it is a real pleasure. It adds a great deal of natural light, we can see all kinds past the window and look in!

We did another mile around the deck today, this time after breakfast and before the 10.00am lecture and now that the sun is out again (82F here, sorry to hear about the 14 inches of snow in London), so the clothes are coming off in favour of the Speedos and the costumes. This time as we walked around it wasn’t the fat brown bellies that I noticed so much as the scars that many of these people have inflicted on them. We have the teeny appendix scar, the large abdominal scar, the “from here to eternity” navel to neck, the hip replacement scar (sometimes on both sides for that one), the knee scar, the thigh and calf scars and the across the throat thyroid scar. When these folks arrived on board with their pasty white skin none of these scars showed up but with the tanning in full swing the white stitches show up beautifully against the brown. I am sure that if you went and talked to these people you could spend a whole day trapped while they tell you about their last operation. Or two….

The other good news is that the scrapbook is under way and as I write this Hilary has our bed covered in photos, stickers, gold lettering and pages of coloured paper. Late last night I was able to print out her two pages of columns on the laser printer in the CyberStudy and these are being incorporated onto the page as I type. With the scrapbook, the video, this blog and Hilary’s daily record we should have enough material to bore our family and friends for years to come. “Have we told you about the time we went on a World Cruise? We should have a scrapbook around here somewhere. Sam made a DVD, would you like to see it? He can make you a copy of it if you like.” Oh yes, just you wait, this could be your worst Boxing Day nightmare ever! I can visualize friends and family going miles out of their way to avoid coming to Middle Chub Tor – “If they make me watch that bloody DVD one more time, I swear that I will…. (add your own words).

Tiz I. Well either the waves have shrunk or my head has found its level again – which ever way I am feeling much better and the good thing is (apart from the lapse this morning with the ice cream) I am not hungry at all! That has to be good for the waistline. Oh by the way when I said that the waistline had not grown I was mistaken….. the elastic had broken! The scary bit is that the skirt did not fall down!
We are hopeful that we will see some sea life soon as - we are only God knows where in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - we saw two seabirds and some flying fish today.
It has just taken me four hours to put three pages of the scrapbook together – obviously lost my touch and must practice more. With the seemingly heavier seas I will probably be spending more time in the cabin where there are walls and furniture to hold onto and the book should be possible to keep up to date.
Great news from Hayles – although sorry that you were so tired, really pleased that the word is going around for your business; soon you won’t have time to go to work! The PR job seems to be more up your street though while you build up the animal work.
Loved your message my friend Pat. Please don’t fill up all your time though; I want to spend more time with you when I get back.
For Kelly in England I will try to get a better photograph which really shows all the work you put into the necklace and ring. They did look good with the dress and I loved the compliments that you got. Well that is it for another day, Sam is ready to move on, and we have been in the cabin for the past 5 hours so he is probably right. God bless.

I’m going to post this early tonight, usually I post after we have done the dinner and the show, anywhere between 9.30pm and 10.30pm, but tonight we are planning to go to the cinema after dinner to see the second of the Narnia tales. It starts at 8.00pm and runs over 2½ hours and I don’t fancy starting to blog at 10.30pm. So this is goodnight from me and goodnight from ‘er indoors.