16 days is definitely too long to be away from home - especially when you’re a control freak. During our cruise the artist son and his wife discovered that they’re having a baby boy (Oscar); our daughter celebrated her birthday and the London son started a new job. Anyway, we’re back now - to grass a foot high and mounds and mounds of washing and ironing.

The cruise was good although as we were swaying through grey mist, grey skies and grey sea for two solid days we were not amused by Sky News reports that the UK was basking in the hottest May weather on record. Our fellow cruisers were not in the first flush of youth - or the second or third come to that - in fact I believe there were at least two deaths on board during the 16 days we were away. On our car journey home we stopped at a motorway service station and my husband just kept repeating ” doesn’t everyone look young”. Institutionalised is the word that springs to mind.

We did see some lovely places though

Split

Gibraltar

venice

we had some lovely meals

saw some beautiful sunsets

and posed for lots of photos

and we saw the QE2 so many times that I was getting confused about which ship I should be boarding

The ports of call were Cadiz, Cephalonia, Dubrovnik, Venice, Split, Corfu and Gibraltar and if you're off on a cruise and want any info on any of those ports leave a comment and if I can help you I will. As for the cruise - if you're going on a P&O cruise for the first time make sure you take a decent mirror with you - all the mirrors on the boats are smokey grey and so are the windows so you could be walking round with eyebrows that should have been plucked weeks ago and you'd never know! Our boat was the Arcadia and again, if you'd like any info on that let me know.

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