Tuesday 21/4/2015 Day 105 Penultimate sea day in the Bay of Biscay

So far so good, the ship is stable although the sea is choppy, the swimming pools are swishing well, and walking outside is definitely not recommended.  There’s an easterly force 7 at the moment, but no need for Stugeron. 

Our penultimate sea day has gone just as planned: rhino was hurriedly painted then attractively and more leisurely tweaked.  Sunrise and sunset were gorgeous.

We have spent some time watching the waves. The Arcadia vocalist’s performance was beautiful and quite emotional, a reprise of favourite songs from earlier sectors. Our passports are back in the safe, after about an hour in a very orderly queue, and we have had our face to face with UK immigration on board so there won’t be any delays on Thursday.  All kinds of post has started arriving in our cabin’s mail box – last day for this, last chance for that, final performances, final Captain’s cocktail party and black tie dinner, disembarkation information, luggage labels. So all manner of mixed feelings have been out to play today.

This afternoon we also went to the maybe final session at the gym and I also enjoyed a Pilates class, not the final one, there’s another at 9 a.m. tomorrow, and then the final yoga of my block booking is at 4 p.m. tomorrow.  All being well these final classes will fit in well with the final art class and final art exhibition tomorrow.  So we are fast approaching the end of this unforgettable chapter, and wondering what’s around the corner, and what we can do to keep all of these memories alive for a long long time to come.

Tomorrow the packing will start and we will put away the shorts and t-shirts for a while, leaving warm stuff out to travel home in.

But meanwhile we are trying to eke out the final moments of the ship.  We have just watched a Queen tribute act, Killer Queen, performed by the Headliners - and another good one, and are back in the cabin watching Mama Mia on the telly,  feeling quite sleepy already (10:30 p.m.), so I’ll say goodbye for now and come back for one more time after all the “finals”. xx

Tuesday 14/4/2015 Day 98 Calm and Peaceful Sea Day to Piraeus in Greece

All day today we have been sailing northwards in the Mediterranean towards Greece.  In total today we have sailed 33621 miles, and this blog now has 43,264 words! We are out of the security measures now we have left the Near and Middle East, and can now look forward to leaving the curtains open and the lights on at night, not having soldiers, hailers and water canon on the decks and most importantly watching the sunrises from bed again.  

It has been bright and sunny today but there’s a definite hint of home in the cool 17C air, and on one occasion today I had my hoody on.  The sea is as flat as a pond, and I think will stay that way until we get to Lisbon, so a little longer without the motion discomfort bags. 

After breakfast we signed up for the MacMillan challenge on Thursday, to walk a half marathon on Deck 3, and then went and did an hour on the cardio machines in the gym in preparation, followed by half an hour of floor based yoga!  We have been feeling fit and kept our walking up every day, and as the weeks have gone on we believe we will each manage half of a half marathon quite easily, so we might do the sponsored challenge as a relay! Who knows, we may manage it all.   Today’s lunch, unusually, was chocolate fudge cake.  That is all. :)  

This afternoon in art we did a pencil drawing of an orang-utan with her baby (that’s Malay for “Person of the Jungle” we learned from a Malaysian fellow art student today). We are both very happy with the finished articles today.  Next art class, the day after Piraeus, we are going to do a watercolour painting of a Samoan dancer.  I am looking forward to that.

Tonight after dinner we listened to Clem Curtis, formerly (a long long time ago in the late 1960’s, but we both remember) of the Foundations.  A very understated but thoroughly enjoyable performance. Over the last 3 months we’ve got used to a lot of movement around the stage, arms all over the place, jumping off the stage and bringing audience up on their feet.  But there was none of that tonight.  He wasn’t as extreme as Van Morrison, because he did interact with the audience, but there was no embellishment and no cringeworthy or embarrassing behaviour.  It was a refreshing change.   You will know him if you grew up in the 1960’s – “Baby, now that I found you I can’t let you go” and “Build me up Buttercup”, but also a bit of Nat King Cole, “Unforgettable”, a little Barry White,  several other lovely 1970’s songs to reminisce to – “Me and Mrs Jones”, “You’ll Never Find”,  and his own rendition of Etta James “At Last”.  We have certainly experienced some diverse entertainment. I have managed to find a sample on You Tube.  He's doing fine at 74! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muaylzfjn6c

Tomorrow after disembarking in Piraeus we are on an excursion to Corinth and the Corinthian Canal.  A short canal this time, but still a highlight.  A long day ahead, leaving at 8 a.m. so we have an alarm call at 6 a.m so we can make sure we get breakfast before we go.  Lunch will be a local Greek meal – bring on the houmous, pitta, tzadziki, souflaki and baklava.  How we have missed you! The rest of the trip looks fabulous – ancient Greece, a walk in St Paul’s footsteps and the canal between two Greek seas.

It is time for bed now, so I will say goodnight and be back after Corinth tomorrow night. x

Friday 10/4/2015 Day 94 Sailing northwards between Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea

Today is the fourth and last sea day to Jordan.  There’s a lot of excitement about the trips tomorrow.  The most popular one is Petra, the Lost City one of the wonders of the world I am learning, and a close second is Wadi Rum, history and a Bedouin experience.  We have had messages from the captain about the sudden drop in temperature to 12C (on the news that’s cooler than home at the moment) and we have been advised to take layers, water and a snack in case it warms up.

We are so lucky to have such a good life.  Day after day of new experiences and good fun.  Our day today has been another hot one, a little cooler than of late, with the elements playing around in a way we haven’t felt for a long, long time.  Force 7 winds, a rough sea and a moderate swell.  No land in sight either side of the Red Sea, but we are now in between Saudi and Egypt and making good, uneventful progress towards Jordan.

A crunchy, nutty and seedy breakfast, 30 minutes deck walking, 30 minutes in total bike, rowing and arm cycling and a beautiful yoga practice.  A very cleansed and healthy feeling is in the air today.  The walk through the mountains to Petra tomorrow might be 2-3 hours, so I reckon the deck walking and treadmilling will have helped us alot.

Art today was a sailing boat on the sea with reflection and background hills.  The “lesson” time wasn’t long enough really so I did a little bit more in the cabin.  It was quite an angular boat with a long straight line for mast and sails, and that was a first and a challenge, but it’s ok now.

After dinner this evening the ship’s movement was a bit more palpable and the outside decks were all closed. For this reason I have come inside and done another water colour portrait of Khachik.  I might share it the original pic and then the progress. Eyes are improving and also shading. Very grateful to Easa for showing me how to do this.

By the way, cabin doors are secured, lights are still off at night and curtains closed until we leave this area tomorrow.  The security measures (weapons, hailers and water hoses!!!) and personnel are still in place around the ship too.

Bye for today.  Reporting from Petra tomorrow, but might be late as it’s a 9-10 hour tour. xx

Wednesday 8/4/2015 Day 92 Sailing between Yemen and Somalia, latitude 12, temp 30C

It’s the second sea day to Jordan and now we are sailing along the Gulf of Aden towards Aqaba. It’s another hot one so we are enjoying some educational activities indoors.  I am watching a documentary about the design and build of the Bahrain world trade centre’s twin towers with their environmentally friendly wind turbines, between the towers and powering them to save the equivalent of 6,000,000 barrels of oil p.a.   

We have once again spent a very healthy hour in the gym today, increasing our times and walking distance on the treadmill, rower, static bike and arm cycle. These machines are all positioned so we can see out of the windows to the front of the ship, but also have sockets for headphones so we can watch the Arcadia’s channels while we work.  We are maintaining safe and healthy exercising heart rates, all calculated electronically using our weight and age.  I had a lovely yoga practice afterwards too.  Next up was art – today’s watercolour was an autumn leafy landscape (Alderley Woods, that’s the Alderley Edge near Manchester).  Partly happy with this, partly not!  Easa's is the first one.  You have to guess which belongs to Khachik and which to me.

Tomorrow, a King Charles Spaniel.

Another part of the on-board university consists of whetting our appetite with information from the ports we have still to come on Sector 5. There’s a port talk on every sea day. The person doing all the port talks is called Sam.  She doesn’t tire, and she remains very professional calm and pleasant. Sometimes she has had to deal with tours not going quite to plan too, and some fellow passengers can get a bit heated. Anyway, back to the talks. Yesterday’s was Aqaba and today Piraeus. We are all set for these two.    

We are right in the middle of a profoundly troubled middle east, sailing between Yemen and Somalia but apart from the security measures on board you wouldn’t know it.   We will be visiting Petra when we arrive in Aqaba. We tourists have booked a whole day tour (10 hours) to get there, walk the walk to the Lost City, take a rest, lunch and then set off back for the ship. The weather forecast is 7-17C.  The walk is 5 miles to “the Treasury” and back, but you can go further if you have the energy. 

There are times when my own personal experiences and the happenings on this cruise are totally eclipsed by the bigger picture. This is one of those times.  I am really mindful of those people who belong in Syria, especially so because we are going to be in one of Syria’s neighbouring countries, conscious of all our wealth and privilege, whilst thousands of refugees fight for their lives having lost everything. I have been watching the devastation in Yarmouk on TV.  It was unimaginable horror. Even before .  I will not blog about this any more for now even though the human suffering around us is dominating my thoughts, there are a few good reasons I don't want to discuss it here.  However, my thoughts are really not only about this journey.

After Aqaba we have another few days at sea, sailing through the Suez Canal, no longer stopping in Egypt instead heading straight for Piraeus for Athens, Greece.  On that day we have booked “Ancient Corinth and Canal Cruise”. That’s when our ship’s security measures will be lifted.

Once we have visited Athens we will only have two stops left – Valetta in Malta and Lisbon in Portugal.  How can that be? Honestly I cannot believe we have been away 3 months already.  I will when I read this 40,000 word blog back!

When we got back to our cabin we had a lunch invite for tomorrow under the door.  This is the second lunch for half of the world cruisers today and the other half the day after.  We loved the first one.  We were sitting on that occasion with an officer called Victoria Fletcher, who has remembered us ever since and even yesterday stopped for a chat, admiring our Thai silk!  I am looking forward to something just as good tomorrow.  

I forgot to say yesterday that we also had some P and O post to let us know that we have moved up a tier on the loyalty programme.  We are now on the “Mediterranean” tier entitling us to 8.5% discount on our on-board spends, giving us great satisfaction.  That has been applied to our tours for this sector, a coffee each in Costa and yesterday’s shopping spree in Piccadilly on deck 3. 

We like this.

We are just getting ready for dinner so will say bye for now.  Sea days make me focus a lot on food, as there is so much of it, and so many choices.  Perhaps the blog will reflect this tomorrow, as there are going to be two scrummy menu’s to report!  Bye for today.

Tuesday 7/4/2015 Day 91 Sailing alongside Oman and Yemen in the Arabian Sea

We are currently back in tropical humid heat around 35C at 16 degrees latitude, having travelled out of the Gulf of Oman and now moving south-westerly into the Arabian Sea. From the cabin today we saw three different dolphin pods playing and jumping near the ship.  We weren’t quick or lucky enough to capture them on a camera to share, but hey ho, we really enjoyed seeing them!  

With the heat it’s ok to sit outside for a coffee in the shade, but not much more, all other activities are A/C assisted and indoors.  So we’ve been to the Meridian Restaurant on deck 2 for a long slow cool air conditioned breakfast, we’ve done a little bit of reading about the piracy security measures we are experiencing at night, and now feel very reassured by them all.  We have both been in the gym calorie burning and practising yoga, rather than the deck walking on deck 3, which is not possible until these security measures are over once we reach the Med.  And we have spent a bit of time chatting with some of our cruisemates and Easa, art teacher.

After today’s lunch we “came home” as it were to art, after almost 2 weeks off, and started sector 15 with a watercolour of a cockerel. Khachik’s turned out well! That’s all I’m saying for now ;)

We have both missed our art lessons.  I have even started an art equipment shopping list for when we get home, which is now just over 2 weeks away.  We haven’t felt much like dancing recently, although we plan a return to lessons soon.  We have bought the DVD and booklet the dance teachers have made for us.

Tonight was our first opportunity since Thailand to scrub up for a Captain’s Gala Dinner, and to wear our new Thai silk.  We have both accessorised today by “taking each other shopping” in the on board arcade known as Piccadilly.  Khachik now has an alternative white silk bow tie, and I have a lovely silver necklace and earring set.  Very comfortable too, and destined to last a lifetime of Black Tie Dinners.

As tonight’s entertainment is billed as a pickpocket, (?) we have passed on that one. Instead it’s time to blog and watch telly. Sometimes it’s just plain lovely to lie in bed, remote in hand!  There have been a couple of interesting documentaries on today, one wildlife and one about the history (pre Ottoman Empire to present) and current challenges for Islam (true meaning as opposed to tabloid interpretations), and two feature films  “Leap Year”, a good old chick flick and one whose title escapes me starring Richard Gere and Susan Sarendon.  I’ll come back to this one later.

Tomorrow will be sea day 2 to Jordan, and to our highlight tour “Lost City of Petra”.  More about this later, but goodbye for now. xx

Tuesday 24/3/3015 Day 77 Sea Day southwards towards Singapore

The BBC world tv news headline is about the death of Lee Quan Yew the “father of Singapore” and the compulsory 7 day mourning period in Singapore.  We arrive in Singapore in the morning.  I have twice before been visiting countries at the time an important figurehead has died. I travelled to Washington DC in 2004 on the day of Ronald Reagan’s funeral, coming in to the airport at the same time as people who needed body guards, and queuing for hours in a very tense high security environment in immigration, but nothing else happened, and life went on with a large dose of satire and some ridicule.  He wasn’t such a figurehead though, and never really threw off his cowboy acting image when making his implausible transition into politics.   I was also in Thailand in 2008 when the Thai queen died.  I remember being advised that the most respectful thing for anyone to do was to wear black or white. All the streets were lined with people sitting at the roadside mourning and bowing down to ground. Everyday life was seriously affected. Neither a former actor nor a member of the Royal Family, but the founder of Singapore, I wonder how tomorrow will be, and if we will be advised of cultural expectations in Singapore, or if life just carries on as normal.

Our sea day has been otherwise a very calm one, with morning coffee and barbeque lunch in the sun, where we watched an expert ice carving of an eagle taking shape in 15 minutes in front of our eyes, then walked 9 times round the Promenade deck, had a chat with admin about our 7 days off the ship in Thailand, collected passports for Singapore and spent a lovely 2 hours in the retreat that is our art (“Zebra in water with reflection”) Can't find mine t the moment, here's the original and Khachik's for now.

Then we listened to Captain Hashmi’s farewell as he’s off in Singapore and a new Captain will be coming on until Southampton, Captain Trevor Lane.

Tonight we were beautifully entertained by the truly gifted and talented Kateryna a Ukrainian violinist, and Jacinta an Irish singer, before sneaking into the launderette to get a week’s worth of summer clothes ready for Thailand,  then an early night ready for our brand new day in Singapore tomorrow.

So that’s us for the day. Bye for now x

Thursday 19/3/2015 Day 72 Far Eastern Sea Day Joy heading for Phu My in southern Vietnam.

Today’s Sea Day was a full day moving between doing what we enjoy and nothing at all.  Tropical weather here to stay for the next 10 days, so a slow pace again to enjoy the heat. The deck walking feels very good.  Nine laps today.  The Vietnam immigration procedures are all in place, and a surprise delivery arrived with our landing cards and instructions for tomorrow.  I love it when “post” arrives – even if it’s just an offer in the shops or spa, or an invitation for a coffee with fellow passengers and the Captain.   I also love reading every word of our Horizon and finding out what time the favourite classes are happening, and to see who the new visiting speakers and entertainers are.

 There’s been quite a shift away from internet and especially Facebook and Twitter. It is a good thing to be limited to a few minutes actually on-line each day, and to know that life goes on!

Our captain’s nautical explanation today was of the expression “Over a barrel” – again enlightening!  Apparently when someone had fallen overboard and was in danger of drowning, rather than receiving artificial respiration / CPR, the casualty was rescued and placed over a barrel and rolled backwards and forwards to get rid of water in the lungs.  I am not sure of the success of the method but I also heard that it was preferable to having mouth to mouth from a dirty, possibly smelly, drunken and scurvy affected ship mate!

Art today was to copy an oil painting (but in water colour) by our art teacher Easa of the countryside near Alderley Edge.  A good effort by us both ;), maybe mine was a bit strong, but a good lesson learned.  The new technique today was to create the impression of mist in the distance by washing the area with a pale grey and then darkening it in layers coming forwards.  For a first time it came out ok, but I would like to have another go soon.

Our entertainment in the theatre tonight was the 4 tunes singing all sorts (Cry me a river, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bring Him Home, and also a very special New Zealand opera singer Ben Makisi.  An uplifting hour. Happy Birthday to Josef Allott - 32 today.

Bye for now.  Back after Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow. xx

Tuesday 17/3/2015 Day 70 South China Sea to Hainan Island.

Sector 4 begins! Taking us to Hainan Island, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia (India for the ship, but not us) and then the UAE (where we rejoin the ship after our special week in Bangkok). Then it’s the fifth and final sector, through the Suez Canal and across the Med, up to Lisbon, Southampton and then home.  All scheduled to happen in the next 5 weeks.   

We left the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong last night. We’re presently travelling south so we won’t be changing clocks for a couple of days, still 8 hours ahead of home. Today is St Patrick’s Day on Arcadia too, and looking at my Horizon there’s an afternoon celebration with Irish singer Shane Morgan in the Palladium, so we’ve put an asterisk next to that one, along with yoga and art (we’re painting a beautiful butterfly today J).

It’s bright and sunny and the outside temperature has sneaked back up to a very comfortable 26C, meaning morning coffee on the outside deck again. Lovely breezes (Force 6) with a calmish sea, and from time to time we pass traditional Chinese fishing boats, but not too much traffic.

We are just waiting for a message to collect our passports so we can go off the ship in to Sanya tomorrow, the calls are one deck at a time, we are deck D and they are up to C at the moment.  We had to get a double entry visa because Hong Kong, our middle port, is still treated as a foreign country in terms of our travel.  Before we set off from Manchester we had to get a visa for Shanghai, no visa required for British Citizens who travel to Hong Kong, and then another visa for Hainan Island.  Shanghai authorities required us to carry the bar coded photocopy of our passports, but Hainan Island immigration needs both the photocopy and the real thing. There are a lot of passengers getting hot under the collar about this.  When it comes to Visas and immigration regulations, I have developed a good helping of resignation now.  Some things are just not for reasoning or arguing with, just compliance. This is one of them. It’s considerably less hassle and healthier I think that way, particularly when it’s a) a power and b) I don’t speak the language

Later tonight after dinner, there’s a group of harmony singers performing in the Palladium called the 4 Tunes, with a good reputation preceding them so I think we’ll give that performance a whirl tonight. Following the performers over the last couple of months it seems that in their cruise ship life they fly to and from different ports and move to and from different ships.  They come on for a week or less, and do 2-3 performances and then leave at the next convenient port.  One violin duo Elektra lost their luggage and violins in Fiji and had to borrow everything on board. Otherwise it all seems to work like clockwork. The comedy has been mediocre, and quite sexist at times, so I am not sorry they got off.  But people like Bruce Morrison (extraordinarily gifted singer and actor) I could quite honestly watch and listen to every single day.  This constant changeover applies to the visiting lecturers like the scientists and explorers, and people like Nick Owen and Lord Michael Howard, too.  They aren’t resident and the programme changes a lot.  There’s a resident dance and singing company called the Headliners, who do all the variety performances in between. They are very good, and work flat out for two performances a day and a full rehearsal.  Then there are the employees of P and O whose job it is to coordinate, publicise and deliver everything else.  These are known as the Entertainment Team, and have an interesting hierarchy of entertainment manager, assistant entertainment manager and entertainment hosts.  Thankfully our art and dance teachers are also on for the whole cruise.

And now for something completely different.   The captain’s nautical tale today was about the origin of the expression “mind your p’s and q’s”.  In the 17^th and 18^th centuries sailors were allowed to drink ale on board.  Ale was served in Pints and Quarts and the liberal amount of drinking permitted meant that some sailors became rowdy and their senior officers had to tell them to control their intake  i.e. mind their pints and quarts and later this was abbreviated to p’s and q’s.  Who knew?

Well that’s me for today. Hopefully hi-speed wifi again tomorrow and lots of photo sharing and skyping going on. Bye for now. x

Friday 13/3/2015 Day 66 Sea Day 1 of 2 Shanghai to Hong Kong

We don’t have our passports at the moment because the ship’s officers collected them after Sydney for the ease of organising the group visas for Indonesia, Borneo and the Phillipines.  We do however have a bar coded cruise card with photo and all our details on it, and each country issues different documents – Indonesia and the Phillipines for China we also have to carry a photocopy of the passport on a sheet of paper with a bar code on it which when read at immigration produced our passport and photo on screen, with multiple entry Chinese visa.

Sector four of our grand voyage will be starting when we arrive in Hong Kong.  This sector takes in Sanya on Hainan Island and then we leave China for Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore and the Malaysian Peninsular.  We have full day excursions booked until Thailand.  Then we get our passports back.

After Port Kelang the cruise then sails up the west side on the Indian Ocean on to Mumbai, then on to Abu Dhabi, but we will instead be enjoying our own adventure from Port Kelang to Abu Dhabi via the Siam Care Biannual Seminar and Family Camp in Bangkok. We are staying in Bangkok for 7 nights and then flying to Abu Dhabi on 2/4/2015, rejoining the ship for the fifth and final sector.  This means we will miss Mumbai and 6 sea days (i.e. 6 art lessons!).  We must ask Easa if we can take some art homework with us to Thailand!  So all in all we are delighted to have found this impromptu way to be both on the world cruise AND at the Siam Care Seminar J.  I hadn’t missed one since 2002, so we are both thrilled at the way it has worked out.  This has all been organised while we have been on the ship and since we left the UK, for this we would like to thank Gary Manners.

Today we have been sailing back down the East China Sea, a comparatively busy stretch of sea where we’ve see so many fishing vessels, freight ships, cruise liners on both sides of ours, more signs of activity than any other ocean so far.  The sea has been really peaceful and smooth with a very beautiful pale turquoise colour.  The clouds have all disappeared and the air temperature is rising up again to 15C today, predicted to be 18C in Hong Kong and then after Sanya entering the tropics again.  Khachik and I have had our winter coats on for the deck walking today, but still only 6 laps, so we finished off in the relative comfort of the gym using headphones so we could be entertained at the same time. We tread-milled, arm-cycled and recumbent cycled for an hour before my yoga practice.  Good work!  The gym is on deck 9 at the front of the ship and the treadmills are positioned so that you get a panoramic view of the sea in the direction we are sailing.  It’s awesome.

After all that virtuous activity we broke the mould after coffee and went to listened to a talk by Bernard Purrier in the Palladium about whales, dolphins and porpoises and the many theories about Cetacean strandings.  This was fascinating, really informative and immediately raising our awareness of how little we know about so much.  We missed the first 2 of these as they clashed with other things, but I would like to hear the last about the future of the world’s fish in a talk called “Empty Seas, Empty Nets?” 

Some talks do end up on the telly in our cabins for example the music talks Chris Walker has been doing about some favourite performers from the last century.  At the moment there’s a talk about Frank Sinatra on a loop.

Anyway, to get back to our sea day activities – the whale talk, lunch, a look at excursions, crosswords and art (challenging watercolour of a leopard!), dinner (another chance to choose from Marco Pierre White’s special menu) , and back “home” in the cabin. The excitement builds at the end of each sector.

Tomorrow is our end of sector art exhibition, and the culmination concert for the Arcadia Vocalists.  The talent shows and strictly come dancing competitions happened today.  So I will say bye for now, and will be back here about this time again tomorrow. xx 

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

Saturday 28/2/2015 Day 53 Leaving the Great Barrier Reef, turning left and heading west to Darwin

Well I am so happy to say that the man who collapsed in the theatre is in the medical centre, and reported to be doing ok. This was the best news we could have received today.

We have travelled north and have now left the Great Barrier Reef, passed the pointed most northern part of Australia and turned left.  We are in the tropic of Capricorn, so it’s still jolly hot ;)

The sea has been changing rapidly over the last 2 days from super calm, almost glass, the kind that you can see clouds reflecting in to wavelets during the day, to quite rough tonight because of the clashes of tides on the east and west. The swell is not too bad so there’s no rocking and rolling. Everything about the sea and the sky is fascinating me like never before, and of course now that I am learning how to paint clouds I can’t keep my eyes off them.

We have finished two lovely absorbing paintings since Thursday – yesterday a Wiltshire country cottage with trees and village green,

and today the head of a big colourful beautiful but aggressive Australian Bird called a cassowary

.The captain’s nautical nugget today was “son of a gun”.  The tale was that way back in sailor history, the crew were in charge of the guns. It was difficult to persuade the gunners on the ship to stay on for long periods, as they missed home. To help retention of the gunners, women were invited onto ships when they were in port. They had to sleep in bunks and hammocks in communal dorms. These might be wives, girlfriends or women who came on just for the sex, some of whom became pregnant but were unable to say who the baby’s father was.  These babies were then referred to as “son of a gun”.

We’ve been to the Palladium three times today.  

On board we have Lord Howard (former opposition leader during the last Labour government) who is talking, sharing anecdotes and answering questions about his life in politics.  Today his 2 p.m talk fitted beautifully with our afternoon, and he spoke well and we both found him candid, funny and interesting. Nothing controversial.  Surprising.

At 4.30 we went to Bruce Morrison’s history of and songs from Les Miserables. He was a wonderful all rounder raconteur with a strong, powerful, emotional, dramatic voice (all parts).  Tomorrow he is doing a matinee at 2 so we are both going to get there early for that or it might be standing room only.

After dinner tonight we went back to the Palladium for the third time to hear comedian Adrian Walsh again. Very very funny, a good sign for a comedian.  More tomorrow – our final sea day before Darwin. Bye for now x 

Friday 20/2/2015 Day 45 Fourth Sea Day to Sydney – Art Exhibition for Sector 2

The high spot today (and reason for today's blog)  was preparing for and taking part in the art exhibition, and all the expressions of gratitude from a large group of people to a wonderful, good humoured man, Easa, for encouraging us  very light heartedly to produce things we could previously only have dreamed of.  The walls were full and viewers plentiful too.  When we get to Sydney we are going to renew some of our paints ready for sectors 3,4 and 5, and more really precious and really joyful moments.

 

So next up Sydney! Back tomorrow.

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

Wednesday 18/2/2015 Day 43 Second Sea Day to Sydney a rainy and windy one and 23C

 We have learned today that there are almost 1000 miles to Sydney, and the weather forecast is unsettled. The ship is moving from side to side quite a lot. The wind is force 6, heavy rain, massive waves, those Passenger Discomfort Bags have appeared again at various spots around the ship and there were a few spaces at the dinner tables this evening.

I am finding that when it’s really rough I just feel like lying down, and that works as there are no obligations to do anything. 

You will all be relieved to know that immigration procedures for Australia worked well and we’re both allowed in. No queues and all went like clockwork. We have registered our interest in a trip to jumping crocs in Darwin, otherwise it’s just as I mentioned yesterday i.e. “independent” trips in Sydney, Brisbane and Airlie Beach.  We will be 10 days all together in and around Australia from 20^th Feb. Sector 2 of the cruise ends in Sydney, Sector 3 begins in Brisbane and goes as far as Hong Kong.

Activities on board today were a little different – 6 laps round deck three with random rough sea zig zagging, immigration procedures followed by us opting out of learning the Paso Doble (mainly because we are unlikely to remember it, but also because we are unsteady on our feet).  This meant we had more time to chat with new people in the restaurant and also have a little rest before art. Art was actually quite hard today and neither of us are happy with our “sunset against cloudy sky with reflection in sea” – I shall describe mine as hideous, so I doubt it will be making an outing after today.

Painting this meant we missed the Chocoholics Buffet again! We must have a word with ourselves about this.  Three more sectors, three more chances at Chocoholics Buffet.

We haven’t been going to Palladium as much recently, but because the two violinists performing as Elektra got such wonderful reviews after their first performance 2 days ago, we decided to go tonight and enjoyed them very much. Popular classical pieces performed with attitude, and a finale of traditional Irish fiddle. Great stuff.

Much effort is being made to keep everyone occupied, comfortable and happy indoors. New films are showing twice a day in the Screening Room, 5 or 6 different styles of music and performance in the bars and theatres, three different visiting guest speakers, Arcadia TV (a chat show), a Port Talk, Arcadia Radio, talks about art and health, “sales” in the shops, two daily crosswords and a Sudoku. As I said yesterday there’s also food 24 hours a day.

That’s it for today. Back again tomorrow. xx

Tuesday 17/2/2015 Day 42 First of 4 Sea Days to Sidney, Australia

The sea swell has increased a bit since we set sail, so the ship has started the rocking and rolling action that sometimes results in the appearance of “passenger discomfort bags” around the busy areas. The sky has become partly cloudy and there’s a gentle breeze, so the temperature is lower, and now its fine again walking out on the deck during the day, and lying on the sunbeds or generally hanging around the pool. J I know, what a light-weight! Still using SPF30 too!

It’s hard to imagine what 15,000 miles looks like, but it feels tremendous. The world is big isn’t it.

We have become creatures of habit on board, with our own rituals, within which we get lots of opportunity to engage in different activities, but we appear to have found our niches.  We have a choice of 6 different types of restaurant: buffet, waiter, sandwich bar, fast food, two different Michelin Star (added £’s) restaurants, one called Ocean Grill and the other called East.  Our preference is for buffet breakfast and lunch in a place called the Belvedere on deck 9, high up with great views in all directions, no particular dress code and 24 hour service.  We generally take breakfast between 7:30 and 8, and then take our coffees outside by the pool, and around 9 set off for our first walk.  Even though we could have 10 different breakfast menus we don’t. I, for example, have settled on the home mixed muesli with figs, prunes and coconut, and with one exception only so far in 5 weeks (it was poached eggs on that day ;))

Lunches could be salads, cold meats, fish, cheeses, curry with rice, veggie options, roasts with potatoes and hot veg, followed by fresh fruit, cheese and biscuits, and several different cakes and puddings including comfort staples like sponge or crumble and custard. I have found and stuck with salads and fresh fruit, with the “occasional” chocolate cake or tart.  There are also special diets catered for, so Khachik feels very comfortable with the diabetic options (removed sugar, fat and alcohol from the puddings), and there are dairy free and gluten free options.

The evening meal is in 2 sittings, 6:30 and 8:30, different table sizes, a sit down 5-courser, (starter, soup, main, dessert, cheese, coffee and sweets. There are 2 options.  Option 1 you stay with the same passengers for the whole cruise and go to the same table every night.  Option 2 is Freedom dining, you have a set time and the same set menu, but you are allocated a table on arrival and change table mates every night.  On the menu are items with jus and coulis, food is arranged in towers and the mains have names like seafood rendezvous and pithiviers of courgettes mornay, if you get my meaning ;).  ALL lovely food, with the sweetest of names. Small portions but lots of courses, with sorbet between soup and main on special (Marco Pierre White) nights.   Every 3-4 days it’s very formal involving black tie/cocktail wear, and on the other nights it’s either smart (men wear jacket and tie) or casual (anything except shorts and exposed flesh). I don’t notice the difference too much, as my capsule wardrobe of separates and scarves is as versatile as can be,  but at our table none of the men like the black tie nights (not enough dissent for mutiny yet though – I must add that if I objected as much as they do I would be taking non-violent-direct-action!)

The art lesson of the mountainous landscape is finished, photos of both efforts to follow in Sydney. The dance of the day was a fairly fast sequence dance, the Cindy Swing, which if you don’t know already, feels to me like a combination of the Charleston and cha cha cha.  We managed it for 45 minutes, and took an early lunch for knees sake.

Sydney marks the end of “Sector 2” of 5, so while we are having our 4 sea days it’s time for our next art exhibition, time to watch a passenger Strictly (6 good dancing couples taking part), and a choir performance (about 100 passengers singing on stage).

And now it’s time to get ready again for a smart night. Bye for now. Back tomorrow. xx

Tuesday 10/2/2015 Day 36 A visit by the great sea god Neptune ;)

Well, today we cross the Equator on our way down under on sea day 4 from Hawaii.  That Neptune gets around a bit – he came onto our Hurtigruten ship when we crossed the Arctic Circle in 2011, to be part of an ice baptism ritual and he was there again at the Equator when we cruised on the Costa Pacifica to Rio last year, and rather sportingly became part of a slapstick event involving flour and blue dye. And today we will be partying with the great sea god at 2 p.m. He must be a laugh a minute to spend time with in the sea!

My word it’s hot out there this morning. We had our morning coffee out on the deck and almost melted.  Glad to come inside for a Rumba lesson, lunch and then art (a beautiful quite calm seascape, with frothy waves breaking on the shore). 

I had an extra art lesson at breakfast, as Easa joined us – all about the eyes. I am so happy. Today I learned about highlighting eyelids to create the impression of roundness and softness.  I have had a go at this in pencil for now, and will ask Khachik to sit for me later.

There’s one more sea day after today before we reach Samoa and set about learning some more about Polynesian Village life, and a trip to parts of the islands which are believed to be the inspiration behind one of the most famous characters from South Pacific the old much loved movie from my childhood, Bloody Mary.  Remember “HappyTalk”, and “Balihai” (spelling?).  I can too.

Anyway for now bye. Much love to you all. x