Keeping our 'end' up.....

Its 9am on Saturday, I think, you lose all track of the days on ship.  And we have just landed/parked/docked - whatever you call it - at La Spezia.  What a beautiful little place it is as well, nestling in the hillside, a really pretty Italian town.

Carol is still in bed, hence my being here.  We had a bit of a rough night, the pain in my armpit kept me awake most of the night and she got up with me at 3am to have coffee and some pain killers, bless her.  This morning it feels much better.  Im hoping its the Sutent kicking in (4 doses so far)  The lump there has definitely grown again (bloody thing)

Generally though Im feeling SO well, really really well.  In fact I have so much more energy than usual - my appetite is great as the waistband of my clothes can testify !  Cruising obviously suits me !

Today we are going SHOPPING.  There is a market in the town (I LOVE markets) and a lot of nice little shops.  Which is good because so far we have spent very little money - Martin will be relieved about that ! - so we intend to put that right today !

Im not sure what Maz and Barbs plans are for today - Im sure they will hunt us down soon to check we are ok.  They are so sweet really, worrying about us 40somethings when they are both well into their 80s.  I can feel another Bingo session coming on - which wouldnt be so bad if we win, the prize for a full house is around 100 quid.

We have also been adopted by one of the waitresses - her name is Bruna and she is from Sao Paulo - I spotted this on her name badge, said 'Obrigarda' to her and that was that - we are as good as related now.  She bustles over to us when we go to the restaurant, gets us the best seats by the window, and fetches our drinks.  Actually, to be fair, the staff are ALL fantastic.  Nothing is too much trouble and they are all so polite.  There are all nationalities employed on here - in fact the crew are holding their own football 'world cup' - Indonisia were thrashed by the UK yesterday 9 - 0 !

There seems to be a bit of rivalry in the cruising business.  When we left port yesterday even there were 3 other cruise ships still in dock.  One German, one Italian and Im not sure about the other one.  Anyway, our Captain came over the tannoy and explained they always played a certain piece of music over the ships loud speakers when departing if other ships were there - and to watch the reaction.

Yes - ofcourse - he played 'The Great Escape' !!

The Germans completely ignored us - even when we waved frantically at them as we passed by.

The Italians were a bit better, they waved but then let the side down by playing 'O Sole Mio' - from the Cornetto advert - which seemed a bit pathetic really compared to our stirring anthem.

So - as far as cruise ships go......UK 2 - Rest of the World 0 .............