I must say that Princess cruises have been wonderful to us. I understand they (and many others) are losing a ton of money dealing with the Coronavirus. ( I know, many people are losing their lives but I am talking about my experiences here).

Princess have now cancelled all of their Asian cruises, moving their ships to Australia. Even though we cancelled our trip before they cancelled the cruise, they still have refunded us all of our money. They have also given us a 50% credit toward our next cruise. The Airline hasn’t cancelled their flights to Singapore yet so we are out our cancellation fee and also all of the hotel costs as they were non refundable. If we had booked the hotel and airline through the cruise line everything would be totally refundable.

We gave our friends something we weren’t going to need after our renovation. We weren’t expecting anything in return. They have had our backs on many occasions. Yet, yesterday they gifted us 200 spot prawns. I’m not sure if it is bartering as such but on this island if you aren’t going to need something you pass it on to someone who can and if you can be of help to someone with a problem, you speak up. Today my sister in law brought me some extra Rhubarb and Asparagus plants she had.. I will hopefully have something to share with her this summer. It usually goes full circle but low be the person who only takes and never gives..

We have had mediocre terrible success since we moved here with catching prawns. Our pots are inevitably stolen or caught up in log booms. Our friends are brilliant at it and we are fortunate they were willing to share with us. Tonight we had the most gorgeous dinner with their spot prawns and a wee filet mignon steak.

We have since agreed that next winter, when we have more time (renos are done!) we are going to make a more concerted effort to catch our own. Oh my god they were delicious.

Of course now the cruise line is inundating us with promotion emails. Good deals to be had.. E says to me this afternoon. “Look at this one, 21 day cruise to Hawaii Tahiti and the South Pacific in April for 849.00 ..” Holy shit! Screw the virus……

Let’s all go..