Ladies in Red

Two days into the cruise and I feel I should bring you a report from the front ( or as we refer to it in nautical terms "The Bow").Check in at Southampton was a bit frantic as we hit a traffic jam on the dual carriageway approaching the cruise terminal, suddenly all the traffic disappeared turning left into a multi storey car park, they were all heading for the IKEA winter sale, leaving us with a completely open road ahead. As ever the porters appear and take your cases away for loading, the next you see of them is as they appear outside your cabin door. Lifeboat drill follows fairly soon after you board, seeing 300 in a confined space struggling to get on life jackets and tie them off is quite an icebreaker and causes much laughter and is a great icebreaker ( crafty Titanic reference). Next job is to meet up with my cruises buddies, Janet and Malcolm who I first met on a cruise to the Caribbean two years ago and we have kept in contact, I walk straight past Janet, come on two years is a long time, it's a man thing. We spend the next hour and a half catching up and reminiscing.

First observations of fellow passengers are, how many people onboard wear glasses, myself included and a lot of the crew, that Ladies are favouring red dresses this year, looking for a joke to combine Chris de Burgh and Specsavers! Spotted a Prince Phillip lookalike and sound alike, down to a three button blazer and hands behind his back. Some blokes have already got their shorts on, although it's blowing a gale and the outside decks and pools are closed. I must also report that most short wearers are combining sandals with SOCKS and have noted one person wearing Argyle socks with the sandals. 

We have been allocated a table for eight for our evening meal, it seems to be a very good mix and we have already had some good laughs and some lively conversations. The first two days we have encountered really rough seas, causing many fine examples of the involuntary Oceana two step. One of the best view points to view and mark this event is conveniently Costa Coffee which has a slight slope, if you catch the slope on a down swell you can make a quite spectacular entrance especially on a Zimmer frame or self propelled wheel chair, the reverse is also true, you can suffer from three steps forward and five backwards syndrome. If any of you read the earlier effort in my blog I can safely report the condoms are still in the suitcase. Well this brings my opening salvo to an end, I am writing this as a young lady is delivering a lecture called "Eat Less and Weigh Less" if you know me this lecture is falling on fallow ground, and she looks very pale and unhappy not a great advertisement for her lecture.

HRH

Malcolm doing a double take

The Socks