Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

Reports about cruises on Aurora
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melsea
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Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

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Post by melsea »

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

Day 99. At Sea. Sunny and hot with very blue Atlantic Ocean.
3 of 5 sailing away to Azores although at 6pm thought it would be a slow one the engines were not behaving themselves, black smoke from funnel!!

16th April Evening Casual

Had a very weird dream last night it was as though I was in an episode of Doctor Who because there were some very strange creatures.
We got up at just after 9.15 and went to the Glass House for breakfast where we saw Brian & Lorraine. We spoke with them briefly and let them have their breakfast.
We ate ours and at just before 10.45 I went back to the cabin to get a coupe of things and then made my way to the spa where I was to have a massage & facial treatment which is called the Absolute Spa Ritual which last 100 minutes. I booked this as part of the special offer of 3 separate treatments at 10%, 20% & 30%, this one was my last treatment at the 30% discount. The young lady who did this treatment was the same lady I have had before, Amanda. She was certainly better in her initial consultation in that she explained exactly what she was going to do. Both the massage & facial were good. Also when she had finished she did not constantly repeat what the treatment was or mention the knottiness of my two muscles in my neck. When I told her that one on my right side will never disappear as that was part of an injury of my muscle tearing. She accepted that & moved on. Amanda had mentioned puffiness to the skin under my eyes and suggested a course of treatment to help this. I asked how much this would be, £93, gulp and I said I wont do that just now but thank you for that. She politely said that's okay and moved on. No fuss or being stressed after my treatment, that's how it should be done. Paying the treatment was less stressful too, although trying to find the right treatment to enter was proving tricky but fortunately another member of staff was there to help and it all went ahead without a fuss.
It was now 1pm, clocks did not go forward today but I am expecting them to do so over the next two days so that we are correct for our arrival into Punta Delgado, Azores; hopefully we will not have any trouble getting into our last port!, ooh thats a naughty word to utter but last port it will before we arrive back to Blighty a week today.
We had lunch in the Medina, we both did not have a starter as we felt we do not need it, so we had a main and a dessert, of both, we did not finish completely our meals. When finished I went out the back where I sat in the sun a maximum of 10 minutes as I did not have any suncream on because I had my spa treatment and really you should not expose your skin to the sun. I had originally set an alarm for 15 mins but found that it was far too hot to stay in it for that long so after 10 I went in the shade. I went up to the buffet to get a cup of tea, which I did but I also got cheese & biscuits with walnuts too.
At just after 6pm tonight one of the engines failed and sent black smoke out of the funnels. They had sourced the problem and manage to fix whatever it was, Bill believes it to be fuel injection. We had losted power for a short while which put everything behind in the kitchens.
Went to see the headliners show, Let's face the music & dance. It was very good and one of the shows that doesn't look too out of date & twee.

Day 100. At sea. 4 of 5 sailing on.
17th April Black Tie

Clocks forward at Noon GMT-1

Talk in the morning by Terry brown.
Started to sort through my things of what to keep and what to take home. I know from experience that the last part of the cruise goes by so very quickly.

Day 101. At sea.
5 of 5 heading for the Azores tomorrow.
18th April. Smart, Jacket required


We got up very late and did not go to the Glass House for breakfast, in fact we were even late for breakfast in the Horizon Buffet but I saw one of the lady workers behind the counter near the trays and said to her, could she do me a favour and put 2 sausages & beans on a plate, this she did which I was grateful for.
Having had a bite to eat I made way to the Curzon Theatre to see the talk being given by Terry Brown telling us about open & closed questions and when they are good & bad to use in interviewing suspects and cross examining in a court situation. As per usual he went over the time. I then made my way down to the playhouse where the 2 photographers were telling us about the many photos that had been entered into the final competition. They had 100 of them. When I arrived they had not started even though I was late. It seems the connection from their laptop could not connect to the big screen to show off the photos. I must mentioned that when I entered and walked to the back to take a seat, the Photographer Chris spoke into the microphone and said don't worry Mrs Mckendrick we haven't started yet. I was a little bit embarrassed but pleased at the same time that he actually said this. So with the projection not working they got us all to move down the front and they showed us the photos on their laptop which was perched on a piano stool. It was not very long before the technical man had managed to fix the problem and they did the rest of the presentation viewed on the big screen. One thing they did not do was say which ability of photography they were showing but I think most of us knew they started with the beginners but as time went on it was a little bit difficult to distinguish between beginners & intermediate. I knew though when they reached the advanced as I recognised the photos as there were only three of us that has submitted into it. Then something was happening that was unbelievable with about half an hour to go people started to enter the playhouse where quite clearly outside on the door there was a sign to say do not enter while the 'seminar' was in progress, although we did have the odd person coming and going but they were mainly those who had entered into the competition. This though was unprecedented there were streams of people filing in, it was dreadful, rude and very distracting to us all especially the two photographers, Coral & Chris who were both visibly affected by it, both being professional were able to continue but it did kind of take the shine on the whole thing. So after almost 3 hours they announced the Winners one of which you could just see the cabin number of the beginners it was B100 which is the Library Penthouse. It was a shot take from a hotel overlooking Cabo San Lucas and it had three sun loungers in the shot, there were 2 runners up of which I can not remember the photo images. In the intermediate category it was a forest shot with a small burst of sunshine which I think deserved to win and was one I had not seen when it was with all of the entries in the photo gallery, just goes to show I did not look properly as I tend to scan to see what catches my my. As there were so many the photos it was lost which is why I had not seen it. Then the advance category was announced, it was not me. I was one of the two runners up. The shot that was chosen for that was my sunset on the ship with the couple walking along. When they were showing the photos in the presentation my photo of the father & son walking along the boardwalk was not even shown. Afterwards Chris one of those speaking in the presentation said he does not know why that was not in the presentation and apologised for it. Anyway the winning photo was taken in Moorea from up the mountains and shot down to the sea with the ship to side and showing the coral reef & its very light blue sea below. I wished I had won but I didn't have the correct photo in the line up but at least I have a runner up.
What was left of the day sunshine I sat out back for half and hour, there were not many of us but we wanted to take in the late afternoon sunshine with the cool breeze.

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emjay45
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#2

Post by emjay45 »

Cabin B100 won the intermediate prize melsea. ;)

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oldbluefox
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#3

Post by oldbluefox »

Any chance of seeing your runner up photo melsea?

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melsea
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#4

Post by melsea »

oldbluefox wrote:
Any chance of seeing your runner up photo melsea?
I would love to show my photos but how do I do that please?

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melsea
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#5

Post by melsea »

emjay45 wrote:
Cabin B100 won the intermediate prize melsea. ;)
Thanks I couldn't remember as the whole thing with people turning up meant I probably didn't hear it.

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melsea
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#6

Post by melsea »

image.jpg
Runner up in the final sector
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melsea
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#7

Post by melsea »

image.jpg
Runner up in the 3rd Sector
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melsea
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

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Post by melsea »

image.jpg
My Winning photo for Sector 4
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cruisin_duo
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#9

Post by cruisin_duo »

Amazing photographs.

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oldbluefox
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 29

#10

Post by oldbluefox »

Thanks melsea.................. and well done!!

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