The Adventures of Podge & Tubbs

Breakfast this morning gave its mixed emotions. One of happiness and even smugness as we were starting our 2nd of 3 back-to-back cruises and so while most people were either leaving or preparing to leave, we were staying on. On the flip side however, we had to say farewell to some of the loveliest people we could have met 😭, including the lovely Lady Valerie: She was a lady but not a ‘Lady’ though she was in our mind 😋.

After our exchanges of emails etc and tearful goodbyes we went for a wonder around the ship which by now was slowly emptying of so many friends and waiting for so many new friends to board in the afternoon. As we often did, we went downstairs in the atrium for a coffee to people watch. On this however we heard a different sound: We heard the sound of a large group of children and looking up we saw what we believe was a group of local children on a school trip around the cruise ship. Both Debbie and I always commented on how well turned out the school children were in the Caribbean as were these. After this we returned to our suite and had a chat with The Ninja and the subject once more turned to the price of chocolate in the Caribbean compared to England or Europe: The Ninja clearly likes chocolate, a point that was stated in the front of our memory banks. After this we relaxed on the Balcony watching people disembarking prior to new people embarking.

Then, at 12:15, The Duchess went down to the Spa for her 12:30 manicure appointment. Much to her chagrin, they could find no record of such an appointment but Mrs Me insisted she one and, had prepaid for it. They did agree to do the manicure, but she would need to come back afterwards with a copy of the booking. When she returned, with nice shiny nails she was extremely annoyed that they had no record of her booking. Well, we went through all the paperwork and found that it was actually booked for the 17th of March not the 8th – Oops. 🤣 At least no blame could be apportioned to His Podgeness though somehow he still felt that it was going to marked as his fault! 🥴

That evening we had booked ourselves on an excursion to Oistins where the otherwise sleepy fishing village of Oistins holds its weekly street party. Everything we’d read about it and from feedback from other travellers it certainly seemed like ‘the place’ to visit so we were certainly looking forward to it. For us I’m afraid, it wasn’t that great an experience: It certainly looked as though a lot of the younger generation were loving it but us oldies found it a little bit too boisterous. We walked up and down the ‘market’ and eventually selected somewhere that could offer us a table: They did this by placing a folder table, which was leaning against the side of their stall, by the kerbside and put four chairs around it. While we’re sitting and going through the menu and watching the world go by just 2 feet away from us another couple were sat down next to us. We all sat there looked at the menus with occasional glances at the youths of the day going by and selected our gastronomic delight for the night plus some much wanted beers after which we introduced ourselves and got chatting. It turned out that the other couple (Sam and Mary), of similar age, were from Ohio and had the same views on the evening plus life in general as us. Like two old grumpy couples we exchanged our [matching] views on pensions, healthcare and of course, the youth of today but recognising, reluctantly, that back in our days, we ourselves were the then ‘youth of today’. The one thing we did object to however was the having to breath in the rather strong exotic aromas of funny cigarettes (It’s bad enough having to endure this back home at the weekends) but accepted that this was part and parcel of the Caribbean. The experience led us into talking about our own health issues such as my lungs (Stage-3 COPD) and Sam’s heart. It turned out that Sam had, relatively recently, the need for open heart surgery for which his insurance had to pay $3,000,000 and he had to pay $20,000 excess! I think us in the UK should perhaps moan a little less about our own NHS which, I have to say, has always looked after me extremely well. Had I not smoked for so much of my younger years perhaps I wouldn’t need so much looking after 🥺

As we finished our meals and drinks, we bade each other Bon Voyage. We ourselves made our way back towards the coach pickup point though stopping on the way to witness the live entertainment of a DJ playing very load music and some youths break dancing: We never did however find the promised more genteel and more traditional ballroom dancing, just west of the central area where there was supposedly a chance to enjoy social dancing and listen to quieter ‘Oldie Goldies’.  So, we returned to our coach for our return trip to the ship. Once on board, we made our way to the Crow’s Nest for some rather more civilised Cosmopolitans and Malt Whiskies before retiring to bed, once more the day after we actually go up.

Step Count: – 9173 🥴