Day 35 - At Sea

Day 35 – Thursday 13^th February 2014 – At Sea

Before going to the gym as it was my turn to do the washing, and I went into the laundry at 07.45 and it was full of people, ( six to seven and it is full), it has been like this, on every day at sea since we left San Francisco.

This morning lecture was on how the BBC made the television series ‘Human Planet’ and the production secrets.  The lecture was given by one of the producers, Dale Templar, an Australian women who given a wonderful talk on how they managed to get some of those amazing shots, this was illustrated by the many film clips.

I spent the lunch time upon Deck 11, practicing bowls, for most of the time, I was the only one up there, as there was a brisk breeze blowing and although in the tropics, it was a little chilly.

Choir practice at 13.00 was good, as I can see ourselves starting to really get into the songs and not being afraid of what we are singing.

At 14.00 I had a go at a new class, tap dancing.  The two who were on the show last night were running this class.  It all started off nice and easy, and I was really enjoying it. After half an hour we were all tap dancing across the full length of the ballroom dance floor, like ice speed skaters.  Then, unfortunately, they started on more intricate patterns, and I am afraid apart from the ones who had tap danced before, for us older ones, it was all too much, and I gave up.

After spending most of the day going in and out of the laundry, eventually at 16.00, it was empty, and I managed to fill two washing machines and in the drier half an hour later. Returning at 17.00 the driers had been emptied and our washing placed in two baskets, as the laundry was full of people again.  After filling the carriers, one woman remarked, you have a lot of washing there, to the assembled audience I remarked,” that is what washing machines are for, not one or two items”; silence.

The dress code was informal and the evening cocktail, Madras, vodka, orange, cranberry juice and very nice.

Dinner was prawns/Hawaiian fish/bread and butter pudding. Enquired and found out the fish was from the dolphin family and how it was cooked made it delicious.

Did not go to the theatre, as I had seen the show ‘Singers’ before and went up on deck to do some star gazing.

I was looking out for the constellation of the Southern Cross, because of the light pollution of the ship and a full moon; I could not find it in the sky.  Though, I did see something remarkable.  Between the clouds scurrying by the moon when it was clear there was a perfect halo surrounding the moon.  I have seen this before, but the halo has been much smaller and is the foretelling of bad weather to come.   This halo was massive and covered 45% of the night sky and where is standing on the aft deck, I was the only one witnessing this.  Needless to say, I went off to bed, feeling very happy after seeing another of nature’s wonders.