Land ahoy!!!
I'm back and better than ever!
It was great! Even the part where I got tripped during the life boat drill (yes, before we'd even left port) and ended up with a super-sprained ankle!! Go me! I was basically in bed with my foot propped up on bags of ice for three days, but that gaveme plenty of time to read (The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell is brilliant; the History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein is silly but lots of fun and worth it for the cover illustration alone; The Warmest Room in the House by Steven Gdula is an interesting and informative look at the twentieth century kitchen, decade by decade. I also was forced - forced I say! - to watch The Imitation Game again. Such hardship) and it was way, way better than being home cleaning and doing laundry and making meals and being overwhelmed by existential angst.
The weather was perfect - 68-72F and not humid, light breeze, no rain. I saw dolphins mucking about beside the ship, Stromboli volcanoeing at dusk, walked through the ruins at Herculaneum which was mind-blowing, had lunch in Rhodes which is a proper ,edieval walled city, drank delicious wine in Santorini, and got to see six very detailed X-rays of my left foot and ankle - it's aways interesting to see you insides, especially from a distance
We also managed to leave Rome (after two hours of delays which the desk staff were entirely too Euro-bored to make any mention of or give any explantion for) six hours before the big huge airport fire that closed it for two days. Totally coincidental. Totally.
On the downside, I caught a cold on the plane on the way home which is par for the course - planes are basically metal tubes filled with germs - but we got upgraded to business class for free without even asking. OMG!! The crew is NICE to you! You get to use metal cutlery! They give you a little pouch with a toothbrush, sleep mask, earplugs, full-sized headphones and ugly grey socks! There are tic-tacs on your dinner tray! You can get both ass-cheeks in your seat instead of just the one! No wonder they put up those curtains - I am surprised there aren't more in-air mutinies.
I watched Mr Turner on the way over - beautifully shot and acted, and there's a very good reason everyone expected Timothy Spall to be nominated for best actor (alas,he just wasn't as pretty as Bradley Cooper, I guess) - if you like this sort of thing, this is absolutely the sort of thing you'll like
So what have you all been up to??