Getting Ready for the Next Adventure

This is a warm-up post... I'm slowly but surely packing for a very different kind of experience to anything I have had before.  Next week Dr Fred and I are going on a two-week cruise across the Bay of Biscay and down to Morocco and back.. all this is courtesy of Dr Fred - well sort of - Dr Fred's up and coming exploits are soon to include being the stargazer extraordinaire for some of the Fred Olsen cruises.  This is all down to being part of the Go Stargazing team https://gostargazing.co.uk/ who have recently made a comittment to providing on board astronomers for a large number of cruises over the next year. 

Dr Fred is doing the inaugural Go Stargazing cruise leaving Southampton next week and heading for Morocco via Madeira and home via Portugal.

What's rather fabulous for me is that he's allowed to take a companion with him and although he has been threatening that unless I behave myself he'll find somebody else he does realize that if he doesn't take me he won't have anywhere to come home to. 

However to be clear here, this is not just a jolly. Obviously Neill ( who doent even get to cruise) at https://gostargazing.co.uk/ has put an awful lot of work into this... a lot of planning...a lot of negotiation... hes collected a team of experienced profressional astronomers including Dr Fred who have now to deliver a cohesive series of lectures, lunches, and stargazing sessions while travelling the world... While these are mostly enjoyable they are actually work.  However, I as the glamorous assistant don't really have to do anything - other than enjoy two weeks on board a luxury boat with endless food, swimming pools, Dance classes, art classes and some really interesting speakers alongside Dr Fred. 

So as I usually pack for camping in the middle of nowhere and take the oldest tattiest clothes I have I am now slowly trying to sort out real clothes... clothes smart but casual or even casual but smart! It's at this point I realized I have more onesies (polar bears parrots Scotty dogs etc)  and oodies (in several shapes colours and sizes) then I have real clothes... and I have had to go out and buy proper shoes i.e. not walking sandals not wellingtons .... this trip will be an education.

The picture illustrating this forthcoming trip it's a beautifully handmade card by a very kind friend of mine. It shows Dr Fred and myself having a Titanic moment (with telescope) it's absolutely beautiful and I will frame it as a momento of my foray into cruises - this trip is the first of several.... watch this space.🚢