Another day at sea today. We would still not see any land for another four days. So there was no timetable to follow, no excursions to set off on. We could do want we wanted, when we wanted and the day looked a lot brighter and the sea a lot calmer than it was yesterday. Had it really been a week since we flew out of Manchester to Barbados? We felt as if we’d been on Braemar for ever, but we certainly weren’t complaining. 🙂
After breakfast we went along to the “shop event” as it’s called to see what was on offer in the sales. Today it was perfumes, so after trying a few testers I bought a lovely ornate bottle of Marc Jacobs “Daisy Dream”. It is only a very light subtle fragrance, but very nice. Because we are Gold Oceans Club members, we get a 5% discount on anything we purchase on board, so that is an extra bonus. 🙂
At 10 o’clock Trevor went along to listen to a presentation about the end of the British Empire, but I didn’t fancy that one so I just took my laptop along to the Morning Light pub and sat and did some of my blog, as well as some of my crocheting.
Then it was time to attend another presentation from Bob Wragg, the ex-CID man; this time it was called “Stories from the Criminal Underworld” and it featured truth, fact, legend and myth about some of London’s notorious criminals such as the Kray twins and their rivals, the Richardsons. As I enjoy true crime books and movies, I really enjoyed the talk.
This took us nicely to lunchtime, after which we ventured out on deck to see what the weather was like once again. It was definitely calmer, although still windy, and I needed to wear my lightweight jacket. It was still exhilarating enjoying the fresh sea air, and their was something hypnotic about the gentle rise and fall of the Braemar’s bows.
We passed the afternoon in its usual pleasant way until 3.00pm, when we were treated to a close-up magic show by magician John Lenahan. He also explained how to do a lot of the tricks and how sleight of hand and psychological manipulation of your audience makes magic appear to work. It was a very interesting and entertaining 45 minutes, and we had half an hour spare before the next talk by the ex-Royal Navy bloke, so we nipped into the Morning Light and grabbed ourselves a drink. 😉
The talk was about ‘Operation Pedestal’ which took place in August 1942 and which told of the convoy that saved the besieged island of Malta. I always enjoy these presentations, and the speaker David Russell makes them interesting and informative.
It was then time to go back and get showered and changed before getting ready for dinner. Tonight, however, we were not going to our usual table in the Thistle Restaurant, but instead to the Palms Café where they were holding a grand Indian buffet. As we love Indian food and eat it once a fortnight at home, we really enjoyed the arrays of appetitsers, main courses, side dishes and desserts. Some of the dishes were really spicy (which I love) so a scrumptious meal was enjoyed by all.
We got talking to another couple on our table who said this was their seventh cruise; they were astounded when we told them it was our 41st as they didn’t think we looked old enough! 🙂 They asked us lots of questions about different cruise lines, and who we’d recommend, and which was our favourite ship and cruise line.
Then it was time to go along to the Neptune Lounge where they were holding a version of the popular 1960s/70s game show “Mr & Mrs”. Trevor and I have taken part in this on previous cruises and have won three times, so we hoped we would be picked again this time. However, the three couples had already been chosen so this time it wasn’t our turn. As ever, it was hugely entertaining, but we thought it was a bit of a “fix” that one half of the couple who won it was part of the Braemar’s entertainment team!
The game was followed by the excellent singer Jon Moses once again; he gave us a brilliant show and it was obvious he’d built up quite a little following of fans here on the Braemar; as he is so personable I think some of the older ladies wanted to mother him a bit. 🙂
Later in the Coral Club we met up with Jackie and Kathy once again and took part in the quiz which we didn’t win. Apart from the second night we haven’t exactly been doing well; there are a lot of high scores so either the questions are too easy or we have a lot of very good quizzers.
At 11 o’clock they decided to feature karaoke with a difference – this time ‘bandioke’ or singing along to the live band rather than a backing track. Basically it was a case of choosing one of the songs that the resident band the Revolverlites played, and singing along while reading the lyrics from the music sheet. It’s a lot harder than it sounds! When you think about it, the professional singers would have time to rehearse and practise with the band, but it’s a different kettle of fish entirely to get up and sing on the spot, without rehearsing.
None of the songs I can do really well featured on the list, so I chose to do Jamming by Bob Marley. Although I know the song, I have never sung it before. Natasha (who is the singer with the band) propped up her iPad on a music stand for me to read the lyrics, and the band struck up.
What a fiasco! I started off well enough but then lost my place in the lyrics, so I just had to ad lib by singing words like “I have lost my place and just messed up my song, I don’t know what I’ve done wrong”. This elicited a huge laugh and a spontaneous round of applause from the audience, so while the singing wasn’t very good at least folks found it entertaining. Afterwards Duncan, the senior host, came and gave me a hug and said he didn’t even realise I wasn’t singing the right words! It was all good fun though, we all had a great laugh and all the singers were in the same boat, so to speak. 🙂
The bandioke finished at midnight, and we just had one more drink and made our way back to cabin # 3074. As we had to advance our clocks one hour again tonight, it was really 1.00am. We looked forward to whatever tomorrow would bring.