Yet another sea day, but it’s not such a hardship as there is always something to do on a cruise ship. Like life at home, you tend to fall into a daily routine, and today was no exception. 😊
I therefore got up at 8.00am and went out on the balcony, just standing and watching the hypnotic sight of the wake, something I never tire of. The weather was warm (we could expect 27°C today) and the sea was that vivid shade of blue-green you only see in the tropics.
After Trevor came back from his three-laps-around-the-promenade-deck (I wish I had that much energy at that time of the morning!), we went up to The View for breakfast. I enjoyed some yoghurt with fresh fruit, nuts and seeds, washed down with a cup of coffee.
We then decided to go out onto the promenade deck and enjoy the fresh sea air and balmy weather. As we were walking around, we could see a flock of large birds flying along, almost keeping pace with the ship. As we watched a flurry of silver streaks on the surface of the sea, showing us that there were many flying fish disturbed by the passage of the Borealis, we saw some of the birds go into a deep dive with a collective squawk, and swoop down to the surface of the sea after the fish. This happened several times; most of the times the birds would miss, but occasionally their tenacity paid off, and they’d soar off with a fish in their beaks. 🙂
After watching the fish and birds for a while, we decided to go back inside and along to the Ocean Bar, where there was the inevitable game of carpet bowls. All of the ‘regulars’ were there, whose names we had got to know, and it was the usual keen competition, banter, heckling and good fun. Trevor and I didn’t win anything this time.
After the carpet bowls, we enjoyed a glass of iced ginger ale each while we waited for the next game; yes, the one and only Baggo! This time, we made it into the quarter finals before we were knocked out. 🙂 Some of the players were well-practiced, as they got all of their beanbags into the hole.
It brought us nicely up to lunchtime, and this time we decided to go into the Borealis restaurant and have waiter service instead of the queueing in the buffet. It added a bit of occasion to lunch. If you wanted, you could have a starter, salad, main course, dessert and cheese at lunchtime, then have the whole lot again at dinner (with afternoon tea in between!) I’m sure there must be people who do that on a cruise, but we find that, after the first couple of days of pigging out, we eat a far more moderate amount and, on occasion, even skip meals.
After lunch, there was a game of “Name That Tune” in the Observatory, so we thought we’d give it a go. Usually we do quite well at this, and have even scored 30/30 in the past (especially when it’s 70s and 80s music), so we were hopeful of winning a prize. However, the guy hosting the quiz decided to make it about Movies and Musicals; you had the name the film or musical the song was from, so our faces fell. We are not movie buffs at all and, despite being joined by another guy who was a solo cruiser, our team didn’t do very well, only scoring 16/30. The winners got an impressive 24.
We then returned to 7063 and I sat out on the balcony for a while, enjoying the sight of the Borealis ploughing her way through the sea.
We then settled down for a 30-minute power nap, after propping open the balcony door to make the most of the fresh air and the gorgeous sounds of the sea. 🙂
We didn’t really do much for the rest of the afternoon. We just spent the time relaxing, reading, watching TV and pottering around the ship. At 4.45pm Gilbert, the guy with the canapés, arrived at our door, and gave us a description of each of the three tasty little snacks. I bet he gets sick of having to do that at every suite. 🙂
Soon it was time to start getting ready for dinner once again. I wore a black maxi-dress with a black lace bolero over it; they were both cheap and cheerful but the outfit looked as if it had cost more than it had.
Once again, we enjoyed a scrumptious meal. Every night in the restaurant there is a different selection of starters, mains and desserts, but if you don’t fancy that evening’s selection you can choose from the “Always Available” dishes such as chicken breast, steak, Caesar Salad and other staples, served with potatoes, chips or jacket spuds as well as fresh vegetables. On that note then, I chose a rump steak with peppercorn sauce, jacket potato and the veg, which included broccoli, cauliflower and green beans.
I passed on the dessert, just opting for a cup of coffee, and Trevor and I each enjoyed an amaretto as an after-dinner liqueur.
The entertainment tonight featured Lloyd Davies, the comedian, again. We thought this show was better than his first one, and I laughed out loud several times. An amusing little interlude – he does seem to be a genuinely nice bloke. 🙂
Then it was off to the Morning Light pub for the quiz, which we didn’t win once again.
There was no featured entertainment in the Observatory tonight apart from Jukebox Sounds, so we didn’t bother going up there. In any case, the Borealis would be transiting the famous Panama Canal tomorrow, and would arrive around 7.00am, so we had to be up early if we didn’t want to miss anything.
It was therefore around 11.30pm when we returned to 7063 and settled down for the evening, looking forward to what tomorrow would bring. 🙂