We had a couple of quick showers to wake up and dressed for a morning onboard ship we headed up for breakfast. Claire was looking decidedly green, but she suffered badly from sea sickness and whilst the tablets had been fine whilst the ship was rocking, the fact the ship was moving more like a pebble being skimmed was not agreeing with her one little bit.
Finishing up breakfast I suggested we try and get some fresh air to see if that helped and failing that, a seat with a view so at least she could associate the movement with what she was seeing. Heading out from the restaurant we ran into Alex he was concerned at Claire’s colour and asked if she’d caught we’d I’d had on Monday. Reassuring him that no, this really was just a case of seasickness he recommended we get a couple of cans of ginger ale and bash them until all the fizz was gone and then drink them slowly – a sure fire way to fix seasickness. Deciding anything was worth a go we headed into one of the bars to get a couple of cans and then began to knock the fizz out of them whilst we wandered up onto deck..... only problem was we couldn’t get out on deck – it didn’t matter where we went, which door we tried and how hard we pushed – we just couldn’t get the doors open against the winds battering the ship outside.
Admitting defeat we headed into the show lounge to secure some seats that looked out to sea and I left Claire sipping her ale and trying to doze whilst I went below deck to get my book to read. On my way down to the cabin I met some of the show team who were heading to the lounge to do a ‘behind the scenes tour’ of the stage, sound booth etc. They asked if Claire and I were planning on attending and explaining that it depended how well the ginger ale was curing Claire’s sea sickness I left them to it to grab my book.
On my return to the lounge, Claire was looking mildly better and said she wanted to attend the tour. Well all was well and good until we went up to the sound booth and the ship began swaying violently. Unable to cope with the movement – Claire left and headed below deck and try to sleep, as I went to get a cup of tea before joining her. As I waited for my tea I met Neil who was looking awful – considering the man spent most of his life doing entertainment on a cruise ship he really didn’t cope with rough seas well at all. Just about to tell him the trick of ginger ale and dry crackers to settle his stomach, I was interrupted with a captain’s announcement. Due to the storm they had been battling throughout the night, we were now 3 hours off schedule and would not be docking before the early afternoon. The look on Neil’s face and the groans off fellow passengers nearby summed it up!
Giving my best to Neil and telling him the best thing he could do was sleep I left to check in on Claire. Fast asleep she looked a better colour and after finishing my cup of tea and reading a fair chunk of my book I decided I may as well catch up on some sleep as well. Dead to the world, I awoke with a scream as the ship tilted violently and my alarm clock and book flew off the dressing table and hit my on the head. Obviously, waking Claire in the process with my scream, I told her we weren’t due to dock for at least another hour and asking how she was feeling. She came to the conclusion that a cup of tea and some more tablets where the way forward, I agreed whole heartedly and we made ourselves presentable and headed upstairs.
So 3 hours later than anticipated we very happily made our way off the ship to the coach for our trip – a taste of Corsica! We started off the visit by going to a little business run by two brothers who used the natural abundance of medicinal plants that grew in the area to make herbal remedies – essential oils and such like. It was really interesting and you’d have never have thought that in this tiny little place (which looked more like a house than a manufactory) was a company that exported thousands of bottles of oil to the states every week.
The views of the mountains of Corsica!
Given chance to examine and purchase some of their products, Claire and I both plumped on an oil which was designed to help relax muscles and mind – given our tendencies to high blood pressure and stressful day to day lives we figured that anything was worth a try to help relax us at the end of the day (does it work? Well...... for a short while at least, yes)
Claire outside the herbalists
The final stop of the day was at a family Nougat factory. It was as we were stood listening to the talk that Claire asked me if I was drunk – raising an eyebrow with a sarcastic comment on the tip of my tongue I realised why she’d asked – I was swaying in circular motions! I wasn’t sea sick, I was land sick! The toll of being on the ship moving so violently and countering it as a matter of course had made my body unaccustomed to being on solid land again when I was stationary. Ha! Irony! Nevertheless, the visit was very entertaining and the owner was a brilliant laugh – and of course, how better to finish the day then on a sugar high (Oh yes, lots of free tasting took place). Purchases made we headed back to ship and raised a few laughs from staff members as we struggled to juggle our purchases whilst getting our boarding cards out. They finally relented and sent us through and logged us in manually – bless them.
The ship on our return
Due to the delay in docking and thus the trip, we were late back for dinner and unable to sit in the main restaurant – which was fine. We used the lack of need to rush to make sitting to our advantage, had leisurely showers and got ready as usual before heading to the Lido Restaurant (which is self service) where we ran into Neil, still looking a tad green. Inviting him to join us we enquired how he was fairing and was he going to make tonight’s late night live performance? He really wasn’t well and had spent most the time at sea in the bathroom emptying his stomach and his time in dock sleeping. He seemed cheery enough but he’d already been forewarned of another night of bad seas. Great!
Exchanging a look with Claire we both dug into our handbags for anti sickness tablets again. Best to take them and have them working before we hit the sea! Neil laughed at our identical actions and asked if we were always this prepared – answer? Yes! Offering him some tablets, he gratefully accepted and said he actually had to be in the hospital bay before he could get out of performing – the joys of the contract! Dinner over, Claire and I excused ourselves to pick up the photos from Captains night before going into the second sitting of that night’s show – Park Life.
Knowing that we weren’t planning on leaving between the show and Neil’s sketch we tried to get seats near the front of the lounge. We’d already pre-warned Neil that any attempt to pick on us would land him in trouble so we weren’t too afraid he’d do anything. Waiting for Kane to finish his usual after show speech from the previous performance, Claire and I were propped up opposite the backstage door when Andy (our cheery Oz from Day 1) walked out, looking stunning in a beautifully tailored suit and the most fantastic black pinstriped shirt with red piping. I couldn’t resist and had to compliment him on his shirt (too many years of textiles and being my mother’s daughter kicked in). Shocked but happy to except the compliment he stopped to talk to us and to check , once again, that I was really recovered from Monday – remembering some of the comments made and my suspicions that the staff gossiped – I confronted him about my theory and he had the grace to look guilty! Ha! Some quick talking, a bit of flirting and a promise to join us for a drink later, we let him go run his errands before the second show and we moved into the lounge to get seats.
Settling down into our seats we felt the ship begin to lurch again. Checking Claire was ok, we ordered Ginger ale alongside our glasses of wine and planned to counteract any seasickness with every trick we knew. The evening show was something totally different from the rest – written especially for the ship it told the story of the life and lives of various people who used and worked in a park with modern songs some incredible choreography and a fantastic tribute to the Beetles. It wasn’t my favourite show of the week but it was, like every other performance, impeccable.
Show over and another glass of wine ordered we waited for Neil – whose arrival, donning a life jacket, snorkel and sick bag had Claire and me in hysterics. His show was brilliant and true to his word he did avoid the two of us, although pointedly picked on those either side, in front of and behind us! Although a late night show, he was not – like many comedians – crass. For over 50 minutes we, with everyone else in the show lounge, struggled to catch our breath as we laughed so much we cried. It was exactly what we needed and although the ship was once again lurching around we failed to notice it while Neil prattled on.
Show over we headed through to the Oklahoma lounge to prop up the corner of the bar as usual. We ordered in the round – knowing full well that not only would Neil be in shortly, but so would Nick and Kane. As it turned out, along with them came Andy (as promised), Sarah – who’d just finished tidying up from that night’s game show – Simon and Vincent (who were the sound and lighting techs). Mild outrage at the waiting drinks for Neil, Nick and Andy we graciously ordered in drinks for the others. Now we were on all inclusive, but that doesn’t include buying the staff drinks – only, because Claire and I never bothered checking the receipts as such, we failed to notice until the next day that the bar staff had managed to put all the drinks through without charging us. Sweeties! Love them all.
The night settled into its usual routine, gossiping – laughing and yes- Claire and I were successfully persuaded onto the dance floor. 2am rolled round and my shoes had long since come off. Bidding goodnight to Neil, Kane and Andy (Nick, Sarah, Simon and Vincent had all left at some point early) we moved towards the cabin. Andy followed after us and handed us the Pashmina’s we’d left behind the bar and escorted us down to the cabin whilst discussing what we were going to do the next day – Cannes! Joking that we were after some rich, good looking men to take care of us – we told him we were taking it easy with a walking tour of the old town and then an afternoon of *hopefully* sunbathing back on ship. Telling us not to run away with anyone just because they had a nice boat we laughingly bid him good night and retired for the night.
Tonight - not a towel, just my pj's
Day 6: Cannes – Pretty boats, rich men and sun!
another brilliant installment of your holiday naomi.i love the pics and the nougat tasting sounds yummy :D
ReplyDeletexx coops xx
Great fun reading! Naomi!
ReplyDeletelove angie xx