Another sea day before the last stop on this first sector and a few wrap ups in the schedule. With about 200 getting off tomorrow and another 200 getting on, for some, the end of their cruise, whilst for most others, not even half way. Ironically, we are now heading south again, for Yokohama, so it is slightly warmer and another fine day. No Coldral and feeling OK, time to revert to a cooked breakfast. It is rare that I ever have scrambled eggs when eating out, as they are invariably too overcooked for my liking, but on board, they usually have plain scrambled eggs and also favoured eggs (mushrooms, or salmon, mushrooms, ham and cheese etc.) and certainly on this cruise, they have always been nicely moist and a far better bet than the rubbery poached eggs on offer. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, there are also two types of sausage. The small link sausages (which are very tasty) and a speciality sausage, which can be anything from the fiery chorizo, to turkey sausages, Andouille etc. So easy to build a breakfast to suit.
No rush to get away from “The Shed” as the morning trivia was at 11am, put back as they had one of the very popular cooking demonstrations in the Vista lounge, which was followed by a galley tour.
Although we didn’t win, we were only 1 point behind the winners, which was yet another good effort for the ‘Shipkickers’.
A cabin visit and a ukulele warm up before the grand debut/final concert in the Vista lounge at 2pm. Much to our surprise, the lounge was packed! The format was the ladies sat and the men stood behind, but with the very poor lighting, reading the music without a personal stand wasn’t easy. Paula was totally blocked out by some stroppy woman who refused to sit down or stand at the back, so she obviously wanted to be seen. There’s always one…
Anyway, Salomon conducted his pupils and introduced each song and singer and we had five pieces on the schedule, with three different singers and a 6th song and fourth singer, just in case there was a call for an encore – which of course there was! By all accounts, it went down very well indeed and the Hawaiian shirts certainly made it look authentic. So from beginners a month ago to a successful stage performance says a lot for Salomon’s tutoring and judging by the number of new ukulele’s purchased ashore, several people have actually had a genuine enrichment as part of the cruise. For those of us not wanting to play water volleyball, basketball, bridge, goofy golf, indoor bowls or even knit, something of genuine value. Sadly, we had no CDs for sale and therefore no need for autograph signing afterwards.
Up to the buffet for a soup and a bread roll then Paula paid a visit to the hair salon. I stayed and had a long, pleasant chat with John Graham the ballroom instructor until about 3:45! We didn’t win afternoon trivia, though the winning team did kindly donate a couple of carabiners (thanks Marlene) and we managed a quick nod before dinner.
Sadly, this was our waiter Ricky’s last night, as he leaves tomorrow and heads back to Indonesia to await the birth of his first child, apparently due anytime now. I think he was very touched to get little gifts from the table (he’ll need an extra bag!) ‘Blue Cards’, tips, a group photograph and very, very, fond farewell’s, with a speech from Garry. The bomb Alaska parade wasn’t quite as significant after that. We’ll miss him as he has been an excellent waiter.
On then to the theatre fir a combined show featuring Russell Hamilton and Will Martin and a guest spot from Andrew Geiter, the ship’s singer. I really enjoyed the show, but Paula wanted more of Will Martin. Incidentally you rugby loving Kiwis back in NZ. Will is one of the official anthem singers before the rugby matches and turned to singing when he realised his physique wouldn’t get him into playing for the All Blacks. As an anthem singer, he said he’d done it 8 times and the All Blacks won all 8 matches.
A good show to end the first sector and bed at 11:30pm, ready for Yokohama tomorrow – but the weather forecast isn’t the best. Those heading to see Mt Fuji may be a little disappointed, but we’ll stay local as last time, we saw Tokyo, but nothing of Yokohama.
Hopefully Jo will post a pic of the Ukulele concert, but I suspect she couldn’t see Paula…
No comments:
Post a Comment