Sea Day 8 ~ Sunday April 20th
Wanting to catch a sunrise at sea, I got up & dressed.
Out on deck it was just getting light, & there were only a few folk about: 2 passengers & me, & 4 crew ~ doing the tidying & cleaning the crew did all day. They were always polishing, repairing, & generally fettling something. For the non-English out there, here's what google says about fettle!
Fettle
ˈfɛt(ə)l/
- trim or clean the rough edges of (a metal casting or a piece of pottery) before firing.NORTHERN ENGLISH That'd be me ;-) make or repair (something).
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| Foredeck port w flying & inner jibs |
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| Foredeck starboard w flying & inner jibs |
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| The sun peeps above the horizon between the rigging |
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| Sun-gilded sea |
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| Spars in silhouette One of my favourite pics |
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| That's the pool above the dining room |
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| Harry doing his exercises |
The sun actually rose at 0650, so I had a fair amount of hanging about.
Harry surfaced from the Owner's Suite just before 7.
I had a look at the cost of this suite for the same cruise in 2016, & it's >£8k per person.
Flipping heck :-O
After doing Sergey's Tai Chi (he must've swapped with Lidija), Amanda's class, & getting breakfast with some of the other exercisers, I went back to get warmer clothes on & found this on the bed. Even though I was full of breakfast I ate the egg & 2 biscuits before I remembered to take a photo.
If you read bunf about the RC, it all says the sails are trimmed by sailors, not computers. Even so, there's little need for them to go aloft ~ but see last RC blog (currently not yet written ;-p, but it will be soon).
Easter Egg eaten, I took my Jo (AKA broomstick!) up to the Forward Lounge & did 40 minutes tweaking. I suppose that 40 min went some way to offsetting the egg + 2 biscuits ;-p
On the way up I got myself a brew & chatted to Charlie & Cindy.
I have since heard Charlie died. How sad. He was lovely guy.
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| Hunt the fiancee? Hehehe |
I can't remember what Marcel was looking for. He probably said at the time, but I didn't write it down. Sunglasses?? He was obviously not feeling the chill wind in short sleeves.
Fortunately, the sun came out a bit more towards lunchtime, so I went below for some sun cream ~ making a detour to avoid Proposition Man who was polishing door knobs on one of the companionways.
Slap (see below IRO slap & Jack) applied, it was Aft Deck time, Conrad's lecture on pirates, & more Stephen, sudoku & sleep.
I had lunch with Christine, Dan & Marie, & when I got back on deck with my mug of peach tea, all the sails were up :-DThe afternoon's Stephen, sudoku & sleep followed, & I slept right through the Easter Egg Hunt.
I didn't want to sleep through Vadim's piano recital, tho, & as it was directly before Erik's Abs, I changed 1st.
Vadim was 3rd officer & he played for well over 40 minutes with no music.
Impressive!
Some girl will be a lucky lady ;-p
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| Behind Vadim's neck is the bottom of the midships pool |
I did 25 press-ups as well so my arms & pecs didn't feel left out ;-)
I had dinner with Mary & Case from Hawaii (at least, I think that's what the heiroglyphics say ;-p), & Mary & Michael from Aus.
Australia/Austria? I can't remember. Probably Austria, as I usually write Oz as shorthand for the down-under one.
It doesn't matter, anyway. At least I didn't have to listen to Conrad pontificate again. Especially about pirates ;-p
pontificate
pɒnˈtɪfɪkeɪt/
It was the usual oldies, Beatles, etc. & I shared my sheet with an Oz bloke.
Unexpectedly, he said I had a sweet voice. Gollygosh!
It seems the singing lessons with Steve paid off.
Or google it!
Basically, I'm a big softy with coloured hearing!
After the Singalong, a few of us congregated and had another one with Tom providing the guitar accompaniment.
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| Tom & OZ bloke etc singing along |
When I let him go, he said "You're very strong".
I said it was the appliance of science ;-) ~ a Zanussi moment ;-p
Marcel also gave me a sachet of hot chocolate he'd stashed away in their cabin. How nice of him, he'd half-inched them for Gabi's nightcap. There was hardy ever any chocolate sachets left at the tea point when I looked :-(, so it was an unexpected & lovely treat :-D ~ especially after the headlock. Hehehe
The clever people grabbed the sachets for cabin hot chocs whenever they appeared. I only managed it once :-/
So, after a nice rich hot choc nightcap, it was time for bed all night. That is, one with all the requisite number of hours in it!
Sea Day 9 ~ Monday April 21st
Apparently, all Atlantic crossing virgins must make obeisance to King Neptune, & get baptised in order to cross.
This meant crew and passengers finding 'something suitable' to wear for the ceremony. This could be found in the Forward Lounge at 1000.
Before that I was at Sergey's class at 7, Amanda's at 8, & did a decent stretch afterwards as well.
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| Thingy?,Christine, Gabi & Harry awaiting the dressing-up kit! |
Gabi had discovered Tony was wearing cashmere. This meant he got a lot of Cashmere Hugs from us ladies!
Sitting down it felt like we were heeling quite a bit, so I went up to have a look.
You can make out a bit of a tilt in the pic.
It was quite hard to get a proper idea on film because my body kept trying to stand upright & not lean over.
You can get the gist, though.
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| Me & Harry in the wind & rain |
For only the 2nd time on the voyage I had a jumper on.
This one was the "This Is Not A Jersey" sweatshirt I got from NZ in 2011.
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| Harry, Gabi & Marcel in the wind & rain |
I could hardly believe Marcel ~ shorts & a T-shirt in That weather :-O
Mr Tough Guy, obviously. Hehehe
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| Gabi in the wind & rain ;-p |
After all that posing in the rain we went back indoors & chatted with Tony for a bit.
Well, it was more like, Marcel asking us to explain the vagaries of English & getting the Southern version from Tony, & the Northern one from me.
Poor fella. English is bad enough without 2 jokers helping ;-p
I had lunch with Gabi, Marcel & Harry, & tried to take a photo of the washing machine* outside the porthole, but it was rubbish.
* We were heeling, & stuff occasionally slid across the table.
The porthole window behind Harry was more often under swirling water than not.
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| Gabi takes a pic of me taking a pic |
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| Apart from his back in his vest (see prev blog), this is the 1st of Jerry from Canada. He's in the fetching purple bandana & red lipstick! |
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| It's interesting what you can do with the blue eye-shadow you never use! |
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| Marcel's awesome outfit ~ so funny |
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| Dr Cordula's on the R, & the Purser in the middle. The other one might be Tatania?? |
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| Christine's the one with the eyepatch |
They tied all the virgins onto a long line, & led us out of the Forward Lounge, through the "posh" corridor, & eventually through the Piano Bar to the Tropical Bar where we would be baptised & blessed by King Neptune et al.
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| The Mummy is Harry |
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| It was a long piece of line. But I suppose you'd need it with masts that high? |
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| Gabi is interrogated by Captain Sergey |
They announced that Gabi & Marcel were on their honeymoon, & they were baptised first.
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| Gaby was the 1st to kiss the fish, so she got out of the net to enjoy the fun |
Christine, me & Harry were in the net for quite a while, but eventually I was:
Interrogated by Captain Sergey;
Examined by Dr Cordula;
Interrogated again, this time by Steve, the Hotel Manager from England (somewhere south of the 'line' by his accent!);
Given the choice of kissing Erik the Princess, or kissing the fish.
I chose the fish ~ it was better looking ;-)
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| Erik, Princess Neptune |
& then I was free to enjoy watching everyone else get baptised.
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| I thought this outfit was a bit Amish? |
After me there were quite a few peeps still in the net, & the non-virgins (& those who had chosen not to be baptised) seemed to enjoy the fun. There was a lot of laughing anyway :-D
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| Jack taking a pic of me taking a pic. He was one of the fairly regular exercisers |
That's little David keeping his hands warm in his pockets ~ well, it was still blowing & raining, & I was glad I'd managed to find a windproof outfit.
We'd been under sail all day, & the water was flowing across the deck. I'm surprised Jack didn't have a wet bum! ;-p
The guy with the balloon chest armour was one of the barmen, as was King Neptune's wife ~ Artuth. The King was one of the therapists. Sorry, never got her name as she didn't treat me.
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| A big smiler ~ Lidija |
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| Big smiles from King & Queen Neptune I think the other guy was the Ukranian Chief Engineer? |
Jerry kisses the fish :-D
I snuck this one on Steve.
He wasn't one for his photo being taken!
After it was all over I went down to the spa & got warm in the Hamman. Well, it was the warmest place aboard!
Once my fingers & toes were no longer blue, I went & got Cloud Atlas from the Purser & lay in bed watching it. Sadly, the sound was appalling. All the actors sounded like they were talking from the bottom of a big bucket. Not good :-(
Suddenly there was a tannoy that there were dolphins out to play, so I grabbed my camera & ran.
However, as bloody usual~ grrrr, I missed them :-(((
Happily, Daniel didn't, & here're 3 of his pics.
Thanks Daniel :-). btw ~ in Nov '14 I finally managed to take some dolphin photos. Awesome :-D
By this time the rain had stopped & the sun was out, so I went back below & got Stephen, took him port side aft, & finished him off.
There were more Latin lessons at 1/2 past nine, so I went into dinner quite early & sat with Emily, 2 un-named Americans, & Peter.
I had steak again.
I also had 2 puddings. Partly because I couldn't decide which one I wanted, & partly because they let you!
I can't remember now what they were, & I didn't write it down, but they probably involved chocolate ;-q.
I should explain that, aboard a Star Clipper ship, the waiters keep coming with food until you've had enough, & I remember the Star Clipper trip in 2006 when we were sitting with Deborah & Carroll Spinney (he's the guy inside Big Bird & Oscar the Grouch).
I couldn't decide whether I should have a Rib-eye or a fillet, so I had both!
And 2 puddings!
That was the night we did "Deborah & Shirley Go To The Musicals" at the dinner table. Nobody seemed to mind we were singing, & sometimes peeps joined in :-)
I like a good sing-song :-D
Anyway, here's another one of Andy's RC pudding pics.
According to Emails I've received since, his Mum is an awesome baker & pudding maker, so he's what you might call a Pudding Connoisseur ;-q.
As you will see in another blog (& by the pic of my seafood pancake in the Hamilton (NZ) blog from Sept '11), most of my food pics come out looking like vomit on a plate. Ooops!
Anyway, dinner eaten, I went up to the Tropical Bar for the dancing practice, followed by doing it for real to music from Monica & Arpad.
At one point I was dancing with Jack: him of the possibly? wet bum ~ see above ;-). He started to comment on my back muscles which were under his R hand, & kinda had a back muscle grope.
Creepy :-@
And Grrrrr
So politely (Honestly! I was very lady-like), I made my excuses & went on deck where I found Marcel & his camera. I told him what had happened & he became my chaperone ~ hehehe. Not that I really needed one, but it saved me from having to give Jack a slap ~ not the noun slap either!
| slap | Noun. Cosmetic make-up. Originally from theatrical usage. Verb. To beat-up, hit, thump. E.g."I'm going to slap that bastard if he doesn't shut up." |
Tony & Gabi were already there, so the Famous Fivesome were all together again. Not sure who was Timmy the Dog?
The Famous Five (series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Then it got very silly ;-DIt started off with me & Tony trying to explain rugby to Marcel.
About Rucks & Mauls; passing backwards; & the difference between Forwards & Backs. That is: the beefy Props; the tall Locks; the little, gobby, Scrum Half; & the pretty* Backs etc.
* Well, the Forwards are often lacking a bit in the Handsome Department, & the Backs can be a bit keen on hair gel ;-p
Some of the Azzurri giving Fratelli d'Italia some welly.
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| Shane, Adam and Alun of Wales sing their national anthem prior to kick-off during the 2011 RWC |
Shane was a Winger (& occasional Scrum Half), Adam's a Prop, & Alun's a Lock.
When I found it, that photo reminded me of the famous BBC sketch from the '60s:
When I found it, that photo reminded me of the famous BBC sketch from the '60s:
The long & short, tall & tiny Aussies at the '11 RWC.
Anyway, after a bit of explaining that a team of rugby players contained all sorts of shapes & sizes, Marcel said "Where would I play?"
Tony & I thought he was probably the right shape & mind-set for a Hooker.
Ross Rugby » Hooker (No.2)
Marcel seemed quite chuffed at that :-)
So far, so good, & not silly.
Then Marcel asked some things about English: grammar, spelling etc., so I thought I should show him GHOTI.
To do so I needed a pen & paper, so we went to the bar to get them.
There were a few American peeps waiting to be served, & while big Peter (the Head Barman. I think he was from the Dominican Republic?), went to have a look for a pen, Marcel announced to everyone that I'd said he could be a Hooker.
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| Peter the Barman walks with a list to port (his starboard, though) |
Oops! ;-p
Needless to say, he got some funny looks, & I then had to explain to Marcel what a hooker was in American!
Well, we all had a larf!
Then I showed him that ~ according to English rules of pronunciation, GHOTI spelt Fish (there goes that silly red line again, but it's spelt, not spelled).
Feel free to ask me to explain GHOTI.
Or you could just google it?
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| Another list to port |
By the time we had finished, it was time to put our clocks forward again, so we all ended up going to bed after 0100.
And by the time I had finished phaffing - like I do ;-p, it was gone 0200, so I would get less than 5 hours beauty sleep before it was time to get up for Lidija at 0700.
I didn't worry. I could always sleep on deck during the day.
OAO
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