The Hughes Zoo

Each day seems to be getting easier as we get more into the flow of cruise life. Jeremy and Will are sleeping very well and getting used to having lots of friendly people talk to and look after them. A quick rearrangement of the room from bunks to a queen bed has made our room much easier to live in.

Jeremy and Will both love going to play at the ship’s creche, though we only leave Jeremy there without us during Will’s morning sleep. Ange and I have both started going to the gym, which is adequate enough. Now if they’d stop offering us pasties and ice cream every 5 minutes…

The sea’s been quite rough the last couple of days, and the ship has been moving around quite a bit. The swimming pools are closed because you’d literally be thrown out of the pool by the motion of the water. Thankfully none of us seem at all bothered by it - in fact we all seem to sleep even better in the rougher conditions.

Photos for the days

Our first full day on the ship and we’ve already started to get into the swing of things. Breakfast in the restaurant on our floor, and then Jeremy and I spend the morning in the ship’s creche. Of course the plan is that we can drop him off and go and do other things, but honestly the quiet playtime was awesome, and there’s nothing I’d prefer to be doing more.

After our two lunches (Jeremy and I; then Ange, Jeremy and Will) we had the brilliant idea of going for a swim in the pool. It was freezing! The splash pool area was great fun for the boys though, and Will continued practicing his favourite new trick - standing up. That’s despite only just starting to crawl properly. After a walk and an ice cream Jeremy decided he wanted to watch people playing table tennis. When one of the tables was free, we had a play and he loved it. I think we were both as surprised as each other when he served it over the net.

Everyone was much more settled today, although we all still had our moments. The motion of the boat, combined with constant eating, is making Ange and I incredibly lethargic. Plus, we’re starting to actually relax into the holiday I suppose.

We’re pretty comfortable with the ship now too - we can find most things without any effort and have a routine of sorts. Jeremy and I went to the reading room/library for his pre-bed stories tonight, it’s all wood and leather and soft light. Rather nice, which is why I’m back in there now
After last night’s success finding the footy, I was fairly confident that I’d be able to find somewhere showing the F1 Monza GP, but a rather dejected-looking Italian barman killed my dream. He said he was going to try and catch some of it online - at more than $30/hr though I think I’ll just have to content myself hunting down the result in a newspaper (assuming we actually get them).

Being this disconnected is quite a shock to the system. I’m so used to having constant 3G access in my pocket that having no internet access at all feels like being cast back into the dark ages. Which is nice in its way, but rather annoying at times.

Ange has made the first move in attempting to combat the almost constant sugar and fat intake by going to the gym tonight. I’m trying to muster some motivation, but with effectively no freeweights and no rowing machine it’s a hard sell. Plenty of treadmills though, so maybe I’ll just concentrate on running for the next month.

I’m starting to feel a lot more relaxed and at home here. I instantly felt comfortable being out on the ocean, but now I’m enjoying the rest of the experience too. There’s live music everywhere: Jeremy’s obsessed with the 3 peice classical group what plays regularly in the atrium, and the funk-ish pool deck band is good fun.

There’s some nice nooks and crannies around, like the library and a 30s themed lounge/jazz bar. There’s also a disco, which given the median age of the guests is sort of amusing and scary. I haven’t gone in there yet.

About the only downside is that Ange and I don’t get to spend much time together without the boys, but I’m sure we’ll arrange babysitting once we’re fully settled in.

After the previous two relaxing-ish days, Saturday was back to hectic insanity - packing up the hotel (leaving my favourite belt on the back of the bathroom door), checking into the ship and dragging luggage a couple of blocks to the warf. Despite everything, it went surprisingly well and we were onboard in time to grab some late lunch/early dinner before we set off from the Harbour.

I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I was a little underwhelmed. I mean, the ship’s huge, our room’s nice, the staff are great, the food is constant, but there just seemed to be something missing. For one thing, not only is the alcohol not free (as I’d thought) but it’s pretty damn expensive. Not that its a big deal, but it sort of shattered my illusion of not having to worry about anything once we were on the ship.

Jeremy was in a crazy mood, overexcited and a bit scared about all the changes that were going on. But after dinner, while Ange took Will back to the cabin, we sat on a window seat and watched the light fade on the ocean. It calmed him down immensely. The boys both passed out early without even having the prerequisite bedtime stories. The motion of the boat ensured all 4 of us slept like logs.

After flicking quickly through the TV channels I was pretty sure I was going to miss the Pies game, but while wandering around after the boys were in bed I discovered they had the game on in the casino and I caught the last quarter. Needless to say, this (and the result) lifted my mood more than a little.

To wash off some of the excitement from the game I continued the exploration I’d started earlier in the night. Wandering around on the decks of a night time is a little surreal: surrounded by endless blackness, with just a few feet of water around the boat illuminated by the cabin lights. The decks are deserted due to the howling winds, so it feels almost solitary. It’s really quite relaxing.

Photos for the day

Our holiday adventure officially started on 9/9/09, the day after Will’s first birthday. It was a tingly Spring morning in Canberra, and Jeremy and I had jobbies. We walked to the bus stop, walked straight onto the bus we needed, and 20 minutes later jumped out at Braddon, where we picked up the hire care. Rather than the base model falcodore I was expecting, we were given an electric blue SV6 wagon, so things were off to a good start.

With a small amount of fiddling everything was packed into the car, and we hit the road at about 1pm. When we got to the outskirts of Sydney we decided it might be an idea to look at a map - luckily 98% of the trip was dead simple. The last 2% ended up taking us quite a while After much cursing and many temper fits (all mine), we were in the hotel. I ran off to return the hire car before the place closed, and Ange worked on unpacking and getting the boys to bed. Despite having to battle peak city traffic, the maze of one way streets around the Harbour, and the half hour walk back, I got by far the easier deal.

The walk back to the hotel instantly relaxed me - even though Sydney feels quite different to Melbourne there’s something about a city at night that I find fundamentally comforting. By the time I got back to the hotel I was dreading returning to Canberra in another 6 weeks.

In complete contrast to the day before, our first full day in Sydney was bliss. We purposefully had no plans at all for the day, so after breakfast on the Harbour we went to a park and the boys played for most of the morning. I spent the day feeling like I was reliving childhood holidays - the country hicks dragging their kids into nice restaurants. Although at least this time we weren’t all in tracksuits
After lunch we walked all over the place, and spent a good hour or so going round in circles on the monorail, much to Jeremy’s delight.  Both the boys were a bit edgy, especially in the afternoon, but it was a fantastic day.

On Friday we had some jobs to do in the morning, then had morning tea at a cafe in the Queen Victoria Building. On and off for the rest of the day we were at the Aquarium, which was awesome. Except when we were stuck in one of the underwater viewing tunnels with 2 classes of primary school kids, which overwhelmed us all, particularly Jeremy. The boys were still a bit unsettled, but were starting to get used to being out of their normal routine.

Mark came around for beer and footy on Friday night, and both the boys were ecstatic to see him again. Ange went back to have a peaceful look at the Aquarium, while we caught up on the last few years. It was a fantastic night.

Photos for the day

Over the next 6 weeks, when I have net access I’ll upload photos from our  cruise to this album, so if you’re interested, check in from time to time. If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the album.