Rock'n Roll

You might think me silly, but I’d never really taken the Mediterranean seriously. I mean, on hearing the word “Mediterranean” I started thinking of holidays, sunshine, ice cream, beaches, goooood food and the like. Now the Atlantic on the other hand, I’d rather think of as the “macho” guy as Oceans go, you know, tough, hard, stormy, strong, grrrr… you get my meaning??? Well, I crossed the Atlantic on a ship for something like 13 days and it felt like a river cruise down the Danube, as smooth as it can be. And now the Mediterranean… uhm, I changed my mind… COMPLETELY!!! I mean even the bible tells us of great storms in the Mediterranean, still it didn't really sink in that it can be rather rough. From the time leaving the harbour of Valetta there was nothing smooth or gentle or holiday like, but Rock’n Roll… big times Rock’n Roll!!! Luckily I DID take a seasick tablet, so I didn’t feel sick at all, but still, it was rough sailing. Some friends I didn’t see at all others looked rather, uhm, green around their noses and other people again thought it was great fun and cheered at every rolling wave (weird sense of humor). My cabin alone looked like a robbery had just happened. Drawers came shooting out (and missed me by a meter), for precaution I’d put the microwave on the floor, the kettle was sitting in the sink, an extra pillow was stuffed inside the cupboard with the cups and plates to make them stop moving and sliding around and making annoying sounds, the bed started to gallop around the cabin so I put the mattress on the floor and tried to stay on it for sleeping, in Ned’s room I’d also taken out all the drawers, preventing them from shooting out at him, unfortunately he decided it was great fun to take every single piece of cloth out of the drawers line up on the floor and putting those items all over the cabin instead of sleeping. Mother was NOT pleased with him, NOT pleased AT ALL!!! The folding chairs would just not stay in the spot where I tucked them away and the laptop I’d preferred putting on the floor as well. I had tidied up the cabin before sailing and had to do it all over again once we arrived.

As I said, I wasn’t seasick, but I was rather tired and out of energy, unfortunately sailing didn’t have the same effect on a two year old I know, and now try entertaining the same two year old if all you want to do is lie down and chill. After dinner though I went to a lobby area on deck 5 where everyone seemed to hang out because it was one of the most stable places on board and there were many other kids to play with, hallelujah!!! It was great fun watching those kids run around like crazy: when the ship was rolling to one side they’d run uphill and when it rolled to the other side they’d run downhill. One little girls even started twirling around which made me feel slightly nauseous just thinking about it.

To get offspring up to our cabin on deck 7 and away from the other kids I couldn’t think of anything else than to bait him with the promise of a bath. I couldn’t fill in much water though, because it was rolling so much from left to right and right to left and back again, but he still enjoyed it… at least until the time when he leaned over the side of the little bath tub just when it was rolling towards that side and the whole thing including the kiddo fell over. No tear though…

Ced was as happy a chappy you could wish for, except that he decided to puke his entire evening bottle all over me, the positive side was that milk exploding out of his nose must have cleared out his air ways up there and the nose was no longer blocked.