Today’s Daily Programme can be found here…
The room temperature is all over the place, I woke some time after midnight, sweating, having kicked off my covers, then after dropping off again I woke about 4am, this time freezing, it’s as if the air-con kicked in some time during the night. I eventually woke properly at about 7 am, it was still cold in the room, and pitch black as I wandered over to the balcony curtains to let in a little light, it was still dark outside and as we were steaming West there wasn’t even a hint of a sunrise yet.
Today’s a sea-day so a leisurely breakfast was in order, even more so when I realised my first insight lecture wasn’t until 11 am. The sunday service was taking place in the theatre at 10 am. So after breakfast I was persuaded to go to the morning trivia in the Golden Lion, well that was a mistake we were abysmal yet again 12/20 – I’m sure the sea air is making us thicker!
Captain John Hutchinson’s lecture at 11:00 was about the BOAC 707 air accident at Heathrow in 1968. I don’t remember this as I’m just a youngster, but the account from his first hand view was captivating. After the insight’s lecture I headed off to find Jane, she’d messaged me that she was up in the Grills Lounge. I found her there with our table mates and we headed in for lunch. It was a good one today, I fancied the Waldorf Salad starter and Kashmiri Lamb curry main. Well the Waldorf Salad was a deconstructed monstrosity, it tasted good, but it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. The lamb curry on the other hand was excellent.
It was very windy on deck and although the loungers were out there were no cushions out and the Grills terrace was only braved by a few hardy souls. Our balcony on the other hand was a sun trap and sheltered from the breeze. The balcony chairs don’t recline fully but they do go back quite far so was ideal for lying in the sun for a couple of hours before heading back up to the Winter Garden for round seven of the progressive trivia. We were even worse this afternoon than we were this morning getting only 10/20.
It was tempting to stop in the Winter Garden to watch the England rugby match, but jane fancied a cocktail and I a coffee, so the best choice there was the Grills Lounge since the coffees are free, where Jane had a Moscow Mule Deluxe. They weren’t showing the game on the TV there, so after a drink we headed down to the cabin where I watched the game and Jane went in search of sun on the balcony. It doesn’t help my nerves when, like the Wales game, we lost the TV signal with a minute to go and Fiji needed a converted try to win. Luckily when the TV signal returned England were holding fast and Courtney Laws managed to win a penalty sealing the game for England.
It was a bit of a steak fest for dinner with t-bone on the menu, I fancied steak, but the t-bones were huge, so I opted for the fillet steak from the A la Carte menu, with fries instead of the potato rosti, it was excellent, on a par with pretty much all of our meals on board. There was a mass order of Bananas Foster for the table as dessert, with three of the six plumping for it. I’m not a fan as I don’t like rum, so I opted for the frozen souffle, but the others all raved about it, Jane really enjoyed it.
There was a 50s/60s music quiz in the Golden Lion pub after dinner and our table mates persuaded us to join them even though we wouldn’t be much help, as we are youngsters. It turned out we knew a few, but it didn’t help in the grand scheme of things with us getting 28/40