It seems that we were
redirected by the Indonesian Naval Officials in the night and now have an extra
55 miles to do before Kota Kinabalu. This has had an impact on everyone’s activities
and on the evening meal times tomorrow, so the staff have been challenged to
reschedule all the trips out tomorrow.
All credit to P&O for reorganising everything. Our trip is now 2:15 - 6:30, instead of 9:15
so my blog is likely to be late tomorrow, but on the plus side it means we get
a lie in the morning (another one!)
The day has been lovely, warm and sunny with a nice breeze
when walking, sailing alongside some islands and between others. When we are close to an island the phone
networks belong to the Philippines, even though we are going to Borneo first
and then the Phillipines. There are so many tiny islands around. Luckily we
have an atlas in our cabin, unluckily I am not sure which page we’re on!
Something interesting on the Promenade deck this afternoon,
on two sides there was a big black device reported to emit an unbearably loud
and piercing sound, and two officers on a watch with binoculars (unconfirmed
source, another passenger, reported that this is used when there’s a security risk). Don't know if it was a drill, or a threat, but nobody said anything. It's passed now anyway.
We revised our Rumba this morning, with some success J and painted lilies with
Easa this afternoon. Both uplifting in different ways. The art was relaxing and quite
inspiring. The dance is simply getting
better. I think an early evening dance in the Globe is on the cards now we have
revised 5 dances this week, so we should be able to put something together on
the dance floor without our teacher, and without too much self-consciousness.
Now we are back in the cabin, watching the sun set from the
balcony with an hour to go before dinner so I am going to recall the captain’s
nautical nugget from today – the salute.
It seems that the salute originated in the time of King Arthur and his
Knights of the Round Table. The legend
goes something like this. When the
Knights were out and about rescuing damsels in distress and slaying dragons if
they came across another horseman they would lift their visor so they could be
recognised as friend or foe subsequently either greet of fight them. Over time this has evolved and translated
into just lifting the right hand to the forehead to show respect and not being armed
(friend or foe). The difference for
seamen is that they can use either hand, so that if they are engaged in roping
a ship using their right hand they did not have to use that hand to salute
their superior. Interesting.
We have decided to give tonight’s performance in the
palladium a wide berth. Erm, a Neil
Diamond tribute act by someone who once won Stars in their Eyes as Neil
Diamond. We might be doing him and
injustice, but anyway we think we’d be happier dancing or walking for longer
tonight. The bar has been set high,
there have been some wonderful performances but occasionally that bar slips and
I suspect it might be tonight ;)
Right, that’s our sea day to Borneo. Back tomorrow after the
trip to Kota Kinabalu “Borneo Traditional Living” Bye for now x
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