P&O SUE

The last time I saw Liverpool was Oct 2019, I treated us to hospitality with some of my redundancy! Got in just before you know what! First few times we went I just sent a £50 cheque and I didn’t know if I’d got the tickets until my stamped address envelope came back 🤣🤣

Interesting review thanks. As you know you got on as we got off. We found the MDR ok- we went as near to 6 or 6.30 as we could in order to allow for wait times . We went twice and only had the buzzer once and only waited 5 minutes. We went to the Beach House the first night and it was good - no problems! How strange. We are going on a similar itinerary to yours on Britannia in June, unfortunately Cherbourg instead of La Rochelle, we loved La Rochelle when we went before.

Morning one and all, that’s taken me ages to catch up! Graham - you were nearly on the same Aurora cruise as me! We didn’t mind it changing to Rotterdam as we’ve been to Amsterdam at least 3 times. Looks like you had a lovely cruise though. We also ate in Carluccio the night before the cruise! Glad your check up went well. Glad to hear your new health issue is hopefully ok Jane. @pepper's mum - welcome! Add me to the shortie list - about 5’1!

Yes it’s all going to pot in the football world! I can see me getting less interested soon!

school run? They’re still off here, it’s lovely the traffic is so much better 😁

Yes I’ve no idea who can replace Klopp, he’s such a big character and has done loads like completely changing all the training facilities. I’d rather Arsenal won than those cheating Saudis! 😏 Less said about the game the better! 😞

Morning all, not much to report here. Can hear the wind still but it’s not scary levels. John at work again so I’m just pottering about, I’ll be more stressed later though watching the Liverpool game - eek!

We saw Ray Quinn last year, he was very good. Good voice and some chat inbetween . He handled a couple of drunken fans very well! I was a fan from Dancing on Ice era 😊

I’m afraid it doesn’t seem to be getting better. I haven’t seen a GP face to face since you know what. Like Zap said people go to A&E because they don’t know where else to turn. I live in a very busy area unfortunately with more and more homes being built but no infrastructure to go with it.

Hello all, very mild here but very windy. I’ve just been down to my local shops and nearly got blown away! I took a photo of a very bent tree on the way, those cables were also blowing lots! John’s at work today and when he gets home we’re going to see Mum.

Ever since I’ve been having mammograms I’ve had them in a mobile unit parked up in a clinic or leisure centre carpark. Any problems from that you have to go to a hospital. I always just got an appointment in the post then you phoned if it wasn’t suitable. My most recent one I just had a letter telling me to phone to make an appointment. The phone was constantly engaged, finally I left a voicemail and was phoned back after a couple of days! As Phil said some people would give up I’m sure. Over a month ago I had a sort of very basic well woman check with a ‘healthcare professional’ I assumed she was a nurse but I’ve since discovered she’s not. Anyway she phoned up to say one of my cholesterol readings was a bit high and she would talk to a GP and get back to me. About 2 weeks later I phoned (which isn’t easy I normally wait til nearly 6pm then I get through) as I hadn’t heard anything. The receptionist said there wasn’t any notes on there so she’d make me a GP call. I wanted afternoon as I work most mornings. She said afternoons were for same day urgents! So I ended up having my call this week. The GP said she’d up my statins a bit and I should have another blood test in 6 weeks. I’ve just gone and collected the tablets. It’s a good thing I didn’t assume everything was ok! The GP also wanted my weight but the ‘nurse’ hadn’t done it at the check up. As I said it was a very basic one.

Ooh thank you, I haven’t had an email yet.

Thank you Jane, you are too kind. I’m sorry you are feeling so rough still, take it easy x

Morning all, miserable here, I woke up to the sound of the rain pounding down! Still got the light on at the minute. Hope all are well.

That’s so cute about your grandson! I’ll keep everything crossed for the op date, the stress of waiting doesn’t help! I was anxious I’d get a call from my mum’s Home just before we went away! I made sure they had my sister’s number though 😏

Ours is the one after, they’re identical itineraries though! I want to do Norway again but John wanted warmth!

Thank you Sarah, just a week to Northern Spain and Cherbourg. Two ports are new to us and La Coruna we have been to before but went to Santiago so that’s like a new port too!

Welcome home Britannia, we’re on her in June!

It was our first time on her! She is most like Oriana if you’ve been on her.

We already have a week booked in June 🤭

Thank you Graham, I hadn’t intended to write so much 😁

Finally Easter Sunday which was a sea day slowing sailing back to Southampton. It looked much brighter today so we went for a few laps round the prom deck. We looked round the few shops on board. We realised it was warming up and found some sun beds. It was a sun trap on deck and was very warm. I was sad I hadn’t packed lighter trousers but happy I’d remembered the sun cream! We had quite a chat with a group of women and a couple who weren’t regular cruisers but seemed to be enjoying the cruise. We then went into the buffet for lunch, we always found a table there. We then had to head to the pub as Liverpool were playing, I’m glad we were the 2pm game and not the later one. We got settled about half an hour before and it was nearly full. Five minutes before kick off the signal went off! 😞 About 10 minutes into the match one of the passengers fixed it! 😂 so we missed Brighton’s early goal but happily we won 2-1. We then went and packed (boo!) and decided we’d have our final meal in the Glasshouse. Everytime we’d looked at the app/non app it said ‘queue full’ but when we had lunch there we just walked up and got straight in! Anyway off we went to the Glasshouse and heard the guy tell the people at the front of the queue they had to join the queue! They must open it just before the evening session. So John got his phone out in the queue and we joined at no 12 or 13. We got to him and showed him we were in the queue so we sat and had some wine while we waited. We decided to wait in the chairs just outside the Glasshouse but it was rather frustrating as we could see many empty tables and they weren’t calling people. Five minutes after we sat down we heard the guy at the podium telling people it was full! So we were lucky. It was about an hour and a half before we got in though! Anyway I had the fish and chips which were very nice and John had the fish stew. I then dragged John to see the Celtic Harps at the 10.30 show, as I expected they were better in the theatre, it wasn’t that full at the late show but everyone seemed to enjoy it and even John was joining in with the clapping! So to bed for the last time. Monday morning we were up at 6am, off the ship and in our car by 7.50am and home at 10.10. A lovely break and I do love a tiered aft 😁

Saturday was a whole day in Rotterdam. Unfortunately the weather was very dreary and rainy. After breakfast in the buffet I went to the cinema onboard for the 10.30am showing of ‘The Book Club’ Part 2. I hadn’t seen Part one but I didn’t need to. It’s about four American women of a certain age who go to Italy and all sorts of adventures happen. It was an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half! John wasn’t interested so he went to Raffles for coffee and then back to the cabin. There were about 16 of us in the cinema, mostly women! I do like a proper cinema on a ship. We then had lunch and went and sat in the fabulous Crows Nest. I read my kindle but I also just sat and watched the busy river. The water taxis are mad, they zip about so quickly. The rain came down and although I did want to go up the Euromast I’m not sure the views would have been that great in the weather. Also the easiest way to get there seems to use the water taxi but they did go very fast! I can’t believe I’m writing this but we stayed on board all day! Every time we thought we’d get off the rain came down plus my legs still ached! Formal night or ‘ Celebration night’ as it’s called now as we left Rotterdam. We got seated in the MDR - again not by the window! The menu looked uninspiring at first but we did enjoy the food. My main was the beef with garlic prawns. We then went to the theatre for the first time - big size for the size of the ship. It was the Headliners with ‘Applause’ which is one we haven’t seen before. So pleased we went - it was very good. Three of the lads and the lady who took the main parts were really good. They got a very good reception and loud applause. Two of the men did splits in the air and the cruise director said we could see why they had to cancel the first night show. They finished with a medley from Les Mis, always enjoyable for me! And that was another day over… The video is one of the water taxis. Amazing sunset over the Euromast. IMG_0523.mov

Ok, so we left Aurora about 3.30 and headed over the bridge and found the Cube Houses and the Market Hall. We didn’t go into the cube house that’s open as it’s very steep steps and John’s knee isn’t good! Plus being Good Friday it was very busy. We looked around the Market Hall which is an amazing building with art work on the ceiling (pic below) We had a very nice ice cream and found toilets (cost 1euro but it did take cards) Then - the trouble started! We got lost getting back to the ship - I was sure it was one way but John took us a different way! He kept looking at maps on his phone and every time he looked it said 30 minutes! We’d look again 15 minutes later and it still said 30 minutes!! When we finally saw the Erasmus bridge I nearly cried with relief! My phone said I’d done 22,000 steps! My poor feet and calves! I was beginning to think I’d have to phone the ship and ask someone to come and get us 😂 We crashed onto the bed when we got back but not for long as we wanted to get to the MDR early. It was already 6.30pm. We got changed and went to dinner, we managed to get a table for two but not by the window! After dinner which was fine we went to see the Celtic Harps in Carmens. John wasn’t that impressed, it was mostly Irish songs and they had good voices. Then we had a little walk on Prom deck for photos and a Passionfruit Martini in the Crows Nest before retiring for the night.

Oh blimey Jane, what a shock for you. Thank goodness for that lady seeing you. Sending gentle hugs xx