Well, that went quick. It’s now 10 pm and it’s an early night for me as I have to get up at 4:30 am to make my 8 am flight back to Rome.

I had a wonderful but very busy day. It started off with a 9:30 am breakfast with my mate Alan at our favorite waterfront/mudfront (depending on the tide café) called the Waters Edge. They have simply the best breakfasts in the world. Should you bloggers ever travel to Southend On Sea, Essex, U.K. then you must go to the Arches which is a row of cafes and in particular the Waters Edge Cafe. The owners are Steve and Ady Halfreck and also the chef (whose name is CHEF) are great people and if any of the 270,000 readers go there and mention my name you get a free sausage! Anyway, here is a photo of Alan Adkins’ breakfast. I had a slice of toast!

I didn’t think that there would be an automatic segue into anything about cruising on today’s blog thingy but incredibly there is, even though I am at home and it’s not for a positive reason. While I was with Alan this morning I went with him to a local travel agent so that Alan could finalize his trip for him and his family to Euro Disney next week as it is a school holiday.

While I was there, I thought I would ask someone for a Carnival Cruise Lines brochure. I approached one of the TRAVEL EXECUTIVES as her desk nameplate stated and I saw her name was Sarah. Now, Sarah looked young – and I mean very young. In fact, the pair of underwear I was wearing was older than she was! Anyway, I politely asked if I could have a look at a brochure for Carnival Cruise Lines. I got no response – Sarah looked as if I had just asked her to explain the existence of perpetual motion or to quote the Gettysburg Address.

Sarah looked lost and said in her polite way, “What?” I said it again, “Carnival Cruise Lines.”

Sara this time said, we don’t have any information on that but we do have P&O. Now, although they are an exceptional cruise line and a very important part of the Carnival family, I was very annoyed that she would not help me with my Carnival brochure request. Alan had finished with his Paris Disney booking and was now next to me and could see me getting upset with Sarah and he was loving every minute.  Then Sara added the icing to the cake. “You don’t want to go on a cruise,” she said.  “That’s for old people. How about Sandals resorts?”

Here, we entered the realm of mixed emotion. I was taken aback that even though my hair is the same color as Kenny Rogers that Sarah thought I was too old to go on a cruise. Then reality set in. I said “Isn’t cruising for all ages?” I then asked her if she had been on a cruise and, of course, it was no shock that she said “No.” Anyway, she reluctantly gave me a P&O brochure and I left her to go back to her MTV world.
 
I don’t blame Sarah, I don’t blame anyone. I know Carnival has an incredible group of people working in the UK who market our product and many Brits are sailing on our ships, but not enough. With people like Sarah working in the business, it will be tough to make that change. Maybe therefore, if only in a small way, this blog if read by people from my home country can get the word out that cruising on Carnival, P&O or any of our affiliated lines will provide people of all ages with a brilliant holiday. I want to shout this from the rooftops and I am going to assist the brilliant Lynn Narraway and her team in the UK in anyway I can.
 
Funny isn’t it, when we left the travel agency I looked at Alan and I said “Well, what did you think of that?” expecting my mate to be on my side and as a frequent Carnival cruiser to be as upset as I was.  Alan looked at me and said “Sarah……………….cute, very cute.”
 
So, an early night and then back to Heidi and the ship. I have 78 comments to reply to over the next 48 hours so I will get those answers posted as soon as I can.
 
Great news, our blog thingy has reached more than 270,000 smashes and is number 34 on the WordPress list of blogs. Not bad considering that’s 34 out of 1,001,843. You are all 34 in a million people and I am proud to call you all friends.
 
Thanks to Mum and Dad for a wonderful two days, I will miss you both very much.
 
Goodnight
 
Your Friends
 
John and Heidi and John’s Mum and Dad

Hello to you all from Southend On Sea in England.

This is going to be a short blog because I am on vacation – sorry, holiday – and I have a cup of tea and a crumpet waiting……………………….I will take a photo of a crumpet and post at a later date.

I will not be answering posted comments today or tomorrow but will play catch-up over the weekend I promise.

My flight was uneventful except that it was on a “budget airline” and I have not seen as much plastic since I watched the Miss Universe Contest. It’s funny but when an “extra medium” sized man such as myself walks down the isle of an aircraft it causes people to look away as if to say “Please don’t put the big guy next to me.”

Today I got my preferred aisle seat and sat next to a man called Guido who was flying to London for a job interview. He started this conversation because he wanted my advice on the best way to get to the West End but luckily we were interrupted by the in-flight safety announcement.  It’s strange but even in today’s world the amount of people who talk and completely ignore what the stewardess says is extraordinary. I guess because I hope that people listen to my lifeboat drill announcements that I will always pay attention to what is said on aircraft.   Anyway, after the safety announcements and the eventual takeoff, I felt that Guido wanted to become my best friend and would have talked my head off for two hours. I know it was rude of me but I put on Heidi’s MP3 player she had given me and completely ignored him. After five minutes, the battery died and not wanting to become Guido’s satellite navigation system I pretended that the music was still playing and every now and then bobbed my head up and down in time to imaginary music.  I arrived at the airport and went through Immigration and Customs and, in my mind, was secretly hoping that some very rich and sympathetic blogger had arranged a brand new Aston Martin to be hired for me. I had even looked this up and found a website that does do it http://www.aston-hire.co.uk/ and, as I walked into the arrivals hall, I looked for an Angelina Jolie look-alike who maybe would be holding a sign that said “John’s Aston Martin – This Way.”  No such luck. 

I went instead to the car hire desk and I was given a “luxury car” which looked like Yoda from Star Wars. I just about have enough room to sit behind the wheel but if the air bag goes off there will not be enough room between me and it to make any difference. Anyway, at least it has air conditioning because it’s 80 degrees in England today.

So, I arrived home and it is great to see my Mum and Dad. I was welcomed with two big hugs and a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich, the perfect homecoming.

I am going to stay with my parents tonight as we have had some problems with our apartment. Heidi and I have a beautiful apartment by the sea. Well, when the sea is in. Because of the tides, sometimes we have a beautiful apartment by the mud. 

I digress. Last month, the apartment above us had a pipe burst and this caused water to flood down three of our living room walls and in the kitchen. It ruined my plasma TV and we have decorators, insurance assessors and the like working on it now. Rather than stay there alone, I am staying with my Mum and Dad tonight so I am not alone and I get a cup of tea in bed tomorrow.  It will be strange sleeping there, as I have not done so since I was 19 and left to work for Carnival.

Tonight, for dinner, my Mum cooked me roast beef and Yorkshire pudding……I had seven and have no intention of checking my sugar level tonight!

Tomorrow, I am meeting my mate Alan and will take a photo of my breakfast, etc., for tomorrow’s blog. Then I will be seeing my niece and nephew and family and a quiet night in after that.

I am very proud of Heidi. She has told me all has gone well and the guests are asking about me, which is nice, as well. Heidi and I hate being apart but we both understand that there is nothing more important than family. 

So, I am off to bed to dream of my luxury car which as I type has stopped looking like Yoda and now seems to look like Camilla (Prince Charles’ wife).

As I am talking about cars, a quick story which I know many of my colleagues always enjoy hearing.

When the Carnival Leg End was in Harwich UK — which is just 40 minutes from where I live — I had a special car for two days. It was loaned to me by a very good friend called Spencer who I miss very much.  Spencer had lent me his FERRARI 360 SPIDER which I proudly parked by the gangway. Everyone, especially the Italian officers, of course, all wanted to sit in it and I refused all kinds of bribes to allow them a drive.

The only person who I said yes to was a man who has been one of the foundation posts of Carnival’s success, Maurice Zarmati, Carnival’s vice president of sales. Maurice is known throughout the industry.  He is quite a character and a real gentleman. Maurice told me he was thinking of buying a Ferrari and could he have a drive. I said yes. How could I refuse such a man as this?

In we got with Maurice behind the wheel. He started up the V12 400 BHP engine, selected first gear and away we went turning out of the pier and started our drive through the port of Harwich. After a few moments Maurice looked in the mirror and alarm spread across his delicate features as he saw what I saw in the wing mirror, a blue flashing light and the siren indicating the port police were behind us and were not happy.

Maurice looked at me as he began to pull over. “Was I driving too fast? I thought I was only doing 30,” he said as he applied the brakes. “Yes,” I replied, you were doing 30 miles an hour……….but unfortunately you were doing 30 ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. ”

I will write again tomorrow.

Goodnight

Your Friends,

John and Heidi and tonight, goodnight also from Mum and Dad