Sunday 23 July 2017

The start of the holiday........

We finally arrived, a good deal later than either of us had hoped, due to a flat tyre at The House of Bruar ! What should have been a simple hop and skip to Dundee cruise terminal was rather more difficult. With the fast service from the NFU insurance rescue service and the absolutely great treatment by the maintenance men at the house of Bruar, we were not worried by it, and were on our way in about an hour and a half. The car was duly parked in the multi storey car park and a taxi ordered to travel the 500 metres to the terminal - which is impossible to walk due to the restrictions, port passes and security men ! We hardly had to queue at all, oddly the late arrival meant that the vast majority of embarkees had already boarded and were by then, clearly swigging a cocktail in the captain's club. After a simple and fast book in we found ourselves heading for the buffet, having not eaten since our ( very fine) cooked breakfast at 8.30am, I certainly was feeling a little peckish ! The waiter kindly brought me some ham and cheese on a plate......the afternoon tea buffet fare, delectable as it is, is very bad for my diabetes......so I was discliplined, restrained and altogether angelic re my food ! Muster happened, the deeply unattractive life jackets were donned, the walk to the lifeboats made, and the general regulations regarding the fact that abandoning ship is always the very very last resort, were made and then we were free. I made for the spa and had my Grosvenor like locks cut and shaped - so I will now be respectable for another few months. The hairdresser was from Belgrade and chatted enthusiastically about his family and son who lived in a Serbian village where they grew strawberries for their income. He was very passionate about the war and very sad that the country had never recovered from the horrors and general slaughter so working abroad was the only way he could support his family back home. He was also quite a bad asthmatic and another reason for ship work was that his medical issues were cared for at no cost, something which he could not afford back in his homeland. We are so very very lucky. It is almost dinner time, I am sitting drinking a non alcoholic cocktail which is probably sugar loaded, but tonight I feel the need. A sea day tomorrow........bliss.

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