All at Sea

Dressing up and down

Most areas on the ship permit casual where and the two decks with swimming pools allow swimming suits for lunch. The Lido Restaurant is buffet style inside near the outdoor pool and allows casual wear for evenings. The Orion Restaurant is part of the “all inclusive” package but provides table service and requires smart dress for evenings and for the Captain’s Gala night they ask people to dress up for the evening.

So I had packed what passes as smart casual in my wardrobe and velvet trousers and a long silver and black jacket as my dressy outfit, but I didn’t have any smart sandals or shoes. Lucky for me we passed a shoe shop while walking back from the cable car in Alanya and I bought some nice sandals. And when I tried them on I realised how neglected my feet were and what ugly toes I had. So once we were back on board I went to Ocean Spa and booked a pedicure for that afternoon.

A pedicure

The beautician did an amazing job on my feet! She started by shaping toenails and then went on to removing dead skin….well the it flew off my feet like someone had taken an orbital sander to a piece of soft wood….. this was followed by an exfoliation cream she applied to my feet and lower legs, and then washed and massaged my feet. I felt truly pampered and with a final application of nail polish to match my hair I had pretty toes!

Sunday 22 Dec

So the Sunday we spent at sea travelling from Turkey to Israel. I spent most of the day grappling with a new (to me) sock pattern trying to learn entrelac knitting. The pattern is called Basket Case I am starting to feel like a basket case. Normally I use Hermione’s Everyday Sock pattern by Erica Lueder. It is a simple pattern with a hint of texture and very effective for self-stripping yarn.

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