Saturday 28/2/2015 Day 53 Leaving the Great Barrier Reef, turning left and heading west to Darwin

Well I am so happy to say that the man who collapsed in the theatre is in the medical centre, and reported to be doing ok. This was the best news we could have received today.

We have travelled north and have now left the Great Barrier Reef, passed the pointed most northern part of Australia and turned left.  We are in the tropic of Capricorn, so it’s still jolly hot ;)

The sea has been changing rapidly over the last 2 days from super calm, almost glass, the kind that you can see clouds reflecting in to wavelets during the day, to quite rough tonight because of the clashes of tides on the east and west. The swell is not too bad so there’s no rocking and rolling. Everything about the sea and the sky is fascinating me like never before, and of course now that I am learning how to paint clouds I can’t keep my eyes off them.

We have finished two lovely absorbing paintings since Thursday – yesterday a Wiltshire country cottage with trees and village green,

and today the head of a big colourful beautiful but aggressive Australian Bird called a cassowary

.The captain’s nautical nugget today was “son of a gun”.  The tale was that way back in sailor history, the crew were in charge of the guns. It was difficult to persuade the gunners on the ship to stay on for long periods, as they missed home. To help retention of the gunners, women were invited onto ships when they were in port. They had to sleep in bunks and hammocks in communal dorms. These might be wives, girlfriends or women who came on just for the sex, some of whom became pregnant but were unable to say who the baby’s father was.  These babies were then referred to as “son of a gun”.

We’ve been to the Palladium three times today.  

On board we have Lord Howard (former opposition leader during the last Labour government) who is talking, sharing anecdotes and answering questions about his life in politics.  Today his 2 p.m talk fitted beautifully with our afternoon, and he spoke well and we both found him candid, funny and interesting. Nothing controversial.  Surprising.

At 4.30 we went to Bruce Morrison’s history of and songs from Les Miserables. He was a wonderful all rounder raconteur with a strong, powerful, emotional, dramatic voice (all parts).  Tomorrow he is doing a matinee at 2 so we are both going to get there early for that or it might be standing room only.

After dinner tonight we went back to the Palladium for the third time to hear comedian Adrian Walsh again. Very very funny, a good sign for a comedian.  More tomorrow – our final sea day before Darwin. Bye for now x 

Friday 27/2/2015 Day 52 A tough one

I am a bit late with Friday’s blog because I didn’t know what was the best thing to do– our day was perfect, but it was so sad last night for another passenger and his family that I couldn’t even begin to explain last night, and went to bed instead.  I didn’t know if I should write about it either, but today I think it would be wrong not to – it’s what happened.  We have heard the message from the bridge once before “Code Alpha”, once it was for a cabin on the deck above us, and another passenger said it meant a serious medical emergency. On that occasion we heard afterwards that someone had died.

Last night the lights went up in the theatre, a message came over the system “Code Alpha Palladium Port Side”, there was a kind of crash team response, followed by one of the entertainment team coming onto the stage and instructing everyone to leave the theatre. Someone had collapsed in the theatre and suddenly everything changed.  The person was covered up with a blue blanket and everyone left completely silently.  That feeling of shock and gripping guts followed, then worry about whom it could be, how will their family be told and deal with it, thank goodness we are sailing really near the Australia coastline, how unlucky, did the "kind of crash team" have everything they needed, did everyone do the right thing, and after all that reflection, viewing it from my own experience and reference points, and so many mixed feelings including “don’t take a moment for granted”

So I will come back later for a look at the other day’s events xxx

Thursday 26/2/2015 Day 51 Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands, a very beautiful and warm 29C

The catamarans that took us on our 15 minute taxi ashore today were big and very comfortable, and there was a welcome party singing for us when we arrived, it felt lovely to be serenaded and greeted

And warm it was in every way today too.  We walked to and from town, but stayed in the shade after that, whiling away the hours drinking cola, water and coffee and eating the most delicious seafood platter.  Today I tasted an oyster for the first time – sorry if this sounds really uncouth but it tasted just like the whelks I remember so well from my Whitburn, Sunderland holidays!  I have just had an alternative serving suggestion involving a little cooking and garlic butter.  I must admit that sounds quite tasty. Otherwise it was scallops, crabs, calamari, prawns, smoked salmon and salad.  Fabulous.

Once we were back on board this afternoon we had a swim and a spa before my lovely yoga class and we are now back in the cabin with half an hour to prepare for dinner, when Khachik will definitely be trying a kangaroo loin steak. Our Australian dining mates Judy, Jim, Phil and Debbie have already suggested that Khachik should think twice about eating Skippy. Oh heck.

We are now setting off again inside the very shallow waters of the Great Barrier Reef.  We have 3 sea days up and round to the west towards Darwin and our Jumping Crocodiles experience on the Adelaide River. I love the way the sea days act like recovery periods and time for reflection and consolidation of what has gone before.  My goodness, we need it after all this luxury and brain stimulation.

Airlie Beach was so beautiful.

Back tomorrow x

Wednesday 25/2/2015 Day 50 Very warm Sea Day to Airlie Beach along the Great Barrier Reef

Most of today we have had a local sea pilot on board to help navigate through the very shallow waters along the part of the Queensland coast famous for the Great Barrier Reef. It’s at times like this that I understand the attraction of snorkelling (although I never took it up), because one of tomorrow’s tours takes groups out in a catamaran for snorkelling, swimming and deeper sub aqua.

 We will still be in Australia heaven as we will be spending the day on the beautiful land at Airlie Beach with Whitsunday Island panoramas.  The ship will be anchored 3 miles away from the coast and local tenders will be taking us across.

There are 3 captain’s nautical nuggets/ expressions to ponder today. “No great shakes”, “Scraping the bottom of the barrel” and “Slush fund”

Meat used to be preserved in wooden barrels and when the meat had been used up the residue from the barrels could be scraped out, sold on for use in candle making, the proceeds of which became known as a slush fund and would more often than not be used by the cook who had scraped the bottom of the barrel. 

No great shakes referred to the practice of shaking a barrel of liquid to see if there was anything left.  If there wasn’t much left (i.e. no great shakes”) the barrel could be broken down to save space.

We are fit as a butchers dog with all our walking, and calm calm calm with today's painting of a young woman seated in Virasana.

It has been a really lovely day today, and unbelievably already day 50!  Back tomorrow x

Tuesday 24/2/2015 Day 49 Arrived in Beautiful Brisbane

Another hour went back last night and then before we knew it we’d arrived in Brisbane at 9 a.m., were shuttle bussed to the city centre and found the South Bank.  Brisbane was another lovely surprise, made all the more enjoyable by the 28C all day.  Next came a little bit of essential shopping and a visit to an art shop for a hog brush and charcoal pencil by special request of Easa. So we made our way around the Queen Street Mall. Every stop we made, we asked for the next.  In the grocery shop we asked for directions to the art suppliers, success,  in the art suppliers we asked for the best place to eat Moreton Bay Bugs, and found an al fresco restaurant that served not just the Moreton Bay Bugs (like little crabs crossed with lobsters), but also massive, really massive prawns and melt in the mouth calamari like I have never tasted, with no crumbs, no batter just a very buttery garlicky sauce.

Now we have shuttled back to the ship, had an hour in the hot tub at the same time as the sail away party and are now preparing for dinner watching The Way We Were with Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. I went to see this for the first time about 40 years ago with my dear mum, while I was still at Manchester University. I remember it all so well, even our bus journey from Cheadle to Withington and back.  The movie had quite a lot of significance then (students, idealism, turbulent relationships, challenging the political Right), but now it’s just lovely to watch.

We have also just left beautiful, clean Brisbane for a sea day up the east coast towards Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday islands. This will be the third of four stops around our 9 days in Australian waters, the final one being Darwin on 2/3/2015.  Airlie Beach info looks very different – coastal, coral reef, white sand, turquoise sea.

Dinner finished and tonight was such a good night for a visit to the Palladium. The singer was Bruce Morrison and he did a pretty comprehensive tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musicals. By the end I felt as though I’d been to the Phantom again.  Stirring stuff.

Bye for now. Back tomorrow.

Monday 23/2/2015 Day 48. A sea day to our next Australian adventure – Brisbane tomorrow 9 a.m.

The sun is shining and the temperature is 26C, there’s not much movement in the ship so it’s another very pleasant sea day, a little lie in, breakfast with the young lady doing the wine presentation later, very interesting, then for coffee in the open air and a little exposure to the sun, and more food heaven for lunch, more passengers we hadn’t up to today spoken to – common ground most notably with a very nice couple from Ashton, who have relatives in Simmondley.

This is the start of the new sector, with nothing going on but the art. Looking at the itinerary we have shorter distances between ports on this sector, so it will have a different feel about it.  Today we painted a koala’s head with some success.  Easa helped me so much with eyes and shading that I asked him to sign mine. ;)

We have just registered our interest in a few excursions on this sector (and the next) and are waiting to see if we’ve been successful, many are sold out so we are hoping for the best.

Our enormous distance covered since day 1 now totals 16120 miles! Unimaginable or credible to me, nor is the sea depth at the moment of 2 miles, wonder if I should be using the word unfathomable?

Back tomorrow, bye for now.

Saturday 21/2/2015 and Sunday 22/2/2015 Sydney, Australia, and what a beautiful harbour it is!

Sector 3

It was 5 a.m. on Saturday that we came in to the harbour.  I wasn’t quite expecting it to be as beautiful.  Sydney has been off our radar, probably because it was such a long distance away and we hadn’t envisaged travelling here – long tiring flights being the main reason.  But here we are moving along at a leisurely pace with no jet lag. We were up and taking pictures of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the dark and then again at different shades of dawn. It felt very very special, and hasn’t disappointed in any way since.  Straight off the ship into the hubbub of a happy, multi-cultural harbour, Aborigine displays of dance, song, percussion and the “Didge”, along with some beautiful stories about the land.  We did a little shopping and quickly managed HSBC for cash, and Dimmocks for art materials.  We had nearly run out of Aqua Marine and Crimson, and as soon as sector 3 starts we’ll be back painting.  

The rest of Saturday went something like this – Circular Quay, Ferry to Manley, rest, Lunch, Beach, Art gallery, Ferry back to Sydney, short walk, back on board, swim, dinner, Aborigine Cultural Show ( longer and deeper than earlier, quite moving) then sleep.

And today we were awake again at 5 a.m. to feel the ship move away from the wharf and anchor about 10 minutes away to avoid congestion as another big one (Voyager of the Seas) was coming in.  Tenders were lowered again to take us over to the Opera House from where we walked past the Botanical Gardens and up to the Harbour Bridge.  So happy we walked both ways across the bridge today, and then walked some more.  Comfy 26C, good free wifi so lots of new pictures on Facebook.

Now we are back again having eaten and sailed away, ready for our sea day tomorrow on the way to Brisbane.

Since we arrived in Sydney we have moved up a loyalty tier! We have now cruised with P&O for more than 50 days (the total number of days cruising since our Med Cruise from 2009 and this one) and this means we had a visit from crew last night to deliver a mightily prestigious “Atlantic Tier” Lapel badge and an even more highly sought after voucher for a complimentary bubbly or alcohol free elderflower presse at the sail away parties, the redemption of which started with great enthusiasm tonight.

As I am writing this Khachik is doing some housekeeping, i.e. throwing away all of the Horizons from 6/1/2015 to yesterday, in anticipation of packing at the end of the cruise.  Ah well, you can never be too early with packing preparation. Let's hope my memory is better than of late.

Today here it is 22^nd February, so that means that it is almost 6 years since we were all waiting for the arrival of our beautiful Isobella Rose, who has made our lives so much more than we could ever have imagined on 23^rd February 2009.  We love you so much Izzy, and look forward to seeing you or speaking to you very soon.

So now it’s nearly bedtime, so I will say bye for now, and get back to you again tomorrow. 

Friday 20/2/2015 Day 45 Fourth Sea Day to Sydney – Art Exhibition for Sector 2

The high spot today (and reason for today's blog)  was preparing for and taking part in the art exhibition, and all the expressions of gratitude from a large group of people to a wonderful, good humoured man, Easa, for encouraging us  very light heartedly to produce things we could previously only have dreamed of.  The walls were full and viewers plentiful too.  When we get to Sydney we are going to renew some of our paints ready for sectors 3,4 and 5, and more really precious and really joyful moments.

 

So next up Sydney! Back tomorrow.

Thursday 19/2/2015 Day 44 Third Sea Day to Sydney, cloudy and warm 25C

Excitement is building for Australia in cabin D130, tomorrow is the last sea day on the Pacific. Ship’s crew are still doing so much to keep us fully occupied, especially as the weather has been “indoor style” – intermittent rain most of the day, with rocking and rolling.  The performance this afternoon by the Sector 2 Arcadia Passenger choir was very moving, and has me thinking it might be something I would try for one (at least) of the next 3 sectors.  The choir meets every day at 1p.m. so most importantly it wouldn’t clash with art.

The Captain still briefs everyone at midday and delivers a “captain’s tale” to enlighten us of the meaning of well used nautical expressions.  Today he told us the origin of bell bottoms, for those of us who thought it was a 60’s fashion statement, it wasn’t – apparently sailors found it very hard to keep the bottom of their trousers dry, and the introduction of bell bottoms was a uniform concession so sailors could roll them up more easily to knee height.  So now you know….  There have been so many of these now, 44 to be precise, so of course we are now wishing we’d kept a note of all of them. From now for the remaining 62 that’s what we are going to do!  We can vaguely recall things like “As the crow flies” – the use of birds as a navigational aid, setting them free and then following their course, as they always fly in a straight line to the nearest land.  Then there’s “toe the line” – referring to the daily, very disciplined gathering of crew for inspection and reminder of terms and conditions of service, toes lined up behind a given line.  “Marooned” – excuse me for forgetting all the details – this tale is about a group Camaroon seamen washed up on a desert island. “Letting the cat out of the bag” – relating to the use of the cat o’ nine tails as a punishment for errant seamen. Letting it out of the bag refers to the mandatory inspection of this instrument of corporal punishment after it had been used.

Just a quick update on the Hastings/Asatourian’s daily classes. Today’s art was absolutely amazing. We did a pencil drawing of a gorilla’s head.  I don’t think anyone will be able to believe that we did the gorillas, we are both quite thrilled with the finished items.

 Sector 2 exhibition again near Costa Coffee tomorrow, so we have sorted out our best offerings and are looking forward to this very much.   In dance we had our second go at the Rumba One sequence dance, but I have to confess that the two turns in the sequence plus ship’s movement forced me off the dance floor to take fresh air, no vomiting but very close!  Tomorrow we recap all our ballroom dances.

We stepped up our deck walking to 12 laps today, that’s one hour of walking. The temperature drop (to something more like we are used to in the summer) makes that possible, but it’s good to keep adding a lap of two, especially when Marco’s Baked Alaska came into play at dinner ;)

We are getting up to date with the port talks for Sydney and Brisbane too, and learning a bit of Australian history along with where to go and what to do.  We have an overnight stay in Sydney so we need to fit as much as we can into that time.  Get ready for some lovely pictures as we are promised a great arrival past the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

OK, that’s us for today.  Back soon! x

Wednesday 18/2/2015 Day 43 Second Sea Day to Sydney a rainy and windy one and 23C

 We have learned today that there are almost 1000 miles to Sydney, and the weather forecast is unsettled. The ship is moving from side to side quite a lot. The wind is force 6, heavy rain, massive waves, those Passenger Discomfort Bags have appeared again at various spots around the ship and there were a few spaces at the dinner tables this evening.

I am finding that when it’s really rough I just feel like lying down, and that works as there are no obligations to do anything. 

You will all be relieved to know that immigration procedures for Australia worked well and we’re both allowed in. No queues and all went like clockwork. We have registered our interest in a trip to jumping crocs in Darwin, otherwise it’s just as I mentioned yesterday i.e. “independent” trips in Sydney, Brisbane and Airlie Beach.  We will be 10 days all together in and around Australia from 20^th Feb. Sector 2 of the cruise ends in Sydney, Sector 3 begins in Brisbane and goes as far as Hong Kong.

Activities on board today were a little different – 6 laps round deck three with random rough sea zig zagging, immigration procedures followed by us opting out of learning the Paso Doble (mainly because we are unlikely to remember it, but also because we are unsteady on our feet).  This meant we had more time to chat with new people in the restaurant and also have a little rest before art. Art was actually quite hard today and neither of us are happy with our “sunset against cloudy sky with reflection in sea” – I shall describe mine as hideous, so I doubt it will be making an outing after today.

Painting this meant we missed the Chocoholics Buffet again! We must have a word with ourselves about this.  Three more sectors, three more chances at Chocoholics Buffet.

We haven’t been going to Palladium as much recently, but because the two violinists performing as Elektra got such wonderful reviews after their first performance 2 days ago, we decided to go tonight and enjoyed them very much. Popular classical pieces performed with attitude, and a finale of traditional Irish fiddle. Great stuff.

Much effort is being made to keep everyone occupied, comfortable and happy indoors. New films are showing twice a day in the Screening Room, 5 or 6 different styles of music and performance in the bars and theatres, three different visiting guest speakers, Arcadia TV (a chat show), a Port Talk, Arcadia Radio, talks about art and health, “sales” in the shops, two daily crosswords and a Sudoku. As I said yesterday there’s also food 24 hours a day.

That’s it for today. Back again tomorrow. xx