Southampton

 Southampton  Saturday 13th May 2023

The disembarkation went like clockwork. Borealis docked at 5am. Breakfast at 7.30. The last items were packed away in our two rucksacks and we left the cabin at 8am after leaving a thank you note to our cabin maid. People were being asked to leave in organized waves which were distinguished from each other by the colour of our luggage labels. As usual it was brilliantly organized. Our label was blue which was a reference to our corridoe of cabins on the port side of Deck 6. Previously all those living in suites on Deck 7 with different coloured labels had already been summoned. 

I took a last look from the Observation Platform on Deck 6. It was cold, overcast and Southampton Dock was a iserable looking place, with no exciting object on which to rest the eye except for a large white dome which looked like a mushroom top. There were two other passengers vessels in the docks. They were two gigantic glass warehouses, purporting to be cruise ships, with some 5 or 6 decks each above the level of the life boats, the kind that has a whole shipping centre and a complicated waterslide over the pool to cater for its 5000 or so guests. Give me  the Borealis any day with its 1300 passengers. At least it looks like a ship. As I was watching a giant Hapag Lloyd container ship glided past us towards a further berth. I returned to the cabin.

Now it was our turn at 8am. Clutching our two pieces of hand luggage, as well as the plush little sloth Albina bought for herself during the cruise, we made our way for the last time to the Neptune Lounge on the starboard side. Our names were checked off on the list as we queued to go in. We then went forward to a lovely young lady from the UK Border Force. I showed her my passport and held the toy sloth while Albina rummaged in her bag for her passport. The Border lady waited patiently and smiled at the sloth. "We got it in  Colombia," I explained. "No," intervened Albina, as she showed the lady her passport. "I got it in Costa Rica." God knows what the Border Force lady thought about that. Perhaps it was, spoilt cruise passengers, who can't even remember where they've been?

After showing our passports we were given a red card showing that our passport had been inspected and we proceeded for the last time to Deck 2 where we handed in the red pass. presented our yellow key cards and finally disembarked. After a struggle we eventually found our cases scatterd all over the area earmarked for the bags with blue labels,  and after grabbing two luggage trolleys we pushed our way out to the cargo terminal exit. There had been no customs checks for anyone. 

It was a cold morning. Albina waited in the waiting room, chatting to Rafal and Iga and to another Polish couple, while I hunted for our Addison Lee limousine outside. I finally made contact with the driver and he arrived somewhat late just before 10 am when we had been ashore on Horizon Terminal for almost 2 hours. Just minutes before, I had caught a glimpse of Ranald and Sharon entering a taxi and had a chance to exchange a wave with them as they whisked by for their return to Dunblane in Scotland.  

The limousine had originally been booked with Rol Cruise when we made that fateful booking in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. Now we returned home along the M3 motorway, through the welcoming green fields of Southern England, happy and contented, with our six suitcases, 3 bags and one plush soft little sloth.

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We had originally booked this tour as a future prospect of a bright future event to comfort us during the pandemic and to celebrate 50 years of living together. It had then become a nightmare as the costs spiralled and we expressed doubts about whether we could survive such an ordeal. Albina saw it nevertheless as a chance to finally have a rest and have no domestic responsibilities and a chance to spend time with me away from my busy social and literary responsibilities. I saw it as a terrible ordeal of 80 wasted days being irrelevant and responsible for nothing. At least I imagined the cruise would have relevance as a recreation of the magic of Jules Verne's book. Albina looked forward to the cruise, while I dreaded it. When friends and office colleagues asked if I was excited by the cruise I looked at them in bewilderment. 

However, eventually I cleared away my social rsponsibilies in the Polish community, one by one. We  made the necessary medical preparations, and I cleared the unexpected length of this holiday with my employers. I took up the initiative of finding my reevance again by writing a blog. We paid the final instalment and we made ready to sail. 

At the end of the day, we both got what we wanted from the cruise. Albina wanted the rest that she desired so much in a warm climate, and I got the relevance I crave, by writing the blog, giving a lecture, making some friends and living one long dream of effortless travel in countries I had mostly never seen, and never expected to see.  It was a time of good living and a sea passage free of any storms or disasters. Finally, Albina came back to tell her friends that she got the rest that she wanted and had gained four extra kilos, which would please her doctors at the hospital. I too came back having had an enriching experience and a blog that could get published, if I can polish it up correctly. And I too had gained four kilos in weight, which is definetely four kilos too much. Most important of all, we both came away knowing each other better, flaws and all.

We got back to our falt in Brentford by non. Everything was left spick and span by our cleaner, the balcony was still under assault by the pigeons, the waiting corrwspondence of some seven domestic bills was waiting for us, of which all had been paid during the cruise, the promised bridge to Brentford Station had been built over the canal, my place at the Warsaw Book Fair had been booked for the end of May to promote my last Polish book, my blog had been completed and was awaiting revision, and I will be back at work at 9am on Monday.  

And now to get on with the rest of our lives...................