04 APRIL 2012


Well last night was another of those tarty, farty formal nights. On the last occasion I had a good look at everyone's outfits and decided there was no right or wrong as long as you had a few sparkly bits on the outfit and weren't wearing shorts or jeans. I felt I had to attend as the chef was whipping up my curry. I decided to wear a dress I bought a while ago. It has been on numerous holidays with me and never been worn. It’s probably got more air miles than I have! It is very plain at the back but the front is a riot of colour and sparklies. It must have looked OK because my little friend down the corridor said I looked lovely!

He’s a smiley little chap, I think he is one of the room attendants further down the corridor, I think he may be Indian or Indonesian. Every morning when I walk towards the lifts he seems to pop out from different rooms with a big smile and a Good Morning. Scared me half to death a couple of times but I’m ready for him now!

I had a couple of drinks at the bar before dinner. There was no sign of Ginny, she must have decided to dine elsewhere. I had a look at the menu and was gutted to find lamb shank Moroccan style (with harissa – yum). Damn and I’d got curry coming!

Punch and Judy came in first, then Duncan and Donut, Julian and family were fashionably late again. I ordered the lamb anyway, just in case the chef had been too busy to get down to the local takeaway. When it arrived it had obviously been working out – it was probably the biggest lamb shank I’d ever seen and it was delicious. As I got more and more full, I was hoping the curry wouldn’t materialise. But along it came.. in a little pot with boiled rice on the plate beside it. It was quite tasty, a little too spicy and hot for me – actually not a patch on Heart of India. Donut ate it instead of me – she tends to get a little tipsy most evenings but she is a really nice and entertaining person. She also has a good appetite! The dessert was not good, a citrus roulade – sounds good? More like a soggy swiss roll!

Judy told me that she and Punch had met up with Ginny in the bar and she wasn’t well at all. It seems that she was a little uncomplimentary about some people she’d met which had not impressed Punch, so they had moved on. Not sure what’s going on there – maybe her medication and alcohol were at war or something – who knows?

Woke up this morning just off Grand Cayman. There is no pier here with deep enough water so we had to disembark via a tender which took up to 300 people each trip. I was in no rush, as my riding didn’t start until 10.15, gathering at the end of the tiny pier, so I had breakfast with a couple from Florida who I had met the other day. She is lovely and her husband has a speeccth impediment and schtounds like Popeye, it may be better if he wasstch to put his teetchth in onechsh in a while! Sweeties though!

They said to allow 45 minutes from getting the tender ticket and arriving at the pier.

What a nice red sticker.



Because I was early I got on straightaway and had an hour to wait before my riding trip. I decided to have a wander around Georgetown and get a feeling for Grand Cayman. It’s probably the most affluent place we have stopped in, it is a tax haven after all. It seems that every business is either a bank, a duty free liquor store, jewellers or a t-shirt shop.


There were only 8 of us for the ride. My heart sunk a bit as there was only me and a young English girl called Alice who had ridden recently. The rest we were talking maybe 20 – 40 years ago! We were met by an English guy from Derby who has settled in Grand Cayman. Derby or Grand Cayman?? I know which I would choose. He didn’t look like Ronnie Biggs but maybe he was just a tax exile as opposed to an exile.

We drove out of Georgetown for maybe 20 minutes to get to the stables. I rode a very sprightly boy called Mocha, he pranced about a lot and jogged along sideways. Alice changed her horse before we’d even left the yard – too frisky it seemed. 


 
 She probably would have been OK if she had given her horse a longer rein, which was clearly the problem.


 Honeysuckle Beach was beautiful. There were loads of the big conch shells lying around the water’s edge with nobody bothering to collect them. There were also sand dollars at the water’s edge, some quite large fish and it was crystal clear


 

 . Due to the less able riders crapping themselves at a walking speed, it was a bit of a pedestrian ride.



  However I did get in one decent canter as did Alice once the guide could see that we were able to manage our trusty steeds.





It is a beautiful island, kind of laid back but obviously wealthy and part of the British West Indies. They even drive on our side of the road, how civilised! There seems to be a bit of a delicacy in this area known as Rum Cake. Wonder what the main ingredient could be? Yep, flour! And buckets of rum too! I was going to buy one and bring it home but it would have got trashed in transit so I decided on another bottle of Cabernet from the minibar for the same price – sorry chaps!! Talking alcohol there was a special offer in town – 2 litres of Absolut for $20 – about £7.00 a bottle. Too heavy for me to carry all the way to Miami – again, sorry chaps!!







 

 We are now sailing back to Fort Lauderdale with a day at sea tomorrow and due to dock first thing on Good Friday. We have to put our cases/holdalls outside the cabin by midnight on Thursday and then I have to claim them on the shore. They will then be put on my tour bus and stay on there until I have shopped 'til I dropped in Sawgrass Mills Outlets. The bus then takes us to Miami airport and I start the long trek home.

Obviously word has got round about the quality of my blog!! I have been invited to the Senior Officer’s Cocktail Party before dinner – a chance to mingle with the Senior Officers! Ahh my fame is spreading!!