Thursday 19/2/2015 Day 44 Third Sea Day to Sydney, cloudy and warm 25C

Excitement is building for Australia in cabin D130, tomorrow is the last sea day on the Pacific. Ship’s crew are still doing so much to keep us fully occupied, especially as the weather has been “indoor style” – intermittent rain most of the day, with rocking and rolling.  The performance this afternoon by the Sector 2 Arcadia Passenger choir was very moving, and has me thinking it might be something I would try for one (at least) of the next 3 sectors.  The choir meets every day at 1p.m. so most importantly it wouldn’t clash with art.

The Captain still briefs everyone at midday and delivers a “captain’s tale” to enlighten us of the meaning of well used nautical expressions.  Today he told us the origin of bell bottoms, for those of us who thought it was a 60’s fashion statement, it wasn’t – apparently sailors found it very hard to keep the bottom of their trousers dry, and the introduction of bell bottoms was a uniform concession so sailors could roll them up more easily to knee height.  So now you know….  There have been so many of these now, 44 to be precise, so of course we are now wishing we’d kept a note of all of them. From now for the remaining 62 that’s what we are going to do!  We can vaguely recall things like “As the crow flies” – the use of birds as a navigational aid, setting them free and then following their course, as they always fly in a straight line to the nearest land.  Then there’s “toe the line” – referring to the daily, very disciplined gathering of crew for inspection and reminder of terms and conditions of service, toes lined up behind a given line.  “Marooned” – excuse me for forgetting all the details – this tale is about a group Camaroon seamen washed up on a desert island. “Letting the cat out of the bag” – relating to the use of the cat o’ nine tails as a punishment for errant seamen. Letting it out of the bag refers to the mandatory inspection of this instrument of corporal punishment after it had been used.

Just a quick update on the Hastings/Asatourian’s daily classes. Today’s art was absolutely amazing. We did a pencil drawing of a gorilla’s head.  I don’t think anyone will be able to believe that we did the gorillas, we are both quite thrilled with the finished items.

 Sector 2 exhibition again near Costa Coffee tomorrow, so we have sorted out our best offerings and are looking forward to this very much.   In dance we had our second go at the Rumba One sequence dance, but I have to confess that the two turns in the sequence plus ship’s movement forced me off the dance floor to take fresh air, no vomiting but very close!  Tomorrow we recap all our ballroom dances.

We stepped up our deck walking to 12 laps today, that’s one hour of walking. The temperature drop (to something more like we are used to in the summer) makes that possible, but it’s good to keep adding a lap of two, especially when Marco’s Baked Alaska came into play at dinner ;)

We are getting up to date with the port talks for Sydney and Brisbane too, and learning a bit of Australian history along with where to go and what to do.  We have an overnight stay in Sydney so we need to fit as much as we can into that time.  Get ready for some lovely pictures as we are promised a great arrival past the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

OK, that’s us for today.  Back soon! x