GOOD START

The journey has started well for us. The journey from home to Waterloo went well, Elizabeth line was great, all changes without steps. We snagged ourselves a good first class train ticket, £9.50 each, especially as the rest of the train was heaving - nice. Portuguese meal followed by 42nd Street at the theatre rounded the day off lovely. You may recognise Samantha Womack of EastEnders, Les Dennis & Faye Tozer of Steps who were in it. 

Spent Sunday on a cultural trip about Southampton. Firstly we had a look at the Titanic story, the number of crew from Southampton who died was shocking. They had a street map on the floor with red dots on the houses that had lost someone. Southampton was smaller and there were many dots per street. One group of sailors had a good drink in the pub to celebrate and were late back to ship & prevented boarding - they survived.

Southampton was the home of Supermarine. R J Mitchell was lucky when he got the chief designer job because his predecessor had a German wife & was sacked. It was WW1, even the King had to change his name. When you look at Mitchell's designs, lumpy looking seaplanes, & his first attempt at a fighter plane, it's amazing he came up with the Spitfire. I wonder how much credit should have gone to his draughtsman, Joseph Smith and his wing designer, Beverly Shenstone. Joseph went on to design 24 marks of Spitfire, such that it developed almost beyond recognition & was still in service in 1954.

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OFF AGAIN

Busy day as we prepare to set sail from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale - following in the initial steps of the Titanic. Let's hope we have a better trip. Been a hectic day, NHS have screwed up and failed to update my records following my latest covid jab. When you phone them all you get is shoulder shrugging. TD Bank account has been hacked, spent a lot of time on the phone to Lolita. She was more helpful than the NHS. Packing is always stressful, ended up with 16 and 19 kilos, so happy flight days. We're hoping the trains are all in the right place to get to Southampton following this week's train driver strikes. Trying to plan a golf break but the only tee times offered mean we finish in the dark! On the bright side we've just booked a river cruise on the Rhine.

If you're wondering, it's the oldest motoring organisation phone box still standing that we saw on our trip to the Malverns.

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AJACCIO, CORSICA

AJACCIO is Nappy Bonaparte's birthplace. Very small town overcrowded by the 2 cruise ships in dock. Easy walk to town, visited Bony's house, the cathedral & the fort. Read about Fred the hero who volunteered for secret ops & landed in Corse to prepare for liberation. Caught by Italian fascists & tortured. Refused to talk & committed suicide. Food still excellent, mushroom pate with the tiniest mushroom's on the side was delicious.

Been to some entertainment, the Shi# Show, the Scarlet deck party and a R&J Shakespeare's show by the acrobats - excellent. The whole set up here is very different to traditional cruises. Cunarders would be horrified at so much fun going on

La Spezia

Didn't visit the town, chilled on board. Lin got some boxing practice so she could force me to dance. Ate in Test Kitchen, spectacular 6 course dinner in a very different setting. Lots of smoke from the dishes, waiters dressed as scientists. Very Heston Blumenthal. Interesting dishes - fillet of beef & venison with chocolate, a dessert pudding combining sweet creamy mouse with blue cheese.

TOULON

First day on the Virgin, very different in style to other cruises we've been on, guests much younger, no large buffet restaurants. Ship's not full. Cabins small, but well laid out & equipped. Been to the Italian & Mexican restaurants, both very good although we are over eating. Staff good.

Visited Toulon, Neil gave us a rundown on all the French navel assets, AC carriers, destroyer frigates etc. Nice town, easy walk from ship. Took the tourist train to see the sights & hear the history (beats walking in this heat) and then chilled in the bar. 

LEAVING BARCA

Lovely couple of days here, ate & drunk too much - that's life. Went to Sagrada Familia, might be nice to come back when it's finished. That's a sculpture of Antonio Gaudi, the architect, looks a bit like the Bayern player, Harry Kane Boarded the virgin OK, although we had to wait around a bit. Ship is lively, I don't think it's full, but let's see how we get on. Still roasting hot here, but nice on balcony as we set sail. Next stop Toulon.

PLAGUED

After our last holidays when we left the flat and encountered smoke pouring from the BT footway cover and then next time a flood of water from the road, I fully expected locusts, but no we drove to Heathrow no problem apart from a small issue with the car park. Flight was good and the airport was very good in having baggage handlers, unlike Terminal 5. All good to go, our taxi man met us.........except we couldn't leave because a bus had caught fire on the concourse.We finally made made it and are in the bar with beer & tapas. Balmy 39deg Celsius.