Funchal - Madeira, Thinking about packing!

Funchal – Madeira.

Thinking about packing!

23rd November 2009.

Good Day, (Bom dia), from the beautiful Atlantic Island of Madeira. Funchal is the chief city of Madeira and the largest city of the ‘Madeira Autonomous Region’ of Portugal. Funchal was founded in 1421 and is now a major tourist centre. One of its most famous sons is the Real Madrid, (ex Manchester United) football player Cristiano Ronaldo. When Cristiano was a lad I think he must have trained by walking up the hills here that would get anyone fit! From where we dock, Funchal rises in a natural amphitheatre to almost 4000 feet!
I go on leave on Thursday from Southampton, so after today you only have two more of my blogs coming up. I think I will pack tomorrow! Packing is not a problem to me at all! I left home in 1978 and since then, I have been away from home at least eight months a year. I should actually give packing lessons as I have turned it in to an art form! Not only do I pack to go to work and then to go home, my wife Mandy and I always go on holiday when I am on leave so that involves the ‘P’ word as well! I will tell you about my plans for my leave on Wednesday. When joining or leaving a ship I make sure I am able to carry everything in one go so I have learnt over the years to only take essentials. I still have about 36kg of baggage so I do have to be careful of my old back when I am getting on and off ships, trains, cars, taxis and aeroplanes etc! Most of the 36kg of gear is my uniform, I carry very little of my own clothes with me. I do always have my jeans, walking jacket and boots and a few T shirts but that’s about it. One thing I could not travel without is my iPOD. I just love music and if I get an hour or so at lunchtime clear each day I will be out on deck stripped off sunbathing with my music on! If I select shuffle on the iPOD, I get a very diverse collection of music. My son Bradley is studying to become an Opera singer and he has downloaded hundreds of classic operatic tracks for me! I on the other hand am an old rock fan, and given the choice between Led Zeppelin and Verdi; the Zeppelin wins every time! In fact I saw Zeppelin live four times in the 1970s. Can any of my readers out there beat that? Zeppelin live were something else!
Anyway the cruise so far is going really well. As you already know, we are on a ten night cruise calling at Vigo, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Madeira before returning to Southampton. Last Tuesday we had a very good crossing of the Bay of Biscay, (people were sat outside on deck bronzing!) our day in Vigo on Wednesday was cloudless, we then had a lovely day at sea (with a calm sea and the sun shining down), and the weather in Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria was really very good! Let us get our ‘cards on the table’, you do have to have a bit of luck with the weather this time of year, it is the winter in the North Atlantic Ocean!!
All of our entertainment has been very well received by the passengers; we still have some highlights yet to come including ex England Football Captain Alan Mullery who is giving his after Dinner Speech tonight. Tonight we also have comic Johnnie Casson entertaining, movies screening, bands playing, quizzes running! Another highlight is our Great British Pub Night in the Lords Tavern!! And finally for those who like a good old bop, we are holding a 60s & 70s party night. (Not the age group of course – the music!)

These photographs are of the new cast of the Headliners Theatre Company rehearsing in the Theatre Royal. They were taken on 19th November during the rehearsal of the production show, ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’. The cast on this day started rehearsals at 9.00am and worked through until 6.30pm, before performing for our passengers at 8.30pm and 10.30pm. During the day they did a technical run of the show, plus two dress rehearsals, so in fact they have performed this show full out four times on the 19th November!!!
I hope you like the photographs; I insisted they were not posed at all. They include the Headliners Theatre Company, our Choreographer Charlie Blair, her Assistant Choreographer Jess Bedford, Production Manager Al Watson and Dance Captain (on his hand-over) Richard Farr. I wanted you all to get an idea of how hard this cast actually have to work to get the shows up and running in such a short space of time, and how the passenger performances are just the climax to days and days of rehearsals. I have posted more photographs than ever before, but I think each and everyone is worth a look.

Oriana sailing into Funchal Madeira. Our pilot boarded at 7.15am this morning and we were alongside at 8.00am

Goodbye (Adieus)

Nigel