Preparation is key

 On March 9th this year, Ian and I will have been married for 40 years. He has become steadily more curmudgeonly, and I have become steadily more tolerant. We have raised three wonderful children, and owned six wonderful dogs. We have suffered the agony and ecstasy of promotions and relegations for our beloved team. We have also worked our socks off to get near to retirement and be able to afford a really nice Ruby Wedding holiday. We thought long and hard about where to go before settling on a Caribbean cruise. Choosing P&O Britannia meant we could afford to treat ourselves to a suite and also to upgrade to Premium Economy for the flights. No hob nobbing with the rif raf for us! But before we flew out from Manchester on Saturday 8th there was planning to do. Lots of it.

The main thing of course, was clothing, I needed clothing commensurate with my new, lady of the suite, status. I had a couple of long dresses from previous cruises that I have had for years, but wanted fresh. A quick look on line showed me that, despite being a suite dweller, I could not afford to buy new at those prices, especially in the quantity I needed. Plan B was charity shops. I set about trawling all the charity shops in Rotherham (not bad), Blackpool and Lytham st Anne’s (meh), Devizes (rubbish), Bath (even worse), and Newcastle(not bad). After this I still was light on ball gowns. I had to go to Plan C. Online second hand store, Vinted! Vinted came through big time for me. Not only did I get enough dresses to wear day and night, I got tops, shorts, trousers, sandals, bags, and a lovely shawl. Sorted.

Ian, meanwhile, was busy spending our children’s inheritance on a couple of nice tops, a pair of shorts, and a gold plated thin rain jacket.

Packing lasted a week or so, with the cases spread over Kathy’s bed and a lot of shuffling going on. By the Thursday I was satisfied. My work here was done. I noticed Ian’s nice T-shirts and new Vivienne Westwood coat were in, but nothing else. Being retired he was exceptionally busy at work.

Early in the packing process

My meagre holiday possessions 

Preparing for loading

Loaded

I had a relaxing day on Friday before Ian arrived home from retirement and, after a spot of tea, we completed the packing process. Not long after we were saying a tearful goodbye to the lads, leaving Chris bin instructions, and setting off for Manchester airport. A Ruby wedding celebration called for an overnight hotel stay. I had chosen the Meet and Greet parking and the Holiday Inn. The meet and greet was very well run and Ian was soon posting his car keys down a little shoot. We crossed the road to the Holiday Inn and in no time were having our first holiday drink.

The Holiday Inn 

Cheers!

We spent a happy hour in the bar people watching. It’s fun trying to guess where people are going. On the special 8th March Britannia Facebook page there was a post from a lady saying she was in the bar at The Holiday Inn, Manchester Airport. We spent a while trying to pick her out. Then it was time for bed. Ian assured me that 20mins was ample time for him to get ready the next morning, so we set our alarms for 5.40 for a 6pm exit.

Barbados here we come!