Friday 30 January 2009

Day Twenty One: Three weeks gone and it is cold again


It’s not just me that is cold it seems that the whole ship is, for we are just poodling along the Pacific at a low speed (don’t know why) in grey waters which are very calm but by golly it is cold outside. The ship seems to be in he doldrums today with no internet connection (I was extremely fortunate to get the blog out last night and it went off immediately after I sent it out). People are getting a little antsy having to sit inside – one or two hardy souls are walking or sitting on the promenade deck but you can take your pick of the loungers, one can hardly call them sun loungers as there is no sun. Hilary has gone into the sweater and thick tights mode and all around us are folks that have flown over from England saying, “I thought that it would be a lot warmer than this.” What did they expect for goodness sake, America is in the Northern Hemisphere, it is January and it is winter? My personal cold in the head is hanging around and I am well bunged up but the headache has gone along with the sweats and the shivers. I had a reasonable night’s sleep but I think that I probably kept Hilary awake with my coughing and sneezing and constant getting out of bed to drink and pee. My problem is that without much to keep me busy I can only think of food so I am tempted already to add to my breakfast intake with a mid morning snack, another cup of tea, oh.. stop the press, cream horns, oh.. éclairs, oh.. jam tarts, the list goes on and on and so does my weight.

Changing the subject I have decided to set the first murder in Murder on the Oriana on the island of Madeira where we had the ride in the wicker basket down the steep slope into town. It should not be beyond the bounds of possibility to tamper with the runners on the basket and with the shoes of the men controlling it. Imagine the horror of being trapped in the basket as it gathers speed, faster and faster, the men having to let go of the ropes before they themselves are dragged along with it, no brakes, banging into the walls and parked cars as the basket careers down the hill towards the town of Funchal. The basket shoots past its normal stopping point where the other drivers try desperately to stop the runaway sled; the sled leaves the ground and flies through the air with the passengers screaming as they realise that they are heading for a bougainvillea clad stucco wall and then…… the silence as death descends on this beautiful island. Good start eh? The idea about the runaway sled came to me in the middle of the night so it must be a good one.

Tiz I. Well today I scared myself. We went to the Pacific Lounge to hear a speaker recall stories of when he was a sound man with ITV. The lounge always gets very full so we got there early and listened to a tape of 40 signature tunes from the programmes going back to the 70’s. I knew almost all of them! Now that is scary, I couldn’t have gone out much is all I can say. He is going to have a quiz of all the tunes and will tell us where they come from at the end of this leg of the trip. I believe that is Sydney. We have not heard from Brian so we may not be able to meet him – we will probably take a tour of the harbour side if we are alone.
The weather is cold and the ship has the air conditioning on which is freezing my butt off. I’ll be glad to get a little further south. If it was this cold at home I would light the fire! Tonight we have another cocktail meeting with the captain and officers – it means dressing up again. So tonight I will be a vision in blue and will be wearing the necklace and ring that Kelly made for me. We hope to hijack the captain and have our photo taken with him and the other members of our dinner table. I will keep you posted on how we get on.
Later: We have just got back from the Captain’s do and dinner and I wanted to tell Kelly that the necklace and ring were very much admired by all the people on our table. In fact, I had to take the ring off for another lady to try – she loved it too but I made sure that she gave it back to me so it is ready for the next time I wear this outfit. Thank you Kelly, good job.

3.30pm and now I am a little scared. Hilary and I went to our second lecture of the day and this one was by the ex-head of Radio 1, surprisingly for today’s topic he chose the War Years which was before Radio 1 was thought of. But he made it very interesting by putting out sound clips of famous events during the War. Some of them were political speeches but mostly they were of entertainers such as Vera Lynn, Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch and Tommy Handley. After the lecture I went up to the CyberStudy and the good news is that the internet is back up again and with a bit of luck I will be able to blog as well as check for emails later on tonight after the evening show. The reason that I am scared is that while I am typing this Hilary is in Chaplin’s Theatre listening to a talk about the value of DIAMONDS. I fancy a credit card hit could be coming our way.

OK last bit as we have just got back from the dinner (lobster thermidor) and the show, absolutely hilarious comedian - sample - “with all the ethnic communities now claiming benefits and getting them through the post they have changed the meaning of OHMS to be Only Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.” It was a late show so I am only posting one picture and that is of Hilary in her blue dress and wearing Kelly’s necklace and ring. Goodnight and God bless. Thanks for all the comments, keep them coming.

3 comments:

Marlene and Tara said...

Hi guys! You are both looking wonderful. I love your teddy and its lovely to see him joining you so often. Pauline and Carol came down today and we had a great time. I took them to Sennen and Porthcurno like I did you Hilary. They both send their love and I have given them the blog address so that they can see you. They said they will post you a message.
Take care, keep warm and keep teddy warm.
Lots of love Marlene xxx

Liz said...

Hi there, me again.

Iv'e just finished a full week stint at the clinic and guess what, I handed in my notice! 4 weeks and I will be out of there - horray!!! I just have to figure out how to finance living now, I will have to build my community Pod business in a hurry won't I? Actually, I'm so glad I have finally made the decision to leave, I feel so much better now.

Your trip is sounding great. It may be cool where you are, but we have been forcast snow next week, so spare us a thought as you sail towards the sunshine!!

I love this blog thing, I get to hear how your travelling experiences and Sam's trip to China at the same time. Cool..

I hope you are feeling better now Sam and that you both continue to enjoy your amazing journey. Will write again soon.

Take care of each other, Love Liz xx

Hayley said...

Aunty you look beautiful in the blue dress and matching jewellery, that photo is definitly a keeper! i want copies! xxx