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B2B Carnival Dream March 12-26 Review

meatloafsfan

By meatloafsfan,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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jtmurph7

jtmurph7

Posted
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This is a great review!!!! I have been reading it over the past couple of evenings and I am loving it.:D.. I have caught UP!!! I don't know if I can stand it I now have to wait for you to write......OHHH NOOO!!! the anticipation :eek:....You still have another week to go...I will be comming home and checking this thread first thing..Keep it comming...:)

 

Oh I will be on the Dream on July 30th... I can't wait...

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kclvt

kclvt

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I am looking at the Dream for 2013. I know a long way off but we are going to take our sons and their significant others as a present. Need to make plans to pawn off the grandchildren......Reading this is really helping me make a positive decision. We have cruised on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Carnival is the one that works for us this time......

Looking forward to reading more of your review.

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meatloafsfan

meatloafsfan

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I have sooooooooooo enjoyed your well written review. BRAVO!

 

Speaking from experience - we've all had a few too many at one time or another. Hangovers are caused by dehydration - alcohol induced of course. If you will just drink at least 16 ozs. of water before retiring, you should be fine. Yes, you'll be up all night going "rain rain" (as we call it); but at least in the AM you'll feel like getting out of bed. Also try really hydrating well in the AM before you start drinking - that will certainly help. The massive amounts of sun during a cruise doesn't lend a hand either!

 

Continue - this is really a treat. We are sailing July 2nd.

 

I think that's part of the "stay up" thing - you're more likely to eat and drink while you're awake and compensate for the extra alcohol.

 

You might be thinking of another religion, because I was born and raised Catholic. Even attended Catholic school.....never heard it said that we believe that it is immoral and against God's law to drink. Our parrish priest, Father Ignatius from St. Jude's (Warrensville Heights, Ohio), never passed up a glass of wine when Grandma had him over for Sunday dinner.

 

Edit: After reading your post again...I guess I'm not sure who thought it was immoral...you or the other person in the conversation.....maybe it's hard to remember after a half bottle of wine...

 

One of the boys Jenna had met at the teen club was a self proclaimed Catholic and told her that the Church condemned those who imbibed in the "evil alcohol". I found that hypocritical since alcohol is a part of one of the most integral Catholic practices (taking Communion). The mother and daughter next to us were Baptist.

 

If I may be so bold as to ask, are you available?:rolleyes:

 

Best review I have ever read. Keep up the fun.

 

Dan

 

Well - I'm a sucker for man who has an apartment - with a bed - AND a kitchen ;).

 

When I find a man with a nice enough apartment, and a comfortable enough bed and a state of the art kitchen, maybe then I'll consider settling down. :p

 

Unless I manage to buy all of those things myself first and then I'm single for life :D.

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meatloafsfan

meatloafsfan

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The final Sea Day or Wait, there's no rush, we're still on the ship next week!

 

Jenna came wandering in at some ungodly early hour once again (when I say early I mean early morning).

 

I was up around 9am and decided to do laundry. I figured being in Port Canaveral the next day we wouldn't be able to do laundry until after we set sail and frankly, I was in a bit of a domestic mood. I would have straightened up the cabin but I didn't want to disturb Jenna who fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. I decided to go to the laundry room on deck 11 since it was the only laundry room that was forward (so I just zipped up the elevators), instead of going to the one on deck 2 which was mid ship (I would have had to carry my laundry down half the length of the ship).

 

I got to the laundry room with my two pop up baskets (got them at the dollar store - and they were great - folded up to a small circle but the popped up to make a laundry basket - I got a green one for Jenna and a pink one for me) only to realize that while the washers and dryers take quarters, they don't put a change machine in the laundry rooms.

 

Being Canadian I had about $1.75 in US quarters - no where near the $3 per wash and $3 per dry I'd be needing.

 

There was another gentleman in the room already who had the same issue that I did. And while there is no change machine, there is a phone in the laundry rooms. The guy was on the phone with guest services finding out where he could get quarters. When he hung up I asked if he would share that piece of information with me.

 

They told him two places - guest services and the casino.

 

He headed to the Casino so I headed to guest services.

 

I got back to the laundry room first :D. By a landslide.

 

Guest services would only sell me $10 in quarters (in a roll), and combined with my $1.75 would leave me 1 quarter short. I started my washers (using $6) and figured I'd see if Jenna had a quarter in her wallet. I had brought some Purex laundry sheets (figuring I'd have to do laundry at least once in the 17 days) so at least I didn't need to spend precious quarters on laundry detergent or fabric softener.

 

Washers take 30 minutes so I went back to the cabin and found Jenna's wallet and she did indeed have a quarter. Thinking back, I don't think I ever told her I took the quarter out of her wallet? Score - free quarter!

 

Anyways.

 

$6 in hand I made my way back to the laundry room and waited the last 10 mins on my 2 washing machines. I transfered the laundry over to the dryers (there were 2 washers and 4 dryers), paid my money and decided what I wanted to do for an hour.

 

1 hour.

 

60 minutes.

 

 

what's that - 20 to 30 spins on a slot machine?

 

 

Really, was there any doubt what I would end up doing with my one hour?

 

I hadn't had breakfast so I ordered a Mocha Chocolate Getaway - hey it's full of dairy goodness (god do I love whipped cream) and it's pretty light on the alcohol.

 

Took a few spins but kept a very tight rein on my time. I didn't want to be one of "those people" - you know the kind, they leave their stuff in a washer or dryer, hogging it but not moving it and everyone else thinks, "Are they coming back? Do I dare move it? Damn, I really need that dryer!".

 

I came back with 8 mins to spare on one dryer and 15 mins to spare on the other.

 

I met a very nice woman in the laundry room who didn't want to haul a bunch of dirty clothes home with her. She had her 4 kids with her in the laundry room; despite the small room, the kids stayed out of the way and moved when I needed to get my things out of the dryers.

 

I folded most of the clothes from the 1st dryer while I was waiting for the second one to finish but that was the extent of my domesticity. :p

 

I brought the 2 baskets of clean, fresh, dry laundry back to the room and sorted it into "mine" and "not mine". Jenna woke up and asked me what I was doing - I told her the laundry fairy had been by and dropped off some clean clothes. She said "okay" :rolleyes: and went back to sleep.

 

I headed for some food.

 

First I thought I'd have another burrito but then I remembered about the Indian Tandori. It took me a minute to find it since it's OUTSIDE the buffet area on the back deck. I was hoping to sit outside in the shade but either all of the seats were taken or had disappeared (there were several tables that had no chairs at all - I imagine people had moved them out into the sunny spots, silly rabbits).

 

No worries, I found a comfy table all to myself at the back of the buffet area and settled down to eat and then read.

 

Let me say my biggest regret of the two weeks was not getting back to the Indian Tandori section again. It was so good. Spiced but not overly spicy; fresh and well prepared. There was so many options, I piled my plate high with so many different things. I loved it, so tasty!

 

For the first time I saw a drink waiter in the buffet area so I ordered a Kiss on the Lips (I wanted something icy and cool - something that I wouldn't just knock back).

 

Again I had a number of Carnival employees come up and ask me about my ereader.

 

Around 4pm I decided I was kind of done and was going to go back to the cabin. I walked down the length of buffet heading back to the forward elevators. I got stopped - by the AWESOME SMELL OF HAMBURGERS!

 

I stopped and got a cheeseburger, some shoestring fries and a touch of potato salad.

 

It smelled better than it tasted but that didn't stop me from scarfing the whole thing down ;). The burger was a little dried out (kind of hockey puck like) but the onion, tomato and lettuce and bun were fresh. The fries were good and I think that I had a very unhealthy attachment to Carnival potato salad those two weeks.

 

I talked to a few people who were also sitting enjoying a burger and unknown to me, Jenna must have walked right by me without me or her noticing.

 

I went back to the cabin eventually and Jenna thanked me for the clean laundry and asked where I was. That's when I found out she had been up there 20 mins ago getting a burger. She was just about to order a piece of cheesecake so I had her order me one too.

 

I took a few minutes and sorted out my laundry, folded it and put it away. I also cleaned out my purse and put everything I'd need for the next day (getting off the ship to meet my parents).

 

We had gotten luggage tags and disembarkation information which is when I realized that no one had gotten the memo we were doing a back 2 back. :mad:

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happylady

happylady

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One of the boys Jenna had met at the teen club was a self proclaimed Catholic and told her that the Church condemned those who imbibed in the "evil alcohol". I found that hypocritical since alcohol is a part of one of the most integral Catholic practices (taking Communion). The mother and daughter next to us were Baptist.

 

LOL...I wonder if this was something the parents instilled trying to prevent those experimenting teen years? :rolleyes: "Cause I've been to many occasions where many of our Catholic friends and family were partaking in the "evil alcohol". :D My MIL was Southern Baptist and we never dared order a glass of wine or similar when joining her at a restaurant for diner. :D

 

Any who........loving your review and can't wait for more!

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meatloafsfan

meatloafsfan

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Guest Services or The 4th Circle of Hell

 

So down I went to Guest Services to let them know about Back 2 Back. Thankfully the line up was short. Earlier in the day (around 11am) it was quite long.

 

So I stepped up to the counter and told the gentleman that I had booked both this cruise, and the following cruise but I had received luggage tags for disembarking and I just wanted to make sure that someone was aware that I was doing the back to back cruises in case there were any special procedures.

 

So he takes my name, looks at his computer, and says, "Are you sure you booked the second cruise?"

 

"Yes, I am very sure." I said.

 

He looks at his computer again. He gets that frowny look on his face but keeps searching his computer.

 

And searching in his computer.

 

And searching in his computer.

 

I was ready to freak out. I knew KNEW that I had booked and paid for the second week - I had done my funpass at home and even printed off a luggage tag (just in case we went shopping in Port Canaveral and decided to check a piece of luggage) so there was no way I wasn't booked.

 

Eventually after many, many antagonizing minutes he "found" me in the computer for the following week.

 

Then he proceeded to check to see if we had the same cabin. :rolleyes: Even though I told him I did. So he confirmed that we were indeed still in Cabin 1206 next week.

 

And then he asked me if there was anything else.

 

Umm, yes.

 

So what do I do tomorrow?

 

I explained that I wanted to get off the ship because I was meeting family. He told me I just disembark as usual then and recheck in like I did the first time.

 

I asked him if I had to wait in line again for everything again and he said "Yes".

 

Fun, fun, fun.

 

Anyways.

 

I went back to the cabin in a "not so happy" mood. A little fuming that it seems like everyone else gets treated nice when on a B2B.

 

I stepped into the cabin to find Jenna sitting crossed legged on her bed in the middle of all of her clean clothes, eating her cheesecake which had arrived while I was gone. She had a big smile on her face and said, "You should see the pile of white mousse that came with these!!!!"

 

For some reason, I just wasn't mad anymore.

 

I sat down and ate my cheesecake (it was awesome). We ending up getting an pay per view movie.

 

 

 

 

It was "Easy A" for those who are wondering, not one of the "adult" movies.

 

 

 

After that we flipped around and watched most of Toy Story 3 (on the free movie channel).

 

And then we got ready for dinner.

 

I must have been in some kind of cheesecake / movie coma because I was completely spacey tonight. I heard things but nothing registered. Really.

 

We had our pre dinner drink in the lounge again. Jenna ordered a non alcoholic Mocha Chocolate Getaway (and I used one of my bar coupons for it - the server asked if I was sure since the drink was only $4.75 and the coupon was worth up to $5.75 - I told her I was sure. I actually ended up bring home 3 of the bar coupons because I just didn't use them. Either I was getting free drinks in the casino or it wasn't convenient to use them or I didn't have them with me).

 

At dinner Jenna ordered her two cans of Nestea (which she claimed tasted like home) and I had the rest of my bottle of wine.

 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it but every night with dinner we also got a 1.5 litre bottle of water. I found that I wasn't drinking much through the day but I would sure make up for it at dinner. I think it was the only way I stayed hydrated was that huge bottle of water each evening.

 

So our buzzer went off and we headed into the dining room.

 

Jenna says to me "wawwawa wawa wawwwa wawaawwaaw wawawa" or something like that. I nod my head. And then she's like, "No, wawaw, wawwaa wawaw!" And I was like, "Okay". And she gave a very weird look.

 

And then just as we're getting to our table she's like, "Look, wawa wawa, waawwwa." And I just stared at her.

 

She let out a big sigh and pointed her arm behind me. There was Carla. I said, "Oh, there's Carla and Jessica". And Jenna was like, "That's what I just said!"

 

I said, "Oh sorry I'm really out of it tonight".

 

And she said, "I know. When we came in, I told you that Ivan was at the table by the door and he waved at you. You didn't look over so he waved again. I told you that and you just had this dumb look on your face and you never looked over at him at all. Oh, and his wife who was sitting next to him was looking pissed!"

 

I had to laugh, I really don't know how I missed this. I was on a completely different planet tonight and nothing registered with me.

 

Dinner tonight was really good.

 

I started with the crab cakes. These were very good. Lots of crab and only a bit of filler. They were nicely browned on the outside but not hard or crunchy.

 

Jenna didn't have an appetizer.

 

For entrees I had an appetizer portion of the chicken, mushroom and fettucini and the spare ribs. Both of these are really great dishes. The fries that come with the spare ribs are the same shoestring fries they serve with the hamburgers and I'll admit that I was hoping for a more substantial fry but, c'est la vie. The ribs were really tasty and I like the bbq sauce. The pasta was perfect and the chicken was tender. This was one of those nights I was glad not to be limited to choosing only 1 thng.

 

Jenna had the prime rib cooked well done. She had thought about ordering the cornish game hen but didn't quite believe me that it wasn't just a child chicken.

 

She got a big honking piece of prime rib, let me tell you. But she ate it all. Her mom doesn't really serve beef at home so I guess Jenna just loaded up on it on the ship.

 

Dessert was of course warm chocolate melting cake. Sigh, I really would like one of them now. Even though it's breakfast time. Sigh.

 

I finished all but a half of glass of wine from my half bottle and the server offered to pour it and I could take it with me but I had enough wine. Plus, I knew where I was heading after dinner.........

 

Jenna headed off to Club O2 - with a reminder from me that she needed to a) return the laptop she got with our internet package by 11pm and b) should get at least some sleep since we were meeting my parents the next day and would need to be off the ship by 9am and wouldn't have a chance to get back to the cabin until 1:30pm.

 

I headed down to the casino with the intention of playing for a bit and then cashing out my account. I knew that tomorrow was just like a "Port day" with an excursion so I was planning on making it an early night.

 

That didn't happen.

 

I was one of the last people in the casino. One of the hosts went around before they closed reminding everyone to cash out their accounts.

 

I cashed out and went back to the cabin. It was kind of weird because everything on the ship was closed and things were pretty quiet.

 

I called for a wake up call, set out my clothes for the morning and settled in to get a few hours sleep. Jenna had returned the laptop but didn't return to the cabin until 6am. Our wake up call was for 8.

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meatloafsfan

meatloafsfan

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A port day in port canaveral or Hello Mother, Hello Father.....

 

So 8am came waaaayyyy to early. The phone rang and I dragged Jenna out of bed.

 

We got dressed and ready to go. I doubled checked the papers in my purse - passports, wallet, cruise documents for the second half, sign and sail cards, customs form. I decided I should take the consent letter for Jenna as well so I added that to my purse. I hadn't needed it so far but.....

 

I called my parents to see where they were and they were just leaving the hotel, they said they were about 20 mins away.

 

We disembarked the ship, bypassed the luggage stuff and breezed through customs. As Canadians, we had nothing to declare since we weren't leaving any goods in the US. We did take off an empty carry on rolling suitcase. My parents had brought pop for us to take back on the ship for the second cruise (a 12 pack of cans of cream soda for Jenna and a 6 pack of bottles of diet pepsi for me). I figured the carry on would make it easier to bring the stuff back on the ship instead of having to schlep it around.

 

We got off the ship and I asked the Carnival guy if we were getting picked up where would the car meet us. He asked if it was a company or family. When I answered family, he pointed us across to the parking lot. So we headed over there to wait. My parents of course were over where the companies who pick up passengers were. They were eventually directed to the parking lot pickup area.

 

We got into the car to find that my parents had done so much shopping the trunk was packed full with their shopping and my mom's collapsible wheelchair that their two suitcases were in the back seat. It was a tight, tight squeeze but we fit in the car. I was glad it wasn't going to be that long of a day.

 

First stop was a drug store so I could get some cream and stuff to help with my sunburn. I got aloe cream and some freeze spray and a tube of polysporin (for when I started peeling). I had Jenna spray on the freeze spray right away. Awwwww, relief.

 

We ended up going to Denny's for a late breakfast / early lunch / brunch kind of thing. It basically just gave us time to talk about our trip and my parents trip.

 

My parents could not believe I got a sunburn since they know how careful I am and I had managed to avoid it on our Disney Cruise.

 

Before we all left on our respective trips, my parents bought a camera. I have my camera and when we travel together I'm usually the one taking pictures. Since they would be on their own, and I would have my camera, they needed to get one of their own so they bought a small, lightweight Kodak camera. My mother took pictures of EVERYTHING - so much so that they could not keep the camera charged all day and it didn't have separate batteries - it's the kind of camera you just plug in. So they bought a second small inexpensive Olympus camera for $60 so they could take pictures all day long (between the two cameras there was enough battery life). They came home with over 1400 pictures in their 9 days. I have never seen so many water towers or mailboxes in my life.

 

Anyways.

 

My mother decided that she needed to take a picture to show how burned I was.

 

P3180041.jpg?t=1302961130

 

The white stripe is where my swimsuit strap was.

 

Jenna of course wanted to get in on it as well:

 

P3180042.jpg?t=1302961135

 

Rotten kid with her skin that tans.....

 

Anyways.

 

I wanted to stop at a bank machine to get out a little more cash. The ship has ATM's but I didn't like their service charges and I know I could get money out of the casino but that came from my credit card and I had the money in my bank account. Here in Canada I bank with TD Canada Trust (TD stands for Toronto Dominion). It just so happens that there is a TD bank in Melbourne Florida (which is where my parents hotel was) so they drove us there. The nice thing was - no bank fees. When I got my monthly bank statement upon returning home, there was only the money I took out (with the slight exchange rate) but no additional bank charges for withdrawing from a foreign bank and the TD ATM in Melbourne did not add on a service fee either.

 

Before heading back to the ship there was one more thing I really, really, really wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffee.

 

 

 

 

Real Coffee.

 

 

 

 

Good Coffee.

 

 

 

 

Normal Coffee.

 

 

 

 

Hot, tasty, caffeinated coffee.

 

 

 

 

So we stopped at Dunkin Donuts and I got a large blueberry flavoured coffee with milk.

 

I was having a great day.

 

We headed back to the ship since it was approaching noon and my parents were going to start heading home that day so I didn't want to keep them too long.

 

We approached the ships and the parking area and I could see the whale tail:

 

P3190049.jpg?t=1302961162

 

My mom got a little weepy as we were leaving and insisted on a picture of Jenna and I:

 

P3190058.jpg?t=1302961119

 

Jenna had fallen asleep on the way back to the ship and she still looks a little bleary eyed in the picture.

 

My mom also took a picture of the unloading area for the parking lot (and I'll post it in case anyone wants to see)

 

P3190057.jpg?t=1302961121

 

We did indeed have to wait in line again - security was the bigger issue because that was the longest line. Eventually we went through the scanners as did our carryon full of pop (which they opened up - the woman flagged it and said, "this suitcase has bottles in it and needs to be opened".) They did not open the case of pop though so I guess if I'd been trying I could have filled it with something other than cream soda. They also didn't check to see if the bottles were still sealed.

 

There was really no wait to get our sign and sail cards. I gave the lady our passports and my credit card and she went to get our new sign and sail cards (which were again blue not gold). She went to hand them to me and then pulled them back at the last minute. She said "You have a different last name from her. Do you have a consent letter to take her on the cruise?" I am very glad I'd added it to my purse that morning. She took a few minutes to review both the letter and Jenna's mom's custody papers (the custody papers states that Cindy has sole custody of Jenna and I carried them because the consent letter was signed only by 1 parent). She handed everything back and then gave us our sign and sail cards.

 

Once again we got our security photo done and then the facial recognition photo done and we were on the ship.

 

It was about 1pm so still a little early to go to the cabin. I could see Jenna was exhausted and she started getting a little whiny so I suggested that she call home while we were in port. She'd been texting most of the morning but I had paid for a voice plan so I wanted her to use the minutes and at minimum call her Nana who did not text.

 

She called and spoke with her Nana and her mom and her little sister Ceara. I was just sitting there looking at the drink menu on the table (just to figure out what I hadn't tried the week before and see if there was anything I wanted to try this week) when I noticed that Jenna was crying.

 

I had only kept half an ear on her conversation but I hadn't heard anything bad or yelling or anything. My first instinct was that calling home had made her terribly homesick but then I started to worry that something bad had happened at home. I was thinking, "we can still get off the ship, grab a cab to the airport. I'm sure there are flights leaving this afternoon." Jenna finished her conversation and hung up the phone.

 

I asked Jenna, what was wrong prepared for the worst.

 

Jenna's bearded dragon Delilia had died.

 

I asked Jenna if there was anything I could say to make her feel better and she shook her head No.

 

Ceara (who is 6) had been told immediately before getting on the phone that she was NOT to tell Jenna the sad news but of course, being 6, it was the first thing out of her mouth.

 

Jenna talked for a bit about how she had gotten Delilia (rescue animal) and she knew there was something wrong with her right from the start because she wasn't thriving like her other lizard. She rarely ate and I guess didn't do whatever it is that bearded dragons do. But Jenna treated the dragon with kid gloves and coaxed it to eat whenever she could and blah, blah, blah (I think Jenna just needed to talk). It would have been upsetting no matter what but I think it hit Jenna much harder because she was so exhausted and tired and really just wanted to take a nap.

 

I looked at my watch and it was 1:28 so I said close enough and we headed down to the cabin. Jenna took the stairs and I waited for the elevator with my purse, jenna's purse and the rolling suitcase full of pop.

 

When I got to the cabin Jenna was already snuggled down into bed. Before she drifted off I reminded her that she needed to get up for 3pm for the muster drill. She asked if we could just skip it. I told her she'd have to get up and ask the room steward. If he said we could, then we could (I've heard of this in the past with a b2B). She didn't want to get out of bed so she agreed to get up at 3pm for the drill.

 

I put a few cans and a couple of bottles of the pop in the fridge for each of us and then decided to take a shower and then put on some of the aloe cream.

 

When I came out of the bathroom Jenna was deep asleep so I grabbed a can of diet coke and watched the news for a little while and took a look at the fun times for today.

 

I decided that I was NOT going to spend my evenings in the casino this week. I was going to get out and do things! I was going to go to shows! I was going to sing Kareoke! I was going to have FUN damn it!!!!!!

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Howard-Moore

Howard-Moore

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NO! Dont stop! :-) Your review is the best! I am hands down amazing! I so wish you were on our cruise in November! I would love to cruise on the same ship as you!

You had me laughing so hard about the half bottle of wine and all the Jack. LOL

So sorry to hear about Jenna's lil animal. :-( Its always hard to lose a pet. :-(

 

If you don't mind me asking, and sorry if you already have said...... What do you do for a living? I want to do it! :-)

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