Emerging From The Bubble / Wifi Running Out
Watching the news, it feels as if it is not just the cruise that is ending but our whole way of life. Certainly the cruise industry is likely to take a big hit. I wonder what sort of reception the QM2 will get — it is likely to be a cautious one. We are exchanging emails with our new friends and issuing invitations for the future knowing seeing them again is likely to be some way off. I ask my son how he is managing but he is remarkably cheerful. He says it feels like those old teenage days when the weather gets good and he wants to lie in bed or out in the sun but he doesn’t have a mother shouting at him to get a job……… because he has got one but doesn’t have to go to it.
More parts of the ship are shutting down and the tropical all white uniforms have gone. It is back to the navy and it is gale force winds outside and surprisingly cold for the tropics. The wind is blowing the sand off the Sahara, so not very pleasant outside. Our Spanish class is taken over by discussing the country of Uruguay. Our Polish classmate is very well travelled. and thinks it is a wonderful country and the captain introduces us to the one member of the crew who is from Uruguay and therefore speaks Spanish — to help with our pronunciation………. not that we have acquired much to pronounce…
At breakfast today I was transfixed by an unusually young and pretty blond who piled her plate high with pastries for the third day in a row — so now known as the pastry lady. Despite all the warning signs around regarding too much pastry eating; she was undeterred and chomped on through them all as well as the three course breakfast.
Today is Easter Sunday and we have the privilege of being some of the very few, if not the only people in the world, to be able to attend a church service with others in our bubble of cleaning and disinfectant and no known cases of Covid 19. The captain is a Muslim I discover, so won’t be applying for a job as a vicar, but he carries out a moving inter- denominational church service.
We lost three of our number as we passed Tenerife last night — two disembarked at about midnight (they live there) to be greeted in quite heavy seas by a bobbing craft with a sailor equipped with full Covid 19 protection equipment. The gossip this morning says they were serial complainers who posted on the internet about this being a dirty ship etc so I bet the crew were glad to be rid of them. I better not be too critical or I might find myself dumped in the English Channel This was about 11pm and then in the middle of the night the ship turned back to Tenerife again to meet a helicopter to evacuate a patient who was seriously ill.
What I shall miss when we leave:
1.Obviously, going out to dinner every night — the food has been amazing
2. The friends we have made, some of whom have already left and particular affection for our dining companions, the golfing crowd, my Spanish class mates — our bridge and chess friends
3. Argie our steward who makes our bed, picks up our towels off the floor etc.
4. The wonderful sights and experiences of the middle east and Australia
5. Learning to waltz, quickstep and perfect the cha cha cha
5, Feeling safe most of the time.
6. The wonderful classical concerts and other entertainment for part of the cruise
7. Being able to wear all my posh clothes, dating back up to 40 years, in the evening
What I will not miss:
1. Is the constant changes of clothes — it was a bit like being in Downtown Abbey to start with.
2. The cleaning banging and drilling although we are in for some of that when we get home with no boiler a burst pipe in the kitchen and yes I suppose I will have to up my cleaning skills.
3.Dressing for dinner EVERY night
4.The complainers although they provided me with some laughs.
5, The terrible films
As you can see we are very much in credit and this does not include, meeting friends in far off places, seeing amazing sights such as Petra, seeing the church where my parents were married, snorkelling on the Barrier Reef. So this may not have been quite the adventure we expected, it was a wonderful adventure nonetheless. I also loved writing my blog and am pleased that so many of you seem to have enjoyed it. This is the last one and I just have enough wifi left with which to post it.
