An extra hour back again, so awake early and Paula was only a little better, but made it to breakfast. Oh boy, was that pineapple sour… I HAD to have a chocolate croissant after that. Dave and I left the Shed meeting just before 10am for a totally unstructured cricket hit. Tennis balls, either bowled or thrown and about six of us, eventually. It is about 28 years since I last held a cricket bat or played indoor cricket. Back then, I wasn’t a bad bowler, but apart from games in the driveway at 137, as a youth, where a four or a six meant either the ball going across the main road or into next door’s garden, or even the garden beyond, I have never rated myself as a batsman. After ten minutes in the 30+ heat, quite a few bowls and a spell with the bat, with my wicket still intact, nature called and I had to make a speedy exit.
Very low key but I’ll be back – just as long as the shoulder tendon stands up to it, as I haven’t played badminton since the 2011 cruise, when I tore a tendon humping the case from the carousel on day 1 and suffering for nearly 4 months.
Anyway, enough of that. Did we win Jamie’s trivia? Nah. But, he is a very engaging character and his quizzes are always lots of fun, thanks to his sense of humour.
No ukulele class today, so an earlier lunch than usual – for me anyway. The belly pork was extremely tender and no different from the Curtis Stone belly pork when on the evening menu, which is about every three days.
Paula crashed out for a while and I caught up with the blogs, then we went down to the atrium to sort out a Busan tour (an extra port, added since the diversion) and have a cuppa.
I went to quiz without Paula and we managed 16/20. It could have been 18, but we still wouldn’t have made the tie breaker, as the top score was 19.
Jo asked if we were going to dinner as she was hoping to invite Sharon and Peter on to our table. I said that if we weren’t there at 7:45, then we wouldn’t be dining. I was expecting the British GP to be on the sports channel and as that started 12:30 UK time, well before the men’s singles final. No such luck. The channel never seems to regularly publish a list of what is coming up either.
Paula was still under the weather, so I fetched her some light food – soup, a roll, broccoli, asparagus in ham, and a little cheese. She was happy enough with that. I then went back and managed to grab a lamb curry, a crawfish dish with a spicy sauce and a bread roll plus broccoli. These buffet dishes are often totally different to what is on offer in the dining room, and makes a viable alternative – especially if you aren’t too happy with your table companions! Fortunately we have a great table, so apart from tiredness or sickness, our table members are usually present.
In the past, just for a change, the whole table would opt out of formal dining and hit the pizzeria instead, but sadly, Princess have dumped that option – and we are all missing it. If we remember, that will be a negative comment at the end of the cruise, but as the pizzas were free, Princess never made any money out of it, but at least the staff were very busy. They, along with the Kai seafood staff, are anything but busy – though I did spot no less than six passengers in the seafood bar - once – and that seats about 40.
We didn’t bother with Nathan Foley’s second show and by 8pm, we’d settled in for the evening.
By the time the men’s singles final had finished, I was almost asleep, but thought that maybe the British GP would be on. No such luck. More tennis. The channel makes a big deal about F1 being shown live. No qualifying news either so I have no idea when or if it is being shown. Probably 2am.
Tianjin (for Beijing) tomorrow, but we’d cancelled our tour as six hours on a coach to see a mist enshrouded piece of ancient brickwork for an hour, then a jewellery shop, probably for the same amount of time, with Paula off colour and my lower spine not too keen on sitting for long periods (damaged tailbone some years ago), was not exactly an enthralling prospect.
We had our passports returned along with two photocopies and we have to have a face to face interview, ashore, with Chinese immigration. More on how that went tomorrow of course.
If Paula is up to it, we’ll do exactly what we did last time (2012 blog) and take the free shuttle to the AON Shopping Mall. I’ll take the laptop with me this time and park myself in either McDonalds or Starbucks, just as long as I can pay using my Air NZ Onesmart debit card, as we haven’t any Chinese cash, as still no internet outgoing mail.
We could get a few dollar’s-worth of local cash on board of course, but they charge a $6 fee for each transaction.
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