Sunday 25^th January – Day at Sea. “Burns Night”

 

We received an interim statement this morning relating to our on-board account and were surprised to see a charge of $9 for using the port shuttlebus yesterday! We don’t remember getting off the ship but when we mentioned it to other passengers, lots of them said they’d have gone with us if they’d known……

 

Went to the church service (with a third different pianist) and finally – all the right notes, in the correct order and at the right speed!

 

At 1-45pm Nesta took part in the choir at sea performance, to a full Queens Room, and it was excellent!

 

After a quick bite to eat, Ian went to his whisky “nosing and tasting” session – in tribute to Dave Dalziel, who never got round to using his “nosing” kit with Ian. Rather large measures of five excellent whiskies were tasted (drunk).  As Mark Twain said “Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whisky is barely enough”. Overall, it was a superb start to Burns Night. We joined a packed crowd in the Queens Room for an enjoyable 45 minutes including “Auld Lang Syne” done properly!

 

This was followed by a formal night in the restaurant, with Nesta wearing her formal t-shirt (thistle and all) and haggis neaps and tatties for everyone.

 

 

Monday 26^th January – Day at Sea.

 

 

We were awoken at shortly before 4am this morning by an emergency announcement telling assessment teams to go to “deck five, stairwell B” (just above us) to investigate a problem.

 

Nesta, of course, decided she would go and investigate and noted a torrent of hot, steaming water travelling along the corridor. She told Ian to “standby” and went upstairs to check further (or have a cigarette, as it’s known). After about 10 minutes the captain announced that one of the hot water pipes had burst and the situation was being dealt with so the assessment teams could “stand down”. After her “fresh air” though, Nesta wasn’t allowed to return to the cabin so had to join about 50 other passengers in our “muster station”.

 

The Captain arrived to join them and there ensued an impromptu “pyjama party” with tea, coffee, croissants and Danish pastries rustled up from somewhere. The captain went round talking to everybody, offering reassurance, and piano showman Chris Hamilton even performed a recital.

 

After about an hour Nesta was allowed to come back to the cabin. In all 15 cabins were evacuated, five were so badly damaged that their occupants had to be rehoused elsewhere. Major plumbing, rewiring and re-carpeting works carried on all day. Exciting, or what?

 

At 11am we went to a lecture by the Royal Navy Liaison Officer on board entitled “Counter Piracy Operations”. It was very interesting (if a little worrying) and later Nesta had a cup of tea with two of the armed security agents. Both are ex-marines but if she repeats some of the stories they told her, they may have to kill us!

 

In the afternoon we went to a murder mystery done as if it was an old-fashioned radio play with a passenger doing the sound effects. It was quite amusing.

 

We then had a pint in the late afternoon sunshine and decided NOT to dress for a third formal evening out of the last four days. Instead we went to the “Chef’s Galley” section of Kings Court and very much enjoyed freshly cooked pasta carbonara followed by apricots flamed in Cointreau with ice cream. When we returned to our cabin we had been presented with a delicious luxury chocolate each… A nice end to another bizarre day…and guess what? We’ll be at a port tomorrow!