Tuesday 10/3/2015 Day 63 on the ship, on the sea towards Shanghai, jumpers on and hold tight!

We’ve had a lovely sea day, pretty inactive for us but it was stormy all day and the waves were coming over deck three so we weren’t able to walk around outside.  The sea state is the type my dad would have absolutely loved – as choppy as anything with huge waves, and several feet of swell.  The breeze has kept everywhere cooler today.  The outside temperature was 22C at the hottest, and we expect it to fall right down tomorrow as we sail towards Shanghai.  But like San Francisco we are only travelling north for a day or two.  As soon as we leave Shanghai we head for Hong Kong, the final port in sector three,  and then we start sector 4 which is going to include an impromptu surprise visit for us (more about this nearer 26/3/2015 but it’s very good news)

So today took it even more easy! We had a lovely breakfast just before 9, started to walk but had to come in when the decks were all closed, went for a coffee.  As P and O are having a huge launch event with HM Queen Elizabeth naming the new ship Britannia, the Arcadia held a “Summer Fair” next to one of the pools, with tombolas and slapstick deck games, so we went and sat down with two friends, one of whom is a retired nurse.  I ended up sharing life stories.  We covered more life ground this morning than we have in the whole of the previous 2 months and it was absolutely fantastic. We shared our nursing stories, our family and relationships stories, our family pride, health and everything important emotionally and spiritually.  Our conversation even included reference to voices that touch your heart like Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran! And musical theatre like Les Miserables   And then it was lunchtime!

With time on our hands after lunch I set out to organise the cruise photo folder on my laptop, creating a back up for the tablets and 2 phones on their too. Good job done.  Then at 3 we enjoyed a surprisingly satisfying art class using charcoal pencils for the first time to draw a very hairy goat.  We are both very happy with our goats J and especially knowing that we can use a new medium.  I am so glad I have kept this blog and taken photos every day.  I will spend a lot of time looking at them and reminding myself of these times.  It seems that more and more people are viewing it too, which is very good to know.

And finally this evening after dinner we went up to the pool to the round-the-worlders’ reception with the Captain, and after the captain’s speech we decided not to go to the entertainment tonight as (thinks “how can I put this kindly?”) let’s try “the quality of the comedy can’t be accurately predicted”, yes that does it nicely and so we are back in the cabin.  It’s just after 10 p.m. Nearly my bedtime so I will say bye for now. Love to you all x