Sunday, 15 January, 2017

It has been an amazing week aboard the Sun Princess cruise ship - we are having a fabulous time!!! 

We set sail last Sunday evening - our room is on the 10th deck, room B710.  We were originally assigned a cabin near the front of the ship, but were given this cabin as an upgrade.  We were a little worried about the location having been told previously that it might be very noisy due to the engine being at the back of the ship, but we haven't noticed any difference from any other cabin we have been in.  The cabin is bigger than our previous inside cabins and it's nice to have the extra space.  Our cabin steward is Emilio (Emil) and he is very friendly and very efficient - our room is always spotless and our bed is always made perfectly.  We especially appreciate the turn-down service and chocolates on our pillows at night. :-) 

Back of our ship - the 'Sun Princess' 

 Dad's first meal from the buffet for lunch on Sunday 

 Views of Fremantle, W.A.from the ship - the 'Sun Princess' 

 Top deck of the 'Sun Princess' 

 View from the top deck looking forward 

 Dad dressed up for our first dinner onboard 

Me dressed up for dinner 

For our dinner meal, we are seated at a table of ten - we prefer to be at a table of six, and even eight worked for us on our last cruise, but ten is just too big.  We do have some lovely table-mates, however: Alex and Gloria, Maureen and Greg, Margaret and Wyn and Robyn and Graham - they are all from Australia.  We have been mixing it up as to where we sit each night so that we have a chance to talk with each couple and get to know them a little better.  Our waiters are Jessie and Victor and they are great - Jessie is always joking around and laughing which helps to add to the nice atmosphere of the table.  We find that with such a large group, it tends to end up with two or three conversations going on at the same time.  For lunch and breakfast (on sea days), it's open-seating which means that when you arrive at the dining room, you are seated at the next available table.  We really like this as it gives us a chance to meet a variety of people.  We have also eaten a few times at the buffet which offers a lovely large salad bar.  
Our first port of call (Monday) was Geraldton which was a tender port - that means that we had to take a little boat from the ship to the shore.  When we got to shore, we walked along the boardwalk into town.  Once there, we walked a few of the streets ending up at McDonald's for a welcome cool down and an ice-cream.  From there, it was back to the ship.  Geraldton is a very small town and there's not much to see or do there.
Today (Sunday), we docked in Darwin - it was very hot and humid in town.  We caught the Hop On Hop Off bus in town and had a fabulous 90 minute tour around the city of Darwin.  The tour had a recorded commentary which gave us some good information about the city of Darwin and its history. The commentary was really easy to hear which isn't always the case on a bus like this.  We didn't get off the bus, but rather did the circle tour and were given a discount because we didn't get off.  When we visit Darwin in the future, we would like to see their museum and art gallery as that sounded really interesting.   

 From the left front and going clockwise: Margaret, Alex, Gloria, Dad, me, Maureen, Greg, Robyn, Graham and Wyn (our dinner table group) 

On Monday, we participated in our first trivia game - we love playing trivia on the cruise ships and go to as many of them as we can - some days we have done up to four of them.  When we went to the venue for the trivia game, we asked a couple if we could join them and they were very welcoming. They are Sheila and John - originally from Yorkshire, England, but now living in Bunbury which is south of Perth.  They are also keen trivia gamers and we have teamed up with them for every game so far.  We did very well in the first half of the week, earning three wins - our prizes were lanyards, water bottles and fridge magnets - not a bad haul, eh?  We have not done as well in the second half of this week - many more teams have joined in and so, although we generally answer many of the questions, we have been short of the mark lately.  Our team is called 'Team Awesome' and we are all about fun more than about winning.  We have had a few couples join with us along the way for a game or two, and most recently have had Joan and Lyn(wood) join us for the afternoon and evening trivia.  We laugh a lot and to us that's what it's all about. 

Dad, John, Lyn(wood), Joan, me and Sheila (our trivia group) 

Each night, they have a show of some kind in the Princess Theatre (which seats about 550) and also a show in the Vista Lounge (which seats about 480).  So far, we have seen a French Canadian vocalist Claude-Eric, The Princess Singers and Dancers who perform theme productions ('Save the Last Dance' and 'The British Invasion' so far), comedian Jeff Green (so hilarious we went to two of his shows) and musician/pianist Jon Darsk (amazing on the piano - his hands moved so fast, we couldn't believe it!!!).    

 Tender boat going from the ship to the pier at Geraldton

 Dad and I on the tender boat 

 Our ship 

Marina in Geraldton 

Dad looking out over the harbour  

 Old sailing boat in the harbour 

 Beach in Geraldton 

 Me beside palm tree in Geraldton 

 Toilets on the beach in Geraldton (look like Rubik's Cubes) 

 the beach at Geraldton 

'Yamaji Art' - Mara Arts Aboriginal Corporation

'Zephyr' - artist: Dr. Nigel Helyer - Zephyr is playfully named after Zephyrus, the Greek God of the gentle west wind - a light air that brought spring to the classical world - The Zephyr kinetic sculpture is designed to withstand the wildest of Geraldton days and will  produce harmonic sounds from its built-in sounding pipes on the stormiest days as an ironic tribute to Zephyrus 

artwork on a wall in town 

I thought the flowers on this tree were beautiful  

buildings around Geraldton

Our second port of call was Broome (Thursday) which is known for its pearl industry - we had to take a shuttle bus from the ship into town.  The bus stops at the town, Cable Beach and then returns to the ship.  When we found out how humid it was, we decided to just stay on the bus and do the circle tour.  The bus driver gave us a commentary as he was driving - again there's not much to see or do in Broome.  When we got into town and saw how long the line was to get back on the bus (the people had to stand in a long line in that humidity while waiting for the bus to arrive), we were glad that we had made the decision not to get off.  There were a few market stalls at the first stop and a few small shops and some larger chain stores there, but nothing worth getting off the bus for.  We were originally going to take a tour which was a camel ride on the beach, but since I had hurt my shoulder, I didn't want to take a chance that it would be a jerky ride and hurt it again.  We spoke with a woman when we got back on the ship who had ridden a camel on Cable Beach - she said it was an interesting ride, but the hour long ride was a bit too long.  She also said the beach was nice, but we weren't worried about stopping there since we have a beautiful beach in Hervey Bay.   

 Our first formal night for dinner

Pictures of Broome

 Broome Airport

 McDonald's

 Markets in the city

 the line-up for the bus to go back to the ship

 painted murals

 pearl shop

 the Sun Princess docked in Broome

On our sea days, we have attended a couple of line dancing classes - they are led by the deputy cruise director, Matt, 33 from England and they have been so much fun.  Matt is hilarious and energetic and always cracking jokes - he has also led some of the trivia games - he has really made our trip a lot of fun!!!  Dad and I have both really enjoyed our line dancing lessons, although we were both sweating by the end of the classes. 

Matt, 33, from England

We have only been in the pool once so far, and other than line dancing, eating, watching shows and playing trivia, we have spent our time reading or napping.  It has been such a fun and relaxing cruise so far. 

WWII oil storage tunnels entrance

  Photos taken on the bus tour around Darwin

 No,that's NOT a real crocodile 😊

 Lawn Bowls Club

   

The Sun Princess 

Sunday, 8 January, 2017

Another busy week - looking forward to our cruise next Sunday!  As always, there were plenty of appointments this week, but also plenty of socializing time for me. 😊

On Monday, my friend, Maureen, and I went out for lunch and a movie - Maureen is about Nana's age and we get along really well.  She was one of my counsellors when I was the Primary President.  We enjoy going out for something to eat and to a movie whenever we get back from one of our trips.  This time, I chose the cafe for lunch and she chose the movie - it turned out to be in the same place.  The movie theatre here has a lovely little cafe attached to it where we were able to get an iced chocolate and a chicken wrap before watching the movie.  It's always nice to catch up with friends.  The movie Maureen chose was called 'Red Dog - True Blue' - she had seen the first movie called 'Red Dog' which was actually the sequel to the movie we saw - kind of confusing, I know.  The movie we saw started with Red Dog being found in the middle of nowhere and explaining how he came to be there and the first movie ended with him being left in the middle of nowhere and his adventures from then.  It was a beautiful family movie which we both enjoyed -  I was glad about this because the last two movies we have seen were not very good ones.

On Tuesday, I met up with my friend, Chantelle, who I used to teach with (iced chocolate time again) - she was doing her teaching country service for four years way up north and has decided to take a break from teaching here in Queensland and is moving with her boyfriend to northern New South Wales for a while.  It was great catching up with her - she is younger than Krystal, but we get on really well, too.  I love it how, when you get to be in your 20's (and older), age doesn't seem to matter as much when it comes to making friends. 😊

On Wednesday, Dad and I drove up to the Jayco dealership in Bundaberg.  The fellow up there had sent us some samples of colours to choose for our trailer, but we couldn't get a good idea of them on the computer, so we decided to make a day of it and drive up to see him in person.  We looked at the swatches of colour (for the couch and dinette seats' cushions) and the laminate colour (for the countertops).  I had chosen the colour I thought I wanted and Dad was happy with my choice, but when we got up there and looked at them again and talked about it, we decided to go with other colours.

On Thursday, I got together with my friend, Haidi, from church - another iced chocolate. 😊  Dad and I enjoy hanging out together and chatting, but it's just different with our female friends, isn't it?  I love it that it can be ages between our visits and yet we just pick up where we left off.  That night, we had the missionaries over for dinner - Elder Ha and Elder Potter are very diligent missionaries and I love the spirit that is in our home when they visit and share a message with us.

On Friday, Dad and I drove to the house of a young girl in our church.  She was moving and getting rid of a lot of stuff she couldn't take with her to her new place.  She told me that she had remembered how much I loved a ceramic giraffe she had in her garden and asked me if I would like it.  I couldn't believe that she had remembered this as it was a number of years ago.  I was thrilled that she did remember, though, as I really did like it and was so happy to be able to bring it home and put it on our back patio.  I am loving all these different giraffes I am collecting - especially since they are all so different, especially with the material used to make them.

Yesterday, Dad and I flew to Brisbane for the first leg of our trip.  We stayed at the Novotel Brisbane Airport - a lovely hotel right next to the airport - as we had an early morning flight to Perth this morning.  We are so excited to be going on this cruise - we have made a decision to go on one cruise a year from now on - we just love being spoiled! 😊

Sunday, 1 January, 2017

Happy New Year!

This week was a bit of a slow week for us - mostly due to me still working through things with my arm/shoulder.  I had one physio appointment this week - with a new girl (this making the third physiotherapist I have seen at this office) who is Canadian and was quite good.  She massaged my shoulder and arm and gave me some new exercises to do along with the others I had already been doing.  Yesterday, I told Dad how excited I was that I could actually wash my hair with both hands!  I was also glad that I was able to come off the medication by Thursday - I did not like having to take so much Advil and Tyenol, but it was really necessary for recovery.

I also had a facial appointment (always relaxing!) and an afternoon tea appointment with my friend, Bronwyn - iced chocolate time again - yummy! 😃  Dad and I also managed to get in two visits to the beach this week which was great - we both enjoy being. in the ocean especially in the hot weather we have been having - we are so happy that we live so close to the water.  We also had the missionaries, Elder Potter and Elder Ha, over for dinner on Thursday night - they are such nice young men and we loved the spiritual message they gave us after dinner.

I taught the Relief Society lesson at church today - I love teaching and being able to teach in our ward when we are home helps me to feel a part of the ward.  The lesson was on goal setting and the sisters said that the lesson was really good - which is what I was hoping for since we often talk about goal setting at the beginning of each year and I was worried that the sisters would 'groan' at having another lesson about goal setting.