Floral Birthday Wishes

Hello Everyone!

Where have you all gone? have I offended you all? seems very quiet around here lately :( Anyway, I hope you haven't all fallen out with me as I want to share my latest creation - something total out of the norm for me but I think it worked.

This is for a workmate who's birthday is on Friday. My mum made me something similar for my birthday with a totally different flower punch and I loved it so I thought i'd give it a go and this is what I came out with... 

 

So basically its a Cuttlebug floral diecut and multiple offcut papers which sort of all go together. I've layered them up, some are on foam pads and some are highlighted with gems in the middle.  The sentiment in the middle is a stamp cut out by hand and raised on pads.

Think thats everything on this one. Thanks for looking and happy crafting x

A minor mountain climb and a brothel!

Tuesday morning dawned, grey but significantly less wet than the day before and as we sailed into port the sun was just breaking over the horizon giving just the briefest glimpse of what we hoped was going to be a fine day.

I awoke feeling slightly achey but otherwise fine and knowing that some food and a steaming cup of tea would start to put me to rights, I headed for a quick shower to revive me. The only problem with being in a cabin with someone else is that, no matter how quiet you are, there is nothing you can do to stop your movements being heard and so as I slipped into the bathroom I heard Claire’s drowsy enquiry to how I was feeling. Popping my head back out the bathroom I told her I was much better but needed a shower and she had time yet to doze before the alarm went off. Satisfied that I seemed human, Claire lazed about until I was finished in the bathroom and we got ready for the day ahead.

Having learned from the day before, Claire and I packed a couple of spare dry tops into our bags (although hoping we wouldn’t need them) and threw in a pair of ankle socks to warm our toes on the coach – as we both had sandals on. Ready for the day ahead, we once again went in search of breakfast.

From the minute we left the cabin, members of staff asked how I was feeling and commented on the improvement in my colour and spirit. Answering everyone briefly and thanking them for their concern Claire and I finally reached the restaurant – 5 minutes after leaving the cabin and 4 minutes longer than it normally took to get there. Queuing for the syri-gel we chatted about the day ahead and Claire asked me if I was really up for it – after all, neither she or I wanted a repeat performance of the day before. Reassuring her that I really was much better and reiterating that I would have to be strapped to a hospital bed not to go to Pompeii I managed to allay her fears and we took a seat for breakfast. Within seconds of being sat, Alex and Elvis (one of our evening waiters) were at our table asking how I was and could they do anything to help. They were really very sweet and although they both offered to go to the buffet and get whatever it was my heart desired for breakfast I managed to persuade them that I was perfectly capable of getting my own food but if they could get me a mug of tea – rather than any of this pathetic 2 mouthfuls cups we normally had, I would love them forever.

Needless to say, by the time Claire and I had returned to our seats with some food, there were 2 mugs of steaming tea waiting. I loved these men! Leaving us in peace to eat, Alex returned as we were finishing up to seriously ask if I was ok, reassuring him (and thus every other member of wait staff) that I really was better, still not 100% but nothing some fresh air and exercise wouldn’t cure he let us go with best wishes for the day and told us he’d see us later at dinner.

A quick run down to the cabin for our bags and tickets turned into another challenge as more people stopped me to ask how I was feeling, so leaving Claire to grab my stuff for me I tried to reassure everyone that I wasn’t really so stupid as to go on another trip if I wasn’t up to it and yes, the fever had gone – I’d managed to eat breakfast and I would just take the day steady. Trying very hard not to hunt Kane down and ask him to do something as mad as an announcement to the same effect to stop me loosing my marbles, I met Claire at the gangplank for disembarkation to find her talking to some of the entertainment staff who were escaping for the morning before they had to be back for rehearsals. I was greeted to a round of smiles and pointed comments about not being able to hold my liquor (which in turn received some pointed looks and immature behaviour on my behalf) we made our way off the ship and to our coach for the day. Waving goodbye to the team we settled onto the coach as Claire told me she’d already told the entertainment guys how I was and asked them not to push the issue. Ever grateful to Claire for realising I was on the verge of madness I told her she had to do something now so everyone would leave me be. That suggestion was greeted to a look which would have put me 6 feet under if I didn’t know it was all in jest.

And so our trip began with the winding road up the side of Vesuvius. Ah Vesuvius – does anyone not know the name of this volcano and its volatile history? Well, I’m assuming not – so rather than bore you with tales of the disaster’s it’s caused I’m simply going to summarise it with the one name – Pompeii.

The view of Vesuvius from the coach

Reaching as far as we could by coach, we disembarked and our guide finished his talk on the volcano. Passing us our tickets he told us we had a little under 2 hours to make it to the top – go as far round as we wanted and get back to the coach. Ahhh! Simple, a leisurely pace and time to spare we thought. Oh, if only! Lol! Once you get through the ticket gates you’re greeted with a steep incline and a winding path to the top. Telling Claire that if need’s be I’d meet her at the top we began to climb and admire the view back down over the town and the bay. Now, not unsurprisingly, the higher you get the colder you get, but we hadn’t accounted for was the strong wind. Whilst we weren’t exactly cold, there is nothing like a cold head to make you feel colder – so bundling up under my scarf and Claire under her hood we carried on to the summit and when we got there….. a hole! Lol! The funny thing was we knew this and whilst we were happy watching it vent its steam there were people complaining about the lack of lava! They failed to consider the fact that if there was lava visible we wouldn’t have been allowed up to the summit in the first place.

 The Face in the Mountain

 The start of the climb

 Looking back over the harbour

Letting of steam

So having conquered the mountain – sorry volcano and almost got blown off the top by the high winds, we made our way back to the coach to find it already more than half full – of 32 passengers, we were 2 of only 12 people that made it to the summit and along the rim! Warming our toes up whilst we waited for the last few to arrive and looking at each others photos I can honestly say I had forgotten how ill I’d been the day before.

As we left Vesuvius to head for lunch and Pompeii the weather cleared further and the threatening clouds cleared. Yay! Sitting down to a traditional Margareta Pizza for lunch (seriously there is nothing like it – if you ever go to Naples you have to have one!) we were joined by a highly amusing couple who we hadn’t met before on the ship; Nick and Claire. Full of pizza and ready to settle down for a siesta, we were once again rallied to venture into the past, to the world of gladiators, brothels and gluttony – oh how I love ancient history and more so, Pompeii!

I could rave for hours on the wonders of Pompeii – really I could, I studied the site and its history for 2 years as a student and my fascination with it has meant that it’s also been a personal addiction in my spare time. So rather than bore you, I’ll leave you with some of my personal favourite photos of the trip.

 The Gladiator's Arena

 The theatre steps - recreated

 The steps across the road

 Original wall writing - the name of the house owner

 The Brothel

 The Brothel 'Menu'

 From the marketplace - some of the original signs

 Decoration within the men's baths

 In the baths - carved from one singular piece of marble

 One of the bodies which has been cast

Some of the gardens on the way out of Pompeii

Upon returning to the ship, slightly weary and in my case, dire need for a cup of tea, we wandered to the bar to get a steaming hot mug before returning to the cabin for showers and that nights preparation for looking stunning (if it was actually going to be possible in my case). Mugs of tea drunk and two showers later, we stood staring at the wardrobe again and having debated which dresses we would don it then returned to the usual debate as to what to do with our hair. Not in the mood for having hundreds of pins stuck in my head again I kept it quite simple with a network of overlapping braids in a lattice effect whilst we twisted Claire’s up in a bun with strategically placed curls.

With time to grab a drink before dinner we ventured into the Clipper Bar, where the two bartenders enthusiastically welcomed us and declared how glad they were to see me up and about again. 2 glasses of wine delivered, they entertained us with some slight of hand before we headed down for dinner. Once seated I once again surrendered to a round of polite acceptance of everyone's best wishes and reassured everyone that I was much better.

The first course had just been served when we hit the open seas and the ship lurched. Slightly mistified we asked Raymond (our other waiter) if he knew what the weather forcast was for the night. He said he didn't but would ask around and get back to us. Well, getting back to us came in the shape of Alex and a cheeky smile as he explained he was using the answer as an excuse to come and say hi. Although he was lovely and it was great to talk to him, the news he bore was less fun - we were due rough seas, force 7 gales to be exact. Oh joys!

Thank goodness for sea sickness tablets is all I can say!

Dinner over we moved on to see that nights performance in the show lounge - Modelled by Mowtown. I can't fault the showteam, boat bouncing - passangers looking green and I defy you to know the showteam were struggling. A perfect performance and not a foot out of place. It was only later, talking to Nick (head of entertainment) that we learned over half the team had been throwing up moments before the show- suffering with an extreme case of sea sickness!

After the show we wandered through to the Oklahoma lounge to prop up the bar with Neil and half heartedly listen in to the alternative question of sport which was taking place. Lively conversation, much laughing and many drinks later the show team (or those who were still coping with the rough sea) came to do the evening disco - rock your soul, with Kane (the cruise director) making a guest appearance! well, all I can say is WOW! what a voice and a hidden talent and a half. Much dancing, more laughing and several drinks later we headed below deck to the cabin about 2am - knowing we didn't have to get up early as we weren't due to dock until midday. By this point in the holiday, a lie in was much needed!

Another fabulous animal creation awaited us in the cabin and after a pint of water had been consumed a rolled into bed to sleep the night away, totally unaware of the ship been tossed around like a pebble in the sea.

Day 5: A unexpected twist of events

Erica - Not quite to Plan

So day 3 arrived, Monday – Sicily! And as we took one look out of the window from the ship all we could see was….. grey, clouds and rain! WHAT?!?!?!?!

It turned out that the weather was going to be a little less than perfect, but with an hour to go before we docked, we had our fingers crossed that the weather was going to clear. We headed up to breakfast to the cheery good mornings off the team and settled down for some food. The only problem was that food after the night before was not what my body wanted. So having struggled to eat a small piece of toast and received a few enquiries as to why I looked so pale – which I laughed off as a hangover (although I didn’t feel like I had one) Claire and headed back to the cabin to stare at the wardrobe and figure out exactly how many layers we could put on to stay warm and dry.

5 layers later and a serious regret at not having packed my waterproof – we headed off ship to our coach. We laughed at the weather and the grumbles of fellow passengers – after all, we are British! Rain is our summer weather and yes, whilst we didn’t really want it in the Med, ce la vie! It really wasn’t going to dampen our spirits. However, as we set off the clouds seem to clear and we hoped that things would clear up as we headed to the cable car to take us up to Erica, a walled settlement at the top of a mountain (oh yes, you can already imagine it) we kept our fingers crossed. With luck, the winds had died down and the weather had eased off enough for us to use the carts to get up to the top of the mountain and whilst in theory we should have had spectacular views back over Sicily and down to the harbour, the reality was – we didn’t!

The Cable Car's

The view we should have had - but didn't get! (it's a postcard)

As we slowly climbed up the mountain side, Claire gave me a strange look and asked if I felt ok? Well, other than feeling a tad cold – yes, why? Apparently I’d gone from looking pale to grey with a green tinge…… hmmm ok, maybe I did have a hangover – well in that case, it was nothing some water and fresh air wouldn’t fix and reassured Claire I felt ok, really.

After we reached the top of the mountain, we realised that we’d gone past the clear sky and back into the land of mist and fog and what should have been a picturesque views and an appealing historic town looked more like something out of Dickens novel in the Victorian ages. Never to be put down on our holiday though, Claire and I set of with the rest of the group and soon settled in next to two members of staff that we hadn’t yet met; Clare – who was the future cruises director and Pip – another member of the sound and lighting team, who mainly worked in the Oklahoma lounge on the late night disco. Busy chatting to them, we didn’t pay attention to the weather until our guide stopped us to give the history of the town and the ‘Mother Church’ which we stood outside of. Having come to a stop, the cold hit suddenly and I began to feel quite strange. Putting it down to the need to warm up again I didn’t say anything and headed into the church with Claire to admire the splendour inside.

The view that greated us as we got of the cable cars - the wall to the city 

 The Mother Church

The roof inside the church - it's all plasterwork

However, by the time we’d finished looking at the church and headed up to the old nunnery and orphanage which had made the town famous I couldn’t deny that I felt very weird and whilst I knew that outwardly I was shivering, internally I was beginning to heat up. Hmmmm, maybe this wasn’t quite a straightforward hangover. Deciding to play it by ear and see what happened I kept quiet and carried on with the group to the castle at the very top of the mountain. Unable to hide from the weather I did my best to stay warm by keeping moving and was relieved when the guide told us we had 45 minutes to shop and meet back at the coach which should, by now, be in the car park just outside the walls. With a new spring on my step, Claire and I went mooching round the shops and whilst nothing screamed – ‘buy me’ it was nice to hide out for a while in the shops away from the rain.

The Castle at the top - sadly we didn't get anything like this view

A typical little street in the town

Nevertheless, by the time we made it back to the coach – there was nothing I could do to deny I was feeling less than human and it wasn’t only Claire that had noticed and so as we made our way to the restaurant for lunch, the two members of staff on the trip were trying to persuade me to go back to the ship and see the doctor. Well, I’m if nothing stubborn and whilst I finally conceded that going back to the ship might be the best idea, there was no way I was seeing the doctor unless I things got significantly worse! And so began the beginning of the bad joke – how many people does it take to get a taxi from the mountain to the ship? In this case – 7! I kid you not, 2 translators included in that…… well! 20 minutes later and my whole body shaking, I was bundled into a taxi with Clare (the future cruise director) arguing with Claire (my best friend) that she shouldn’t miss the rest of the trip because I was ill and I headed back to the ship.

My arrival back at the ship raised a few eyebrows – especially as I wasn’t with Claire, but as I headed back to the cabin for a hot shower, sleep and the promise of hot honey and lemon water to be delivered to my room I have to admit it took a lot not to sink into a depression – this was not how I anticipated spending my holiday and the knowledge that Claire was worried about me was making the whole thing worse. However, before I reached my cabin I ran into (literally) Kane, who was coming round the corner the other way. Concerned by the state I was in and the lack of Claire’s presence he pressed to find out what was wrong – so I explained that I had come down suddenly very ill and returned from the trip for a hot shower and sleep. He didn’t seem convinced that rest was going to be cure enough and he too then tried to talk me into the ships doctor. By this point my head was pounding and all I wanted to do was hide and I told him that if I got any worse I would see the ships doctor but could I please be allowed to get a hot shower now?

Needless to say, a hot shower and sleep seemingly sorted me out and upon Claire’s return I felt much better and decided to try a little food to revive me. Once again dressed to impress we made our way to the restaurant – passing Clare en route who asked how I was feeling, telling her I felt much better and thanking her for all her help we went to sit down – only for our waiters and Alex (yup, the one who wanted to know if I was wearing shoes) to ask if I was feeling better…. Ummm, well yes but how did they know I’d been unwell to start with? – evidently the staff talk and when I jokingly accused them of gossiping behind our backs, they simply told me to take up the issue with Kane. Ha! I did, just not that night.

Sadly, dinner did not agree with me and half way through I started to feel achey, tired and mildly sick again and before dinner was over I was heading back to the cabin to lie down again, much to my upset and the worry of Claire.

Well the night carried on much as the afternoon – sleep, a raised temperature and as much honey water as I could keep down to keep hydrated, meanwhile above decks – everyone was accosting Claire to find out what was wrong and when she told Buster she was going to have to miss his show to keep an eye on me, everyone suddenly leaped in to play ‘knight in shining armour’, well sort of.

Kane and Nick were, as usual propping up the bar with Neil (Buster) when Claire went to see him. Kane told her that he was sure the last thing I’d want is her missing out on the fun and I was probably just sleeping anyway, Nick then promptly informed her that he had no intent of propping up the bar and the back of the show lounge alone and would, if necessary, tie her to the stool next to him in a pretence of keeping him company and Neil – well Neil pulled the sad puppy dog eyes apparently and Claire relented but said she wasn’t staying out past the show and no, they wouldn’t be able to change her mind.

After Buster's set (which was apparently brilliant and i'm gutted at having missed - even though I got to see him later in the week in his late night set) Claire went to make her goodnights and was just about back at the cabin when she ran into some of the show team - who, having had the night off from doing a show were going to the bar for a couple of drinks. Asking how her day had been and where I was, she gave them a brief overview of the day's events and explained she was going to retire for the night and keep an eye on me. After a brief attempt at trying to get her to stay out and realising she wasn't going to be persuaded otherwise, they wished her a good night .

Reaching the cabin and finding I was dead to the world, but seemingly ok, she decided to call it a night (it was about 11pm at this point - the earliest either of us saw bed when we both fine).

I wish I could say there was an amusing twist to the end of the night, but sadly there wasn't - but for what the night lacked in entertainment, it made up for in healing properties and whilst I was anything but 100% bouncy the following morning, there was nothing stopping me enjoying the rest of the holiday and dealing with the aftermath of a gossiping crew!

It sums up the day - dark enough all day for the light's to remain on!

Day 4:  A minor mountain climb and a brothel! 

All at Sea

Sunday saw us with a day at sea as we coasted between Palma and Sicily – well Erica to be accurate. So if you have nothing to do onboard but relax and unwind what else would you reasonably consider doing except sunbath? Well……..

The day sadly doesn’t start in the most relaxed manner…. Well don’t get me wrong – the ultimate breakfast buffet, some pleasant conversation and a few tentative smiles to various members of staff who had seen us stagger back to the cabin, with shoes in hand, at about 3am really was a great start to the day and then the morning announcement came over the speakers. Now, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was the cruise directors duty to do this (and the fact that Kane really was a sweetie) I think Claire and I would have happily tried to hurt someone as we were rudely reminded of the lifeboat drill we had to attend. Oh! It’s not so bad you say? Ooooooh yes it really, really is! Those life jackets are anything but comfortable and the fact you have to walk from your cabin to the station wearing them, whilst all the staff try and keep a straight face is just about enough to make you want to crawl back to your cabin and keep you there until the end of the week.

Moan over, I do have to say, this years drill was quicker than the one on the Celebration and the highly entertaining actions to how you should correctly jump overboard by the entertainment team made it somewhat more worth while, but I cannot re-iterate the relief I felt when we safely got back to the cabin to stow the jackets away again – I can only say I wish that it was the last time we thought of them during the holiday, but the extreme weather we were to hit later in the week did make us question whether we would need to use them.

Never mind.

Drill over, photographs taken for blackmail purposes later in life sorted and bikinis slipped on, Claire and I – finally – headed up on deck for some sun and relaxation. Only the sun wasn’t quite as warm as we had anticipated it being – I mean, come on! This was the med, it was meant to be hot – right? Well, we braved the passing clouds, sea breeze and slightly less than warm sun and as true brits we decided stuff it! This was the closest to decent weather we’d both seen in a long time and we were going to soak up some much needed Vitamin D.

3 hours later, we finally admitted defeat and I slipped on the sundress to run to the other end of the deck to grab a couple of cups of tea to warm us through. I didn’t really think about it and left my shoes at the end of the sun bed and duly got caught by one of the senior wait staff, who it later turned out was also in charge of our seating area at dinner. With a cheeky ‘I only want a couple of cup of teas – you don’t really mind do you?’ he laughed and said he’d turn a blind eye on this occasion. Only the thing was, from this moment on, every time we ran into him (Alex) he’d make a point of stopping us to check we had shoes on – it became a running joke and by the end of the week we only had to flash him our feet to show off the shoes to get a laugh out of him and some very confused looks from other staff members.

Now, the day at sea also means only one thing – Captain’s Gala Night! There is nothing Claire and I love more than being able to slip on a stunning dress and go all out – because frankly when else are you going to be able to get the chance to do it? So at half 4 we headed below deck to start the preparations and after a miserly hour and a half – this was the result:

Not bad if I do say so myself!

So Gala night commenced with, as ever, lots of photographs being taken – 2 different backdrops, individual and joint photos on each and one with the Captain before being welcomed into the show lounge with a glass of champagne and another round of photo’s once we were seated. The captains speech was sweet and charming – asking us to forget about the trials and tribulations that awaited us at home, and to focus on relaxation and to make sure we made the best use of his staff to do this (LOL! Well…..)

 Me - obviously!

Claire, Captain Emmanuel Psarrakis and Me

After a quick introduction to his senior staff and heads of department, we were escorted down to the restaurant for a stunning meal where we ate far too much and finally met the other 6 members of our table. It was an interesting mix of people to say the least but more on them later in the week.

Dinner over, we excused ourselves to grab a quick drink before heading back to the show lounge for that night’s performance – Concerto! I wish I could say that this was a brand new show for us – but it wasn’t, we’d seen it on the Celebration the year before, nevertheless – who doesn’t love a good show tune and some classic songs that will never age? And although we had seen this show before, there really was something about this entertainment team that made it fresh, new and something truly memorable.

Show over, we headed up 7 flights of stairs to go and relax in the sky bar. Whilst very relaxing, the primary reason for heading up to the sky bar, the views, is somewhat pointless when all you can see is the moon and the sea – so we decided to move and find some more entertainment, or at least a more lively atmosphere and we moved back to the Oklahoma bar for the spotlight cabaret………

The Gala Cocktail - Fruit juice, coconut and a LOT of rum!

Once more we were dragged onto the dance floor by the entertainment team who seemed to assume that dancing the night away in 3” heels was a comfortable prospect, refused to let us take a break from the start to the finish of the show and when we finally did escape (at 2am) it was a more horrifying thought to try and get the shoes off then leave them on and so we decided that the only way to numb the pain was to prop up a bar and find something strong to drink. Luckily for us, Buster and Kane were there and we had our drinks in a matter of moments of being sat! Now that is what I call service. We were joined by the entertainment manager, and another old friend of Buster’s, Nick and as such we spent an enjoyable half hour laughing none stop and we bid everyone good night at a little after half 2, determined to get some sleep before our day trip to Erice.

Night 2's Animal - Claire and I came to the conclusion that it was a crab

Day 3: Not quite as planned

Quick 21st Card

Hi everyone

I promise I'll be back with day 2 of the cruise shortly but until then, heres a quick 21st birthday card i've run up - I got asked for it at lunch for tommorow morning. They wanted clean and elegant and asked specifically for the roses i'd used on my bosses birthday card - so here we have it:

  

As you should all know by now, the rose is from Just Inklined, coloured with promarkers. Mounted on papers from stash. The floral background is from Dovecraft- Eastern Promise collection.

That's everything. Off to finish day two and then on to the russian doll cross stitch charms I promised for my mother..... its none stop tonight! lol!

Thanks for looking and happy crafting x

Let's fly away, let's fly away today......

So the holiday started with a beautifully early start – 5am to be precise! I bundled myself into a fleece, threw on a pashmina and went to collect Claire from her house. A weary ‘good-morning’ later and we were off to Birmingham International to check in.

We got there in good time and joined the queue, only for my mother (who’d driven us over) to point out that the flight time seemed to be about an hour later than that on our ticket…. Hmm. Well after 35 minutes of queuing (too many people hadn’t bothered weighing their suitcases and were miles over! – what I’d like to know is how? Claire and I had 6 changes of evening dresses as well as at least 10 days of clothes and we barely went over 15 kilos!!! Anyway…..) we finally reached the check in desk to be informed that the plane had been delayed due to a ‘technical’ difficulty in Palma. Oh well, by the time we’d got through all the searches, had breakfast and mooched in the shops we figured that the time would have gone anyway. We were right.

So an hour later than intended, we boarded our flight, which was fine until the couple that sat behind us started moaning exceptionally loudly about the lack of leg room and pushing against the back of our chairs, expecting that they would magically move forward and give them the room they desired. I can assure you that this didn’t happen! Instead, Claire and I made loud comments about how comfortable the seats were and that there seemed to be a built in massage feature. Well, yes we did get some loud sighs from the row behind but the annoying pushing and kicking also stopped. Whoever said confrontation was the best way to resolve things clearly don’t know me and my love of sarcasm to resolve issues – I swear it’s yet to fail me!

A short 2 hour twenty flight later, one in flight meal- which was surprisingly not that bad – and we landed in beautiful, sunny Palma! an hour behind schedule and an hour ahead of the UK it was now half 12. The weather was glorious, clear skies and sunshine – oh yes, this was going to be the life - a week of sun, sea and relaxation. Perfect!

The transfer from the airport to the port took a little under 20 minutes (sadly it took longer than this to get the luggage from the plane!) where we were greeted by a enthusiast member of the crew – an Auzzie call Andy who we later found out was part of the entertainment team. The luggage was unloaded from the coach – the next time we saw it was in our cabin - and we went to have our photos taken and attached to our boarding cards and away we went to great our new home for the week.

The Cathedral - we passed on the way to the ship and could see it from port

The Destiny - home for the week

Now those of you who have been following me since last year know that I also went on a Thomson cruise last year, onboard a ship called the Celebration. Well this year we went on the bigger brother, The Destiny. Once again we were on Deck 3, cabin 3075. Although we had a bigger window this time, the room was actually smaller – but then again we were spoilt last year on the Celebration as we had a 4 berth cabin to the 2 of us. This time it was definitely a 2 berth! Not that it was a problem; it was still more than enough for the two of us and as we concluded yet again, it was somewhere to sleep and get changed; we had no intent of spending any more time in there than necessary. A quick unpack (the dresses really needed to be allowed to decrease) and we headed upstairs to learn our way around the ship – exceptionally confusing when from deck 5 to 7 the ship is divided into two because of the open atrium for the show lounge and only one end of the ship has 9 decks!

 The back, with the on deck bar below

 The front - looking back into Palma over the port

 The castle on the hill - as seen from the ship

My private yacht - Ha! I wish! this was docked next to us and could be seen from our cabin window

After a cocktail out on deck, we swung by reception to pick up a safe key before heading down below for showers and a debate over what to wear – we have serious issues about clashing so we had to strategically plan which dresses worked together and which didn’t. About an hour later and all doled up we headed up for a drink before dinner – it was time to get our face’s known again ;)

Although dinner for the rest of the week was fixed seating (either early or late) the first night on board its free seating to cope with the arrivals of flights throughout the day and into the early night. So Claire and I settled down with 2 other couples for dinner and decided to really settle into the cruise in style – all 5 courses and several glasses of wine. Having enjoyed dinner and feeling more than a little fat we ventured to the show lounge for that night’s entertainment, Abba mania!

Now if you remember last year’s report, then you’ll know how much I raved about the show team on the Celebration. Well, don’t get me wrong – I still maintain they were incredible but they were nothing on the Destiny’s team. The timing, the pitch, the wow factor – just so, so much bigger this time round. It was obvious we were going to have to get to know these guys as much as we did last year! (Well, to a point we succeeded – but that’s for another instalment)

The show over and another drink in hand, we headed up for the sail away deck party – with the resident band, Zeal and the show team. The band were good, but lacked the charisma of last years band, the Vibes. The show team (who were on deck and out of costume faster than I can ever imagine) continued in high spirits and fine voice as we set sail. It was then we finally met the cruise director – Kane. Quick witted, very funny and exceptionally charming he is everything you need in a cruise director and as we discovered later in the week, so much more.

Looking down the deck to the sky bar from halfway (the bandstand)

So as we waved goodbye to Palma and really kicked back and let loose (although the feet were starting to ache by this point) it seemed as though this was going to be another fantastic cruise and another memorable holiday. We spent a good couple of hours dodging the onboard camera crew who were filming for the holiday DVD – seriously, they followed us around – it was scary! We made ourselves known to one of the entertainment team who dealt with the onboard quizzes and alternative shows, Sarah – who it turned out didn’t live that far from us in Birmingham and rapidly became known by several bar staff (not that I’m claiming we drank a lot – but if you’re going to dance you need drinks to revive yourself!)

Before we staggered to bed we were invited for a nightcap by Kane - that's the problem with having to walk through a bar to get back to the right side of the ship for the bedroom. Not wanting to appear rude, we accepted and slipped onto a couple of bar stools and ordered Teachers, neat - much to the shock of Kane and the gentleman next to him, who introduced himself as Neil or 'Buster' when we questioned 'Buster' he explained that he was the onboard comedian for the week and a good friend of Neil's. Well, surfice to say - the quick nightcap stretched out for longer than intended and we couldn't stop laughing. It was to be the start of a week long tradition of propping up the bar with Neil and more laughter than I've had in a long time.

All in all, it seemed like things were going to go as smoothly as they had the year before and we went to bed content and looking forward to a day of sunbathing out at sea.

Awaiting us back in the cabin when we finally crawled into bed

I really wish I could say it was all plain sailing for the rest of the week but it wasn’t and that, as they say, is another story for another time!

Come back soon for Day 2: All at sea

Hello! I'm back!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note to say I'm back from the Med and alive!(ish). I will soon have thrilling instalments of the holiday tales for you to read but until then.....

Take care and happy crafting x