Late Risers

Monday 2 April

As expected by the ship’s company, we woke late after losing yet another hour – actually around 08.30 - just in time for me to watch the film “The Queen”, which everyone had told us was excellent. Colin went to breakfast – he needed his morning shot of porridge, but decided he could wait on the eggs till we could go together for brunch. I thoroughly enjoyed the film – it will make a good ironing DVD when I get home – and it was therefore almost midday before we entered the Grand Dining Room to eat. The brunch here was very formal – usually brunch is a transition moving from breakfast food to lunch, and this often easiest as an informal buffet. Colin chose a fruit platter to start that was served on a platter almost the size of a carving plate – full of melon, pineapple, mango and other exotic fruits with a date and biscuity cube. It looked enormous but he waded his way through it while I supped a bowl of creamy potato soup laced with leeks. Colin continued to consider this was still time for morning food, so went for the whole big breakfast dish of fried eggs and all the trimmings with toast and honey to follow, while I chose a superbly grilled salmon fillet with vegetables. I suppose this was a sort of brunch with Colin eating breakfast and me eating lunch.

Bridge classes were back on today and we learnt about “overcalling” – apparently a few people had played yesterday while we were sunning ourselves. There are so many calls denoting so many messages to remember, and it becomes quite confusing when the cards are dealt and you have to consider real hands. We played with Don and Sarah again – Sarah is quite an adventurous caller, but the boys overcalled us all the time. I am not sure we don’t learn more when we lay the cards down on the table to bid.

Squeezing in one extra hand, we had to hurry to the Trivia quiz – our team was anxiously awaiting our support. A new lady, Lynn, joined us today, but we were left scratching our heads over several questions at the end and had to hastily fill in some gaps. Question: what is the plural of opus? By some luck, or the supreme intelligence of a few of our team, we managed to scrape 13 points and tied for second place again – more “O: points (although Jane, John and Carl had amassed over 40 already – we will never aspire to that many points).

We sat in the bar, drinking (me with another martini and Colin with more Laphoig) chatting first to Colin and Maureen, and later to Stephen and John (one half of the “Fab Four”). There had been a “captain’s cocktail party” for those who had cruised on Oceania before – and it seemed at least half the ship attended. Most people were dressed up in suits and posh frocks with lots of sparkly jewellery, but it didn’t appear to be a whole lot of fun, other than the free drinks! It wasn’t until nearly 20.00 that we returned to the room to change for dinner – earlier in the day Colin had made a reservation for us at the Polo Grill for 20.30. When we arrived at the restaurant Colin and Maureen were sitting in the bar area, having just ordered some drinks – and explained that they had “muscled” in on our booking as there were no other free tables. My Colin had decided to stick to sparkling water tonight, after already indulging in yet more malt, but I am much weaker and started off again with a “Tio Pepé (I haven’t had one of those since we left home, but I could quickly get the taste back), followed by both white and red wines. We knew the menu fairly well by now, and had almost decided on what to eat before we arrived. Both Colin and I both chose Caesar salad to start – individually tossed so I could have lots of dressing and loads of anchovies - followed by favourite pink lamb chops for Colin and a different version of lobster for me – gratinéed with garlic olive oil – no so successful as the Toscana version with tomatoes and linguine, but still very tasty. I especially liked the spinach in this restaurant, in a creamy sauce, and have ordered it on every visit so far. Both Colins decided they had room for dessert tonight and both chose the Apple Crumb Pie that my Colin had fancied last night. It turned out to be a sort of apple crumble in a pastry case, and satisfied their desire for something sweet.

We stayed at the table long after we had finished eating, chatting and putting the world to rights, and the restaurant was almost prepared for tomorrow night by the time we left – all the crockery, cutlery and condiment containers securely wrapped in acres of cling film and the tables covered in crisp white linen. We were both feeling quite tired by now , so returned to the room – anyway we were too late for the clarinetist’s concert and didn’t fancy the Karioke session – I did suggest that should go along and Colin could perform another rendition of “Love Me Tender” but he positively refused – perhaps another time.

We lost yet another hour tonight, so that we are now only about an hour adrift from the time at home. In the twenty-four hours to midday today, we had only traveled 231 miles – we had spent several of those hours in port - but are now on course for Tenerife, where we will land on Wednesday morning. The sea was still fairly rocky with waves in the 5 – 7 feet range, enough to continue the gentle shuddering as the ship meets the swell – lulling us to sleep. The temperature is cooling down rapidly – now it is only in the low 20’s C – and the breezes are much cooler – we will have to seek out some warmer clothes soon. It is surprising that the sea temperature is still a few degrees higher than the air.