D&N

We had our tests on 28th May in Nice Airport at 12:45 local time. Our tests were reviewed when checking in at Southampton at 12:45 the following day, therefore 25 hours later. There was no suggestion from the check in agents (I assume one was training the other) that there was anything wrong with that.

We've had quite a few of Nora's outfits for years. Some are designer items that we picked up in final reduction sales. More recently we've bought a number of items from SHEIN. Depends of course on whether you have any qualms about buying from a Chinese company. They produce thousands of new items each week, most of which are absolute rubbish so you need to refine searches quite a bit. Their MOTF collection is where we find most of the decent things. Generally the more expensive it is on their site the better the quality. You need to carefully look at body and garment sizes described and relate these to the sizes given for the model displaying them, and whether there is stretch in the fabrics. If available check out the feedback where real people have posted how they look in the garments. 1 evening outfit, all or parts of 7 lunch outfits and some accessories came from SHEIN. The grey floor sweeping gown came from JJs House, another Chinese outfit. They specialise in wedding wear. The site isn't as good at giving detailed sizing but they do made to measure as well as standard sizes.

In two weeks on Queen Mary 2, Nora made herself a cup of tea in the cabin once. Otherwise all beverages other than water were taken in lounges around the ship or our restaurant. Therefore we had no opportunity on board to taste the Pol Acker. Mysteriously over the 14 nights the initial bottle seemed to reproduce and we ended up bringing 3 home. We used it tonight in one of our versions of Aperol Spritz and it was absolutely fine. I also tried a little of it cold but in a room temperature glass, and it wasn't that bad. We can buy sparkling here from a little more than 1 euro per bottle. I can assure you it tastes better on it's own than that!

Will do. I've a list of tasks to complete. I have most of the 2nd weeks menus to scan etc. Good thing I'm effectively retired!

As I commented in a reply to the QM2 position thread we even had a great trip home, getting here 3 hours earlier than planned. We've been unwinding for well over 7 hours now. We couldn't really call 14 days on Queen Mary 2 a holiday. For us it was an intense high tempo experience. Absolutely brilliant of course but I don't think I'd want to do it too often. We normally live a fairly laid back life. I'll reflect on the last 14 days and figure out what might be useful or amusing to others and post on those topics. I have a video to look at as well that will require editing and perhaps needs a particular soundtrack added. That might be quite a bit of work. 🤣

Ha ha ha. You deserve the Sherlock Holmes Prize for investigation!!! Not a washing line in sight either! At 05:04:00 you would have caught me on the balcony in Cunard Robe photographing the sunrise! So 5 minutes 12 seconds too late. Absolutely brilliant. We're no longer there of course. British Airways kindly advanced us to the flight 3 hours earlier than booked and we were back home at 15:15 French time

It's been great, but we really love where we live. It's first we've left it for this long in over 6 years. And our cats await!

This morning on the Solent passing Netley. Sunday 12 June 2022. From Queen Mary 2, Deck 12 Starboard side balcony.

These are probably the last pictures to be posted from onboard. The dress is an old faithful that fits beautifully now but also looked good with another 30+ kilos under it. And it can be thrown in a bag and come out perfect.

I carefully walk down a stair ahead of Nora with a solidly braced right arm extended in case she stumbles on her heels. My left arm ready to grab left bannister.

The niece who is currently living with them gave them some 'Hazel Ham' this morning. So they might not want us back! Hazel will only eat the soft fat edge of certain types of thin sliced boiled ham. As a treat of course, they do eat catfood.

And we were tested at Nice Airport on 28th May, a full 8 days earlier. I'd be surprised if that was acceptable.

We think there has been a slight but noticeable increase in mask wearing on QM2 since beginning of week. We rarely use lifts, preferring our 191 stairs in each direction. Have only shared a lift once with last week's table companions. With a severely disabled immunocompromised relative we are acutely aware of risks of being asymptomatic and passing it on. And last week's street party and the UK immigration queue were potential super-spreader events.

We were not required to test before disembarking at Brooklyn on Sunday 5th June. Immigration only looked at and machine read our passports and took fingerprints. They weren't interested in anything else.

And these were today's after lunch photos. We're nearly packed for Fast Track disembarkation, flights checked in and lady at Pursers desk printed our boarding cards. After 14 nights away we are really looking forward to getting back to our cats.

Just catching up now. Weather been good for a while now. Ocean often looks stunning in sun. There's a lot of stunning on this ship of course. There's not been much in way of unpredictable movement for a few days so dancing has not been affected. The couple that fell last night were carrying on and not paying attention to what they were doing. Although windy it gets quite hot outside in direct sun.

Had they actually been dancing I would have danced close to them and discretely alerted them to it. I think there was one other couple on floor dancing Tango, the others including her were sort of throwing themselves around. I strongly suspect she knew and couldn't care less. Likewise the couple falling was result of them carrying on and tripping over each others feet. But you may have a valid point.

Oh what a night! We've seen things tonight we certainly didn't expect to see in the Queens Room! Started off at 9 pm with combined bands and Brian Moore's first number. To illustrate to Brian Moore what I was talking about last night we foxtroted around sticking closely to perimeter. Soon became obvious we were on another solo. A bit in I led Nora over to centre and did a bit of ballroom jive. We're not jive specialists. Then some jive walks back to edge and finished the number in foxtrot. The rest of set wasn't too bad. We managed a reasonable number of dances without non dancers getting in road. There was one point where someone snapping veterans walked right across floor in front of us and not while he was taking photos. Moved on to Exxile in G32 and danced their set. Back to QR to catch end of a foxtrot. Half way round floor the number finishes and the couple a few metres ahead fall on top of each other. Rushed to help but they didn't hit anything and thankfully appeared unharmed. Next number is a tango. We stay up for that and various others get up. Some of them do tango and others various weird things. I noticed something odd about a lady ahead of us so started dancing Nora in a series of on the spot reverse turns. The lady's lace topped hold-up stocking had lost it's grip and was hovering just above her ankle. A couple in the audience had spotted this too and caught our eye. We had to restart several times before end of dance due to our uncontrollable mirth! Good Night.

And Nora on her own. I don't get in way of dress.

And here are our Roaring 20s outfits. We'll Nora's, I just wear a matching tie. This might be a slightly more difficult venue to find; staircase C decks 9 and 10 have mainly blue versions of the starburst carpet and decent wall backgrounds. We found it by accident last time Nora was wearing blue.

And the real reason I came on just now: The penultimate lunch outfit...

The old boys are quite active in ballroom and disco!

I typed something there had to refresh and lost it. Introduce yourself if you see us and I'll explain. Too much to do to include culture.

In an earlier post I described being thrown about on the G32 dance floor, and being near bow. It is of course near stern. I dare say there might have been a completely different type of motion had it been in bow.

Quite pleasant today, and although conscious of movement overnight it was always more soothing than anything else. Sea is probably 1 to 2 metres with nice white peaks, which sun catches from time to time. Wind very low but must have been higher overnight as deck 14 closed off.