Black Watch: December 2012

In late October I'd found a really good deal on a single with Fred, & which included 4 days at sea out of 9. It left early Dec, so there wasn't much prep time - esp as I had 2 weekends in Edinburgh planned already ~ for the SRU Autumn Tests.
I was packed a few days in advance & got an early train down to Southampton.
There was an Olsen shuttle to the port & I met a few others on the same singles deal. Then, there was a very fast process thru check-in, & I was 1 of the 1st on board :-)
I had 2 cases, & the smaller 1 was full of shoes ~ No kidding! 
3 trainers (pink, green & orange), 1 pr of blue sheepskin boots, 5 prs of heels (black, cream, brown, white & green), & 4 flats. 
Well, I am a girlie after all, & I had several long & mid-length dresses packed, too  ;-p
Once we'd sailed-away there was a lifeboat drill, & I ended up standing next to a lady called Maggie - also on her own. More about her, later.
For the 5th anniversary I had organised a cruise on the QE2, & we were in the hot tub on deck when we passed the Needles. I wanted to do it again on the Black Watch, but there was no water in it  :-(    Poss because it was December??
So, I went to the Hair & Beauty Salon welcome party instead, drank some champers, & bought some expensive conditioner ~ oops.  It was good, tho.
Then I went to the gym & got chatting with the SA gym host who told me there'd be classes most days. Oh good. Helps counteract all that food I planned to eat  :-q
Next up was a wash & brush up for dinner, where I was on a table with 7 other singles: 5 men & 2 ladies.
As expected, dinner was nice & tasty, & I got a bottle of Merlot. Remembering the couple next to us at Kinloch Lodge, I had 1 glass with my steak, & left the rest for another day. As usual, spends were limited, as ~ even though the cruise was reasonable, Christmas was coming, & I didn't need to drink more than a glass.
I found there were 4 dance hosts aboard (3 men & 1 lady), so that was good. 
As was the show. They were young & energetic, & had obviously worked out how to dance on a moving floor. Very clever.
Then it was time for bed & I discovered there were films on the cabin TV, so I was up late watching 1. Well ~ I was on holiday!
I must talk about breakfast next. 
Morning 1 I asked for plain oats so I could make my own muesli mix. By day 5, they got the message that's what I wanted for breakfast.
I would have really liked a proper cup of tea instead of some stewed brown stuff out of a flask, but I couldn't persuade any of the waiters to make me a fresh one. Gordon Bennett! They gave you fresh coffee if you asked - why not fresh tea?????
Anyway ~
The 2 next days we were At Sea: crossing Biscay & sailing down to Lisbon. The number of peeps at lunch & dinner dramatically reduced ~ we were pitching & rolling a lot, & there were loads confined to their cabins  ~ calling for Hewie, possibly?
There was a guitar recital one afternoon. I bought a CD for Mum, & the guy signed it for me. There was also a bit of a dance class 1 afternoon, & I ended up dancing Man for a bit. Only a bit of waltz, a social foxtrot, a rumba & a cha cha, but better'n nowt. 
After dinner there were shows, & I was even more impressed at the dancers' ability to pretend they were on stage & not on a ship. I bumped into Maggie just before the 2nd show on night 2. We sat together & had a bit of a dance with the hosts afterwards.
I was usually one of the last to leave, but managed a movie in bed usually!
Day 3 we docked in Lisbon, & Maggie & I went exploring & swapping life stories ~ like you do! ;-p
We walked bloody miles, including round a fashion museum, but eventually ended up back in the main tourist shops & cafes area. Our morning coffee out in the sticks had been 1/2 the price of the one in the big square. Ah well ~ I wuz on me 'ols  ;-p

Lisbon Sailaway

The band played until it was more or less dark

There was a statue on the hill at Lisbon, & a big bridge

That night (after the exercise class at tea-time!) it was meet the Captain, who, because of some bug or other that lives on cruise ships, did not shake hands with anyone. I have a photo taken by the ubiquitous ship's photographer, but I gave it to Mum for Christmas. (Since then, peeps have asked if it was my husband ~ harharhar  :-@ )
After champers with the Captain ( I managed to get 2! ), there was more food, more dancing, & another DVD.

Next morning we had berthed in Portimao, & Maggie & I got the shuttle into town about 30 min walk away.
Cute town, but I was watching the pennies, so didn't spend on anything other than a coffee. I did look at the sheepskin slippers, but they were an arm & a leg, so I didn't buy any. As Maggie wanted to shop for pressies, I took a walk to the other end of the promenade, took some stork pics, & walked back to the ship for a late lunch. It was a lovely day - very un-December like (& I was in my favourite shorts), so it was no hardship.

Tall chimneys with stork nests on top all over the place

There were lots of storks & lots of chimneys

There was a passengers' "Millionaire" comp on before dinner. I won it, & had quite a lot of fun taking the Michael out of the bloke being Chris Tarrant. It was a bit weird because, afterwards, people I didn't know would say "hello/goodbye/whatever, Shirley", & smile at me when I went in for meals. Apparently it was entertaining, tho, so that was nice. 
I didn't win much btw. 
Just some points (& not even a million of those, either) which I could exchange for gifts on the last day.
After Millionaire there was a show, then the usual, dance & DVD before bed.
Have to say, tho that by this point I was getting fed up with the waltz, quickstep, rumba, foxtrot, cha cha programme every night. It rarely varied, & when I asked about other ballroom & Latin dances, the reply was, "Most people don't do them". How poo is that?

I had been going to the gym fairly regularly, & next morning ~ having been woken during the docking procedure, I got up early & took a few pics of the Gibraltar dawn before doing a pre-breakfast gym session. 
I chose not to disembark, having been to Gib before - for whole week in Aug 1983 when Mum & Harold were on hol there. 
I'd been staying in Torremolinos with Dad, got the early bus & then the early boat out of Algeciras to Tangier, spent most of the day in Tangier, then the boat to Gib in the evening. 
In those days, you couldn't walk into Gib from Spain, but, weirdly, you could walk across the border the other way. Which is what I'd done before catching a bus to Benalmadena & a connection back to the flat. 

Anyway, spending money being what it was, I figured I'd spend the day aboard, & drink drinks & eat eats I'd already paid for.
The dawn was nice though, & I remember watching a 2-man rowing team head out through the harbour, disappear into the distance somewhere in the Straits, & then come rowing back after having done a big dawn circle. The boat's on 1 of the pics, but is too small to make out.

We were At Sea again the next 2 days. 
Brill :-D  
I much prefer days as sea, usually.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the order of events now ( in Feb 2015), but over the next few days & evenings I recall doing some karaoke; going in the sauna & Turkish a lot; dressing up Caribbean style one evening; watching a singer, a comic & the guitar man again; crying when the Trio in the Braemar Garden played "I Dreamed a Dream"; sitting in the Observatory lounge doing my knitting*; & doing the 70s thing at a 'disco party' one evening.
Food & drink wise, I finished the 1st bottle at dinner & went for number 2, & I also went to the 'midnight feast' a couple of times. However, I still managed most of the various gym classes on offer, as well as doing a few hours on the treadmill & the occasional swim.
* I began the jumper in 2006. It'll be finished 1 of these years ~ maybe on its 10th anniversary next year???

Stop 4 was La Coruna ~ with a wiggly thing on the n.
It was somewhere I'd fancied wandering around, so I set off on my ownsome. Maggie had hooked up with other singles who were quite a bit older, so maybe she didn't want her feet walking off again? Well, she was several years older than me ( 60's? ), so given the distance I walked that day, it was probably a good call.
Off the ship I went right, & along the prom passing the Castillo de St Anton, a museum, several beaches, & ending up by these monoliths. I'd seen them in the distance along the Paseo Maritimo & eventually got there.

I can't remember now what these rocks were - & I've lost my notes. 
Well, it is >3 yrs ago!
They remind me of something .    .    .    .    .    ?








Continuing round anti-clockwise there was this lighthouse. It's called the Tower of Hercules (Torre de Hecules), & is a Unesco World Heritage Centre: Roman apparently. 
It was built about 1900 yrs ago & is the oldest Roman lighthouse still in use.
I didn't go in, or even very close. Maybe next time?

Still walking anti-clock I saw this little red boat headed out to sea, some interesting rocks & some exciting waves. I spent Ages hanging about waiting for a nice big wave for a good pic. Shame about the damage to my lens :-/

Not sure what the peeps in the boat were up to??

While I waited for the boat to get in shot, I took this pic of a lovely street lamp. I think they were all along the Paseo de Maritimo?
Cute

Re the Paseo Maritimo, this is what Google said:
El Paseo Marítimo, el más largo de Europa con más de 10 kilómetros recorre desde el Castillo de San Antón hasta el Portiño, envolviendo la ciudad.

That would explain the distance ~ see below!

And I have absolutely No Idea how I managed to get this pic so big?

Doh!

By the time I got back to the ship I'd done more than 12K  ( I know, cause I've just Gmapped where I walked! )
As it happened, I got back just as Maggie & co got back, so we all had afternoon tea together, & went on deck for the sailaway.

This was from aboard as we left the city, sailing north out of Ria de Coruna.

The last 2 are photos of photos. 
The 1st was a postcard in my cabin, & the 2nd a pic of an 8 x 6 pic taken by the ship's photographer one evening.

Having seen it, I shan't be wearing that shawl with that dress again!




We had another day at sea going back across Biscay, during which I took my 'points' down to the shop to get my prizes.
Thanks to the Millionaire win, I had enough for a CD/DVD holder (which I now use for my backing track CDs), & a couple of Black Watch lipstick/compact mirrors (which came in handy as little gifts for a couple of mates).
I also got a fridge magnet with a pic of Captain Neerland on it. I defo prefer the Taranaki one, tho ;-p

We docked early the next morning. 
When I went down for my muesli as usual, I met Howard, another single. He's Welsh, & we had a great chat about rugby. We swapped Es, & he still sends me jokes - many of them very non-PC ;-p
I guess when you get older, you're less bothered about what people think? 
I mean, look how old ladies behave in front of young attractive men. Good on 'em, I say ;-) 
One of these days I'll be an old lady behaving badly hehehe.

After brekkers, disembarkation went smoothly, too, & after a couple of hours at the station I was aboard the train going through the snowy countryside south of Reading. 
Bizarrely, it actually got less snowy the further north we went, & (as usual) there was no sign of snow in Blackpool.
So, there endeth my 1st solo cruise, & having tried it once, I booked myself onto the Royal Clipper 2013 sailing out of Barbados & crossing the Atlantic.
But that's another story.    .    .    .    .   !
OAO