We have thrown ourselves into cruise life with gay abandon.. the house band who are really very good doing covers first set disco stuff and then a selection of rockier numbers, then a young woman with a stunning voice doing more covers.... and then we actually did a quiz!!! What a night...
Today we were in our last port of call... Lexois - about 18 ks from Oporto... we havent bothered to go into the big city we are citied out but left the boat to have a, walk along the local town promonade to ..... yes.... some rocks!!!!! Dr Fred has started a bad bad case of rock yearning so it was a complete relief to see this little craggy promontory at the other end of the esplanade. Hopefully it has given him a fix until we reach Southampton in a couple of days.
Dr Fred had what should have been his last evening stargazing tonight, but the weather was terrible and the boat moving about so much the water flying out of the swimming pool made it unsafe.
We both attended a formal lunch - really nice interesting people - one chap was a coffee taster and another guest gave me a great idea for alternative bread and butter pudding... but mostly the chat was about Dr Fred and space.. we've been very clear when 'working' that I'm there as the 'help' with no expertise on astro matters - wouldn't do to get negative feedback due to people thinking I was an incompetent stargazer, but everyone is so friendly and welcoming I'd be surprised if there was bad feedback about anything Dr Fred was involved in.... of course I didn't execute any of my plans about activity disruption or staff stalking so no reprehensible behavior to report 🤣🤣. No rich husband either but I'm quite happy with what I've got.
Dr Fred gave his final lecture on the last sea day. It was very well received. Its been a busy fortnight... fun but quite a lot of work.
The weather has changed..its raining and windy.. the Bay of Biscay has a little more movement and the ship is rolling quite a bit. But we have our sea legs and its not an unpleasant feeling. Actually i really quite like it.. its lesss biring than just motoring along. The 2 days at sea on the way home didn't seem so far ... mainly because we spent a lot of time chatting to people we have met... some really nice people - some we might keep in touch with - most of the guests are very pleasant and I've only witnessed a couple of unpleasant exchanges - as long as you stay away from polictics all is good.
We went to the farewell party... I really don't know what to say... very surreal experience... a couple of large glasses of wine made a lot of difference🤣
We've eaten a lot of food - it's going to be a shock going back to shopping and cooking... its only been a fortnight but its amazing how quickly you can get used to being waited on... thinking about it.. I dont really need an astronomer at home but maybe theres another role to be filled...
We have enjoyed this whole experience and look forward to the next one. Its been great fun - surreal at times and very different to our usual adventures. Its so good to have seen some interesting places and have some winter sun.
Awww fabulous! 🤗 I'm thrilled you've had such a good time! Can't wait to hear all about it 👍 xx
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