Barcelona, Spain
April 16, 2009 Thursday

Webcam from the Bridge of the Queen Victoria is HERE.

This was the final shore day of the round the world tour. Today, British immigration would board and begin the process during the next few days of interviewing everyone on board for entry into the UK on Monday.

As we have occasionally done in the past, Carol Anne and I headed out on different tours in Barcelona for half-day tours in the morning. I have been to Barcelona before and wanted to ride up to Montserrat; Carol Anne had never been here before and wanted to see Barcelona.

Getting off the Victoria was a mess. Initially they planned to have the usual two gangways, one from Deck 2, and the other, one deck below, on Deck 1 midships. The tour groups gathered on Deck 2, but after much effort, the efforts to install a gangway on Deck 2 failed and were abandoned. Now an enormous crowd gathered on Deck 1 snaking up Stairwell B. Mayhem. Ugly words from same ugly passengers. I hid behind a plant until the coast was clear.

The bus ride to Montserrat took about an hour, first on the circle road built for the Olympics years ago, and then out into the country. At the base of Montserrat the tour boarded a train and after an hour on the top of the mountain, we were bused back down the mountain and back to Barcelona.

The weather was sunny in Barcelona, but inexplicably, during Carol Anne’s tour, it not only rained but also hailed – all still with the sun shining. Go figure.

In the afternoon Carol Anne and I walked Barcelona, including the market. Even on a Thursday afternoon it was crowded. We checked for Internet using our iPhones as we walked, but never found it. We had decided not to haul our computers along since we had had found Internet in Civitavecchia earlier in the week.

The ship’s shuttle bus stopped near the statue of Christopher Columbus. Columbus is grandly pointing not toward the sea or the new world, but toward Italy and the bay. Had the statue been positioned to point toward the New World, Columbus would be pointing at a mountain. That didn’t seem right to the locals when they erected the statue so they turned him around.

The norovirus, which infected the ship, was abruptly declared ended in late afternoon and all of the food and drink in the Lido, including the popular ice cream machine, were suddenly available to all passengers again. The Captain declared that the virus had been brought under control. Oh, really?

Cynics noted that forty travel agents had boarded along with British immigration in Barcelona — just in time to witness the end of the norovirus crisis. The norovirus had been pesky and uncontrollable for almost three weeks, since Mumbai. They should have gotten those immigration and travel agent people on a lot earlier.

The Victoria was scheduled to depart Barcelona at 5 p.m. so time, as always, on shore was short. We retreated to the ship and watched from our balcony as first a P&O ship, the Oceana which was berthed just ahead of us, slipped her lines and chugged by us toward the open sea. And then, as evening fell, the Victoria followed the Oceana into the ocean, turned west toward Gibraltar, the open sea of the Atlantic – and Southampton.

PHOTOGRAPHS
Barcelona spiffy Cruise Terminal B – but the gangways don’t always work
Statue of Christopher Columbus pointing toward… wait! — toward the Old World?
Montserrat
One of Goudi’s many architectural masterpieces in Barcelona
Restaurant in stall at market
Barcelona harbour from Deck 9 of the Victoria
Map of Victoria’s path to Barcelona and beyond (below)
Area map (below)

Photographs and Text of QueenVictoria.WordPress.Com are property of, and Copyright 2009 by, Seine-Harbour Productions LLC, Studio City, California. All rights are reserved.

Ui, hat es mich erwischt …

Zuerst war ich ja für ein paar Tage mit einer « normalen » Grippe im Bett. Die ist dann eigentlich auch recht gut herumgegangen – aber man sollte einfach nicht in einer Kinderkrippe arbeiten ! Kaum war ich wieder gesund, habe ich diesen « Noro-Virus » erwischt, der offenbar gerade herumgeht. Das ist ziemlich böse … sehr heftig, mit Magen-darm und so. Ich erzähle jetzt keine Details ! Sonst liest nie wieder jemand mein Blog.

Aber ich bin schon sehr froh, dass ich jetzt offenbar langsam wieder ein bisschen mehr « lebe ». Heute konnte ich das erste Mal wieder einkaufen gehen, mindestens Zwieback und Bananen und Cola … alles andere ist nichts. Meine Mutter telephoniert mich täglich und versucht mich dazu zu bringen, Bouillon zu trinken, aber das geht überhaupt nicht.

Jetzt bin ich gerade aufgewacht, hatte den ganzen Nachmittag geschlafen, glaube ich …

Seltsame Träume hat man auch in so einem Zustand. Und gerade, als ich mir vorgenommen hatte, weniger im Nachdenken herumzuhängen und mehr einfach zu « leben »… Ja, ich freue mich darauf, wenn ich dann wieder « funktioniere ». Ich mag das nicht, so herumliegen und nichts tun zu können (aber wahrscheinlich mag das ja niemand wirklich). Vor allem auch, weil ich weiss, dass ich an der Arbeit eigentlich dort sein müsste… nun musste eine Kollegin für mich einspringen, obwohl sie eigentlich gerade mit ihrem Freund ein paar Tage wegfahren wollte, in die Berge zum Ski fahren. Die findet das wohl nicht so lustig jetzt.  Tut mir leid !

Ich denke, ich werde sicher noch einen oder zwei Tage daheimbleiben. In jetzigen Zustand kann ich noch nicht arbeiten. Aber ich hoffe, ich kann jetzt dann wenigstens wieder ein bisschen lesen. Oder kochen! Aber ich kann ja noch nicht mal essen. Mist

News In Brief

Blacks will have a free download on christmas day – details to come.

Make sure to hit Logan Sama this coming monday, he has some prizes to be won. Asked him about Winter sampler 3 but the poor bloke seems to have that Virus thing. Killer.

Grandmaster Jen will be coming around 2oth January, Dj JJ will also have a mix out soon. http://www.rinse.fm

Skeamz will be releasing an E.P soon keep an eye out for that.

Blog is steadily approaching 1000 views after only a month.

O.T Crew will be releasing the album “Left To Rot” in the first quarter of next year. http://www.outakers.com

Thats it for now people. Oh and i’m trying to arrange for some interviews with artists. Keep your eyes and ears open. Bless.

I write this from my exam revision bunker where I have been for the past few days doing endless reading on classical, positivist and post-positivist international relations theories for a final exam on Thursday. It’s not only the final exam of this semester before Christmas, but it’s my final undergraduate exam, and after that I will have finished my 3 and a half year course. Apart from this being quite scary, it has led to another phenomena I experience prior to exams every semester I have them. It’s what I guess you could call ‘heightened hypochrondria’. Ok, I’m a little bit of a hypochondriac normally… if someone I know is ill I’ll probably keep my distance to a reasonable extent and I tend to get ‘ill’ before a big thing/event. I think I have a ‘fun’ level of hyperchondria at the level Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld do in their shows… you know, it’s kind of stupid and weird, but not THAT weird.

So yes, this week I’ve been trying to avoid all the filthy ill people. This may sound mad, but hey, it probably is slightly, but it also takes my mind off the more worrying thought that this exam is going to be TOUGH. So yeah, anyone who sounds slightly ‘bunged up’ or complains of a sore throat, are to be avoided at all cost. Ok, I’m being a bit over the top as I do still talk to friends etc who are ill, but if we’re all sitting together as a group, I’ll make sure I’m at the opposite end of the table.

Anyway, I live with a family, one member being a 7 year old boy. Now kids of this age are germ magnets and pick up every crappy illness that goes around, so I wasn’t surprised when the week before last he had a stinking cold. I started to worry I may catch it in time for my exam, but touch wood, seemingly avoided it. Then, when I thought I was out of the disease ridden woods, he starts throwing up endlessly on Sunday night and has a fever. I’m guessing this is the dreaded ‘Winter Vomiting Disease’ (or Noro Virus) that goes around the UK every winter… basically the symptoms include ’sudden onset of vomiting, which can include projectile vomiting’. Ok, so I understand people manage to get through exams with a cold, but projectile vomiting?! This is taking all my hypochondriac skills to avoid (as it’s highly contagious), although I have developed them to a fine craft since a young age. If I am succesful, I will of course share my techniques for others wishing to avoid a vomit strewn Christmas.

I’m probably just putting my mental efforts into avoiding illness rather than confront the fact that I am slightly terrified by the fact that I’m finishing uni after all this time, and how I never thought I would get to this point during a couple of pretty rough patches last year. Although I am aiming to study for a Masters in Global Political Economy next October, so I wont be away from the student life for too long hopefully!

Hmm, well it seems I’ve just done what I hoped I’d never do here, that being write about meaningless crap in my life no one but me cares about. I guess it’s not so bad this week considering I’ve generally been managing a couple of blogs a day this past week.

Anyway, back to the bunker I must go… if you’ve seen the film Downfall, it’s a bit like that. Minus the Nazi’s…and the bunker.

Anomaly scan on Friday 11.20am which I’m looking forward to. Wriggler continues to wriggle throughout the day and has even been visible from the outside! My husband has been able to feel wriggles and kicks too which is so nice. My bump is extremely pronounced – I was asked yesterday just how many cushions I had tucked up my t-shirt!! But another colleague declared it to be a neat bump which is a good thing. I’ll dig out the tape measure in a minute and see how big it really is – certainly there’s no doubting I’m pregnant. I can’t help but wonder how huge I’d be if we still had the triplets, or even the twins… probably about to split I should think. I’m still slathering on the body butter and oils in the hope of minimising stretch marks and touch wood, it’s working so far… My daughter likes to help rub in the cream after my shower, and delights in the fact that ‘baby likes it’.

Sad news on the Bounty web forum. A girl from Due In July who I’ve chatted to a couple of times via the boards was expecting twins and had concerns about having them early as she’d delivered her son last year at 23wks. Well, lo and behold, she says she had the babies at 23.+3 days weighing 1lb and the other 1lb 2oz – one is on a ventilator and one is on CPAC? I’m not sure what that means but we were all pleased that her babies seemed to be fighters and that the doctors ‘intervened’ (often they don’t until 24wks minimum). However a few days later, threads started to appear suggesting this girl is a serial liar and has been banned from several other parenting boards for telling lies. Apparently she doesn’t have any children, prem or otherwise, plays hockey and goes by three different surnames. Whether this is true or not, it’s left me feeling really unsettled – if she’s genuine, then how distressing to hear all the horrible bitchy comments that have come up. On the other hand, if she is making it all up, it’s really not funny, in fact it would suggest to me that she needs psychiatric help. I don’t know what to believe and wish I could shake off the uncomfortable feeling it’s left me with.

Bump update – measuring 103cm today!! That’s over a metre

Oh, and the indigestion/heartburn or virus or whatever it was appears to have gone. Hurray!

And boy has it taken forever to get here. Finally, I am at the halfway stage and hopefully out of the danger zone. Wriggler is living up to his name this week and I’m feeling movements throughout the day – it’s funny how they differ from those that my daughter made when she was inside. She used to wave her arms and legs around so I’d feel distinct prods, whereas Wriggler is more of a somersaulting type. It also feels like he’s really low down. It’s nice to be able to feel him in there though, can’t believe it’s been 8 wks since I could feel the three of them moving about.

Plans to move are coming along nicely. House viewings are being lined up for Saturday and we’re busy getting quotes for various diy bits that need doing here. Other plans afoot are to go for a home water birth if able. I’ve decided that I like the Made in Water ‘la Bassine’f and at just over £100 for the pool and accessories, it’s still way cheaper than hiring one. I really hope to give birth in the pool as well as using it during labour, it’s sort of symbolic for me in that I think of the twins being safe ‘in the blue’ (see a previous post) so to birth the wriggler into the blue completes the circle. Plus the benefits of water births are well known and combine nicely with hypnobirthing. Which is another thing I’ve been getting on to – arranging for more sessions. Looks like we’ll start either a refresher or a full course at around 30wks and I can’t wait! It was so relaxing.

Darling daughter continues to amuse and annoy in equal measures as is befitting a 2.5yr old. She’s back to not sleeping for more than a few hours at a time at night which is not great when combined with my indigestion/noro virus stomach ache thing which keeps me awake anyway. At 4am today I went in and the conversation went something like this:

DD: It’s dark. I can’t see anything, no toys.
Me: That’s because it’s night time. And night time is when we sleep.
DD: I can’t see *anything*. It’s night time. Dark.
Me: Yes darling. It’s night time and it’s dark. The sun comes out in the morning.
DD: Sunshine? Sunshine go pop morning. It’s breakfast timing!!
Me: Yes darling. Sunshine comes in the morning and then it’s breakfast time
DD: I have toast and cereal?
Me: Yes, in the morning. But it’s dark now because it’s night time. Night time is when we sleep. When you wake up it will be morning.
DD: And sunshine go pop – breakfast timing!!
Me: Yes. Ok, night night darling. Mama’s going back to bed to sleep.

Cue, crack of dawn at about 5.45am, loud knocking on her bedroom door “Daddeeeeee! Daddeeeee! Sunshine go pop, is morning. Breakfast timing!”

Aaaaaaaargh! And now we have a very sleepy grumpy little girl, a leaden eyed Mama and probably a sleep deprived Daddy (he’s at work). So much for my rational explanation – I should have guessed it would be taken literally Next stop is for the Bunny Clock - we hear great things about it and it’s got to be worth a go surely. Broken sleep and v early mornings are bad for us all in this family.

It really does seem like one thing after another this time. Tuesday night brought with it a nasty stomach ache (not bump related) followed by some unpleasantness of the toilet variety (sorry TMI) and the stomach ache has continued day and night up to and including today. It’s actually woken me up at night it hurts so much. I’ve tried Gaviscon in case it’s indigestion (although it feels too low down for that, and constant) but no joy with it. Also have a vice-like headache which laughs in the face of the puny paracetamol.

Managed to get a cancellation appt with the GP today and he was very nice but said basically there are a lot of tummy bugs going around at the moment and it appears to be a milder version of the Noro virus which went around at Christmas. Lovely. Can’t give me anything to help relieve the symptoms because of being pregnant other than Gaviscon and paracetamol!!

Oh well. In other pg news, we had our first joint counselling session yesterday and it was good. I always think I don’t have anything much to say at the beginning but somehow the flood gates open and before we know it, the session is ending. It was really good for me to listen to my husband and his feelings/thought about the reduction. I’m so caught up in my head that it’s difficult to remember there are other ways of looking at it and dealing with it. It’s confirmed my feeling that we both have very different takes on it, not surprisingly. I felt connected instantly with the triplets where as he didn’t, well at least not in the same way. He feels he has moved on and is looking forward to meeting the wriggler and is more excited about the pregnancy than I am. For me, things remain much the same, I’m full of grief, remorse, guilt, hatred towards myself, unconnected with the bump and our growing son, all at sea, about to go under at any moment. I had hoped that after the reduction the feeling of being caught between a rock face and quick sand, whilst standing in a fast flowing river heading towards a deathly waterfall would disappear, but it appears I’m still stuck there. I want to move on, but can’t seem to. I go through the motions of pregnancy excitement but don’t truly feel it. I love the little nappies, and the tiny clothes but I love those cute things regardless. I can’t imagine our baby wearing them, or how I’ll feel when he is wearing them. I’m scared of how I’m going to feel, or perhaps more honestly, what will happen if I don’t feel anything. I’m scared of having post natal depression again, I’m scared that our decision at 12 wks will affect this baby for all it’s life. Yet, shit happens in life and we have to find a way of getting on and not looking back too often. We can’t change the decision we made, nor would we choose to if offered it again I don’t think. But it’s become part of us all and I do feel different. I feel like a terrible mum, undeserving of my kids love. I miss my twins, my triplets. I am a mother of four, yet I will only truly know two of them. I do know that I love them all and will never forget the ones who are not with us anymore.

Meine Güte, dieses Blog startet ja mit unglaublicher Geschwindigkeit. Aber ich habe Gründe, keine Sorge.

Grund #1: Der NORO-Virus hat mich erwischt. AAAHHH!!!
Ja, genau, diese hässliche Magen-Darm-Grippe, die jedes Jahr um die ganze Welt grassiert. Direkt in der Nacht nach der Eröffnung von Peter Goes FÖJ kam sie. Sollte ich das als böses Omen werten?

Grund #2: Ich habe einen neuen Mac!
Ein wesentlich positiverer Grund. Die Einrichtung meines neuen Babys hat mich den ganzen Tag gekostet und jetzt ist mir gerade mein neues Blog wieder eingefallen. Glück für euch!

Hier ein, zugegebenermaßen nicht von mir aufgenommenes Bild meines neuen Macs:

Foto von Thomas Favre-Bulle

Hm, ansonsten gibt’s nicht viel neues. Ich meld’ mich wieder!