Some stats

GP’s work an average of 3 days a week

When the Greenland icecap melts the seas will have risen by 8 metres. That’s most coastal cities under water.
When Antarctica melts there’ll have been another 30 metres sea rise. That’s massive land mass shrinkage globally.

A Queen termite can live up to 50 years.
An insect living for FIFTY YEARS?!
She lays an egg every 3 seconds.

Wild animals now only represent 4% ( by mass ) of all the land animals on Earth.
That’s NINETY SIX percent that are domestic pets/ bred for human consumption.

So move to Milton Keynes.

Cruise.

Would I go on another cruise?
Well I imagine not all cruises are the same…

This one was definitely ‘Wetherspoons does cruising’.
We paid enough to expect silver service waiters and restaurant quality food, along with the odd string quartet on Black Tie nights, but we definitely didn’t get any of that.
I suspect that in the situation that they hadn’t sold enough cabins with a month to go, and then had to offer big discounts to lure customers, P&O then downgraded the experience to protect their profits.

We definitely had a good time, but that was far more to do with the ports we visited and what we did on land, rather than anything to do with the Floating Travelodge.
The best day was the last stop at Vigo, where we met old friends of Lizzy – Sophia and Mark – and had a real laugh and great food/ drink.

All the eating we did on land ( and neither of us exactly eat a lot ) was far far better than anything on the Good Ship Premier Inn… and we just ate at places we happened across quite casually ( rather than anywhere with any kind of recommendation/ review that we’d seen )

The entertainment was definitely Butlins ( and yes I have been ) and so was adequate for the assembled crowd on board, which I think was mainly there because ( for them ) it was a bloody bargain experience – 2 weeks at sea with pizza and chips for less than you’d pay in Margate.

A lot of people didn’t actually get off at the ( beautiful ) places we docked at, which says a lot about their cultural attitude I suspect. I mean I’m not exactly sophisticated but it really was SO MUCH more interesting/ rewarding to the eye in every way OFF the ship.

It’s a pretty old crowd on a ship, with lots of people with ‘ mobility issues’ though a large percentage of those were weight related I suspect. Yes, you will struggle up the steps in you are 5 foot 3 and 20 stone. Maybe have less pizza rather than ‘ getting your money’s worth’ because you’ll probably never lose the extra stone you put on in the 2 weeks on board – not with that level of inactivity anyway.
Just saying!

People were definitely friendly, and the staff were fairly attentive ( but hardly amazing, as we’d been led to believe they would be ). For example on 3 days no one came to clean our room.

So would I go again?
Yes, but I don’t think with P&O. Maybe they should stick to cross channel ferries?

PS Obviously Lizzy was amazing was start to finish, and without her non stop help I couldn’t have even considered going!

x

Oh and it’s been a while ( and yes it did used to happen ) since someone told me I looked a lot like Daniel Craig… but a lady went to great lengths to tell me I did… though obviously his wheelchair twin.
Still can’t see it myself but hey how can you not be a bit complimented… though of course he’s actually older than me and a bit of a short arse. Notwithstanding those 2 things I was grateful for her saying… 😊

Am I the first person in history to go on a two week eat and drink as much as you like cruise…

And come home 3 pounds lighter than when I left?

I asked Gina, my Carer, if she’d missed me.

She said no.

After 2 good weeks at sea, it’s back to usual. I’m at the mercy of the British Railway services.
No staff, no one to answer the Help button, no Guard that gets off the train to help me, staff that are sometimes so unfit slow moving, and so bereft of any sense of ‘ customer service’ that I am left feeling both helpless and alone.

This wasn’t supposed to be how I am.

I’m In a bloody great electric wheelchair so I can’t even take my chances on the roads via Triride.

And I’m spasming for all I’m worth.

I did go back on antispasmodic medication in the hope that they’d work out for me this time. The effects? Possibly less spasming ( good ✅) SIGNIFICANT deterioration of my mental processing and memory ( 🤷❌❌❌❌❌)

I simply HAD to come off them. It’s one thing being a spasming Spaz, it’s another being a bewildered Spaz.

Yesterday we stopped at Cartagena. Having had to divert from the Italian ports, we got some more Rome yesterday in Cartagena. In 1991 they discovered that there was something Roman underneath layer upon layer of buildings, going back 2000 years.
A large church even impinged on the area they were interested in. So after removing all the ( really shoddy ) flats that were there In 1991, and then underneath those layer upon layer of building works, they found a very much intact Roman open air theatre that would have accommodated 7000 people.
This is now open to visitors, and yes they have lifts too, so even I could have a wander around.
As later builders ransacked/ reused the Roman blocks and pillar segments there were all sorts of walls and raised areas made out of incredible pieces of carved Roman architecture, that had just been used as hardcore upon which to build really basic housing. To see what was there in terms of architecture 2 millennia later, it does pose the question ‘ how much had we really progressed?’

All the places we have stopped at have had beautiful architecture, and it’s all very different to the UK. Narrow alleyways seem to in all these cities. We like our big gaps between houses in the UK. People don’t like their neighbours too close. Having buildings close together and then long narrow walkways makes for very shady and therefore cool area between the buildings. We don’t have that ‘ it’s too hot ‘ problem in Britain… maybe in a hundred years we’ll build stuff differently… once climate change has made it 35 degrees Centigrade at Christmas?

Imagine living in a really bad flat one year, with really poor quality buildings right next to you, and then a few years later having a Roman theatre to look at out yer toilet window..?!

Apparently we’ve just sailed across what used to be considered ‘ the end of the known world’.

I expect that shortly we’ll fall of the edge and never be seen again.

The mahoosive ship is literally kerbside to the town…

View from our cabin…

So if you look at this picture of Alicante, what do you see?
Beach? Bars? Marina? I’ve no idea.

What I see is that fort on the top of a hill. And I want to go up there! Before my injury I’d have wanted to run up the hill to the top, or at the very least walk up.
I’d definitely not have wanted a coach or taxi or anything… I mean what would be the fun in that?

So at 3.45 and knowing that we HAD to be on board by 5.30 ( and having had a few glasses of wine by now ) I’ve got this irresistible urge to Triride up there. Lizzy ( quite understandably and logically ) doesn’t think it’s the best plan and tells me so.
But anyway… of course I do… and it’s worth it.
Worth it mostly because it was a challenge I just had ✅ off. I don’t know why I’m like this, but I am. Those that are will totally empathise. Those that aren’t won’t understand my ‘ compulsion ‘.

Hi to those that understand 👏🤦‍♂️🤷

😅

Never seen so many people in wheelchairs… as in Valencia.
Well other than in Stoke Mandeville!