Stressed out

The Fox has once more lost his appetite. Yesterday he settled down to his Tuna Fish Pilaff, took one mouthful & felt he’d had enough. He did manage another mouthful or two but that was it. He hadn’t done much better on Saturday with his Chicken à la King. He thought it was the rice dish. It all just tastes the same he reckoned.

Well, today we’re not having rice. Instead I’m making a few chips with bacon & egg, mushrooms & fried tomatoes. There’s plenty of different flavours & textures there. I was intending to do some sausages & black pudding but he doesn’t want to be overfaced. I suspect he’s not going to eat much more than he has all weekend. As it is I suspect I’m going to end up eating most of the chips. I don’t want extra meat as well.

The reason for this? Stress I suspect.  The cause of this stress? For once I don’t think it’s our health. No, it’s our Norwegian cruise.

When we booked the holiday, we were keen to go. The idea of going to Norway greatly appealed. I have fond memories of around Oslo when I visited in 1974. The countryside was fabulous. The people friendly.

We also thought it would be good to see if cruising in warmer climates would appeal to us. Airports get us down. The Fox finds them very stressful. Maybe a cruise would be a nice alternative.

Since then our cruise loving friends have decided to join us. Increasingly the cruise is becoming a nightmare. It started when they clearly expected us to take them in our car to port at Newcastle. We pointed out it was impossible. Our boot is pretty well filled with my wheelchair. Then there will be at least one suitcase, possibly two as we have to take a suit for the Fox, plus hand luggage. There just isn’t room for two more people & their luggage.

Since then they’ve fretted over the route. I wouldn’t have even have thought about the route until we had received the tickets a couple of weeks before the cruise. I suspect there may be extra information included as to how to find the car park for the ship. And anyhow I was just going to put the postcode in the Satnav, check on the map it seemed a reasonable route, & go that way, whichever way it was. No stress, no hassle. Instead of which we’ve had weeks of pressure about the route, when we should leave, how are they going to get there etc. etc. Then this week we hear they’d changed their dining time to the first service when we are dining. What next? Will we hear they’ve managed to join us at the same table? Are they then going to cling on to us every time we venture out of our cabin or off the ship? I hope not.

When we go on holiday, we like to get away from it all. As one of my CPNs, Community Psychiatric Nurses, instructed me – no radio, no TV news, no papers, just get away from all the worries of home. Our friends are part of what we get away from. They are a reminder to us of all our other problems & stresses. Holidays are a time just for us two to unwind & be together, doing what we want, indulge ourselves a bit, even having a good quiet read undisturbed. It’s not pandering to other people’s needs & wants, trying to fit in with them. We do that enough at home.

We both can see one great blow up coming. And all because they insisted on coming too.

We’re even beginning to consider backing out of the cruise all together. We just don’t see why we should lose so much money on nothing just because of other people. Mind you, at the rate we’re going I half expect to find the Fox is going to be too ill to travel, maybe even have another stroke, by the time the cruise is due.

Thank goodness we’ve got our Italy trip booked for September. That means going by air & our cruise-loving friends have decided they can no longer cope with air travel. Three cheers. Let’s hope none of our other friends decide to join us on that one too.