We weren’t alone…..

Yesterday we told you about our cockup on the timing front, well apparently we were not the only ones to get confused.  Over dinner last night we were talking about it to our dining companions Peter and Kay and the waiter overheard us.  He was on breakfast duty that day and at 7.30am was surprised to find a couple trying to break into the doors of the restaurant.  “Sorry Madam and Sir,” he said, “but we don’t open until 8.00 o’clock.”  “What do you mean,” they said, “it’s already half past eight.”  The waiter then gently explained to them that the clocks didn’t go forward until later that night and that they were a day premature.  Exit stage left of two hungry and tired passengers, who then were first in the queue 30 minutes later.  So you can see it can happen to anyone…

Just a recap of last night after I had finished blogging.  Dinner was formal and I was in my best bib and tucker with maroon bowtie and cummerbund (bought from Woodside Charity Shop last summer) with the cummerbund hiding my expanding girth and the stretch marks on the waistband of my trousers.  We had our photograph taken with the Deputy Captain who happens to be the same officer who was First Officer on the Oriana during the great RTW cruise in 2009.  According to him the Captain was suffering from Captain’s Flu which is much much worse than the dreaded man flu and that if he didn’t recover soon he was going to put him off at the next port of call.   We didn’t get lobster again, apparently that is reserved for when the Captain is present so Hilary had the tiger prawns and I settled once more for the salmon, which is one of the constants on the menu if you don’t fancy any of the other dishes.  I even passed on the dessert and settled for two water biscuits and a chunk of Stilton.

The evening Headliners show was their best yet and it covered the musicals that had won Tony awards, the finale had two great numbers from Miss Saigon and closed with the revolution song in Les Miserables.  We congratulated the cast on their performances while they were lined up at the exit to the theatre, they did deserve our praise and apart from one wobbly start by one of the girl singers they all performed very well indeed.  After that it was pretty much straight to bed but this time knowing that we were definitely going to lose an hour’s sleep.

Just a couple of other thoughts now that we are on today, we have booked one more trip and that is in Zakinthos the first real Greek Island of the tour (tomorrow is Messica in Sicily and we are just winging that one), the Zakinthos stop is one where we go into port on a tender so we have booked an early morning Best of Zakinthos tour in the hope that it will ensure that we get one of the early tenders instead of having to fight all and sundry for a place on a boat.  And the other thing is that while we were waiting for the lectures to start this morning I went down to get our daily crossword and Sudoku puzzles and happened to find that they were selling off some Cotton Traders Rugby shirts at 2 for 1, so I now have two more even if I already have a closet full at home.  One is blue and grey stripe and the other is purple and grey stripe – if it gets chilly (and today it is getting sunnier and around 65F) and Hilary takes a photograph of me, then you may well see me wearing one of them.  So be on the lookout.

We weren’t alone…..

Yesterday we told you about our cockup on the timing front, well apparently we were not the only ones to get confused.  Over dinner last night we were talking about it to our dining companions Peter and Kay and the waiter overheard us.  He was on breakfast duty that day and at 7.30am was surprised to find a couple trying to break into the doors of the restaurant.  “Sorry Madam and Sir,” he said, “but we don’t open until 8.00 o’clock.”  “What do you mean,” they said, “it’s already half past eight.”  The waiter then gently explained to them that the clocks didn’t go forward until later that night and that they were a day premature.  Exit stage left of two hungry and tired passengers, who then were first in the queue 30 minutes later.  So you can see it can happen to anyone…

Just a recap of last night after I had finished blogging.  Dinner was formal and I was in my best bib and tucker with maroon bowtie and cummerbund (bought from Woodside Charity Shop last summer) with the cummerbund hiding my expanding girth and the stretch marks on the waistband of my trousers.  We had our photograph taken with the Deputy Captain who happens to be the same officer who was First Officer on the Oriana during the great RTW cruise in 2009.  According to him the Captain was suffering from Captain’s Flu which is much much worse than the dreaded man flu and that if he didn’t recover soon he was going to put him off at the next port of call.   We didn’t get lobster again, apparently that is reserved for when the Captain is present so Hilary had the tiger prawns and I settled once more for the salmon, which is one of the constants on the menu if you don’t fancy any of the other dishes.  I even passed on the dessert and settled for two water biscuits and a chunk of Stilton.

The evening Headliners show was their best yet and it covered the musicals that had won Tony awards, the finale had two great numbers from Miss Saigon and closed with the revolution song in Les Miserables.  We congratulated the cast on their performances while they were lined up at the exit to the theatre, they did deserve our praise and apart from one wobbly start by one of the girl singers they all performed very well indeed.  After that it was pretty much straight to bed but this time knowing that we were definitely going to lose an hour’s sleep.

Just a couple of other thoughts now that we are on today, we have booked one more trip and that is in Zakinthos the first real Greek Island of the tour (tomorrow is Messica in Sicily and we are just winging that one), the Zakinthos stop is one where we go into port on a tender so we have booked an early morning Best of Zakinthos tour in the hope that it will ensure that we get one of the early tenders instead of having to fight all and sundry for a place on a boat.  And the other thing is that while we were waiting for the lectures to start this morning I went down to get our daily crossword and Sudoku puzzles and happened to find that they were selling off some Cotton Traders Rugby shirts at 2 for 1, so I now have two more even if I already have a closet full at home.  One is blue and grey stripe and the other is purple and grey stripe – if it gets chilly (and today it is getting sunnier and around 65F) and Hilary takes a photograph of me, then you may well see me wearing one of them.  So be on the lookout.

Spent the morning watching two lectures, one on fingerprinting and the other on Shakespeare, I am quite surprised how much Hilary is enjoying both of them – particularly the latter.  The only drawback to these lectures is that they are both held in the Pacific Lounge, which is cold – in fact the whole ship seems cold and the warmest places are the lifts.  Outside it hasn’t got above 17C or 63F all day and with the breeze it is not the place to sit.  Some lucky, or brave souls do go on the Sun? Deck but we are not that foolhardy so we went back to the Chaplin Cinema this afternoon and this time it was to see Made in Dagenham the story of the strike at Ford by lady machinists and which eventually led to the Equal Pay act.  About 10 minutes into the film it all broke down but this was not the old kind of cine film that shows sprocket holes etc. as it is all controlled by a projector that is fed from a computer (running Windows XP!) and the operator merely starts the sequence and then goes away.  We were in the back row so Hilary climbed onto the seat and got outside where she went down to Reception to tell them what had happened.  At the same time another man was phoning them, I don’t know who got through first but shortly after Hilary got back they re-started the film close to where it had stopped.  It was a good film and depicted the 60’s very well, particularly the way that women were treated very differently, but it did not show Harold Wilson in a good light.

Tomorrow we start the big round of island visits and in rapid succession we have Sicily, then Zakinthos, Athens, Kudasi in Turkey and Rhodes all one day after the other.  We have tours booked for all except the first so this is going to be a busy time for us.  Then it is a couple of days before we get to Palma on the island of Mallorca followed by the long trek back past Gibraltar back up to Southampton.  Comfortable clothes and shoes from now on….

Tonight we see the comedian again so I will let you know how he is second time around.  Thanks for all the comments, please keep them coming.

Well the comedian was good and very funny, a tad bluer this time but nevertheless much appreciated by most of the ladies in the audience.  He also has a remarkably good voice and sang some strong ballads.  There was a delay in starting his performance tonight when a gentleman managed to trip on the stairs in the theatre and had to be stretchered off, we were given an update at the end to say that he was having some X-Rays but let’s hope that he didn’t have any tours planned for the immediate future.

So it is goodnight from me and you are now guaranteed to have some more blogging as I have signed up for another 250 minutes and that  I will not waste – you may get more pictures than you would like but I have to use my allowance up somehow.  Will blog tomorrow and tell you all about Messina in Sicily – unless Mount Etna decides to erupt while we are there and we have to beat a hasty retreat.  God bless.