Got up at eight o’clock after a reasonable night’s sleep. Went out on the balcony and stared at the miles of rolling, deep blue ocean. Was it my imagination or had the Atlantic swell subsided a bit? It was certainly easier to move around the cabin; either that, or we were becoming more used to it. 😊
Trevor was nowhere to be seen, and as I was getting washed and dressed he appeared; he’d been out on the promenade deck walking a mile, which is 3.5 laps. I wish I was that energetic this time of the morning!
We then enjoyed our breakfast in The View before having a look at the programme to see what we could join in with today. 😊
At 9.45am there was a Destinations Presentation which outlined some of the places we would be visiting and the different excursions on offer. Looking at the colourful, sunny photographs of amazing beaches and turquoise ocean, we felt a renewed excitement at the thought of our wonderful ports of call to come.
At half past ten there was another game of Baggo in the Ocean Bar. As we’d had so much fun playing this yesterday we decided to go along again; when we arrived the room was full – it’s obviously very popular. Trevor and I won our first round but were knocked out later on in the game. 😊
We followed the Baggo with another lecture in the Neptune Lounge; this one was all about the Billingsgate Roman House & Baths which was discovered by chance beneath a dull old office block on Lower Thames Street in London. We’d never heard of this so the talk was very interesting, and it’s something we’ll be sure to visit next time we visit London.
This brought us nicely up to lunchtime, so we went to the Poolside Bar & Grill for lunch. I had a delicious platter of antipasti, including prosciutto, chorizo, olives, cheese and artichokes. It was followed by a plate of mixed fresh fruits with cashew cream.
There were lots of things on the daily programme today to keep us occupied, and after lunch we headed up to the Observatory where they were holding a “Name That Tune” quiz. As usual, you had to listen to short clips of music and name the song title as well as the artiste, receiving a point for each. There were 15 clips of music, so a potential 30 points then. We started off quite badly but soon picked up, scoring a mediocre 20/30. The winning team scored 26.
After the quiz, we decided to stay in the Observatory to enjoy a couple of drinks and listen to the Borealis Choir practice. We perched on bar stools where we had a fabulous view of the ocean beyond the bow of the ship. When you looked out of the windows on either side, you could tell that there was still a fair bit of ship’s motion because one second the view would be filled with nothing but sea, and a few seconds later you could see nothing but sky. It was quite hypnotic.
The ‘Singing for Fun’ class was obviously popular as a fair number of people turned up and went through their breathing and vocal exercises. It kept us entertained until it was time for me to attend water colour painting class once again. Trevor decided to attend another talk in the Neptune Lounge about the jazz age.
Today we had to paint a charming Mediterranean door with a tree in leaf outside, casting its shadow upon the door. I didn’t have a very good view of the photo we were supposed to be using as a reference, so I just spent time mixing my paint and slapping it onto the textured art paper. I put some panels into my door and painted it a sunny yellow, with a couple of shades of green for the leaves in the tree. My painting wasn’t very good at all, but it was a bit of colour therapy and I enjoyed the art session. 😊
I then returned to 7055 and read my book and relaxed for a while before deciding to have a power nap, as I was quite tired. Trevor arrived back shortly afterwards, and soon the man with the canapés arrived and we enjoyed those tasty little culinary works of art.
Feeling refreshed after my power nap, I had a long, hot shower and shampooed my hair. I wasn’t taking any chances in a slippery bath, made more so with hair conditioner, so I placed the rubber bath mat in the tub and took most of my shower one-handed, the other hand holding onto the rail affixed to the wall for that purpose. 😊
I then finished getting ready and watched the news on TV – it’s rarely good news and I try to avoid watching it while we’re on holiday because I don’t want to spend my days in doom and gloom.
At 6.15pm we went along to the restaurant for dinner; we had a full house at table #87 this time and regaled each other with tales of what we’d been up to today as well as our plans for when we reached Bermuda on Sunday. Everyone agreed we were looking forward to being on terra firma again after days of being bounced around on the very rough Atlantic Ocean, but we still had three days to go!
After dinner I left the table feeling sure I had eaten far too much, and we went along to the Neptune Lounge to try to bag some front row seats for the evening’s entertainment, which featured the fabulous Soul Kinda Wonderful trio of Motown lads again.
Before then, though, we waited for the dancing to start, but were advised by the dance hosts once again that it was probably still a tad too rough. Instead, we listened to the music and I read my Kindle, then Make Me Feel So Good blasted out of the speakers, signifying that the show would begin in three minutes.
As they were in their first performance, Soul Kinda Wonderful were exactly that – wonderful. Each of them took a turn at singing the lead, while the remaining two acted as backing singers. They all had very different voices, but were equally fantastic, and during the last 15 minutes of their show they invited audience members down to the dance floor, which was soon packed. They sang the songs of The Four Tops, The Drifters, The Foundations and many others. One of them did a fantastic rendition of First, Last and Everything by Barry White, doing a creditable impersonation of Barry’s famous low-down growly, raspy vocals.
The show overran by 10 minutes, as they guys were called back to the stage to do a couple of encores. What a great performance. The entertainment we have seen so far on this cruise has been superb.😊
Afterwards, Trevor and I hotfooted it along to the Morning Light pub to bagsy a table for the quiz. We were joined only by Lesley this time; Alan had claimed to be too tired and had retired to their cabin for the night. We only scored 11/15 this time, but Lesley stayed and chatted for a while, leaving us about 11.15pm.
There were quite a few people still left in the Morning Light, and we pondered whether or not just to stay here, or to go up to the Observatory which, to tell the truth, has only been half full so far this voyage, and not its packed-out lively (and often amusing) self. We decided to remain in the Morning Light, and we were there until around 1.00am, when it closed.
As we made our way back up to 7055, we noticed that the Borealis was still rocking and rolling on the waves, and we wondered when we would reach calmer seas. Despite our bed moving around, and ever-present creaking and rattling you hear on a moving vessel, we settled down and slept very well.
We looked forward to whatever tomorrow would bring. 😊