Come Cruising With My Mum – Guest Post

I am never one to miss an opportunity! When my Mum said that she was going on a P&O cruise I persuaded (bribed) her to write some guest posts. So over to my Mum!

Hello From Little Granny

Hello, it is Little Granny here.  Well, Mum to Emma but Little Granny to Youngest and Oldest.  I never wanted to be Granny as I had always dreamt that I would be Grandma but Oldest had different ideas.  From an early age, she called me Little Granny and Emma’s Ma-in-Law is Big Granny.  It is all down to our height.  Anyway, I digress.  Emma has asked me to guest on her blog as Grumps (or, you will know him as Mike) and I are going on a Baltic cruise with P&O in July and she thought it might make for an interesting travel blog.

Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail

The preparation for the cruise has already started.  Grumps is really the female in this relationship as he has to have loads of clothes and everything has to match.  This is someone with three wardrobes with top boxes all full to the brim.  “We” have already bought 5 new pairs of jeans in differing shades of blue and black to wear in the day.  Yesterday, whilst out on a shopping trip to buy things for Youngest and Oldest visit, he bought himself another two pairs of ‘day’ trousers in differing shades of brown plus a pair of crocs to wear in the cabin.  Have you ever seen an old croc wearing a pair of crocs – it is not a good look but you can’t tell him.

Although we are only going for two weeks we will be taking four suitcases.  Madness, I know, but you have to appreciate that these outfits have to have matching jumpers, shirts, coats and flat caps and that is just the day wear.

Naked Yoga

Sadly, this isn’t Mike. I did have fun looking for a suitable image though. Yes, this will do nicely 😉

In addition to all the extra trousers, Grumps has now bought a Fitbit Charger 2 as he has become obsessive about his weight and exercise.  He has to do a minimum of 10,000 steps a day – his record to date is 21,000.  I am constantly being told how many steps he has done as if I give a ****.  There was a panic this week that the Fitbit might not work on the ship, will it record his daily total?  I have assured him it will in case he wants to cancel the cruise but am I going to have to put up with him marching around the ship until he gets in his 10,000? Oh dear.  Perhaps I ought to encourage him to go back to his naked yoga and tai chi on the balcony.  You can register yoga as exercise on the FitBit.  I wonder what the cabin steward would make of it.

Where are we off to?  We will be visiting Stockholm, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Skagen.  I look forward to sending you details of our exploits.  It’s the first time we have been on a cruise without the family so I am hoping I will survive.  We have been given a generous on-board spend so I can keep the red wine flowing.  At least we will be away from home so there won’t be any pigeons for Grumps to shoot at with his two water pistols.  You didn’t know life could be so exciting. Oooh, I have bought a nifty pair of binoculars to see the sights.