Another busy day with a full day tour booked including a
buffet lunch. Well so we thought. This morning was the first morning that my
alarm woke me up, and yes I am still sleeping with a light on, so I must admit
my sleeps aren’t quite fitful-but I did have that slight heart attack when I
was in London in a windowless room (they are cheaper) and I woke at 10 thinking
it was am but it was pm. It is an awful
feeling-being disorientated and you would think after all this travel I would
be used to it. I guess not.
I was looking forward to my pancakes and cream this
morning and of course I still wanted my eggs and sausage as well. It is hard when you are eating on your own in
the buffet restaurant because if you need to leave the table to go and get
another drink or more food, the waiters swoop in on your table to clear it and
if it’s busy people will take your table thinking that you have finished. I don’t have anyone to stay put while I go
and get things. It can be hard at times
but maybe it has helped me not getting a second helping of something, but not
this morning. I had all my stuff with me
that I needed for the day tour, including a jacket, so I was able to leave the
jacket and my first course on the table and then head in to get my pancakes and
cream. When I came back and finally sat
down it dawned on me that we didn’t seem to be anywhere near port and it was 7.30am. We could see land, but it was a long way off,
hmmmmm I wonder what was happening to be late again!!! Well we didn’t have to wait long. An announcement came at 8am from the Captain,
which at first I couldn’t quite hear and didn’t understand much of what was
said except at the end he said enjoy your day on Norwegian Spirit….. Something
in that statement didn’t sound right…..
And then the announcement was repeated by the cruise director which I
could understand better. Basically our
port of call to Lanzarote had been cancelled due to high winds in the port and
the possibility of a storm front this afternoon of winds up to 35-40 knots
which I would assume would make us getting out of the port a nil impossibility. We were also going to cruise at 20mph as to
try and miss the storm front we were heading into and were told it may get
rough this afternoon and to be extra cautious walking around the ship. It sounded ominous but as I made my way back
from breakfast there were spew bags already adorning tables and banisters throughout
the ship. It must be serious.
It was a bummer that we weren’t stopping at Lanzarote as
it was one of the places I was looking forward to. My silver lining was it was the most
expensive shore excursion so it will be refunded to my account and there are
people worse off than I. Think of the
domino effect of a ship not coming into port.
The staff on the ship don’t get any time off-I bet they must look
forward to it no matter how long or short.
My steward, Linda, got off the ship for only 1.5 hours yesterday but she
said it was great and she went and had McDonalds. There are the tour operators that aren’t getting
the clients which in turn no work for the locals and tips. What do they do about the supply of food? They hadn’t counted on having 2000 people on
board at sea-do they have extra provisions for something like this or do they
dip into food that was for Barcelona and then pick up extra food in
Malaga? What about the food suppliers in
Lanzarote? I am sure that the ship must
be stocked with supplies from there-whether it be food, alcohol, supplies or
the dumping of waste or rubbish. Maybe there
is a ship stuck there and can’t get out till the winds die down? Where is our Costa ship? So looking at all of the above-it seems like
a logistical nightmare to cancel a port, so I am sure it is a difficult
decision to make. Not to mention some unhappy
clients on the ship. I haven’t seen any,
but I am sure there must be some whingers out there that have said their piece. I don’t understand people like that. The decision has been made to keep us safe
and the ship in one piece (especially after the track record of this particular
ship) and it is the same when flights are delayed due to weather or mechanical
faults-it is for their own safety and I just cannot believe that people don’t look
at the bigger picture when these things crop up and unfortunately that is the
beast of travelling. Not everything is
going to go to plan-things go wrong, planes are delayed, storms come and go, taxis
have strikes in the city where you actually need one and a multitude of other
things that are out of your control.
Touchwood I have been EXTREMELY lucky on my whole Odyssey that I had no
major setbacks. A few things here and
there like the date change of my Galapagos cruise, missing a flight in Cairo
heading to Nairobi, the cancellation of one of my internal flights in South
America but in the scheme of how much I travelled, again touchwood, I have been
lucky. The last thing is the new
activities on the ship now that we had a day at sea. They must have contingency plans like this, I
am sure it is not the first time that a port has been cancelled and I must admit,
again they work fast and a new schedule was up within the hour.
So another day at sea.
What was I going to do today? I’ll
get cracking on my Madeira blog-it’s a biggie-so I may as well tackle that
while I can. So with my computer in my
bag I made my way up Galaxy of the Stars lounge and ‘my’ spot was already taken,
but I think that worked out okay as I feel there is a lot of pressure sitting
there as you are up on a small stage and people look at you every time they
walk into that part of the lounge. Too
much pressure, so I found a nook at the back of the lounge that had a table and
if I needed a power point to boot and more room to spread my crap. I had also bought up my dairy as I needed to
also update that and that would happen once my battery went flat on the computer. I knew my Madeira blog was a biggie but man
it took me 2.5 hours to pump that puppy out but there is a relief and a feeling
of accomplishment every time I finish an entry and this one was no
different. I used my satellite account
to upload and realised I was getting low on minutes. I will have to purchase some more credit and
I was in a quandary on which package to buy.
Another 100USD got me 250 minutes or 55USD for 100 minutes. I try and limit my access to 30 minutes a
day, based on 4 more days at sea; I went with the 55USD package and hope that
it will see me through to the end of the cruise. It will be funny to see my account at the end
of the cruise. I don’t have a single
alcoholic drink on my account. I have 3
shore excursions, a soft drink package I purchased on day one of the cruise and
the internet credits. I wonder if I am
the lowest account they have EVER had for a 9 night cruise? The only way someone can beat me is to have
done no shore excursions, which is possible with the oldies and to have not
used the internet, which is probably a pretty good bet that they certainly
would be doing 100USD worth. So I guess
it is possible for someone to beat me. But
it would be close, I’m willing to wage.
It is a week today till I start my last journey to Africa
next week. It is a yahoo and an ahhhh
moment all at the same time. I am now
getting butterflies when I think about it.
I hadn’t really hit me yet as I was doing so much before I got to
Kenya. The good news is I have a friend
picking me up when I arrive, so that has settled my nerves a little bit and it
will be nice to see a friendly face as soon as I arrive. It feels like I left Australia months ago and
not just 19 days ago. That really is
insane, but I guess I have done so much in those 19 days that it seems longer
to me. I have all these stats in my diary
and it was good to read over them. Today
is my 574th day of actually travelling. It’s not counting the 2 trips I have had
home, if I count them that makes it a total of 658 days. I left Australia on the 29th March
2011. To think that I am coming up to a
2 year anniversary of travelling on my Odyssey is surreal to me as the trip
only originally started out as a 12 month gig, which extended to 14 months and
then added on the USA and ended up being
19 months. I was always planning on
coming home, I never in my wildest dreams expected that my life would change that
much and that I would be moving to Africa.
The thought never crossed my mind.
After talking to my BF Shelly, she said she knew deep down that I wouldn’t
be back to live, that I would find something or someone, and that I wasn’t going
to be moving back. She said that is why
she was so sad the first time that I left.
It is funny what people see that you just quite have the picture yourself,
just yet.
Lunch was busy today-like grannies and poppies everywhere
and it was difficult to get a seat inside or outside. The sun was out but there was still a small
nip in the air. The sea was rough but so
far not too bad-certainly nothing to warrant any sea sickness bags at
least. I think all the British
passengers were thankful for the day at sea as they all seemed to be crammed
around all the available TV’s to watch a football match. I was just reading my book at the table after
lunch when some old folk asked if they could join me as I was smack bang in
front of a large TV. I told them I was
done anyway and let them have the table.
I went to the library to see if there were any books available at the
book swap shelves. On the first day
there were a bevy of books and I took one (whoops I didn’t swap) but today
there was not much left and what was there was in Dutch. There was one book in English and can you
believe that I had read before. What are
the odds of all the books in the world, the only one left was one that I had
read. Priceless. Then I remembered I had my Kindle so I will
just use that. I was back to the cabin
at 2pm and chillaxed and watched the Bourne Identity on TV. I really have a craving for nachos and can
you believe out of all the places to eat on the ship they don’t have nachos on
the menu. There are pay restaurants that
you can eat at like the Sushi Bar which is a-la-carte, La Trattoria
15USD-Italian, Shogun 15USD Asian fusion, Le Bistro 20USD French, Cagney’s
25USD Steakhouse and Teppanyaki 25USD Japanese.
No Mexican. Bugger.
7pm came and it was time to head to the show. Duo Amore was the act tonight and they were a
French act from Paris. They were, I
guess you would call acrobats/dancers.
There was just the 2 of them, a male and a female, and their opening act
started on the ribbon cloths suspended from the ceiling. And he was wrapped in
one. She was definitely a dancer,
classical trained as she went right up onto her toes and the first time I saw
it I ooooooo’d out loud. To see some-one
actually do that pose is an incredible sight.
She was SO flexible and she also did a solo routine on a hoop suspended
from the roof and it was just awe inspiring.
Also taking into account the roll of the ship, as it was rough outside,
they were true professionals. There was
one move they all did that made the whole audience gasp and that was when he
had her over his head and she was in a ball position, with her hands grabbing
her feet and then he let her go and she dropped over his head and he stopped
her hitting the ground with his thighs and feet. WHAT A MOVE.
They also threw in some Dancing with the Stars routines and the Dirty Dancing
lift. His upper body strength was
remarkable as he had a few routines on his own with the ribbons and busted a
few great moves himself. They truly were
INCREDIBLE. They then continued to WOW
the audience for 40 minutes to an amazing end to them both on the ribbon
swinging around in stage all dressed in white.
She looked amazing as she had a twig figure and he was very deliciously
built and shirtless wearing those ballet tights that just magnify the crotch area. What a GREAT show!
At the end of the performance the cruise director
mentioned that FourEver were going to be performing tomorrow night which
surprised me and then I remembered that they were supposed to get off at
Lanzarote today, the poor buggers. So I
guess why not do another show if they are on board. That’s a win for us as they were also
amazing. Hands down I would have said
they were the best act of the week so far…until tonight-now I’m not sure who I
would pick. Well done NCL for getting
some quality up on stage.
For dinner I just couldn’t stomach another buffet, so I
decided to head to the Blue Lagoon Café.
This serves what they call snack food (included in your cruise price)
till 4am in the morning. You still get a
choice of starter, main and dessert if you wish and it just felt like I was
having a normal meal. I am finding the
buffet is serving the same food every day in regards to the main staples of the
pasta, salads and the ‘American’ section and I have not really liked the looks
of the other hot food they have been serving.
They do have the carvery that has a new meat every lunch and dinner, so
I have pretty much been sticking to that and salads-but I just needed a
change. So with a won ton soup for a
starter and English fish and chips for main I felt half human again and made my
way back to my cabin. We had to wind our
watches forward an hour before we went to bed tonight so now it was 10pm
already-just like that.
I was feeling a little blue tonight. Don’t get me wrong I am still enjoying my
cruise. I haven’t seen the English
couple or my Danish couple since day 2 but I’m okay with that, that’s not the
issue. But I think the reality of what I
am about to embark on is starting to kick in and then I miss everyone back home
and I was thinking about my mum and I gave Zeme a minute of my time as well and
it just made me a little blue and a little reflective. I think we all need that sometimes and it
makes me more determined to appreciate each day I have and to know that
tomorrow is a new day and life keeps on rolling along, literally at the moment
as the ship is in some pretty rough waters.
With those thoughts in my head I went to sleep with the image of
pancakes and cream in the morning. See I’m
feeling better already.
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