Water Day Wednesday

"If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel" - Will Kommen

 

So Wednesday 11th July saw us at sea for the day and chilling out as we travelled on to Germany. Our usual morning wake up call from the cabin next door prevented any sort of lie in, although it was in dire need and I knew that before the day was out I was going to fall asleep on a chair or sun-lounger somewhere on board the ship.

 

As we rose, showered and dressed for the day ahead there was little planned besides reading, sunbathing and drinking lots and lots of tea. It was a simple plan and after breakfast we headed back to the cabin to don bikini's and grab the books. We secured two sunbeds by the side of the pool but the weather, whilst dry and clear was just a tad too nippy to loose the extra layer of clothes and so we settled back to read with a mug of tea to keep the chill of the sea air at bay.

 

Before too long, I began to doze off as a headache settled behind my eyes. Content to do nothing else but catch up on some much needed sleep the two of us caught 40 winks, but didn't settle well enough to really get any sleep and so after about an hour of being out on deck we admitted defeat and wandered back to the cabin, a fresh cup of tea in hand and got changed again before heading to the Explorers Lounge to see if the scrabble board was free. It wasn't but the days trivia sheets were out and so we settled down with them to try and get our brains crunching numbers and unravelling clues for the crosswords.

 

The remainder of the morning passed in this fashion, interspersed with conversations with crew and other passengers. At a little before 1pm we made our way to the show lounge to watch some of the entertainment team perform swing classics in an afternoon cabaret; the added bonus being that it was the first of 2 shows Alistair was in that day.

 

We vacated the lounge to find some lunch and were settling down to food just as the Aftenoon Trivia kicked off. With little inclination to take part following our appalling attempts to date, we helped, where we could the other couple who were sharing our table.

 

The weather had failed to improve through the course of the morning and with little else to do, we headed back to our cabin to watch the afternoon movie, top up the nails - which were in sad need of new varnish and in my case - fall asleep. I'm not sure what Claire got up to, I think she snoozed as well, but whatever else can be said about the fact we needed an afternoon nap - we had managed a week and a half on about 5 and half hours of sleep a night - it made us feel a whole heap better and as we prepared for the evening on board, I for one was feeling a 100% better.

 

Taking less time than usual to get ready, we decided to go and have a cocktail or two before dinner and settled on one of our favourite sparkling wine concoctions which turns your tounge blue.



With out second cocktail still in hand we headed to dinner and managed to get a table with just the two of us. Ordering our wine we suddenly realised that the reputation of being alcoholics was probably deserved when you realised our table looked like this:

oops! lol! anyway...... dinner was its usual glorious affair where we ate too much. It was the night we finally hit the food wall! Desert was a struggle and the idea of having to carry on eating for the final few days on board was enough to make my waistline expand 2 inches at the very thought!

 

Nevertheless, we finished dining and made our way to the show lounge for Revival, a show which apparently never failed to get at least one complaint from a passenger. Very much based in Eighteenth Century American in a little town on the Bible Belt it was full of songs I adore, including Walking in Memphis (if you've never heard it then go listen....now!) Anyway, it was a great show that should be taken with a pinch of salt and in good humour and Claire and I certainly laughed our way through it. My only complaint was the final song....well, not so much the team's fault because it is simply the lyrics which are at fault, so I'm going to lay the blame at the feet of one Lord Webber. 'Light at the end of the tunnel' from Starlight Express was the final song, which basically says that thanks to James Watt the steam train had made it to America - this is historically inaccurate and drives me barmy! lol.

 

Anyway, after that total loss of direction and rant, it only remains to say that the show was fabulous and Alistair's American accent was shocking. lol!

 

We made a move to High Spirits and settled in for the night and to wait out the evening until Craig's Cabaret at 11. As every cabaret before him, Craig did a fantastic job and the selection was a wonderful mix of everything from Lionel Richie to Robbie Williams. Thankfully tonight, there was no technological faults.

 

Once the set was over, we ordered in whiskey and made our way out to deck where we settled down for a gossip with Alistair and checked he was still ok for dinner the following evening. A little after 1 we made our way back downstairs and were confronted by our towel creation of the night - Mr Snail, who we had serious problems photographing and so the trilogy of images was taken that would, the following night result in much hilarity as they became dubbed....

Good Snail

Bad Snail

Sexy Snail

 

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Wedding Fair

Morning all,

How is everyone today? I hope you're all keeping well. I just wanted to share some photos from last weekend's wedding fair, which my colleague kindly took for me, as I forgot my camera! oops!

It went ok; although I've not had much response from it. You can only try though I guess!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Once in a lifetime.....

Good morning all,

How is everyone today? I do hope you're all keeping well. The weather here has turned distinctly autumnal and I got so cold at work yesterday that my lips turned blue! never good, so today it's all about the layers, and gloves, and fleece...... if I thought I could get away with having a hot drink on post too I would!

But enough of all that. I wanted to share a card with you today that I designed for the wedding fair at the weekend, but think I'll be adapting for my friends wedding card at the end of next month.

So I decided to make an easel card, because who's seen an easel wedding card to buy?! anyone - certainly not me, nor anyone I spoke to at the weekend. I kept it clean and simple and used the gorgous Clarity Stamp Set - Diamond, Horse and Carriage Set, which I stamped up and then scanned into my computer so that I could line it all up as I wanted it (after 5 attempts of not getting the horse and carriage in line!) I chose a random sentiment that I thought would work and printed the whole lot off, added a voile pinky/purple ribbon, a couple of gems and a whole lot of stickles around the edge. Meanwhile, I made the base card, using some pastel pink 12x12 paper which I was given (sorry no maker name on it) and embossed up a fab sentiment 'Always and Forever' by Sizzix.

I mounted the image and sentiment onto rose papers the mounted onto the card base, added a few more gems at the bottom for a bit more shine and there we have it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this design and I would also like to enter it for Crafty Catz design team call and Dream Valley's challenge of Celebrations.

Until next time, happy crafting!

Sweet, sweet Stockholm

"All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it" - Samuel Johnson

 

Putting the hellish time we'd had in Helsinki the day before behind us, we awoke on the second Tuesday of our cruise in Stockholm. It is a city built on 14 connecting islands, each with their own feel and story to tell (much like, I suspect, Venice!). It was a calm start to the day, as we had to take a tender to shore - Stockholm is one of those places that cruise ships will never be able to pull in a dock at - which only adds to its charm.

 

Getting up, we walked through our morning routines still half asleep and stumbled to breakfast, relative quiet and uncommunicative. The late nights were starting to catch up with us (not that we'd ever admit to that), we were more likely to blame our next door neighbours who were still insisting on turning on the TV at some inhumane hour!

 

After we'd fulled ourselves up; many, many cups of tea later, we returned to the cabin to grab our bags and headed to the show lounge as instructed, to await our tender to shore. Now tenders to shore are an experience if you've never done one - they attach a set of floating steps to the outside of the ship, which you then walk down into one of the lifeboats, which have been lowered to play taxi service to the shore. Having done this on a previous cruise, Claire and I were not bothered in the slightest, but it was clear there were a few passengers who were less than thrilled at being bounced about with little between them and the sea.

 

It took less than 3 minutes to get us to shore, where we were welcomed by our guide for the Old Town and City Hall tour.  We'd picked a leisurely mornings walking tour to visit two of the city's  highlights but before we got to either of them, we were able to take in a panoramic view over the city's skyline from Fjallgatan.....shame there was a random ship in the way ;) lol!

We left the bridge to head to the City Hall. An imposing structure, it is a colossal monument in red brick. As one of the Stockholm's leading examples of national romanticism in architecture, it is possibly the most famous silhouette of the skyline. It was designed by the architect Ragnar Östberg, and opened on Midsummer Eve in 1923. But it's fame for most of the world comes in the form of being the building which hosts the great Nobel banquet is also held in City Hall. After dinner in, the Blue Hall, Nobel Prize recipients, royalty and guests dance in the Golden Hall, with its 18 million gold mosaic tiles.  It's incredible to think I walked up the same stairs as some of the greatest minds in the world! it also made me feel incredibly dumb lol!

The gold room tells the story of Sweden's history, although you have to get passed all the gawking at the sheer splendour of the room and the incredible opulence to really take note of what story the images are telling! The hall is dominated by the ”Queen of Lake Mälaren” on the northern wall which represents Stockholm being honoured by the East and the West.

After leaving the splendour of the city hall we made our way into the centre of Stockholm to the  old town, where we walked for about an hour and a half around the area, taking in the Royal Palace and Great Square and admiring architecture from the 16th-19th century.

The Great Square has a fascinating, if gruesome, history which defined modern Stockholm, for it was the scene of the Stockholm Bloodbath in November 1520, when, during three days, the Danish-Swedish king Christian II beheaded and hanged 90 people. However, the king wasn't directly responsible for the deed. The archbishop, dethroned and imprisoned by the regent Sten Sture the Elder (who died during the siege) wanted to obtain a redress. So, during the coronation of Christian II, the prominent guests were confronted with the bill of indictment of the archbishop and subsequently condemned for blasphemy. The death sentences were to be accomplished at once, so the square was cleared while a curfew forced all citizens to stay indoors. The executioners beheaded archbishops, councillors, noblemen, and city magistrates indiscriminately. All bodies were burned on the square and it ran rivers of blood. Amazingly, this didn't deter the Swedish from revolting against the Danish occupation and just three years later Gustav Vasa liberated Stockholm.

Now this is the sort of history that would have made school lesson's significantly more interesting!

From the Great Square we walked through the twisting side streets, filled with stunning architecture and which had a really provincial feel. Stockholm has this incredible mix of the old and the new and from hand in hand with each other are modern shops selling the latest wares and then next door, a traditional cobblers or old fashioned patisserie, and yet nothing felt out of place. It was a weird juxtaposition that worked here better than I had seen anywhere else in the world!

The final stop of our walking tour took us to see the statue of St George and the Dragon - a reproduction of the one inside the great Cathedral of St Nicholas, which is believed to represent Sweden's struggle against evil, and the miniature (less than one foot tall) Iron Boy sculpture. This is a favourite with Stockholm residents and tourists alike. The statue is also called Jarnpojke, and was created by Liss Eriksson in 1919. The Iron Boy is found in a small courtyard behind the Finnish Church near the Royal Palace. Nuns at a nearby convent and little old ladies knit caps and sweaters for the Iron Boy to ward off Stockholm's cold winter weather. Many people rub his head for luck or wisdom and leave candy or coins for the small boy.

After three hours of walking and a rapid lesson is Stockholm's history, we decided to head back to ship rather than carry on walking round the old town. We waited a short while for a tender back to the ship and arrived back on board a little before 1pm, in need of a cup of tea and food.

We followed our usual routine of heading to the cabin, dumping bags and heading back out for lunch and settled for lunch in the Compass Rose for a change. Sitting with another couple, we exchanged information about our excursions and discovered they had taken the panoramic Stockholm and Vasa Museum tour. Interested to know more about the Vasa museum, we talked comfortably for about 40 minutes before parting ways for the afternoon.

The story of the Vasa ship has long since fascinated me, as it's recovery and conservation lead the way for the raising and recovery of the Mary Rose in Southampton. The technique that the was perfected on the Vasa, changed the possibility of recovering and preserving wooden vessels for ever. One day I'll get back to Stockholm and pay homage to this incredible vessel, but more importantly to the team that brought her back to life.

After lunch we made our way out on to deck to take a walk around the promenade level, which afforded us a 360 degree view of Stockholm. After a wander, a gossip with various passengers and few members of staff, it was time for a cup of tea and the afternoon quiz. Which we once again, sucked at! general knowledge is not our strong suit!

 

With the weather not being quite hot enough to warrant stripping off for sunbathing, we returned to the cabin to see what the rest of the afternoon had in store. With nothing catching our attention, I told Claire I fancied trying to have a nap. I was tired and had the beginnings of a headache coming on, that I wanted to try and nip in the bud before the possibility occurred that it would evolve into a migraine. There was only one problem. Our noisy neighbours were in their cabin and had the TV on at full volume again! Earphones, smothering ourselves with pillows and banging on the cabin wall did nothing to relieve the issue and so I suggested we move somewhere else that was guaranteed to be quiet and hope that the peace along with the painkillers would see off the headache.

 

So we wandered up to the ships explorers lounge, where the library and games room were situated to search out a scrabble board. Only, the scrabble boards were all in use and neither of us are exactly ofay with the rules of chess sooooooo connect four it was! Ok, not  the quietest game around I'll admit but we did have a laugh and decided after a few rounds of 'stategic' playing that speed was the essence of the game. Don't think, just drop! goodness knows what our fellow passengers must have thought of us giggling away in the corner but no one complained so hey!

 

Having passed a happy 40 minutes in this manner, we moved out of the games room to the lounge to do the daily trivia sheet; suduko, wordsearch, crosswords etc. What we hadn't realised was that we were going to have to dodge flying beanbags, as the daily Boules tournament was underway. More time was spent watching the beanbags hit every fixture in the room and not land anywhere near the jack then was dedicated to solving the cryptic clue of the day.

 

When the game ended, and thus our entertainment had ceased. We made a move to get a fresh cup of tea and actually attempt to tackle the suduko out on deck and so passed the next hour in comfortable silence as the final passengers made their way back on board and we watched the life boats being returned to their stations. As the afternoon neared 5:00 we made our way below deck and back to the cabin to shower and begin preparations for our evening on board.

 

We finished dressing and decided to break our usual routine and seek out a cocktail or two before  dinner, which lead us to the happy hour in High Spirits, where the nightly Bingo was in full flow. We enjoyed watching the other passengers on board get excited as the numbers they wanted came up and the faces fall of those who wanted something else - people watching should be a sport, especially when watching bingo players!

 

Cocktails drunk we made a move for dinner and were seated at a table for 6 alone. Thinking little of it, we ordered our meal and wine and awaited our first course when another couple were seated with us, at the other end of the table and then a few minutes later the final 4 seats were filled. By this point we were being served our starters and were in the midst of some conversation or another and as our fellow diners had seemed unresponsive to our greetings thought little of it to carry on with our topic of choice. Our first course finished we were then made to wait as the other 6 passengers were served and ate their first course and in some cases, first 2 courses, before we received our mains. This wouldn't have bothered us if the rest of the table actually engaged in conversation but after numerous failed attempts to get any of them talking, Claire and I simply wanted to dine and dash. It was not to be.

 

When dinner was finally over, we made our way up to High Spirits for the quiz of the night, Strain the Brain and spent 40 minutes or so trying to work out what an earth was going on. Admitting defeat we made a move to get seats in the show lounge for that nights show, the second of the visiting ship's comedians, Andy Wilkins. As it turned out, we should have got their earlier as there were only a limited number of seats available right at the back. We settled in, attempting not to slide off the folding leather seats and awaited the show.

 

It wasn't worth it. As a comedian, neither Claire or I found him funny and in places I was cringing and looking for the escape route. Much of his material was the same as we'd heard the week before and what was original, lacked any real punchlines. We were sorely disappointed. But comedy is one of those things which is personal and much of the room seemed to be enjoying themselves.

 

After the show, we went to wander around the Broad Street Shops and not feeling tempted to part with money, headed back up to high spirits to watch that night's game show - Weak Link (yep, their own version of weakest link!) It was rather fun, but I'm so glad I never take part in them. Other than the fact I don't think I could keep a straight face, my general knowledge is utterly appalling.

When the game show ended and with time to kill before Robyn's cabaret, Claire and settled out on deck with wine and watched the world go by. Passing conversations with various passengers we'd gotten to know over the previous week made time go quickly and before too long we were back inside for cabaret time - musical theatre. Robyn settled in quickly, for all she was adament the night before that she was going to freak out and we passed a happy half an hour listening to some of sing some of her favourite show tunes. Sadly though, technology failed her on her final song when the backing track refused to play. It was a shame she didn't get to finish as it had been a wonderful set but that's technology for you!

With the show over and most of the passengers making their way back to their beds, we made our usual move out onto deck for a nightcap and a gossip. After telling Robyn she'd done wonderfully we settled into our usual routine and finally hit our beds about 2am, looking forward to our day at sea!

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Update and New Blog to Visit!

Good Afternoon my lovely followers.

So, how are you all? I'm sorry for being M.I.A for a while but it's been a very busy week or so. Firstly, I was asked to exhibit at the work's wedding fair (which was yesterday) 9 days before! Which is fine but I was in dire need of new samples, after I damaged a pile and then never got some others back after I loaned them to a friend, to show her future daughter in law. Never mind. So it's been a week of making many new samples and a few new concept cards too.

Alongside that, I decided it was time to kick myself into gear and actually have a site which is dedicated to custom orders and sales of some of my crafting outcomes. So that's been taking up hours of my life too and the link can be found on the 'Made in Love' page listed under the header.

Finally, Choir has also started back, so we're in full swing heading on that slippery path to the 'C' word (that's Christmas for anyone whose not sure), I've also taken over running of the Parish Magazine - a far more daunting task then I first thought and then to top it all off, I decided to rejoin my local fencing group after 3 years of them not having space free. Phew. It's been tiring!

But enough of all that. I promise I have new cards to show you soon and please go see the new blog and let me know what you think but mainly, I would love if you all went to say hi and showed the love to an old colleague of mine over at her little part of the web here. She's insanely multi-talented and always seems to be far more productive then me even though she's on the home stretch to submitting her PhD! Go see what I mean and share the love.

Until next time, happy crafting!

New Home

Good Morning all,

Just a quick post today as I'm up to my eyes in paper trying to get ready for a stall works wedding fair on Sunday. It's a chance for the historic properties I work at to show off the venues, price lists etc and have local companies come in and show their wares. I was asked last Thursday if I wanted a stand! (last minute organisation or what?!) but I said yes, even though I had no samples at hand and nothing to put on a stand, so i'm in full wedding mode at the moment making stationary, as well as one of two little pieces that I'll share in due course.

But enough about all that, i'm rambling, and all I really wanted to do was to share a card I made for Mina for her new house!

It's an old Tiddly Inks image called, fittingly, New Home, which I printed several times on to different papers from the Boho Chic collection. I paper pieced the image and then ran some plain white card through my embossing folder; spots and dots, and I free hand cut some clouds, edged them in stickles (it always has to be done). I used a chalk ink on the base card to give it this fab blue colour, added a couple of butterflies from my MS punch, gems in their centres and then a quick sentiment printed off the computer onto a scrap of paper from the same pad and a couple of flowers punched out from the same scraps to finish.

I do hope you like it.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts - Layers
Dream Valley - Something Old, Something New (Old- image, embossing folder, stickles; New - papers)
Joanna Sheen - Going Dotty (Clouds and paper on which New Home was printed)

Until next time, happy crafting!

Hell in Helsinki

Monday of the second week of our cruise saw us in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, it is renowned  for its Neo-classical architecture. We had settled on an excursion which took us both into the heart of Helsinki but also out to one of the old fishing villages that supplied the wealth (and food) to the capital, the charming Medieval town of Porvoo.

It was a reasonable start time of 9am so after the usual morning routine and a quick check on the weather, after the night before's little storm at sea, we were up and heading for breakfast by 8. We sat with a lovely older couple that morning who were exploring the city by themselves as they had been to Finland a couple of times before and done much of the tourist destinations in the past. We spoke of meaningless things and wished them a good day.

The day was grey and overcast, although it was not due to rain and it wasn't really even that cold, but after the heat of Russia, it felt colder than it probably was. But we are British and thus, we complain about everything weather related but deal with it nonetheless.

We departed the ship and made our way to the designated coach and waited for the arrival of the rest of the party. There were only another 4 after us and the coach was less than half full. As the driver pulled off our guide introduced himself and the coach driver and then said little else for the 50 minute transfer out to Porvoo...hmmm, not a good start. As we pulled up in the little village he jumped off the coach and before he checked to see if everyone was off, he started making his way up to the church at the top of the village, talking very softly - and without the audio assistance that we'd had in Russia, it was nearly impossible to hear what he was saying.

He set a fast pace and many of our party struggled to keep up with him and by the time the last members of the group had caught up, he had already finished telling us anything he thought was important about the site (which wasn't a lot I hasten to add) and told us to explore inside the building alone and to be back outside in 15 minutes. Well! to be honest, if this was how it was going to be, it's a wonder they bothered to give us a guide at all. Claire and I took ourselves off into the church and because we don't mind doing some digging around and research by ourselves, we simply took note of anything we wanted to clarify, to check out on our return home.

From the Church we were led down to the waterfront where he mumbled on about it being the main waterway and the source of all village income but, again, he was so quiet and hadn't waited for half the group that most of missed out on what he had said. He then led us back to the main street and said we had 20 minutes to shop before the coach left to return to Helsinki. Hardly any time really to explore such an incredible place - I could have happily spent half a day in Porvoo and still not seen it all. As it was we rushed round a couple of shops but weren't inspired to buy anything as we really didn't have time to look properly and headed back to the coach. Hmmm.

Once we were all loaded back up and the driver started on his way our 'guide' once again didn't speak. It was incredible the difference we were witnessing! Every guide we'd had to date would rabbit on and on and on (how they didn't loose their voice was beyond me) but here, this guide was being mute. We weren't being told any of the countries history, politics, social development. If we wanted to know anything about anything we were going to have to search for ourselves.

As we made it back into the city, he finally began to speak, but for the lack of anything useful or informative to tell us, he may as well have not bothered. We passed the City Hall, where we were given a couple of minutes to take photos and then on and passed the Parliament building, Opera House, Sibelius Park (I think, nothing was said if we did) and down the Esplanade to the Temppeliaukio Church (better known as the Rock Church).

The church was designed by architects and brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and opened in 1969. The interior was excavated and built into the rock but is bathed in natural light entering through the glazed dome. It is truly breathtaking and our guide had given us 15 minutes to explore at our leisure. However, after 10 minutes Claire and I had made our way back out to the meeting place and there was no one in sight! the guide and the rest of our group and left without us and we had no idea where we were!

After checking that the group wasn't were the coach had dropped us off, Claire and I headed back up to the church to see if we could spot anyone from the ship and make our next move. We couldn't see anyone we recognised and with no mobile to call the ship and explain the situation we were on our own to make our way back to the port. HELP!

We found a map of the city centre but couldn't locate the church and we weren't entirely sure if we were in the East or West Port so we were little better off. Things were looking less than hopeful. Trying to recall any information - such as well as the cruise shuttle was dropping off etc we spotted a guide for a Holland America cruise ship - they were docked opposite us! Heading over to the guide we explained our situation and after looking suitably horrified that our guide (and group) had left us stranded offered to give us directions back to the ship using the local transport systems. She was brilliant; taking our map she marked up where the church was, where the bus stop we needed was and where to get off or the equivalents on the tram and then, pointing us in the right direction and apologising that there wasn't room on their coach to take us back, wished us farewell.

As it turned out the port was in walking distance - well an OK distance for Claire and I to walk, if it had been many on our ship it would have been impossible. So, map in hand and having been reassured that all the locals spoke English we set off, best foot forward and all that. About 50 minutes of walking at a reasonable pace later and we were back in the port area and another 10 minutes saw us safely back on board ship. By which point, I was fuming!

We headed straight to the excursions desk, but it was closed for the afternoon, although we could hear them inside, so we made our way back to reception to ask if they could call the office and see if someone could spare us a couple of minutes so we could explain what had happened. Reception were less then helpful, telling us we would have to wait to speak to the like everyone else, even after we explained that we'd been left behind they didn't budge! urgh! someone really was out to cause us as much of a headache as possible. I was not a happy bunny.

Giving up, too worn out to kick up a fuss we finally went back to the cabin and dropped our bags off, washed up and went in search of some food and a much needed cup of tea. We ate on the lido deck but the ship was busy and I wasn't in the mood for making polite conversation, so said I was going to watch to afternoon movie in the cabin and redo my nails. Claire said she was up for that too and we got a fresh cup of tea and made our way back to the cabin. Just as we were coming down the stairs we passed Dan with the new show team member, Kym,  who had just come on board.

As we rounded the corner of the stairs for the final run, Claire almost ran into Alistair (nearly covering him) and I almost went into both of them. Thankfully, all accidents were averted and he asked how our trip had been - bad question. We gave him the short version of the story and said we were going to hide in the cabin for the afternoon for some much needed space and chill out time and we'd see him later. After an afternoon of chilling, painting nails, doing some much needed repair work on an outfit (not one of ours I hasten to add) and watching a truly awful movie, W./E., we were in a better frame of mind for the evening ahead.

Yes the day had been less than stellar and no, I didn't appreciate the attitude we'd received at reception but it wasn't worth holding onto the upset, the evening ahead was shaping up to be a great laugh and frankly, high blood pressure just isn't worth it. We got ready for dinner slightly earlier than normal and headed up to excursion for 6pm to put in our complaint. Ten minutes later, rant completed for, what we hoped was the last time, we went in search of dinner and a much needed glass of wine.

Dinner was a quiet affair as neither of us were very chatty and it seemed no one else was the kind to keep light conversation going. We finished dinner quickly that night and taking the rest of the wine with us, went up to chill out in High Spirits. As time passed on and the wine was drunk we caught up with some a few of the couples that we had spent a number of trips with and talked about how are days had been. We kept the story short but everyone was suitably horrified. Nevertheless, we were safe and that, after everything, really was all that mattered.

We made a move just gone 8 to the Broadway show lounge for that nights special performance - Spirit's got Talent. It's a tradition, at least on Thomson ships, for the crew to get a night to take to the stage and show off their wide array of talents. It was, as every one we had seen before, great. The staff on board are real gems and so talented. The show was exactly what we needed to lift our spirits.

After the show we wandered to the shops to take a last look at all the Amber, Faberge and Lacquer that the guest lecturer had brought with him. We behaved and didn't buy anything (though it was a close run thing I promise). We popped back to the cabin, grabbed a glass of whiskey and headed back up to high spirits to listen to the Beats and while away the time until Alistair's second cabaret of the cruise. We knew, from conversation the night before, that he wasn't due to sing but with various members of the show team out due to injury, not replaced or not ready to perform their own cabaret's, he'd picked up the slack.

Not that we were going to complain, especially not me, after he told us it was going to be country music! I love country music, it is one of my all time favourite genres of music. You can keep you top 20's and manufactured pop thank you very much. Alistair sang songs from all my favourite artists and one of my all time favourite tracks from Brad Paisley (seriously, you could almost have copied his song list straight off my MP3 player!) It was a great cabaret and the show team all came up (including Rob) and were the loudest support of anyone in the room!

As the evening drew to a close we moved out onto the deck for our usual round of nightcaps and conversation and everyone stopped off to tell Alistair how great they thought the set was. The funniest was Robyn though, who was to do her first cabaret the following evening and was getting seriously stressed out and was making some exceptionally funny, but totally unrepeatable comments to describe how she was feeling.

The last of the evening past in its usual fashion and we discussed upcoming shows, ports of call and post cruise/job contracts as well as asking after the newest show team girl that we'd almost run over on the stairs. The day finished as it had started out, happy and content - it was just a shame about the vast majority of hours in between.

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