We awoke bright and early this morning and went out onto the balcony to a day that already promised to be sunny and bright.
We consumed a leisurely breakfast then had a walk around the deck and a look around the shops, and generally passed the morning in a relaxed and unhurried way, before we went along to the Palladium for another lecture about Concorde by Ricky Bastin; the talk this time focussed on the technical aspects of flying Concorde, from the famous and distinctive ‘droop nose’ to the revolutionary ‘fly by wire’ flying controls that made Concorde decades ahead of her time.
After the talk we went along to the Spinnaker bar where we spent some time talking with Ricky once again about Concorde and some of our past cruises, and we enjoyed a pre-luncheon cocktail.
We then went up to the Belvedere buffet and grabbed some food, which we took out onto the Aquarius Pool deck and enjoyed in the open sea air.
At around 1.00pm we crossed the Tropic of Cancer at latitude 23° 27′ north, so we were now officially in the tropics as the sunshine and cloudless blue sky would testify.
Tonight was formal night again so, after an afternoon nap and generally pottering around the ship, we took our time getting ready, enjoying some of the cava we’d bought in Tenerife which had now nicely chilled in our fridge.
I wore a gorgeous floor-length black velvet off-the-shoulder Gothic dress along with long black velvet evening gloves and a lace choker. I had silver diamante studded platform shoes on with a 5” heel, so I felt very glamorous (even if I didn’t look it, ha ha).
Tonight was the re-scheduled Captain’s cocktail party (postponed from Monday) which was being held at the Neptune Pool at 6.00pm, so we were ready by 5.45pm to join the queue. It’s a bit ridiculous on P & O ships because, unlike Cunard ships, there is no dedicated ballroom so they usually hold the cocktail parties in the space which will hold the most passengers; in this case it was the pool deck, which wasn’t as bad as the Ventura, where they hold the captain’s cocktail bash in the atrium area, on and around the stairs. 🙂
The queue was atrociously long, because there’s no way they’d open the doors until exactly 6.00pm. So throngs of people were gathered outside the pool area on deck 9, while the arriving lifts spewed out their contents and added even more people to the crush. The things the Brits will do just to get a free glass of ‘champers’, lol. 🙂
Eventually the doors opened and everyone poured in. We grabbed a chilled glass of vino from a passing waiter and took one of the available seats around the edge of the pool. The air was balmy and there was a soft sea breeze ruffling our hair as we sat and enjoyed our drinks; something we’d definitely not be able to do back in cold, wet and frosty Blighty.
Captain Trevor Lane came along with his officers and did the usual little speech as we partook of another glass each of the free plonk.
Then, at half-six, it was time to go down to the dining room and enjoy another delicious meal with more wine and some good after-dinner port.
Once dinner was over we went along for our ‘usual’ seats in the front row in the Palladium theatre for tonight’s show, which was “New York City Rhythm” by the Headliners Theatre Company. It was the usual typical singing-and-dancing routine; they all start to look and sound the same after a while, but it passed a pleasant enough 45 minutes before we went along to the Rising Sun pub. Tonight was, once again, karaoke night so I put my name down to do some songs different from the ones I’d sung last time, such as Lynn Anderson’s Rose Garden and Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares to You. The same other singers got up again, and we were referred to by Matt, the host, as the “regulars” ha ha. 🙂
It was all in good fun and once again it was after midnight when we returned to cabin C149. Tonight the clocks were due to go back one hour to GMT -1, so we’d enjoy an extra hour in bed. 🙂