Ocean Blue

Eeeeuuurgh!! I've just spent the best part of four days on that there ship. I can honestly say it was one of the least pleasurable experiences of my life. Way back in the year, D decided he would really like us to go on a mini-cruise, to celebrate our anniversary in September. At the time I didn't give it much thought and was impressed by the very reasonable price, so told him to go ahead and book it. Big mistake. It was only recently that I began to realise that this little jaunt would mean around 35 hours stuck on a ship to Spain, about 4 hours actually in Spain and then another 28 or so hours to get back to good old Blighty. Add to this that I am a renowned motion sickness-sufferer and I started to panic. "You'll be fine!" everyone told me. "You can hardly feel it move - take some tablets and you'll be okay." Yeah. Right....

So, I spent the whole of Tuesday inside my teeny cabin, trying to stop my stomach from rolling with the ship. It was like trying to sleep on a roller coaster. I wouldn't mind, but the sea wasn't even remotely rough! Never have I been more happy to see dry land than when we reached Santurtzi in Spain early on Wednesday morning. It didn't matter that it was one of those slightly crap port-y towns where not a lot is open and you have to eat weird food for breakfast as there's not much choice. I would have eaten a scabby Spanish donkey after refusing all sustenance on Tuesday for fear of its reappearance.

I was gutted we had to get back on that floating hell-hole after just a few short hours. However, I decided I would peruse the on-board shop while the ship was still docked and discovered the miracle of 'acu-bands'! Now, I have tried these before, when I worked on the trains and, quite frankly, they were crap. However, desperate times and all that, and these seemed quite swanky, so I thought I'd at least give them a go. I sat out on deck as we left and there I stayed for the next 8 hours or so. I felt fab! No ickiness whatsoever while I was out there. I even managed to see some whales blowing and dolphins frolicking, which is what I was really looking forward to. I also managed to snap this bootiful sunset, which, believe me, was no mean feat on a rocking boat with a force 10 gale blowing around you.

I have to say, that Thursday was much the same as Wednesday, just chilling out on the deck, sitting in the glorious sunshine (and the force 10 gale!) and watching the scenery go by. Well, when I say scenery, I mean the sea-nery really. I even quite enjoyed myself, but was very disappointed not to be able to take part in the bingo, game of Family Fortunes or to watch the P&O Players do their Abba tribute.... Hmmm, maybe not!

I was rather glad to get home last night after our somewhat epic journey. I don't think it's one we'll be repeating again soon. Or ever.