Good News

I was going to start off this post with 'Like most people I enjoy waking up in the morning'.  It occurred to me, however, that there must be a great many people in the world for whom waking up at any time just brings them into a world so anathema to them that waking is the last thing they want to do.  For many who are starving, ravaged by war, persecuted, ill to the point of no return or in terrible pain and doubtless for many other reasons too, waking must be terrible.   Mentioning starving suddenly made me realise, too, just how unbelievably self-indulgent was my post on not wanting to eat fruit because I'm a Lazy Eater.  People would, and doubtless do, kill to be able to eat what I throw away in a week.  So I'm feeling a bit ashamed of myself.

However when I woke this morning - which is where I was originally going with this post - I was greeted by two personal emails (as distinct from the dozens I look forward to relating to Blogland) both of which were bearers of two items of good news both related to sea-going people close to me.  Firstly  Gaz has become a Chief Engineer.  Secondly the daughter of Very Close Friends has been given the management of the on-board retail side of a new cruise liner that is yet to make its way into service.  How good is that?

All that and the fact that the promised rain has not yet appeared and the sun has come out again are making this a Very Good Day.

A Perplexing Day

I've just spent a day with Kate, a beautiful and charming lady and daughter of my dear friends Pat and Dave on Lewis.   She was in Napier on board the Crystal Serenity, a luxurious cruise ship.  Now a cruise is about the last sort of holiday that I would choose and I found the experience of being shown round quite bizarre.  However if I ever were to go on a cruise I'd love to be able to afford that sort of cruise.  

After I'd been shown around Kate and I went to lunch.  I had intended to go to the Black Barn winery but when we got there we discovered that they don't serve lunch on Tuesday.  However the nearby Te Mata Cheese Company do a splendid lunch and we enjoyed a splendid cheese platter.  I discovered that, despite the top class restaurants on board, American cruise liners do not consider fine cheeses a priority so Kate was well pleased.  On second thoughts I'll definitely give the cruise a miss.  No proper cheese!  I don't think so.

The only irritation of the day is that the brilliant sun and 30 deg temperatures of yesterday were replaced by grey skies with some drizzle and a cool 22 deg.

Deck 6 - where it all happens

No.  It's not a London Club.  It's a cruise liner bar

The retail experience

The centre of things

This is huge and very popular.  I just can't believe it.

The larger of the two theatres

From the top of that hill it seems much bigger than it seems from this deck

The library - part of it anyway

Fine dining

Just another restaurant - heaven knows how many there are, I suppose someone has taken an inventory of them.

Under the grey Napier sky

Deck shoes?

The Palm Court Deck

The Reception Area

Again.

Kate at The Cottage

A friend from Lewis has an afternoon free whilst the Crystal Serenity spends 6 hours in port at Napier. So what does one do? What sights does one see? Well, actually, Kate has been here before and stayed with me for a few days during her gap year tour of Australia and New Zealand. Kate's Mum and Dad are dear friends who live on the Isle of Lewis and look after everything there for me whilst I am on this side of the world. There is so much to see especially as this is Art Deco Week. However today it poured with rain. So we came home to The Cottage and spent the afternoon chatting and drinking coffee. I sure know how to show a young lady the sights of the city. Well, perhaps another time.

There you are, Mum, just so that you can see that she's fine and well.

Raffles With Kate

One of my favourite cafés in Napier is Raffles Street Café. Apart from well-presented, tasty, good value food and coffee just to my taste, the ambience is friendly and relaxing and the welcome by the owner is second to none.

Unfortunately today the weather was not what one would desire when a friend was coming to visit from the Crystal Serenity, one of the most prestigous cruise liners afloat. So the pictures above are ones that I took some while ago on a sunny day.

So we escaped from the rain which has enveloped the entire Country today and had lunch at Raffles.