Cruise Conclusion

I have written a little about our cruise over the past few weeks, mainly incidentally as I thought this would be better than a chronological diary of events, which I did not make with notes anyway. I hope this is not a boring travelogue for you but I do need to bring this to conclusion.

On our first day when we boarded the 'Island Princess' in Barcelona we walked from our hotel, the Rialto  in 'old Barcelona'. We had arrived the night before at about 11pm by way of a transfer. The driver was not communicative really, understandable because in was a Sunday night, the flight was an hour late from a two hour stop in Dubai, and he did not speak English well. We were totally exhausted after 3 flights of about seven hours each and breaks in Kuala Lumpar and Dubai.

Being Sunday night I knew it was last chance to enjoy a wine or other beverage in celebration of arriving, as I was determined to do at least a couple of AF days beginning Monday, the day of the week I take the methotrextate which is advisable not to have with alcohol. I had thought about it and bought a bottle of wine in Dubai and a bottle of Scotch whisky in duty free and carried it in our hand luggage. We had wine served with our dinner on the plane but I knew I'd be wanting a slash after we checked in.

How right I was. I was hungry too but the only things around in the hotel at that hour were vending machines so rather than make an expedition into a strange city late at night I exchanged for some coins at the hotel desk and bought some bottled water (there was none in our room), not wanting to chance the tap water on our first day out. I had memories of landing in Santiago Chile and going out to get some food first thing and picking up a serious gut wog.

We didn't feel like wine, but the Scotch did the trick, just the spark we needed. Next morning after a great breakfast in the hotel we checked out but arranged to leave our suitcases in the hotel luggage room while we walked around old Barcelona and lunched in a plaza not far from the hotel. We were totally charmed by the exotic surroundings and the friendly relaxed atmosphere.

Picking up our bags I asked the concierge if he liked Scotch whisky. "I drink it for breakfast" he replied. He was thrilled when I gave him our bottle explaining that we weren't allowed to bring spirits on the boat. He suggested we get a cab to our terminal as it was quite a walk with the suitcases. We had been told we had to be boarded by 5pm and the ship sailed at 7pm. It was a long walk of about two hours, not to the port itself but our terminal was right the way up one end, it was warm to hot and we kept walking rather than cabbing as time was on our side and the suitcases were on wheels and the scenery was spectacular to a couple of tourists from Gembrook. There were four cruise boats in a line from terminals A to D, which was ours.

It was exciting to line up and get our luggage checked in and eventually board the boat about 4pm after presenting our credit card details and being issued our cruise card which opened our stateroom and was used for any on board purchasing of beer wine spirits tea coffee bottled water shore excursions or whatever else you may choose to buy above what we had already paid for with our cruise purchase such as meals and shows and entertainment. You could by a beverage card for $49US per day per person but we chose not to.

It took me a couple of days to adjust to being on a ship with a lot of people. The fact that I didn't take alcohol for the first couple of days did not probably help, I was a little uptight. Not long after arriving and making ourselves familiar with our stateroom and unpacking and putting the feet up, a compulsory safety drill took place in the early evening. People from every section in the ship had to respond to the alarm and go to their appointed gathering site while all the procedures and life jacket and raft protocol was explained in case of some disaster. This had the effect of making everyone ready for dinner afterwards and at 8pm there was a huge queue at our designated dining room for anytime dining. We took this option over same set time dining which was in a different dining room but the food was the same, as we discovered one night early on when in the queue we were taken by the head waitress as we were prepared to share when a group booked for set time didn't turn up. On that night we shared table with Chuck and Donna from Boston, mature age honeymooners second time round, and a retired couple from Canada. There were also a few up market restaurants on the boat at which you needed to book and pay a surcharge of US$10 each. We ate at one of these one night as you had one no surcharge as part of the cruise fee. The food in all these places was excellent and there was no shortage of it. We sat next to a couple from a Caribbean Island, honeymooners again, and the guy ordered two main meals as well as entree and desert, and there was no problem. The service was also excellent. You could also eat breakfast lunch and dinner in the foredeck buffet if you wished to be casual and there was always pizzas available next to the bar near the pool and a hamburger an chip servery there as well, and icecreams. A lot of the same people hung out there for a lot of the time, on deck chairs around the pool and facing the movie screen which went every night.

We watched a few movies but our favourite entertainment was the shows. It was live singing and dancing, on a well equipped stage in a real theatre, with various themes such as Motown, Country and Western, Bayou, and others that escape me but Lib would remember better as she particularly loved the shows. We got to know the singers and dancers who were professional top class. I was taken by a young lead singer named Meagan who was trained qualified in New York and was exceptionally good. A Japanese dancer Nicki was brilliant, trained in ballet, as was one of the leading men, and a leading black American lady singer was also tops. All these I have mentioned came on shore excursions with us during the day, probably part of the remuneration package if it fitted with their rehearsal routine and if there were vacancies in the tours, so you'd find yourself rubbing shoulders on the bus with someone you's watched performing brill the night before. There was all manner of other entertainment such as comedian, casino, art auctions, bingo, dancing classes, string quartet, singers and piano players in various bars. It was amazing.

On I think our third evening we had our first evening meal in our dining room and we were at a table of eight. Next to us was an English chap who happened to be the ship's expert tour destination advisor. As I explained in an earlier post I had booked the first few days shore excursions on line before we left. I didn't want to book tours from every port as they are expensive and I felt that from some ports we may be able to do our own touring. His name was Lynden Jolley and he was a wealth of information and he told us that unless we were serious students of archeology ( and wanted to see Appollo's birthplace) we didn't need to book a tour at Mykinos, we could easily walk around the town and have a nice relaxed day which we did. He also said we could do Athens on our own and told us we should see the New Museum and of course the Acropolis. He suggested a tour at Ephesus would be advisable as it would get us into the recently discovered terrace houses with expert commentary (Our guide Umit, a large man who has been taking tours since 1993 and spoke very good English was terrific). He said we could do Istanbul ourselves but said it would be easier and more informative with a guide, (which it proved to be in the Blue mosque and the Sofia). He said Venice, no need to book a tour, there's so much to see on foot.

Our tour finished in Venice. Lynden had said be up on deck for the sail in to Venice, it is one of the most spectacular in the world. We sailed in in the morning and he was right. We spent that afternoon walking around the enchanting old Venice and returned to the boat for a final night before disembarking the next morning. Lynden had told me to arrange a transfer from the boat when we went of to explore Venice the first afternoon, to our railway station at Venezia, from where we had train tickets to travel to Milan (When he picked us up the driver asked me was I any relation to William Carey the missionary and when I said I was he treated us almost like royalty, saying he had just read a book about him).

So in conclusion I say the cruise was a total success. My only complaint really was the high price of beverages which were not included in the fare. Wine at dinner, US$27+ a bottle. Scotch on the rocks at the bar $8. As I said it is not permitted to bring alcohol onto the boat from the ports and drink it on board. A one litre bottle of spring water, US$5. I got wise after a few days of that and filled the bottles with tap water, which was said to be potable and I figured they couldn't afford to have crook water coming out of the taps on a cruise ship. Hygiene is emphasized constantly. The steward puts fruit in the room everyday free if you ask him too and fills an ice bucket in your fridge daily. I reckoned the tap water in the staterooms would be the same water they were always offering from big icy jugs in the dining rooms and buffet.

That's it for the cruise, for now, it's off my chest. The next post hopefully will be about the trip to Milan and the overnight stay there and our following week in Crete, before my memory dims too much.  



  

Don't be Worried

We've been back from our holiday for three and a half weeks and it has taken me all that time to adjust back to normal working routine. Lib was away for ten days of that and she's back at work now.

I have had a busy time work wise since our return, firstly picking lilac and snowballs, then dogwood, and lately philadelphus. I have started picking beech now, this is a first, to be picking beech in October. We used to start late November, and I remember picking dogwood up to Melbourne Cup day...it was all over by October 16 this year. Such is the impact of climate change so obvious to seasonal harvesters of gardens, things just are coming earlier and earlier. I have also caught up on some jobs for people, and also my three months of book work and tonight I finished my BAS for the September quarter.

Slowly slowly I'm grinding my way back getting on top of things. Gord is the bathroom so I just took a walk out the back door to pee, not wanting to wake Lib by using the loo our end. The moon was full and there's a strong breeze, unusually from the east, skidding low clouds at a good speed across the bright smiling moon. It made me feel great to be alive. It was a cold day really. The weather has been up and down like a yo yo since we got back.

Despite that it has been a beautiful spring, growth and blossom wise. The rhodies have been exceptionally good, not that I harvest them these days much, the market driving me to work more with those things aforementioned.

The local council has rezoned us to residential one I can no longer burn off...ever. Therefore I have a large amount of flammable tree litter and prunings built up and I am not bushfire season prepared as I would like to be. My protestations to council about the rezoning when they invited submissions were totally ignored, the fact that we have 1.6 acres and 50 mature eucalypts dropping litter did not register with them. I'm not taking the issue further.. you can't argue with idiots.. well you can, but my decision is to continue cutting up the rubbish to spread it as mulching material all over the place, flammable as it is, and live with the fire risk, rather than waste one more word or ounce of energy arguing.

My little walk out in the moonlight just now reminded me of a wonderful feeling I had a couple of weeks ago when in our garden picking dogwood blossom. With the lush spring growth and blossom all around me I could not help but to be full of admiration for nature and mother earth. I looked at all the litter underneath the trees and shrubs and it was as if God spoke to me, the message clear and certain, "Don't worry about bushfire, you will be safe." It was powerful, and a reassuring feeling came over me. That was the second time in my life I have had the feeling that God spoke to me. The other time many years ago when many worries were overwhelming me, I went for a jog and the voice said to me "Persist".

Well there you go. I hope to tell you more about our holiday next time.

We Wont Forget Jose

It now a little over two weeks since we returned from our OS holiday. I have struggled for all that time, to feel comfortable back working, and to write on this blog about it. It has been hard to focus on anything. Lib and Gord went away to Wangaratta and Lakes Entrance some days after we returned so I have been on my own. The weather was hot when we came home and I was back to work in the heat in what is a busy month. I came home to the empty house and sat in the chair to watch the news and fell asleep most nights, waking at 11pm or later then cooking dinner or not bothering, usually I couldn't be bothered bathing and went to bed dirty. I admit I was a mess mentally but I did perform on the work front. Not that I'm cocky about it but I can still do alright when I have to.

Let me explain that a few days before we went OS I saw my specialist. He said my inflammation readings were up since I reduced the cortisone and he suggested I double it while on holiday so as not to spoil it. I was not going to but after a few days on our cruise and when I suffered quite a lot of pain I succumbed and took the C morning and night instead of just morning. Coming home I reduced back and suffered again but now there is no holiday to spoil so I'm putting in the hard yards and plan to do so till I see specialist again early December and see where I'm at. This is no fun I assure you and is partly the reason I have not been able to write this blog. It annoys the piss out of me and destroys creativity.

Lib and Gord came back today, Saturday, at last I was home, a day off. I made a big effort to clean up, change sheets, vacuum, and get the kitchen spick, mow the lawn, all that. I had been living like a bachelor pig. Almost on cue I feel like writing this blog tonight so here I am.

I didn't write a diary while we away, regretfully, so I have to work from memory and there is so much I have already forgotten. It was a full on itinerary, the first four days of our cruise were arduous, everyone said this, but when you go half way around the world to see things in a different port each day, well you don't want to stay on the boat and sit by the pool.

I have been trying to think of our shore excursions and tour guides. It distresses me that I cannot remember the guides on our first two excursions, in France, and Florence Italy. I just do not remember their faces or names and we don't have photos of them. I know they were both ladies. The first was a French lady, competent and pleasant with a strong accent that became harder to follow as she progressed because she spoke quicker and the accent became stronger as she did. The bus took us from the port of Toulon to a the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas, a very old village maintained without development. I chose this tour as it was less expensive and shorter than others and included free time exploring on our own. It was truly delightful. The lunch we enjoyed of ham and cheese in a crusty roll on a bench in the street was exceptional. A great way to start. The trip back went through an evergreen oak forest which knocked me right out. The second day was from the port of Livorno to Florence with again free time to explore and have lunch. We did the Medici museum and walked through Florence's amazing architecture. Again the tour guide does not come vividly to my recollection but just now as I write I am remembering her a little. She was excellent, I do know that.

Day three was a big one, an all day tour of Rome from the port of Civitaveccia. I had explored the possibility of catching a train from the port and doing it on our own but decided against it in case we didn't get to the Sistine Chapel, or make it back to our boat on time. Lib had the Sistine Chapel as a must so i took the safe option and booked a tour of the Popes summer residence and garden and the Vatican museum at a cost of $209US each. I'm so glad I did. Our tour guide was a skinny Italian girl named Lavinia, she was a delight. When we got to the Vatican she handed over to another more mature lady who really knew her ecka and endeared herself to the group. By the time we got back to the boat we were exhausted. The crowds in the vatican were oppressive and doing it without a guide would have been extremely difficult.

Day four in Naples I had deliberately chose a half day only tour which did not include the leaning tower of pisa but Pompeii only. I did this as a cost saving and also because it gave us the opportunity of an afternoon exploring Naples on our own after the morning at Pompeii. Our tour guide was Jose, a mature man probably in his late fifties or even perhaps dare I say, as old as me, early sixties. He spoke very well with a slight Italian accent. He explained that he had a sore knee but it was OK and he would be walking slowly which was a good thing. Pompeii is a major tourist attraction and the crowd was thick. It was hot day. Jose wore a bright yellow jumper, presumably so that he could be easily seen in the crowd. The guides also carried a coloured object on a stick that they held overhead so that members of their group could see them in the lead among the crowd. We had ear phones to follow the guide's talk and direction. Jose kept saying, " Slowly, slowly, my knee is sore, so we'll go slowly slowy."

Pompeii is a fantastic place to see, Jose's commentary was riveting. I have to admit that the crowd was getting to me a bit, on our fourth tour in four days. I was amazed that Jose kept his yellow jumper on for so long in the heat, and I was relieved when he eventually stopped and took it off. He refused my offer of  a drink of water and said he was fine. He kept complaining about his knee, saying 'Let's go slowly slowly."

It seemed to me that Jose was struggling big time. On our way back out I was walking next to him, he seemed a bit wobbly. I suggested he sit down but he said he would shortly when we reach a point ahead where there's a first aid station, which meant to me that he was worried. He had already accepted the offer of a knee bandage from one of the tourists in our group which he said greatly eased the pain. We got to where he could sit in the shade on a stone bench. I was still next to him. As he sat his eyes rolled and he collapsed to one side. I caught him to stop him hitting his head and as he lay on the ground Lib found his pulse which was weak but there.  The first aid guys arrived quite quickly and took control. Jose came to after a few minutes and said he had to get up to take us back to the bus. He then promptly passed out again. There was much confusion for several minutes. the first aid people called an ambulance and Jose's tour company to get someone to take his group back to the meeting point and the walk to the bus to take us back to the ship. As we left Jose was unconscious.

It was maybe 20-30 minutes later we congregated at the entrance, for the walk to where we could board our bus. The ambulance came at this time, forcing its way through the throng. We never heard the outcome. We spent the afternoon in Naples city where we had great lunch. We don't know and never will know whether Jose just fainted or had a heart attack or lived or died. Lib thinks maybe the pain in his knee was a blood clot that shifted. That night our ship sailed on to Mykinos. Thankfully we had no tour booked there, it was walking distance to the town so we selected free time to explore on our own.

I will never forget Jose. I find myself saying, "Slowly, slowly," when there's a bit of pressure on.

Dogs

I walked back from the garage Tuesday morning after taking Gord's car up for a service. I enjoy walking back with Pip when the car service thing happens. After going past the school the downhill to the town centre goes past a number of houses that were built as part of the Belvedere Estate some years ago. For about the first two and half decades that we lived in Gembrook this was a paddock usually with a few horses or cows. It was owned by Bill Parker and towards the end of his life he decided to apply for it to be subdivided for residential development. Fair enough, it's in the middle of town.

While these houses are on the main road, the entrance to them is from the road that was built up he middle of the paddock, so as you walk down the main road you are going past back yard fences. I have always thought this an aesthetic disaster for a main street in a town, as residents of the houses have built high fences or planted untidy hedges as a screen from the traffic and passing footpath pedestrians, but I concede that it was done this way because the footpath is three or four feet higher than the road along which a retaining wall exists, say about 4 feet high. No doubt the developers and planners worked out the layout of the estate according to all considerations.

So as I go past these backyards a number of savage dogs came out to snarl and bark at myself and Pip and I was glad that none of them could get out and maul or kill Pip as I'm sure they would have if they could, in particular two boxer looking things with huge jaws and fangs bared angrily.These locked up dogs were obviously not well socially adjusted.

It made me think of our recent holiday where dogs in the street were a common sight. We remarked on our first day, in Barcelona, the large numbers of dogs with people, some on leads and some not. Those not were well trained to walk beside their owner without any drama. The dogs were well behaved with other dogs, we didn't see one incident of aggression. Next day we were in Bormes-les-Mimosas in south east France and we made the same observation, as we did in Florence in Italy the next day. It was good to see dogs. They were friendly and relaxed and it showed a sort of contentment in the local people. Dog lovers are usually happy and contented, and it just said something about the pleasantness of the places.

In Naples there were even more dogs in the area of the city near the port where we walked around and had lunch. Some seemed to be strays as they were not with people but they mingled happily with each other and passing humans. A number of street beggars sat on the pavement with a sleeping dog, a ploy I guess to encourage you to drop a few coins into their cup. In Milan the dogs were actually allowed to walk around with their owners in the shops.

There were plenty of dogs on Crete also, many of these wandering near the villages. These were not aggressive either, but had an independence, a bit of the rough and ready about them, and a habit of not getting out of the way of your car till the last minute. They were by no means feral but had a free spirit, a bit like the Cretan people really, and the multitude cats that abounded there. At our villa in Estate Kares the cats came inside whether we wanted them to or not. We chased them out but soon gave up, they'd come in the windows which had no flyscreens (no flies or mozzies), and you couldn't keep the windows shut for long as it was too warm. More than once I was woken in the night by a cat going through the rubbish bin. We learned to take out the rubbish to an outside bin with a good lid before going to bed.

It was a bit of a shock to be affronted by savage snarling dogs when I got back home, even if it was only for a few brief moments as I walked past. I had not seen this for a while.

A Pleasant Surprise

On our Mediterranean cruise one evening last month we went to dinner in our allocated dining room for anytime dining. We didn't eat there every night, there was sometimes quite a queue, in fact the first night it was a huge line and the second night it was not as bad but both times we went to the buffet instead where there was always a table available and the food was good there as well.

But this night we chose our dining room and to avoid a wait we were happy to share a table with others. The tables were various sizes, seating two, four, six or eight but this night the waiter led us to one of eight seats. We were the first to be seated and soon we were joined by Howard and Suzie from Manly in Sydney, Nick and Anne from Phillip Island Victoria, and shortly after the remaining places were taken by a young couple from Los Angeles, whose names I do not recall. Both were professional and this cruise was a gift from her parents for her graduating from college a couple of years earlier, I think the young lady had a position in market research and the young man was in IT. The were both quiet and polite and the man in particular seemed shy and reserved and had little to say initially. Lib was on my right, then the lady and her man was to her right. So there were two people between myself and he and I was happy not to try to engage him in conversation acroos the two ladies.

Suzie was to my left, and she consulted me about which wine she should choose. I told her that a particular Californian merlot was a delight, although Lib and I were enjoying a Chilean wine that day. A bottle of wine on the boat was anything from $27-50+US, so it needed to be a good choice.(You were only allowed to bring one bottle of wine per person onto the boat, to be consumed in your stateroom, and you were not permitted to bring grog on board from the shore excursions. No point trying to hide it either as bags were ex rayed when you came back on as part of the security system).

The wine came for Suzie and she loved it, much to my relief. I didn't start the conversation on politics but it went there. Howard, who owns a marketing/advertising company in Sydney, said he had talked to many Australians on board and asked them why Tony Abbott was not popular and they couldn't give him a valid reason.

"He's our local MP and we think he's terrific. He's always done a great job for his electorate. Why is that you don't like him?" He was talking directly to me.

"Probably the best way I can answer you," I said, "to be brief, is that I vote Green."

He looked at me with his mouth partly dropped open, then said, "Well, you don't have to say anymore. That means your vote is effectively for Labour."

"Only if I select them as second preference, which I do usually by the way. I do understand that my first vote is virtually meaningless, but I do it because I dislike both the major parties, the Libs are an environment wrecking ball and Labour is Union controlled but is the lesser of two evils. If more people continue to vote green my hope is that momentum will grow and one day they will be a serious contender to the major parties."

At this point the previously quiet young American fellow began to agree with me. He compared our situation to US politics and was a Bernie Saunders fan. It was like a motorbike that was kick started and took off. He dominated the following discussion and obviously was a political enthusiast. Nick was a retired plumber and no fan of unions and Labour but neither he nor Howard could compete with this young man.

That was an interesting part of the cruise for us, our first. Many of the passengers had cruised many times before. There were 2100+ passengers, I'd say USA, followed by Australia then Canada were the countries with most representation, then New Zealand and the UK and of course a smattering of many other nationalities. Most people at meals or on the tours were congenial and polite, in fact I can't recall anything untoward in the 12 days.

The night after our dinner discussion about Tony Abbott Lib and I were at a table for two enjoying our meal when Howard and Suzie were led past to another table close by.

"Did you hear the news," Howard said, "We have a new Prime Minister."

"Your pulling my leg," I replied.

No, I'm not, it's Malcolm Turnbull, I don't know any circumstances, just heard the news break on the cabin TV."

In no way did I want to offend Howard with my reaction but I could not conceal my happiness. It was indeed a pleasant surprise.