Jumping Ship

Hello dear reader, hope you are enjoying a blissful Saturday.

I am too, a friend visiting the island has popped round for coffee and we've had a great catch-up.

And I am calm.

Yesterday I coffee'd with some golf friends.

I wore a simple stone linen skirt, black M&S modal top.

If these Clarks flatties hadn't been produced, I would have had to invent them.  Such a go-to.

I am calm today but yesterday I was fretting, just a little.  You see, I'm soon going off on my first cruise. Ever!  The cruise is very short.  And I have no idea what to pack.  As a result, I've done what I always do when faced with a packing challenge ... I've procrastinated.  But the cruise is rapidly creeping up on me so I gave some thought to the task.  Simple works.  So I'm taking my first step to put together a very simple capsule.

Starting with colourful - stone and black, it's worked for me on previous short trips, albeit not at sea, so that is my starting point.

Colour sorted.  But a girl cannot cruise with skirt and top alone.    So what else do I pack?

I got going on some serious research.  I checked the destination's weather and then headed to the company's brochure.  Ouch! The blurb has a big section on dress codes, which seems a bit overkill for the few days we will be onboard.  But it is the first section of several pages of small print, so the company must view dressing appropriately as Rule No. 1 on board.  It talks about smart dining, black tie, cocktail dresses.  And it seems that rules is rules when it comes to dressing onboard.

Have you been on any short cruises?  Were they evening-formal?  Is the dress code controlled?

My mind drifted, thinking of something to dress up or down. 

I thought black.  I thought "jumpsuit".  Black jumpsuit!

Good idea, Pout! Err, except that you don't have one.  Your one and only was an 80s dark blue boiler suit affair and it came with its inbuilt lavatorial challenges.  You do remember having to take off all your layers, which you hung on the cubicle hook before slipping off the jumpsuit (carefully, so that it did not touch the venue's toilet floor, heaven forbid). then doing the whole thing in reverse after your penny was spent?  Yes, it's all coming back to you, eh Pout?!

 But my response to my inner kill-joy is that things must have changed, surely, otherwise they wouldn't be sported by so many fashionistas currently.  Surely significant changes have been made to accommodate pit-stops in the past three decades and, as with Teflon, the jumpsuit's crotch has benefited from space travel's innovations.

So I ask you, dear reader, why do we wear them? There are so many around, perhaps ladies have become more adept at stripping off.  Or do they flatter so much that no one cares?

Before too long my mind was totally fixated on jumpsuits and I had to have one.

I had to see whether arrangements have changed "down there".  Or whether the jumpsuit is so body-flattering that one can live with the inconveniences in the conveniences!

Do you have a jumpsuit?  Are they as challenging today as they were back in the day?

Roman Originals

And then I snapped out of my jumpsuit reverie and found in my inbox confirmation of this having been purchased.  Well, there's a surprise!

Yes, ladies, I'm fretting just a little about packing for the unknown and maybe the jumpsuit is giving me one fret too many.  But the button has been pressed, so I'm moving on.  

Today I'm going to stop my ostriching.   I'm going on my first cruise and I have to turn up at the dock with a cruise-appropriate capsule.  And I'll be having lots of fun onboard with my travel companions, so it's time to get in the driving seat and get building my cruise capsule.

Have you cruised?  How do you pack for mini cruises?  Is it as formal as it sounds in the blurb?

I need help!!!!!!!!!!!!

But in the meantime, when faced with a major fret ...

... eat pasta and stay calm!

A la perchoine.