Northants Nutters at Sea (2024) – 2nd July (Day 4)

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Here we are, as part of the Northants Nutters group on board P&O’s Ventura! It’s Day 4 (of 10) and it’s our second sea day. Tonight is another ‘formal’ night where most of us will be dressing up. Prepare for some ‘bling overload’ and ‘Bond Lookalikes’ later! 👍😂

Missed a Post?

Day 1 – Ship Ahoy! (eventually!)

Day 2 – Sea Day 1

Day 3 – Santander, Spain

Morning everyone! We’ve a lazy one today as it’s another ‘sea day’ as we head west from Santander to the north-west coast of Spain and Vigo, famous for its fishing industry. OK, Geography lesson over and back to the story… We all did our own thing for breakfast and agreed to meet up later.

10.15am: Whilst Ann found a quiet spot on deck, I made a big dent in my reading list that has been building up for weeks.

11.55am: We all began to gather early in The Exchange Bar to ensure we got a comfy seat – or even just a seat! 👍

12.10pm: Nutters assembled.

12.15pm: We were here for the main event: The ongoing ‘Battle of the Exchange’ Quiz! As things turned out, it wasn’t quite as well-supported today compared with the first round a few days back, but you could feel the anticipation in the air despite the reduction in numbers. Once again, youthful Jasmine was our team captain – well, for most of it! Bizarrely, she disappeared about halfway through, leaving Mum to assume command! In the opposing corner was ‘Team Lydia’ except that Lydia didn’t show and was replaced by Sharon. Boy! It was getting complicated already – and that was before they began asking the questions! 😁. Rumours of the Quiz being renamed ‘Battle of Herding Cats’ were grossly exaggerated. 😀. Instead, I’ve suggested we have a round in the future called ‘Team Captains from the Past’.

Let battle commence – miaow! 🐈🐈🐈🐈. (Sarcasm mode disengaged!!!)

Today’s round was about music and just as before, there was the option of ‘hard’, medium’ and ‘easy’ categories available for each question as dictated by the Team captains. The obsession of choosing ‘hard’ turned out to make it all VERY challenging, where, in most cases, ‘hard’ was always about ‘guess the year’. We persisted but it did feel like were weren’t quite at our best.

Consequently, when after the final question had been asked, we felt we hadn’t done very well this time, but by the end, the numbers told a different story. When the scores from today had been added up, we learned our fate: Team Jasmine (us!) – 165 points and Team Lydia Sharon – 105 points. Cumulatively, taking into account Round 1, sadly, a reversal of fortunes for us: Team Jasmine – 415 points and Team Lydia aka Sharon – 485 points. It was therefore all to play for at the third and final Round this coming Sunday. Ooo, the pressure! 🤯🤯. Still, it’s NOT about the winning is it? (Answers via WhatApp, please!) 🤔🤔.

Pre-Dinner Drinks

5.45pm: In a break with the tradition of Nibbles at a Nutters, instead, most of us met at The Red Bar to watch and listen to ‘pre-dinner melodies’ with Hannah Gerendus tinkling the ivories whilst we slowly sipped away! It was a great start to the evening activities where we even managed to avoid the Ship’s photographer (not easy – it takes skill and experience!). Instead, we got our Waiter to do the honours. “Scrubbed up well” sprang to mind. 👍

Baytree Restaurant

6.35pm: Off to ‘our’ eatery for the Cruise – The Baytree Restaurant.

Tonight’s menu had a helping hand from top Chef, Marco Pierre White

For us, the best meal so far! 👍😋😋

Theatre – “Magic Moments”

Tonight, the Ship’s Theatre Company: Headliners presented the life and music of Burt Bacharach (yes, it’s official – we’re OLD! 😟) and do you know what? It was SUPERB! It was amazing to realise how many tunes, together with Hal David, that he churned out – and for so many stars too, including Cilla Black, Dionne Warwick, Tom Jones and many others. This was such a professional production. The singing, the dancing, the choreography, the set, the lighting and the support graphics – everything – all worked seamlessly to give us a memorable production, easily as good as any West End show. A comprehensive list is HERE – how many can you hum?

…and finally

9.35pm: Last stop for us was a visit to Metropolis right at the top of the Ship on Deck 18 together with Geoff & Rhonda. A classy Bar area that was already very busy, but crucially, it was a quiet space to reflect on the evening. On other vessels, this has been at the FRONT, by design – what made this different was that it’s at the BACK of Ventura!

Tomorrow…

After we land in Vigo, after Breakfast, we’re off on a Tour organised by the Tourist Board, all thanks to some research by Rhonda. At a paltry €7.50 each, it compares very favourably with the excursions offered by P&O. The Tour lasts around 90 minutes and at the moment, the weather looks perfect for it. 👍😎☀️

10.35pm: After role-playing ‘Party Animals’ until almost midnight last night, this mind and body wasn’t built of strong enough stuff to manage another one within 24 hours 😖😖. We chilled-out in the room briefly, before crashing-out! Yep! ‘Lightweights’ – that’s us! See you in the morning! 💤💤💤💤