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Not Very Live on the Lizzie

rakkor

By rakkor,
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rakkor "Live from...." Rare

rakkor

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October 15th

 

I'm back on it, even though I hated the alarm going off at 06.50, I dragged my carcass out of my pit and up to the gym for my morning's run. I came back to the room with a cup of tea from the Lido for Jane. She's not well, apparently her gills are up, which I think means she has a sore throat. We'd shared a lunch table with a lady who was complaining about the "Cunard cough", so maybe she had caught it from her. After a shower I breakfasted alone in the Lido, assuming that I would read my book while eating. It wasn't to be, the Lido was packed with people going off on shore excursions, so I sat with Sarah fom the forum and her husband before returning to the stateroom bearing a second cuppa and a banana.

 

Jane was up and feeling better, so we decided to get a early start and head into Heraklion for a frappe and to get postcards. We had a complimentary shuttle to he dock gates and it was about 20 minutes stroll from there into town. It's not a very picturesque place Heraklion, although the Venetian*Harbour is pretty enough. After posting the postcards we headed back to the ship for lunch. It was still too early to eat, and I fancied Giros, but we were struggling to find something to fill the time before eating, so back to the ship it was. We'd decided to take time to do the laundry. It's amazing how much we are creating, some days I'm having four changes: running kit; fencing kit; day wear and evening wear. The standard wash takes 45 minutes, so we sat in the sun on the balcony, before sticking the now clean clothes in the dryer and heading for lunch.

 

Once lunch was done, the washing was nice and dry. It was time to head up to deck 9 for a little lounging around in the sun. We snagged a couple of beds and it wasn't very long before Jane saw one of our table companions, Gina, so I plugged myself into music while they sat around chatting. A couple of hours of that and it's time for tea and a slice of cake.

 

It was soon Commodore o'clock and the call to deck 10 was overwhelming. Janes*cocktail of the day is a return to the Cosmopolitan, while I had a refreshing Red Apple Fizz.

Jane's second cocktail was another old favorite, the Breakfast Martini, while I had a very nice pint of Marston's Pedigree. We sat and chatted to Pat and Giana far beyond the 18.00 dress code cut-off, so didn't get much of a rest back in the room before dinner.

 

We were back up to 10 for dinner, as expected Peter and Linda had had a tiring day yesterday and retired early. For dinner I had had chicken livers to start followed by roast turkey, nice but not a massive portion, so I supplemented my dessert with cheese and biscuits. Jane and Giana wanted to see the show, The Troubadours, a male quartet. They very much enjoyed it, so I may go and see them when they return on Monday.

 

https://blog.rakkor.uk

 

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rakkor "Live from...." Rare

rakkor

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October 16th

 

It was a slightly earlier start for me this morning, as I had a shore excursion booked. I was in the gym for 06.45 and did my morning run. I went straight from the gym to the Lido buffet to get some breakfast and a cup of tea, and the headed back to the room to eat it. Jane wasn't coming on the excursion today so she had ordered breakfast from room service for 8am. When I got back to the room Jane was still in bed and decided to steal my cup of tea.

 

I had arranged to meet Pat and Giana in the Queen's Room at 08.10, where I got my "yellow 12" and we headed off to the coach to Olympia.

 

Many ruins later and the obligatory pose on the starting line we headed to the museum. All of this was very interesting, made much better by our guide, Helen, who was very informative and brought the whole Olympic spirit to life. After stopping at a tat shop, we were back in the coach for Katakolon where I had arranged to meet Jane for lunch.

 

Our guide had recommended a restaurant, so we headed there. We ordered a platter of small fish and a platter of small meats to share between the four of us. Good job we're on a diet.

Lunch was massive, we had ordered two Greek salads, a small fish platter and a small meat platter to share between the four of us. The small platters turned out to not be very small, so by the time we had finished we were all stuffed, with a lot of food left over. After posting the postcards, I waddled my way back to the ship, leaving Giana and Jane to look around the port shops.

 

I headed to the stateroom for a little rest, I must have nodded off for a minute, because we ended up missing Commodore o'clock. So we watched a film on the TV before getting ready for dinner. It was another informal evening. Not feeling particularly hungry both Jane and myself started with a pear and baby spinach salad. I had fillet steak for a main and Jane had spinach and feta strudel. We both managed a dessert, chocolate soufflé and blueberry cream tart.

 

We didn't bother with the show, opting for an early night instead.

 

https://blog.rakkor.uk

 

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AllieBallie

AllieBallie

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I shall get Jane to research the Expresso Martini in the Commodore Club tonight. She's back on the Cosmopolitans and her new favourite, the Breakfast Martini

 

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Thank you. They are not on the menu but I thought they did serve them. They are a favourite of mine [emoji12]

 

I was looking at the menu for the Commodore Club and wondering how many of the 20+ martinis that I might be able to get through in a 12-day cruise [emoji6]

 

 

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Alibobs

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Thank you. They are not on the menu but I thought they did serve them. They are a favourite of mine [emoji12]

 

I was looking at the menu for the Commodore Club and wondering how many of the 20+ martinis that I might be able to get through in a 12-day cruise [emoji6]

 

 

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I think you should aim for all of them!

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rakkor "Live from...." Rare

rakkor

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17th October - Sarande

 

Yet another early start today. This time we are both on a shore excursion. At least the early start was softened by the clocks going back an hour last night when we moved from Greece to Albania. After the usual run, I headed back to the stateroom for a shower and to chivvie along Jane into going to the MDR for breakfast, I did this with the promise that we'd have a table for two rather than sharing. I ordered up figs and prunes as did Jane and followed that with smoked haddock and poached eggs.

 

We went straight from the MDR to the Royal Cort to get our badges and headed on to the tender as we'd anchored at Sarande. We then had an interesting drive through the mountains to the picturesque market town of Gjiroskara, I use the word interesting, Jane said it was bloody terrifying!

After the Commodore Club and a second Martini, breakfast variety, this time. We headed back to the room for a little rest, and then it as time for dinner. It was informal again, we don't have a formal night until the Captain's cocktail evening on the 19th. While we were getting ready, we took advantage of the 6pm lull and stuck on some laundry. The launderette is usually very quiet at that time.

 

Dinner was very good, I had chicken and leek terrine followed by partridge, and since it was roast beef night I got a couple of Yorkshire's thrown in for good measure. Jane had a mushroom and tarragon tart followed by the beef.

 

It was a gala night in the theater with Lorraine Brown and the Troubadours doing a variety act, *Jane and Giana toddled off to that while I was boring and went to bed.

 

 

 

We visited the castle, before getting some free time in the bazaar, and then onto the coach for the interesting drive back. From our journey to Gjiroskara, Albania itself hasn't got a great deal going for it, it's fairly run down and littered with waste and detritus.

 

We didn't eat while out, as we never really had the opportunity, so when we arrived back, we popped up to the Lido for a quick snack and waited for 17.00 and the cocktail hour in the Commodore Club.*

*The cocktail of the day was a Cosmopolitan again!

 

https://blog.rakkor.uk

 

 

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rakkor "Live from...." Rare

rakkor

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18th October - Messina

 

I had another lazy day today knowing I was going to be doing a lot of walking on our shore excursion. We were doubly lazy, not getting up until 08.30 and drifting down to breakfast in the MDR. Jane was feeling particularly antisocial so we ended up on a table for two and unusually, it was fairly isolated, so there was no-one near for me to chat to. I had figs and prunes followed by kippers and poached eggs.*

 

We then made our way down to the dock side were our coach was waiting to transfer us to Taormina. This is a very pretty town, with a very scary approach along hairpin bends and vertical drops. Jane was not happy, especially after yesterday's interesting drive through the Albanian mountains. After getting dropped off we were given 3 hours to see the sights. Well, we had a plan, postcards, coffee to write them, *pizza and any sightseeing we could fit in.

The postcards and coffee were accomplished toute suite, so we took a stroll along to the Greek Amphitheatre for a bit of culture. There are a lot of steep drops all around the theater which gave Jane jelly legs on more than one occasion.

From there we walked back through Taormina, to get some stamps from the Post Office, and then the main event. Pizza time, Jane has been desperate for an authentic Italian Pizza for ages, and I know Sicily isn't really the home of Pizza, but notwithstanding a trip to Naples this was going to have to do.

It was very nice indeed, made so much better by having it served with ice cold beer on a very warm day.

 

It was then time to head back to the Queen Elizabeth and afternoon tea !

 

We had a really, really lazy evening. Jane was exhausted and full after the Taormina visit, so we'd decided to give the Commodore Club a miss tonight and watch a film instead. We watched Florence Foster Jenkins, very enjoyable, before getting ready for dinner.

 

Dinner was, as usual, excellent with a chicken boudin starter and a chicken curry main. Dessert was a hazelnut parfait, heavier than I thought it should but very tasty. The petit fours were a mixture of lemon marshmallow and praline cakes. Germane our waiter left a plate full of them on the table after dinner was finished and I ate the lot. I don't seem to have an off switch for that kind of thing.

 

Carrying on the lazybones theme, we didn't go to the show, but straight to bed instead.

 

https://blog.rakkor.uk

 

 

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rakkor "Live from...." Rare

rakkor

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19th October

 

Today is a sea day, and as such has been designated as a learning day. It started off well, as I leapt out of bed at 06.50 with my alarm clock blaring out. I got dressed and headed of to the gym for my run. I then went back to the room as I'd forgotten my Polar Heart Rate Monitor. Eventually I got back to the gym and set off jogging on the treadmill. 5 kms later, I was on my cool down and I noticed that my performance index on the machine was 46. Now I have no idea what the number means, but on the first day, my run had a PI of 41. So the first thing I learned today is I'm 5 whatevers better at running than I was before the cruise. I may be fatter, but I'm fitter.

 

After a mad dash of shower and breakfast in the Lido, it was time for fencing. We'd been bumped again to the 08.45 slot because of a lecture on LS Lowrey in the Queen's room at 11am. As is usual for the early session, there were only two of us, Eve was the other swords person. It's good when there's only two though, we got a lot more time free fighting, which was fast and frenetic.

 

I got back to the stateroom for my second shower and change of clothes of the day and it was only 09.40. Jane was just back from doing some ironing, and was now heading off upstairs to do some sun worshipping while I headed off to the first of three lectures.

 

The first was a lecture on architecture, given by John Sherlock, entitled Greek orders and illusions. It was very interesting and I am now much better informed on the difference between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian architecture styles.

 

The second, was Margaret Gilmore's second lecture on terrorism, entitled Terrorist Hunters. I saw this lecture on the QM2 last December, it has been updated covering more recent events, but it was pretty much the same.

 

The third was a lecture on Nat King Cole by Dave Mackinder. This is the first in a series entitled Singers of the Great American Songbook. Again I really enjoyed this lecture, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's lecture on Dean Martin.

 

All this education was making me hungry and I'd arranged to meet Jane back at the stateroom, before heading to the MDR for lunch where I had salad and a sandwich, roast beef. Jane had left her book etc up with Giana, so I headed up to deck 9 with her to get a little sun. Jane has a massage booked at 15.15, so after a while chatting with Pat and reading Jane disappeared off to that and I snuck off for a snack while she wasn't looking.

I actually fancied a nice coffee and after a pretty horrendous experience of the muck dished out by the machine in the Lido at breakfast, I opted for a latte in the Café Corinthia. It was better than the Lido, but I still wasn't enamoured with it, I prefer the coffee served up in the MDR.

Jane came back from her massage "in agony", the girl had given her a right pummeling. I don't expect it will stop her going back for another though. After all that excitement it was Commodore o'clock, so we headed up to deck 10 where Jane asked for a Watermelon Martini, which she failed to get, it wasn't our usual steward so he may not have asked the correct question from the barman. In the end she opted for the Breakfast Martini, always a good choice, and I had a Red Apple Fizz.

We didn't hang around in the Commodore Club for too long, leaving well before the 6pm dress code cut-off. It's the Captain's cocktail party for the CWC members as well as being the Masquerade Ball, so tonight was a formal night. I was in the white tux, as I'd popped a button on my black tux jacket, and not having packed a sewing kit, wasn't in a position to repair it.

We headed down to the Queen's room for cocktails, when we saw Giana and Pat in the Golden Lion, so we made a detour to say hello and ended up chatting with them, and then joined their team for the 8 o'clock quiz. We're not right bright, only getting 9 out of 12 questions correct and then getting the wipeout question wrong. The format of the quiz is you can bet, points scored in the first part of the quiz on a final wipeout question, which we got wrong anyway. It wouldn't have mattered if we'd got it right as the winning score was 2000, and the most we'd have got would have been 1800.

 

Dinner was excellent again, with a Serrano ham starter and Fillet steak Rossini for a main, Jane had rack of lamb, so was in seventh heaven. Hazel and Jeff taken advantage of Captain's cocktails, Hazel had had "3 or 4" glasses of bubbly and was very lively, they are a fun couple and a delight to have as dinner companions. Petit fours were passed around, and the surplus left on the table yet again, which meant I couldn't keep my hands off them.

 

The entertainment in the Royal Court theatre were and acrobatic act, this wasn't really my cup of tea, but I did enjoy it.

 

http://blog.rakkor.uk

 

 

 

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AllieBallie

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Thoroughly enjoying sharing in your cruise.....just over 2 weeks for ours and this is a real good taster.....thank you x

 

 

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Rakkor, I'm enjoying your posts very much too. Can't wait to get onboard!

 

We are on Queen Elizabeth(Q620) in just over 2 weeks. Are you on the same cruise Tangoqueen?! We're looking forward to it so much [emoji851] Rakkor's posts are really whetting the appetite - literally and figuratively!

 

 

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Tangoqueen

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Rakkor, hope you both enjoy your last few days at sea. I don't think you've made mention of the evening dancing in the Queens Room, perhaps it's not your thing. If you get chance could you let me know who the dance teachers are on board at the moment and the name of the Queens Room singer if you don't mind. Many thanks x

 

 

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rakkor "Live from...." Rare

rakkor

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October 20th - En Route to Cadiz

 

I woke a little before my alarm this morning so was ready for it when it went off at 06.50. Jane was telling me to get back in bed while I was getting ready for the gym, but as this might be the last chance I get for a run I was determined to go. Once we past Gibraltar tonight we'll be in the Atlantic, and if we have "Sea State lumpy" running on the treadmill might become problematic. As it turned out I needn't have worried about running on the next few days. I was just jogging through 4.5km when I started to feel my Achilles tighten. I decided to complete my 5k, but as just as I got there it went on me and I had to hit the stop button. It loosened up again after I'd cooled down a little, but it's not good.

 

We lazed in the stateroom for a while before going for a late breakfast in the MDR. There was no fencing class today as there was a tat bazaar going on the the Queen's Room, so we had a quick look in there before heading on to the Royal Court Theatre for the first of today's lectures. The Captain, Assume Hashim, was giving a lecture on the ship operations entitled Virtual Bridge Tour. Informative, interesting and very enjoyable. The Captain is obviously a people person, both witty and self deprecating, you can see why he has made it to the highest echelons of Cunard.

 

I had about 30 minutes up on deck 9 with Jane before it was time for my second lecture of the day. John Sherlock was back again with the second of his architecture lectures, this time covering the Roman period. Very good again, I learned a lot and I will certainly be going to his next one's assuming they don't clash with fencing.

 

I dined alone today, Jane was going to get a jacket potato in the Lido for lunch, so intending to be good I headed to the MDR only to be tripped up by a very nice burger and then the best trifle I have had in a long time.

 

The third lecture was Dave Mallinder's reprise of Dean Martin's life. An extensive lecture covering his early life in Ohio, the Jerry Lewis and Rat Pack years, and through to his death on Christmas day 1995.

 

Jane had stayed on deck 9 making the most of the last of the sunshine with Giana. Jane came back to the room, and we decided to go out and have a fancy coffee in the Cafe Carinthia with Pat and Giana which passed a little time, the American I had today was much nicer than yesterday's latte. On the way back we spotted another of our dinner companions, Thirsa, in the Queen's Room where she was watching Gretchen, another of our dinner companions, take part in the tap dancing classes, Gretchen was pretty good, soft shoeing to a track from Chicago. After that it was time for a rest back in the room. No Commodore Club for us tonight.

 

We had arranged to meet up with Pat and Giana for the quiz again tonight in the Golden Lion pub. We had got ready very early, so ended up having a look at the sale items racked up outside the ladies boutique on deck 3. Jane saw a pair of trousers she liked, but at 195 USD they were a bit tasty for me. She the saw another set that she liked, and this time they were more to my liking at 42 USD, so she went to try them on. The boutique doesn't have a changing room, so she headed back to the stateroom to try them on, leaving me in the shop as collateral. Well they fitted and she liked them so bought them, feeling very pleased with herself when she got 50% off, a bargain at 21 USD.

 

I was sent to the pub to grab a table for the quiz while, she took her purchase back to the room. So suitably lubricated with a pint of Pedigree, and joined by Pat and Giana, we proceeded to go*on and win the quiz with 9 questions of twelve correct, and doubling up by getting the wipeout question right.

 

With our quiz cards stamped we headed to dinner, stopping by the Queen's Room where Gretchen and Thirsa, and Jeff and Hazel were on the dancefloor, dancing to a cha cha. We watched them dance then walked together to our table where Peter and Linda were waiting. I had crab tian, followed by saddle of venison and then a delicious treacle sponge. Thirsa has spring rolls, which she didn't like. She asked Germane, our waiter, if he would change it for the crab, he did this with no fuss at all, which shows that there is no reason to suffer a dish you don't like, they always willing to change it for you. BTW everyone else who had had the spring rolls loved them.

 

The show tonight was comedian Roy Walker, not my cup of tea, so it was off to bed to get ready for Cadiz.

 

http://blog.rakkor.uk

 

 

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