Hi Everyone,

I’ve uploaded a whole bunch of photos for you to see. There are show pictures of my favourite show Cinematastic and a whole stack of Chris and I enjoying the remainder of the previous cruise.

After I last wrote, as we left France, we went to London and spent the day with Chris’ brother Gareth. We had a great day together wandering around and shopping and having lunch. It was so nice to see him.

The next day we were in Amsterdam where we explored the shops and did some ‘window shopping’. Mostly we were looking for costumes for the Super Heroes disco that was coming up. As you will see from the photos I went as ‘Super girl’, Chris went as ‘The Flash’, Dave as ‘Superman’, Sokil as ‘Wonder Woman’ etc etc. It was a really fun night.

After Amsterdam, as we transited through the Kiel Canal, we were supposed to get off and go to Hamburg for the day, but that tour was cancelled as we were delayed going through the canal. In Helsinki, Chris finished off finding the rest of his costume for ‘The Flash’ for the disco the following night and the next day in St Petersburg, Chris and I visited the Hermitage and did a canal cruise with Sokil and her friend that is on Jodie.

The next day we visited Tallinn, which so far has turned out to be Chris’ favourite port. We wandered around old town and I took him to the Medieval restaurant I had been to before which I thought he would love, and I was right… he loved it.

The following day was the end of our final Mediterranean/Baltic 16 day cruises. We ended in Stockholm and spent the day there visiting the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a huge Galleon built in the 1600’s that sunk on its maiden voyage. After 333 years on the bottom of the harbour it was found and restored and is now on display in its own museum… it was fascinating to see.

Now we have started a new cruise which is the Atlantic crossing cruise to Montreal. So far we have revisited Helsinki and St Petersburg, and we are at sea today on our way to Bornholm, an island of Denmark. All the ports from now on will be completely new to us all.

Things on board are a little different for us at the moment, as sadly Chris Trimarchi one of the dancers of my cast has had to go home due to Glandular Fever. We are all really upset he has had to go, but he has been very sick on board here and even ended up in hospital in Cannes for 4 days, so it’s for the best he has gone home. We really miss him though L.

I hope all is well at home. Be sure to drop me a line and let me know how you are all doing.

Lots of Love,
Jess xx

Last Saturday August 9th, I finally met Chris in Rome. We had a wonderful day exploring the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, The Roman Forum and Trevi Fountain.

Later that day after we had arrived back on board the ship my mobile rang. Sadly it was my brother calling to let me know my Nonna (my dad’s mother) had just passed away. What began a very happy day suddenly turned into a very sad one. The last week has been a huge mix of emotions for me. I have been devastated that I wasn’t home to be with all of my family. Friday was particularly a hard day as that was the day of her funeral. It hit me like a tonne of bricks one night the reality that I wasn’t going to be there to attend. What I had done in the days leading up to it was to sit and write a few words to be read out on the day and also sent a recording I had with me of me singing, that was then used to go with a photo montage of my Nonna on the day. Numerous phone calls to home have made me feel better and of course the fact that Chris is here with me has been wonderful. Many thanks for the emails of sympathy I received… they are greatly appreciated. I’ve included a couple of photos of me with Nonna at my 30th last year, at Christmas and one of me with her as a kid. I can’t believe she’s gone.

On a brighter note, Chris and I have done our best to enjoy the ports we have visited together so far. In Livorno, we went to Florence for the day and stopped off briefly at Pisa to see the leaning tower.

In Cannes we made a trip to Monte Carlo where I had planned to give him an early birthday present… he got to drive one lap around the Formula 1 Grand Prix track in a Ferrari. Very fun. I wanted to drive too but I was too scared about driving one of those cars on the wrong side of the road, so I just went as a passenger. Later we went to the Monte Carlo Casino where Chris bet 50 Euros on the Roulette table and managed to double his money. I made a deal with him to quit once or if he reached 100 Euros, and that’s exactly what we did. We kept a 5 Euro chip as a souvenir though.

After that we had two much needed days at sea. Chris’ jet lag was starting to wear him down and after two days of rest we arrived in Lisbon. We did a tour up to the mountains to Cascais and to Sintra before returning to Lisbon’s city centre in the afternoon for some shopping.

The weather has been very hot but has definitely changed now and is much cooler. Today we went into Paris and went part way up the Eiffel Tower for lunch and then onto the Louvre to see the Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa.

We are now sailing out of Le Havre and are on our way to Dover. Tomorrow we will catch the train into London where we are going to spend the day with Chris’ brother Gareth. We are really looking forward to seeing him.

Lots of love to everyone at home. Will write again soon.

Jess & Chris xx