Today is a sea day, and as such has been designated as a learning day. It started off well, as I leapt out of bed at 06.50 with my alarm clock blaring out. I got dressed and headed of to the gym for my run. I then went back to the room as I’d forgotten my Polar Heart Rate Monitor. Eventually I got back to the gym and set off jogging on the treadmill. 5 kms later, I was on my cool down and I noticed that my performance index on the machine was 46. Now I have no idea what the number means, but on the first day, my run had a PI of 41. So the first thing I learned today is I’m 5 whatevers better at running than I was before the cruise. I may be fatter, but I’m fitter.
After a mad dash of shower and breakfast in the Lido, it was time for fencing. We’d been bumped again to the 08.45 slot because of a lecture on LS Lowrey in the Queen’s room at 11am. As is usual for the early session, there were only two of us, Eve was the other swords person. It’s good when there’s only two though, we got a lot more time free fighting, which was fast and frenetic.
I got back to the stateroom for my second shower and change of clothes of the day and it was only 09.40. Jane was just back from doing some ironing, and was now heading off upstairs to do some sun worshipping while I headed off to the first of three lectures.
The first was a lecture on architecture, given by John Sherlock, entitled Greek orders and illusions. It was very interesting and I am now much better informed on the difference between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian architecture styles.
The second, was Margaret Gilmore’s second lecture on terrorism, entitled Terrorist Hunters. I saw this lecture on the QM2 last December, it has been updated covering more recent events, but it was pretty much the same.
The third was a lecture on Nat King Cole by Dave Mackinder. This is the first in a series entitled Singers of the Great American Songbook. Again I really enjoyed this lecture, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s lecture on Dean Martin.
All this education was making me hungry and I’d arranged to meet Jane back at the stateroom, before heading to the MDR for lunch where I had salad and a sandwich, roast beef. Jane had left her book etc up with Giana, so I headed up to deck 9 with her to get a little sun. Jane has a massage booked at 15.15, so after a while chatting with Pat and reading Jane disappeared off to that and I snuck off for a snack while she wasn’t looking.
I actually fancied a nice coffee and after a pretty horrendous experience of the muck dished out by the machine in the Lido at breakfast, I opted for a latte in the Café Corinthia. It was better than the Lido, but I still wasn’t enamoured with it, I prefer the coffee served up in the MDR.
Jane came back from her massage “in agony”, the girl had given her a right pummeling. I don’t expect it will stop her going back for another though. After all that excitement it was Commodore o’clock, so we headed up to deck 10 where Jane asked for a Watermelon Martini, which she failed to get, it wasn’t our usual steward so he may not have asked the correct question from the barman. In the end she opted for the Breakfast Martini, always a good choice, and I had a Red Apple Fizz.
