Prologue - What dreams are made of!!

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Geo: 53.35, -2.7333

116 get-ups to go...

…You always hear the phrase, 'living the dream' or 'it means the world to me' when you tune in to those reality shows or talent contests. Chris & Roisin had the first piece of negative news last week.

Roisin was trawling TripAdvisor and happened to spot a thread about restricted balconies. It just so happens that Chris and Roisin's cabin onboard the Sapphire Princess comes with one of those restricted balconies. I wouldn't say that their dream has turned in to a nightmare...far from it...it's more like when you're dreaming about walking on the edge of a sidewalk (pavement to us Brits!!) and you slip off. This results in jumping in your sleep. Know what I mean?? Yes?? Well the balcony on board is more restricted than they thought. Roisin was under the impression that they can use the balcony during the day. As the balcony door is behind the bed, access would be restricted to daytime, when the beds were separated. It turns out that as the balcony is on the bow (front end to land-lubbers!!), the balcony can only be accessed while the ship is in port. This is a health and safety restriction as if they use the balcony at sea, they're likely to create their own micro climate in the cabin (tsunami and hurricane!!) OK a bit of an exageration! For tsumani read 'spray from the swell' and for hurricane read ‘headwind'. This setback isn't a showstopper by any means and the dream is still set to become reality.

All their hotels in San Francisco, Hong Kong and Sydney are now booked and paid for.

The photos you can see are of a 65ft sculpture of a young girl dreaming of the future entitled "Dream" by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. It's built from White Spanish dolomite and is in complete contrast to the coal that used to be mined here. Chris thought that the quotation at the site: 'In dreams anything can happen' was quite apt for their trip. This sculpture is on a hill overlooking the M62 motorway and is set to rival Anthony Gormley's 'the Angel of the North'.

Chris and Roisin thought about starting their trip from this landmark but they'd be buggered if they're lugging all the suitcases up that hill only to cart them all the way down again!!! No chance. They'll just say they did it to add poetic license to this fantastic voyage!!!

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