I am still sleeping weirdly and with the dresser lights
on. I was lucky last night, one of the
bulbs blew, so it dimmed the room considerably and I did get a better
sleep. I haven’t slept in a room with a
window for the last 11 nights, so it's a little strange to not see what time of
day it is and have no idea on what the weather is doing outside. I had a windowless room in London, a
windowless room in Barcelona and then the last 8 nights of the cruise-it is
very disorientating to say the least.
I’m glad that our last day is a sea day and not a port day. It just lets you unwind that last minute
without the pressures and constraints of time.
There seems to be a lot of new faces on the ship that we picked up in
Malaga. It would be interesting to know
just how many people disembarked and how many boarded. You spot the ‘newbies’ a mile off as they
have the deck plan in their hands and they have a look of ‘where the hell are
we’ on their faces. I have a kind of
smug feeling knowing where everything is and knowing my way around the ship and
how it all works. Pffftttt, newbies!!! In saying that though, during the week there
were people still getting lost that had boarded in Barcelona-after 5 days…… I must say there were a few places on the
ship that I didn’t go into, most of the eating venues, but I did know where
they all were.
I had breakfast at 9am and this morning and it was a very
smart move as there was an influx of people at 10am on my way out, so I was
lucky today I missed the car wreck of breakfast with all the ‘newbies’ learning
how to use the drink and coffee machines.
And to answer your question, they had cream and it was fluffy pancakes
again for breakfast. I know that I have
probably put on some weight on the cruise, but I have tried to choose my food
smartly but at the end of the day I should just make the most of what is in
front of me as there will be nothing like that in Kenya. Sure I am sure I could go to a 5 star hotel
for a breakfast, but firstly it won’t be the same thing and it will cost me an
arm and a leg. I may do that as a treat
to myself if I totally feel down, but there won’t be this where I am
heading. It is funny I have used that
attitude since going home in August, so I have just eaten like a maniac the
last 5 months-but in my defence I was heading to Africa in September and that
fell through. So I know I have definitely
wacked on some weight since August, but hopefully once I get into a routine,
cooking healthy food and maybe even throw in some exercise I will be able to
shift some of that when I settle. Just
think I have basically been ‘eating out’ for the last 22 months, so really it
is kudos to me for not being bigger than what I am right? I mean that is a lot of takeaway meals-based
on 3 meals a day-that’s 1848 meals. I
feel bad, I don’t feel healthy, but again I hope to rectify that in the coming
months.
As routine predicts I was in Galaxy of the Stars after
breakfast to blog and watch the 10am salsa class. It is SO cold in there I have my scarf up
around my head and my cardie on, my jacket on my knees and socks on my
feet. I wonder why they keep it so cold
in here-it’s been like this all week. Maybe
it’s for the exercisers? I don’t know
but flip its cold. It was busier up here
than usual with all the newcomers and I am now thinking that the ship mustn’t have
been full when we did our first 8 days, as it certainly seems a lot busier
today than any other day so far. The
average age hasn’t changed and we are still in that 60+ age group. I don’t think I even thought about the age
demographic when I booked the cruise.
Not that it would have mattered as I still would have booked on this
cruise anyway. A lot of the passengers
are Europeans getting away from their prospective winters. I guess the coldness of the lounge for them
is nice and cosy when the temperatures in Germany or Denmark are 0
degrees. Maybe I am just a hot blooded
person from the southern part of the world?
So today is the last day of the cruise. I got a picture email from Shelly today of
Zoe doing her seal experience that she got for her birthday from Aunty Sandy
and it just bought a tear to my eye.
Gosh I miss those guys so much it actually makes my heart hurt a little. With Africa looming it really makes me think now
what I am actually giving up and what a big step I am undertaking. I have been so good for the last 8 days being
in my own company, in my own head, but today something has just flipped and I
am tearing up at the drop of a hat. I
really don’t know what is wrong with me.
I am missing home but I guess it is a lot of things, some of them I can’t
change and things that I just can’t foresee for my arrival into Kenya, the unknown. I find myself under a really dark cloud and I
hope that I will be able to move it in the coming days. Am I feeling sorry for myself? I don’t think so-there are a lot of people
that would die to be in my shoes, I know that.
I am lucky-but it doesn’t mean that I am not fighting my own demons that
surface every now and then. After all I
am only human I suppose. I updated my
Facebook status:
“No one said it was going to be easy-that just promised
it would be worth it. I am finding that a little hard to grasp the last few
days. I am so down and crying at the drop of a hat-what is wrong with me? 5
days till Africa-let’s hope my mood improves .......” and it is exactly how I
felt.
I used the afternoon to have a good cry and then I had to
pack. I really did have stuff from one
end of the cabin to the other. Linda
must think I was a total pig not even having unpacked properly, literally-I didn’t
even store my ‘monster’ backpack away, it just sat at the base of my bed the
whole week. Oh well it was an organised
chaos, I knew where everything was, well most of the time. The main thing I seemed to keep misplacing
was the damn TV remote. I got 90% of my
stuff packed I will try and zip the monster after the show tonight so I can out
the clothes I am wearing in the bag before I have to out it outside my cabin
before midnight tonight for it to be collected.
You did have the option of taking it off the ship yourself at any time,
but I would be crazy to do that with the monster. I had the lime sticker on my bag, which was
the last possible departure you can have off the ship of 8.45am. I need to try and keep my departure as late
as I can as I am pretty sure my hotel room won’t be ready at 9.30am-but I will
still try and ask. I did keep the
airlines ‘HEAVY’ tag on my bag, so hopefully some porter guy won’t pull out his
back moving that thing later tonight. This
is the second last time will have to pack.
That is one thing I WILL NOT MISS and that is all the packing,
especially this section as I have all the extra clothes and bags with me. It really has been a nightmare and cost me
some money, but not knowing when I will get my belongings sent over, I needed
to make sure I had enough stuff with me to keep me going for a while.
The final show in the theatre the cruise was a guy named
Andy Buenger. He is a musician but not
just any old musician he can play over 15 instruments! He played 7 for us in the show including the
marimba (like a xylophone), vibraphone, the panpipes, the steel guitar, drums,
saxophone and trumpet. He played well
known tunes with all the instruments and he was backed with the amazing
Norwegian Spirit 6 piece band and it was a great show. I think the 2 highlights for me was the
marimba. He can play that thing like no
tomorrow and he said the song that he just played had 1250 stokes in the 2
minute song. He told us that he looked
for a song that had more strokes than that and he couldn’t find one-BUT he did
find a song that had 1200 strokes in ONE minute and he played that with
illuminated sticks and with the theatre lights dimmed we could see just how
fast he was moving those sticks. It was
incredible and to show my state of mind, it bought tears to my eyes. Now why would that make you cry? The second was Andy played a ‘drum off’ with
the drummer from the band and it was so cool as they played together in time,
then they played separate and then joined up again, t was well choreographed. You could see the band drummer was tickled
pink with his 5 minutes of fame and also looked like he enjoyed the
opportunity. Andy was a very clever man and
you need to add in the 4 languages he knew and spoke in during the show. It was a SENSATIONAL way to finish the cruise The last show of the 9 nights on board and
out of those 9 nights I think there were only 2 ‘ordinary shows’ the rest were
incredible. Well done on act selection
NCL. Well done.
On my way back to my cabin I stopped at the reception
desk for the first time as I wanted to check about the gratuities. In Australia when you book they add the
gratuities to the cost of your cruise fare.
I think Australian may have a bad reputation as bad tippers as we don’t have
to do it in our country, so I can see why they do do it that way and I don’t mind. I am a tipper and the staff certainly deserve
the money. They work like dogs and long hours
and time away from their families. Some
of the staff have small children that are being cared for my grandparents or
the other spouse. It is a tough life. So no I don’t mind paying the tips. NCL have a policy that will automatically add
15USD per day to your account and I wanted to check that I wasn’t going to be
paying the tip twice. As it worked out,
it wasn’t on their and my total bill came to 426USD. It seems quite high for someone that didn’t buy
a single drink the whole time, except for my soda package on day one of the
cruise of 65USD, but 155USD was internet usage and I know it seems a lot, but
that was my ‘thing’. People drank,
people played the pokies, people paid the fancy restaurants, I paid for
internet. I mainly did it to keep my
blog updated, as I was able to catch up on my blogs and I wanted to load them
as they were completed and of course some Facebooking to keep me in the land of
the living. And the last of the bill was
the 3 shore excursions. If my bill was
426USD with no drinks, what did peoples account look like that did drink? That people is where the cruise companies
make their money. I can guarantee that
people will be shocked to see their bill and when it is double checked that it
is actually all correct. I did a cruise
with a buddy back in April 2011 of the Mediterranean on a MSC cruise and we had
a drinking week on board the ship and my bill after 7 days was 1200AUD!!! Now that was a MASSIVE bill and I knew it
would be big, but that was 2 months into my Odyssey and I my budget was getting
hammered in the first 8 weeks!!!! Let’s
just say a lot of alcohol was consumed on that cruise.
I have to say I have enjoyed the cruise, but I am looking forward to getting back to Barcelona in the morning. I have 3 days there to repack and prepare myself mentally for my last leg. I have been so down the last few days and I really don’t know what is wrong. I think I am ready to plant these travelling feet for a while and starting my new chapter. 5 days till I leave and I am nervous as hell.
So it’s good night one last time from the Norwegian
Spirit and I’ll see you in Barcelona in the morning.
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