Friday, 21st October2011

At Sea

After the cloudy day in Palma, we woke to find the sun was once more shining in a clear blue sky. Sadly for some, our balconies were in the shade for the whole day, as we are on the port side and steaming eastwards. So some of the gang (no prizes for guessing but their surnames begin with 'S') spent most of the day on the sun decks. Dave C also ventured up there for a while, but couldn't get away from the general hubbub that people on sunbeds seem to create, so returned to our shady balcony for a bit of piece and quiet! I stayed on the balcony until it was time for the painting class, reading, watching the sea, and doing a bit of embroidery. Then after the painting class I went, alone, to the cinema to watch the new Woody Allen film, 'Midnight in Paris' which I very much enjoyed. Julie's also been to her rehearsal for Pinafore, which we're all looking forward to watching later in the cruise.

We've been planning our entry for the ship-building contest, which will be held on the afternoon of 26^th October. At a brain-storming session, Julie suggested we should build an octopus... and so that's what we're aiming to do. It's going to be quite big – and may be disqualified, as it's not really a ship – but hey-ho, it should cause a few laughs. The legs are going to be made from plastic bottles and empty cans, wrapped in the black plastic bin-liners that we eventually tracked down in a back-street supermarket in Palma yesterday. Dave and Julie also brought a Barbie beach ball back from Palma, which will be used as part of the head of the octopus. Our chief Procurement Officer, Dave Smith, has been incredibly successful in chatting up various crew members, and we've amassed a variety of gaffer tapes, string, ribbons and cardboard boxes. We saw him chasing after a feather-clad showgirl last night, and thought for a moment we were going to have to build a duck instead of an octopus, but no... it was another roll of tape he returned with.

Elaine, if you're reading this, I finished Miss Garnet's Angel a couple of days ago, and have passed it on to Julie – Venice in 4 day's time, so I hope she can get through it quickly! I shall certainly be trying to persuade Dave to search out the Angelo Raffaele church – we've been to that district before, but didn't do anything more than wander round aimlessly.

Right, time to get dressed for dinner now. Hope you're all well.

Love

Janet

xx