Day 1,

tickets in hand, 

and we were soon our way,

on the train to Victoria coach station, 

and on to the coach, 

look that is us!

at the P & O terminal, 

we were all set, 

after dropping our suitcase off in the terminal, time to explore the ship, 

did I mention we had a glass of bubbly to celebrate the start of our holiday?

as we waited to cast off, we would be travelling to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Gibraltar, before arriving in Morocco, 

we carried on exploring, one of the 2 pools, this one with a movable cover,

and then I found the pub, 'Cheers!',

Diana had a J2O,

then into the lounge for cocktails, 

I am not sure what Diana ordered, but a pina colada for myself, 

we took them back to our cabin, 

'Cheers!', to the sea,

the cabin was quite nice, 

well it is going to be our home for the next 2 weeks,

our cabin even had a bath,

the cabin was big enough for both of us,

we then had another walk around, 

and a quick pose, 

before a bite to eat, we spent the afternoon strolling around the ship, now here is a thing is it a ship or a boat? easy way to find out is to ask the navy, in a naval context, a ship will heel (lean) away from the direction of a turn, whereas a boat will heel towards the turn, or in simpler terms ships are built to withstand harsh, deep-ocean conditions, they are entirely self-sufficient, with massive fuel reserves that allow them to operate on the high seas for weeks or months, boats operate primarily in inland waters (lakes and rivers), calm harbours, or close to the coastline, but as with all rules, there are exceptions, despite their massive size and ocean-faring capabilities, submarines are traditionally referred to as "boats" rather than ships, as Lance Percival famously said, "ship, boat, who cares so long as it floats",

next it was time for our evening meal, 

before the show,

we arrived early,

and snagged a couple of seat just a few rows from the front,

I popped to the bar for a couple of drinks, 

a Baileys for Diana and a spiced rum for myself, the show was just so good, then back for a walk along the deck before we were back in the cabin for a good nights sleep, back to today in the UK. I dropped Diana off to work in the afternoon, then spent the rest of it making a slideshow for some of my photographs, I am with the help of Jay, (a lot of help from Jay), attempting to make a website to sell some of my photographs, the slideshow is here, or you can watch it below, 

great fun making it, after which it was time for my evening meal, as it was a bit warm, a ham salad that Diana had left for me, after which I watched the usual Outback Opal Hunters and Deadliest Catch, before,

 

Vikingdom: Blood Moon, my first impression was that the music was just wrong, given the theme of the film, apart from that nothing remarkable, next pick up Diana from work and have a coffee and a chat as we watched a Antiques Road Trip, before we were off to bed.

We Are Back!

and what a great time we had,

we have been a tad busy since our return, so Diana has not had enough time to send me all of the photographs, so this will be a on-going post as Diana sends them, I know this is day three,

and we were in Portugal, I think!

as always we go ashore to sample the local produce, 

and start with a small coffee and breakfast,

selfie time!

and then a walk,

I am showing Diana a photograph I took of her, 

next a walk, 

before another coffee break,

we sampled the local wine, made from of all things tomatoes, it was rather nice as it happens so we bought a bottle, 

we continued sightseeing, 

so many steps, that is my daily dozen or more done for today!

climb up the steps and take a tuk-tuk down?

back to the ship, 

in the evening time for a show, and good it was too,

for 2 evenings I tried my hand at the blackjack table, both evenings I was sat next to a charming couple, whose names I regretfully did not take a note of, they gave me, a first time novice a blackjack table, so much help and encouragement, if you are reading this again many thanks I really did appreciate all of your help, but after the second night it was obvious I had absolutely no blackjack skill at all, so I called it a night for the rest of the holiday, before I lost the farm as they say!

I forget where we went, but after a day out, a drink by the pool,

a lager for myself, 

and surprisingly a pina colada for Diana, she was really getting into the holiday sprit, 

'Cheers!', as we tuck into our breakfast, I have to say the food onboard was excellent, 

I should point out that some evenings it was a black tie event,

a amuse bouche before the meal, after a starter, 

our main course, 

another 'Cheers!',

before our desserts, 

and one more during them,

then time for a late evening stroll around the deck,

with a cocktail each as the sun went down, this is the first of a few posts of our holiday, we went to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Gibraltar and Morocco, more of those in later posts, now back to good 'ole Blighty, we arrived back in Southampton after the cruise, we had booked a coach to take us back to London, but we were a few hours early for it, so we paid a extra £18.00 to change tickets to the earlier coach, 20 minutes after leaving Southampton the coach ground to a halt, the gearbox had a hissy fit and refused to go on, so we had to wait for a spare coach to be sent, it was galling to see the coach we were going to be on go sailing past! I looked at trying to claim the £18.00, but one look at the form told me that it would be a uphill struggle, so that was £18.00 down the tube, arriving home our Internet was still not working, worse still having made a appointment for when we returned for the engineer to call, he arrived 1 week into our holiday, so that was it, we than had to make another appointment for him to call back, which we did and he has now fixed the fault, before we left everyone with BT had their Internet cut, but it all came back on except ours, he plugged a bit of kit into our wall telephone socket and showed me a device that had 622 in green on it, apparently the problem was 622 metres away! soon all was well again, when everyone's Internet went off the main roadside box was the culprit, everyone was reconnected, except us! someone forgot the last two wires we were told, which is why we were the only one with no Internet, on to the next problem, our front door, 

this is our front door, and nice it is too, but, it does not conform to the latest fire regulations, so all of the flat owners are having to have a new front door fitted and the old one taken away, 

the new door looks like this, anyway having paid a deposit of 50%, well over £1,500, it was our turn to have our one fitted, but, you guessed it, the fitters would not take our door as it had a painted over sheet of asbestos on the back of it, so they packed up their tools and left, no idea what is going to happen next, but a specialist asbestos removal firm will have to be called in, on to the next problem, on the buildings fire alarm box, a yellow light was on, a battery had failed, we had notified the buildings managing agents some months ago, we had tried calling the company that fitted the alarm, but they could only take instructions from the management company, eventually the fire alarm company called round, the problem being as no one had told the fire alarm company the system decided to ignore the alarm when a new battery was fitted, so that meant that the alarm sensor had to be replaced, and the sensor? in our flat! why does this sort of always go wrong for us? a new sensor has been ordered, everything is now back to normal as far as our lives are concerned, on Diana's first day back it was a 05.00am start, so no change there then! I spent the day trying to make a slideshow for my photography website, with not a lot of success, must try harder tomorrow!

 in the evening time for my read and sherry, 

for tonight a huge tuna salad that Diana had left for me, in the evening I watched the usual Outback Opal Hunters and Deadliest Catch before a Midsomer Murder, after which Diana returned home so it was a Have I Got More News For You, so everything back to our normal routine, after Have I Got More News For You, we were both off to bed.