I woke a little before my alarm this morning so was ready for it when it went off at 06.50. Jane was telling me to get back in bed while I was getting ready for the gym, but as this might be the last chance I get for a run I was determined to go. Once we past Gibraltar tonight we’ll be in the Atlantic, and if we have “Sea State lumpy” running on the treadmill might become problematic. As it turned out I needn’t have worried about running on the next few days. I was just jogging through 4.5km when I started to feel my Achilles tighten. I decided to complete my 5k, but as just as I got there it went on me and I had to hit the stop button. It loosened up again after I’d cooled down a little, but it’s not good.
We lazed in the stateroom for a while before going for a late breakfast in the MDR. There was no fencing class today as there was a tat bazaar going on the the Queen’s Room, so we had a quick look in there before heading on to the Royal Court Theatre for the first of today’s lectures. The Captain, Assume Hashim, was giving a lecture on the ship operations entitled Virtual Bridge Tour. Informative, interesting and very enjoyable. The Captain is obviously a people person, both witty and self deprecating, you can see why he has made it to the highest echelons of Cunard.
I had about 30 minutes up on deck 9 with Jane before it was time for my second lecture of the day. John Sherlock was back again with the second of his architecture lectures, this time covering the Roman period. Very good again, I learned a lot and I will certainly be going to his next one’s assuming they don’t clash with fencing.
I dined alone today, Jane was going to get a jacket potato in the Lido for lunch, so intending to be good I headed to the MDR only to be tripped up by a very nice burger and then the best trifle I have had in a long time.
The third lecture was Dave Mallinder’s reprise of Dean Martin’s life. An extensive lecture covering his early life in Ohio, the Jerry Lewis and Rat Pack years, and through to his death on Christmas day 1995.
Jane had stayed on deck 9 making the most of the last of the sunshine with Giana. Jane came back to the room, and we decided to go out and have a fancy coffee in the Cafe Carinthia with Pat and Giana which passed a little time, the American I had today was much nicer than yesterday’s latte. On the way back we spotted another of our dinner companions, Thirsa, in the Queen’s Room where she was watching Gretchen, another of our dinner companions, take part in the tap dancing classes, Gretchen was pretty good, soft shoeing to a track from Chicago. After that it was time for a rest back in the room. No Commodore Club for us tonight.