Funchal, Madeira

Well hello from what I have just discovered to be...Portugal.

I found out this wonderful piece of information because the phonecard I bought in Tenerife (Spain) yesterday, wouldn´t work here - ah, the joys of cruising!

I have to go and be ´the computer´for a gameshow in an hour and then we have 2 Cabaret acts, Dominique (Dom) and Frank and then those two, plus Amy and Richard (Cruise Director) for the 'Rhythmn and Blues´ one. Then I have the night off. Me having the night off consists of finishing at midnight - basically I get about 3 hours extra in bed!

Last week was a bit hit and miss. It started off shakey and then got progressively worse as the week went on (to the point of me breaking down in tears during one of the cabaret acts because a microphone failed!), everything I touched seemed to break or go wrong, I was PMS-y, I wasn´t at home for Christmas Day (actually it was more Christmas Eve I missed. Me, Jo and Vix sleep in Vix´s room and I read ´Mr Christmas´- with voices, that would be less disturbing if we weren´t 23,22 and 19!) and I still didn´t really know anyone that well. Also we had a certain passenger on who managed to start 3 fights during the week in "High Spirits"(HS) and there would have been another one if I hadn´t rushed out of the DJ booth to explain to his mate what he was doing!

All in all it was a bad situation. On the plus side I feel much better now. This week I´ve actually found time to relax and not felt like I was under scrutiny so much. Also I've had the time to sit and chat with some folks so am feeling a lot more positive. The thing that made it worse was that I´m not usually like that. I usually settle in to places really quickly and don´t really get homesick, so I was getting mad at myself for feeling like that! I´m going to blame it on the hormones!

New Year´s Eve was fab. There was a massive Deck Party (I was in HS DJing though!) on the Lido Deck and we released balloons and fired the confetti cannon and all the ships in the harbour(Santa Cruz) blew their horns. What made it better was that all the passengers from the other ships were watching our party, hehehe! Only the best at Thomson.

Tommorow is our day at sea, last day at sea we had a force 7 storm, now that was fun. The first time in my life I´ve had to gaffa tape a teaset to the table so it wouldn´t slide off!

STRANGEST MOMENT THIS WEEK: Changing gobo´s (small metal discs with patterns in them that go in front of a lamp to make an effect) at 3 in the morning.....Wearing a ball gown and high heel´s.