Let's Walk Not Cycle!

Tuesday 3 April

It was 09.15 before we woke this morning – losing all these hours is playing havoc with our body clocks. Colin was immediately up and showered, ready for breakfast, but I declined to join him and spent the next hour leisurely preparing myself for the day. When he returned, we went off to find “golf” – really just putting along the carpet into a green plastic “cup”, in the Horizons lounge on Deck 10. Out of three balls each – they had a left handed putter for Colin, which is very unusual – we both had one close shot and two wayward attempts, but earned ourselves an extra “O” point each.

From Horizons, the jogging track is just a few short strides, and being in “sports” mode (?!) – not really but it sounds good – we decided to take a few turns around the track – thirteen laps equal one mile. We set off at a good pace, lapping the deck at one minute intervals, and managed to keep up that rate for twenty six minutes – just. By the time we had then wandered round a couple of times to cool down, we had walked over two miles. Now was definitely a good time to sit down and blog. The seas were much calmer today, with only the occasional shudder, but we could feel it was getting cooler – after eight months in warm, sunny climates, we are not used to these lower temperatures. It was also quite breezy on the balcony, so we sat in the cabin until it was time to make our way to lunch! It really is all eating on this ship – several people have commented that they are having difficulty eating anything now, as there is just too much food on offer – on the other hand, there are lots of very large Americans still tucking into plates crammed with creamy cakes and pastries, that it is easy to understand why that nation full of overweight people. We ate sparingly, before making our way to bridge classes. Still more new people attended class today, but they had all played a little before. One such couple was Bruce and Anna from the US, who were partnered with us. My hands continued to be abysmal, although I did actually reach thirteen points once – for an opening bid – and then flunked the contract by playing poorly – my moment of glory quickly passed to defeat.

This afternoon at 16,00 was a tea dance, but as we couldn’t face any more food, we decided to skip this event. Later people showed us photos of the extravagant array of cream gateaux, profiterole towers and mini masterpieces in pastry cases that the chefs had slaved all morning to make – it would have been impossible to look at the display without putting on a few pounds. We arrived in good time for Trivia, only to be joined by Ella (she came and sat on one of the sofas we use, just as I had a week or so ago), a profoundly deaf lady, who wore some sort of headphones to enable her to hear more – we still had to mouth the questions slowly for her to understand, but she enjoyed taking part and writing down her answers with the rest of us. We did very poorly today - too much talking all at once – the team is getting a little unwieldy now at eleven so there isn’t time to consider each person’s answers. Question: which colour appears most often on national flags? Consequently we only earned ourselves eleven points and came well down in the league. We must try harder at the next attempt in a couple of days.

We had been invited to the cabin of Stephen and John, for pre-dinner drinks with the “Fab Four” at 19.00 this evening. We got dressed up and presented ourselves on Deck 8, where the butler met us and escorted us to the right room. This cabin was about half as big again as ours, with plenty of room for a party. The champagne was on ice, with strawberries in the flutes, and quiche and nibbles on a side table. The butler – Gavin – came in and opened the first bottle of champagne and served the drinks and food, while gentle music played in the background. Alan and Kwan arrived soon after and we spent a most enjoyable hour and a half, quaffing two bottles of Perrier Jouet and munching lightly on the snacks. Alan had some remarkable tales to tell, being a dancer with the Royal Ballet turned actor, recently appearing in series like “The Bill” as well as numerous adverts. The other three all had interesting occupations – Kwan, a barrister, Stephen, an engineer and John, an architect mainly designing large shopping malls. They already had their next five cruises booked, and that only took them to early 2008! All too soon it was time for dinner – they were eating in the Grand Dining Room while we were returning to Toscana.

I decided to try two dishes I had not yet eaten onboard and chose carpaccio of beef and veal saltimbocca – both dishes were fine, but destined not to become my favourites. Colin chose the calamari and ravioli pasta, a dish which looked extremely pretty on the plate, with its creamy pasta squares and small dice of tomatoes, green and yellow peppers and deep fried basil. He said the pasta was scrumptiously light and really enjoyed his selections. We decided the time had come to sample the desserts – both of us – so I chose a slice of baked New York cheesecake, which was quite lemony and fresh, while Colin selected a platter of five different small deserts, including cannelloni stuffed with a very rich fruity cream, tiramisu, and a mini fruit tartlet filled with fruits soaked in a liqueur and topped with kiwi sorbet. He tried valiantly, but couldn’t quite finish the helping – we had both probably overeaten tonight.

Following pots of green tea, we made our way to the Insignia lounge, five decks down to catch the last half of the Des and Cherry show – we had seen their first performance a few nights back. The theatre tonight was absolutely packed with no spare chairs at all – the first time we have seen this lounge so full - so we stood at the back and enjoyed the programme much more this time – the jokes were funnier and the illusions more impressive. At the end of the show, Rob invited us all to go to the Horizons lounge – on Deck 10 - for some 70’s music and dancing. We made our way back up five decks again – I hope all this walking up and down between decks is doing me good – where we found an almost empty lounge – just three couples dancing to some very old tunes (perhaps not quite as early as the 1870’s someone had suggested). Colin – of Colin and Maureen – thought he had heard Rob say that he had made a mistake and the “70’s Night” was tomorrow. We had a drink and were joined by several other couples we have come to know. A few more couples appeared on the dance floor - apparently the dancers were part of a group of over 30 people from Vancouver, Canada, who had been persuaded by their tour company to join this ship as it was a “Dance Cruise”. Imagine their dismay when they boarded and found no dancing at all on the itinerary - obviously something for them to take up when they get home. But the staff have rallied round and arranged a dance time for them every day in one or other of the lounges – most times only forty-five minutes to an hour, but at least they weren’t totally disappointed. We only stayed a while, but on the way down to our cabin, we met Rob, with Billy and Cecily, two of the entertainment team, who were on their way up to sing some 70’s songs. But we had decided we were ready for bed, so did not return. There were still less than a dozen couples in the lounge when we left, so whether the concert went ahead or not, we are not sure.

Tomorrow morning we dock at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, around 07.00, so no clock changing tonight. Many of the passengers have booked tours leaving around 08.00, but with our record for getting up, we probably won’t even be awake.