Cock up on the timing front.

We looked at the Horizon leaflet that we get every day describing the day’s activities and saw the notice about the clocks going forward one hour and of course acted upon it before we went to sleep.  We had been expecting it ever since we arrived in Vigo Spain as that is on European time but the Captain decided that we should stay on UK time for the day as our next port of call was to be Lisbon in Portugal and that country keeps the same time as England.  So to read that the clocks would go forward seemed a logical step to us.  Hilary got up and showered around 8.30am, then I got up and by the time we went for breakfast it was around 9.30am.  A leisurely breakfast, a stroll around the ship and before you knew it it was time to get in place for the 11.15am discussion by the fingerprint expert.  Now his talks are in the Pacific Lounge, a nice big arena but with lots of support uprights and some seats have restricted viewing plus he is very popular so we thought we would get there a bit early.  10.45am saw us looking for seats in a somewhat surprisingly quiet lounge so we bagged a couple of good seats and settled down to do the day’s crossword.  As we did so we realised that there were a number of people with paint and brushes in the front, “Strange,” we thought, “this class is running very late if they are going to do the fingerprint man at 11.15.  Have we got his time wrong?”  Out came the Horizon leaflet, the art class was listed as starting at 9.45am on Sunday and then the penny dropped.  The Horizon leaflet was dated for Sunday and the clocks change Sunday night…. We had seen the Sunday leaflet on Saturday, noticed the time change and jumped the gun.  We had dragged our sorry and tired backsides out of bed at 7.30am and not 8.30am.  That is one mistake we won’t make again!  But it did give us chance to sit out on deck for a while reading our books until it really was time to go to see the Fingerprint man – and jolly good he was too, even if my eyes did close a couple of times due to the early start.

We chose to go to the cinema last night instead of the Theatre, it was a hard choice because the singer was supposed to be good with his renditions of popular ballads and show tunes, but the film had Colin Firth in it and starred Una Thurman and was called the Accidental Husband.  Quite entertaining and the cinema was full enough that even when one couple walked out after 10 minutes there was another couple at the back who immediately took their seats.  We enjoyed it anyhow even if it was very predictable.  Tonight we will see the Headliners again – I’ve yet to warm to this troupe, but maybe as we keep watching them they will grow on me.  The other group who have not been up to scratch are the ship’s photographers – if they make any money from this cruise I will be extremely surprised.  In January 2009 the photographers were all over us like a rash, in fact some people were quite rude to them because they wanted to take so many photos, but this bunch we have hardly seen at all and even when they have taken them they don’t put them out on show for days afterwards.  We had three sets taken yesterday – two when we were leaving the ship at Lisbon and hopefully with Oriana in the background and at dinner last night I had the “soft focus, very flattering sir,” shot at dinner.  And I didn’t understand that either as it was taken on a casual night – usually they do those when you are all togged up in your finest gear.  Last night no sign of the prints and ditto today and when asked all they can say is that “we have printing problems.”  Personally I don’t believe it, I think they just have no ambition – it’s just that they are so different from the last bunch.  Rant over….

Our dinner companions have proved to be a great delight.  Peter and Kay Nash come from Winchester so didn’t have far to travel to get to the ship and they have been on a number of cruises, some with P&O but also with other shipping lines.  Peter is 88 and Kay is not far behind and both are in great shape, Kay is very trim for her age and they both enjoy ballroom dancing.  Peter wears hearing aids but catches most that is said and he and Kay tease each other throughout the meal.   They were in the grocery trade until they retired and up to a short time ago Kay was still working part time in a hairdresser’s washing customer’s hair and giving them a head massage.  Peter has a wonderful fund of stories about his time working behind the counter and we look forward to seeing them each evening.

That’s it for the first part, it is now 1.00pm (yes ship’s time and not Woollard time), we have had a cup of tea and a biscuit while I try desperately not to eat lunch – dinner jacket time tonight – and we may stay in the cabin for a bit longer before we go to see the Shakespeare man at 1.45pm and possibly the cinema at 3.15pm for Keira Knightly in Never let me Go.  Talk to you later….

Should have told you earlier that during the night and early morning we turned the corner through the Straits of Gibraltar and we are now in the Mediterranean.  The captain had told us we would be passing The Rock at 8.30am so by the time we woke up I thought that there was no point in going up on deck to take a photograph as it would be well behind us.  If only I had known that the clocks were wrong…..  Never mind we will pass it again on our way home and it should be visible from our cabin window – let’s just hope that it is in daylight.

Just came out of the film and that was a strange one, Jeff if you thought Wall E was impossible to understand you will know what I mean about this one.  Set in the 60’s/70’s it was all about kids brought up in a home but born to be donors of all their organs in later life.  Several people walked out, some after 10 minutes and others about ¾ of the way through.  Where do they get the money to make these films?

OK will not blog anymore tonight, it is only 5.00pm but feels like I have been up since 5.00am and now we must pretty ourselves up for the captain’s do, squeeze myself into the tuxedo, and get to eat even more food.  What a life, still it’s another sea day tomorrow as we head towards Sicily, the sea is very calm but it is cloudy and I doubt if it is more than 60F out there when the wind chill is taken into account.  Hope you are enjoying the ramblings of an old man because even if you are not there is more to come – although of course you don’t have to read it.

Incidentally the combination of Chrome and whatever upgrades they have done to the satellite have improved the speed considerably and I will try and put up some more pictures.