Medeira has a soggy bottom

Greeting from Madeira, when we docked this morning and received permission to go ashore, there was certainly a rush to get dock side, it was with evangelical zeal some passengers greeted their return to solid ground,in one case I thought one male passenger was going to have a Papal moment and kiss the ground thankful for his safe deliverance from a turbulent sea and the end of his sea sickness. Since arriving it has not stopped raining/drizzling on and off. After a stroll along the dockside into town dodging the raindrops and given my past record of port days and rain (Remember Antigua, Janet, I think I recorded a 7 on the Richter scale) I went back to the ship for a leisurely lunch and bumped into Malcolm (Scoop) Tucker who regaled me with the interesting incident of our very own Gypsy Rose Hilary (are you sitting comfortably Morgan?) at the formal dinner the other evening with gents in their penguin suits and Ladies turned out in their finest long dresses everyone was seated to enjoy a convivial evening of fine food and conversation. That was until Hilary tried to adjust her sitting position just to get more comfortable, in this process things in the rear or the astern of the dress decided to part company with the main body of the garment and it was ripped from stem to stern with all the relevant bits on show. Help was not immediately coming forward from Hilary's dinning companions Brenda and Malcolm as they were in fits of laughter, Hilary was trying to disappear into the back of her seat then the wall, in chameleon mode to prevent any more panic from waiters and young children present. Depending on your point of view, a lady kindly offered Hilary the use of a Pashmina so she could safely gather things in and retreat quicker than the Zulu's from York's Drift (notice the crafty Welsh connection) while the pianist in the cocktail lounge played "I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places". The last bit I made up. The moral of the story, remember what Mother told you "make sure you always have clean underwear in case you have an accident" and always have a couple of safety pins in your purse. For those of you who know Hilary well, isn't that a strange place for a tattoo!

Crew Fire Fighting Training

Check out the Toy Castle near the funnel on Costa ship