Thursday 23^rd April – Day at Sea.

We had a quiet morning as the lectures were underwhelming again. Adam did do another recital in the Royal Court, which we went to, and as a result choir was delayed.

As it was another formal evening (the 39^th of the voyage!) we decided to go and watch the Oscar nominated film Birdman starring Michael Keaton. Lewanne and Norah went to the earlier showing, however, and told us “it was absolute rubbish” so we didn’t bother.

This did lead to a “what are we going to do now” moment and after a few glasses of wine, Nesta decided she would dress up in all her colourful stuff and go to the African Ball in the Queens Room…Jerry (our room steward) didn’t recognise her and Wilfredo, from the next section, asked her if it was a pirate’s night!

We went to the Commodore Bar (very posh) for drinks with Gary and the girls in order to listen to Adam. He immediately started playing music from the Lion King, whilst many of the other guests looked down their noses at fellow passengers actually enjoying themselves!

 

Friday 24^th April 2015 – Day at Sea.

Today is really hot and humid – with heavy downpours! Not ideal for the “crossing the equator” ceremony.

Nesta tried the South African Plastic Surgeon’s lecture about how plastic surgery could help protect the rhinoceros population of Africa – but she wasn’t impressed as all he was saying was what he wanted to do if he had permission and the money. (He currently has neither – so a bit of a waste of time!)

Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time we actually crossed the line. There weren’t as many “pollywogs” as there had been at the beginning of March when we crossed it previously but there were lots of passengers up on deck to watch. As we didn’t have our birds eye view from the Balmoral Suite we had to join the masses on deck 8 trying to get a glimpse of the gunging!

There was no choir practise as the singers were supposed to be rehearsing for their “Singers in Concert” performance – but as it happens, Emma (the new girl) was ill so their show was cancelled. This was a disappointment for us (as we had decided to go and see it) especially as the replacement show was “Stewart Gillies sings the songs of Frank Sinatra and Neil Diamond”…….

Luckily our new friends, Leanne and Ben, in the Clarendon Fine Arts Gallery (absolutely, my dear!) have put us on their list of clients so we now receive invites to their events. They are really nice people, not at all patronising about our lack of knowledge and not even disappointed by our lack of buying signals!

That explains why this evening we were discussing art and “what we liked” at a cheese and wine party surrounded by passengers who think nothing of spending a few thousand dollars on a painting!

Later on we managed to skype three of the kids – we now have more internet time so it was nice to actually be able to have a chat, rather than just touch base.

Sunday 25^th April – Day at Sea.

Today is Anzac Day (and the hundred year anniversary of Gallipoli) but even though there are hundreds of antipodean passengers still on board, there was not a dedicated service to commemorate all the people who died.

Today is the day of the World Voyage Charity Country Fayre!! As Nesta had signed up to be a helper, she couldn’t go to Michael (Lord) Howard’s lecture about his life in politics. Ian reported that it was interesting and well delivered with just the right amount of self-deprecating humour.

Because of choir practise at 2pm we couldn’t go to the opening ceremony (conducted by the Captain) and Nesta’s shift was 3pm to 5-30pm. She was part of the “human fruit machine”… This consisted of three guests sitting in a row (but partitioned off so they couldn’t see each other) picking up their choice of six pieces of fruit every time someone had paid $2 to shake a tambourine! (You had to be there!) If two or three pieces of fruit were the same the lucky contestant won prizes as wonderful as pencils and out of date t-shirts!!

Ian couldn’t take the extreme excitement so went back to the cabin to watch the football results coming in (of course, he wishes he hadn’t as, Tranmere Rovers got relegated from the football league for the first time in their history, just 14 years after they played in the League Cup Final)

At the end of the country fayre, Nesta was given (as a thank you for two and a half hours on the stall) a prize voucher which can be exchanged in the bookshop for a pencil! Perhaps, Cunard, for future reference - a personal thank you would be much better!

We ate again in Kings Court as the menu in the Britannia wasn’t to our taste and then managed to skype the other two kids – so we’re all up to date.

Only two more sea days until dry land!