Heading to Cadiz – Day 3 – 3rd Oct

Today’s Daily Programme can be found here…

The clocks went forward overnight so we lost an hour, luckily I was in bed nice and early, so when I woke early it felt like I’d had a good night’s sleep. After a quick shower we both made it up to the PG dining room to get some breakfast. We had a full house this morning with all six of us at the table. This was by far the worst meal of the voyage so far, one of my poached eggs with my smoked haddock was overcooked and the yolk was solid. 

We were thinking of going to Peter Snow’s talk in the theatre at 11:00 but before that there was some quizzing to be had in the Winter Garden. We were in a bit of a rush to get down the two decks to the Winter Garden, there had been far too much chatting over breakfast, but we made it in time and there was a table free. Some people take the quizzing very seriously, with one chap getting very irate that a waved yellow flag means quarantine and not infectious disease which was the answer provided. I’d have thought a “flown” yellow flag means quarantine but a waved flag means caution any way it’s just a bit of fun for us, which is a good job because we were rubbish only scoring 12/20 against a winning score of 15.

We decided that the Peter Snow lecture was going to be rammed, as celebrity speakers tend to pack out the theatre, so we’d watch it in the stateroom instead. I’m glad we did because the lecture was a bit dry and the the sun came out. Unfortunately our cushions on the balcony loungers were damp after yesterday’s weather, so we decided to hit deck 3 and the steamers on the promenade deck. Jane grabbed a couple and I headed to the Chart Room and purchased a couple of the speciality coffees to enjoy while lounging.

We enjoyed the lounging far too long, so missed the second of Jane Fullerton’s Insight lectures. who on earth would think 12:15 and 13:00 are a good time to put on talks in the Royal Court Theatre, anyway it was soon time for lunch in the PG restaurant. The sun was out and  a lot of diners were taking advantage of the courtyard for their lunchtime meals and although It looked nice out there, we instead opted for our usual table as two of our tablemates were already there. Jane had a Greek salad, which she was a bit disappointed with, not enough Feta or Olives compared with our tablemates bulging plate. She made up for it though with a Spaghetti Ragu entree. I also had the spaghetti which I enjoyed and a tart tatin with vanilla ice cream dessert. 

We were going to take advantage of the clear skies to do some sunbathing on the Grills terrace, but our balcony was still in the sun so we sat out there relaxing and getting psyched up for the afternoon’s quiz. When the sun left the balcony we went in search of a nice latte and found what we were looking for in the Grills lounge. Jane was seriously tempted by the sun loungers, but thought it may have got a little too hot prior to going down for the quiz.

Psyching our selves up for the afternoon quiz didn’t help, we had a mare! Luckily Jane was on form or it would have been a total disaster, we ended up with 11/20 against a  winning score of 16/20. Jane got us  a couple of non-alcoholic drinks, she had a Strawberry Mint Julip, and got me a Flu Buster,  drink so sharp you could shave with it.  I’ve been feeling a little bit sniffy and if I’ve still got a cold tomorrow I’ll be very surprised. After our abysmal showing in the quiz it was nearly Commodore O’clock, but we had a change and headed to the Grills Terrace for some sun. Jane had a Dark and Stormy and she was pleased to report after several failed attempts to get a decent one in the QE Grills Lounge, QV came up trumps with an excellent one.

We’d requested the rack of lamb off the A la Carte menu at lunchtime, and we were both looking forward to that very much. The starter included both octopus and a French onion soup so Jane plumped for the soup, but I’m as indecisive as ever and I had to have both, I just couldn’t make up my mind. This was a good call because both were excellent. I was a bit worried about the lamb as I like it pink and Jane had asked for medium, but I needn’t have, the lamb was perfect.

After dinner we took a stroll around decks 2 and 3, it’s very easy to forget how much is going on when you are up on deck 11. There was a Motown night in the Queen’s Room, a duet in the pub and a string trio outside the Verandah.