Thursday 7 August 2014

Days 72 & 73 - at sea and strumming along nicely.

The sip of port seemed to do its job OK and I awoke without the tooth-ache.  The first thing on the agenda was of course to wish Paula Happy Birthday and hand over her cards and present.  We’d chosen and purchased her present way back in Nottingham, so that was easy.

For those sending Facebook messages, many thanks from Paula - but she can’t access her own site at the moment, so I add messages for her!

A bit cool and damp on deck as we are now in a South American winter, so no-one sunning themselves.

With 1900 or so passengers you’d think that catching up with your friends without pre-arranging a time would be quite difficult.  In theory, yes.  In practice, most are creatures of habit, so as we tend to use the starboard side buffet (Nadim has my onions on the griddle now on as I walk in and Danka puts my bread through the toaster just twice…) and also sit that side, around the centre front of the ship, it is no surprise that almost every morning we have met Darryl and Sue.  Their body-clocks seem to be in sync with ours.

At trivia one question was ‘In which sport would you use a chukker’?  Although Polo was the majority decision and deemed the correct one, I wasn’t happy with the phrasing as ‘a chukker’ is a period of play, therefore not something you would really use!  Quizmaster is always right…  We wouldn’t have won anyway.

Other than coffee on deck 7 then dance time (though we didn’t participate) we headed up to the buffet, late again.

I excused myself just before 3:30pm for Alex’s ukulele class. Good exercise for my left hand but some finger positions are just impossible for me, so I have to improvise.  Again, over 30 people attended.

As it was Paula’s birthday and I was sworn to secrecy, (no chance of that with our regular table mates of 2011 and 2013…), the other 4 were surprised to find their wine paid for when they arrived for dinner and only then did they find out.

Vasco’s team of waiters sang Happy Birthday and once Paula had blown out the candle on her Princess cake, Vasco picked it up and said he’d now take it to the next table where there was a birthday…  Typical Vasco. He really is a great fun head waiter and the Maitre d’ (Jacques) is another with a good sense of fun.

The Production show in the theatre was “Classically Yours”.  Not really my cup of tea at all.  Three of the 4 singers were basically singing operatically and in the somewhat out of place, ‘River Dance’ set, the 4th gave us what is probably the worst rendition we have ever heard of Danny Boy.  One female dancer was sick (probably part way through, as we are sure she was there at the start) so the final number with just three female dancers didn’t really look right at all.

The couple from “Two on Tap” were sitting in the row behind us and Darryl and Sue (who were closest to them) found out that they had been dancing together for 20 years.

For the first time this year, we managed a late night hot chocolate and chat with Mal & Megan down on deck 5, where there was initially, just two other couples. They soon left so we had the place to ourselves.  Who says that with 1900 passengers on board, that the ship must be crowded?

Latish to bed at 12:15, but no reason to get up early as another day at sea tomorrow.

Tuesday August 5th

Another cool day. Not quite sweater weather but not far from it.

Once again, without any prearrangement, even though we were a bit tardy in getting going, we still met D & S.

Sadly, Zumba instructor Kim was sick again, so 4 lady passengers who knew the routines, managed to get the Vista sound engineer to play Kim’s usual music and they led the class.  Just the sort of thing that could only happen on a longer cruise.  Paula participated.  I didn’t.

We didn’t win the Trivia which follows straight after either, so we shot off before the hordes and whilst there was still the chance of a seat on deck 5 in the atrium.  Melody not only brought our drinks, but also a plate of savouries and one of sweet cakes/pastries.  We love the wait staff…

Later, we called at dance class (modern waltz) only to pick up Sue and Darryl on the way to the theatre for a film.  Woody Allen’s ‘Aging Gigolo’.  Too slow and far too Jewish to be entertaining.

Straight up to the buffet afterwards for what is proving to be a traditional late lunch, before once again, I left them to it for the ukulele class. A full house this time as all 36 ship ukuleles in use.  (They do in fact have about 50 on board, but for Alex to tune 50 before each session is asking a bit much.)

Good exercise again for my left hand, but also very frustrating, as it is now exactly 19 months since I lost the use of it and no sign yet of the nerves reconnecting.  I’ll be ecstatic if and when that happens.

I managed to get to quiz about question 14 – but we still didn’t win.

Oriental dinner – which is a menu we have had several times before. What you do notice on these cruises is the repetition of menus even from ship to ship.  Maybe it is about time they overhauled some of them?  

The Vista show was the final appearance of three acts, one act we hadn’t seen – Jade & Sam.  Jade is black and sings soul (very well) and Sam is white and plays bass guitar.  A strange combination for a duo, even with the orchestra backing.  He never says a word on stage but he did play a bass guitar solo, which was very impressive.

They were followed by Sean O’Shea, who needs a longer session to really get into it, but he was still good, with his own lyrics to a Johnny Cash number which was also a very good vocal impression.

The final act was the very talented ‘Two on Tap’ (Ronnie & Melissa?) who got a tremendous reception when they appeared and great applause at the end.

A good chat with some of the entertainment staff afterwards and bed just before midnight.

An overnight stop tomorrow in Callou/Lima in Peru.  The ship have been giving out warnings regarding crime in the immediate area, so most people are already on their guard.

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