Day Forty Eight: Still in the Pacific? Are you sure?

I’m getting a bit worried about our Captain, in his 12.00am (6 bells) announcement he said again, in his stentorian voice, that we are still in the Pacific but if I look at a map I am sure that we are in the China Sea. Maybe one of us needs a bigger map. Anyway we are only one more day’s travel from seeing Jess and Nathan and that is good news as it seems ages since we saw them. We understand that they are travelling overnight on Friday to get to Hong Kong on Saturday so with a good arrival time for us we should be seeing them as soon as the ship has processed Customs and Immigration and that will be between 9.00am and 10.00am on Sunday.

Because we are still at sea and enjoying such good weather and flat seas there really is not much to report and today was very similar to yesterday. We went to the talk on our stop in Malaysia at Kemaman where at the moment we have booked just to do it on our own but accepting P & O’s coach service to get us to town and back. However we are reconsidering this option as there is not much to see and do apart from seeing the fabulous blue mosque so we may change our minds before we get there. As the weather has been so favourable we walked the Promenade Deck until we found a couple of shady loungers and settled down for a go at the crossword (easy) and the Sudoku (hard, will have to try it again) and to finish off the last chapter of Obama’s book. A good read Sharon, particularly the final chapter on life with his family and I think that Hilary will read that one. The man certainly has some great ideals and it will be interesting to see if he is able to get any of them passed by Congress, his Social Security reforms and Health Care reforms will be particularly hard to put into practice. When Sam and Jeff come over in the summer I will pass the book onto them as I think that they will both enjoy it. I will revert to the world of fiction with a Patricia Cornwell book that I bought in a second hand bookshop in Australia.

I can’t even report on lunch today unless you include a handful of macadamia nuts and one half of an O Henry bar that we bought in Hawaii, it is a formal dinner suit night again tonight and as I only have the one pair of matching trousers it is essential that I stay slim enough to get into them. Most of the Oriana logoed leisure wear has been reduce to half price so I treated myself to a dark blue polo shirt in XXL size, the first time that I have ever resorted to that level. In fairness the XLs look very small to me and I would hate to buy one that then shrinks in the wash….. That’s my excuse at any rate. We are looking at buying Hilary a simulated opal bracelet from a franchise that finishes tonight – he has been on board since Fiji and is leaving at Hong Kong – he is offering all his stock at 75% off but I will try for a better deal than that. If he says no there is nothing lost and we will just see what we find in Hong Kong itself.

The latter part of the afternoon was spent listening to Terry Brown the Brummie detective and I know that I keep praising him but this man is an exceptional speaker and is a man with a very forceful personality. It is his last day tomorrow and he plans to wrap up with a question and answer session so it will be interesting to see what questions he gets. I really have no more to add so I will pass you over to Hilary who I know wants to respond to Sharon’s news.

Tiz I. I have 30 minutes so here goes. Sounds interesting Sharon, I think I would echo Sammy’s sentiments and say enjoy, expect nothing and accept everything and enjoy the ride. He sounds like you might have a soul mate in that he deals in micro bugs and you have the cleanest house I know! A good starting point. Like Sammy said, Jeff was found during a free two week special introductory offer and we wouldn’t be without him now. I’ve just got back from doing the ironing and it is so hot, the sea has stopped being so lumpy bumpy – just rolling a bit, we had a good couple of hours on the loungers on deck 7 this morning but now we are up against the clock. Bill, one of our dinner companions, is singing in the Oriana choir at 5.00pm and we are all going down to support him. We have to get back to the cabin (deck 9) and ready for yet another formal dinner and back down to deck 6 by 6.30pm. My hair is always the biggest challenge so I need to get it ordered before the choir. Sam bought yet another photograph yesterday. He is a sucker when it comes to the pretty photographers and we have an album almost full of huge photos. We will have to have a very deep drawer or shelf in the cupboard to store all the photos and albums – we will review them all in our dotage I expect. We have been watching the temperatures in London on the ship newspapers’ bulletin. It seems that it has been about 50f lately which is a great deal better than a foot of snow! Liz, have you finished altogether with the shop now. What is Sheila doing, are you doing the advanced reflexology course at college? Hayley seems to be working non stop, do you want to stay and have a holiday in Chub Tor when we get back? There will be no hurry for you to leave as far as we are concerned. Anyway everyone, I have to go and get ready for the choir, keep writing the messages, I love reading them and I look forward to Sam bringing them back on the computer each night. I read far too slowly for Sam to allow me to read them when he is on line. Computer internet minutes are so expensive on board. Take care everyone, God bless.

OK final words we have just got back from dinner and the theatre show, this time it was a comedian and electric guitar player who looked about 70 years old but was an excellent musician and a passable comedian. He was one of the old school with lots of little anecdotes but the audience liked him and there were plenty of guffaws from Richard who was seated just across the aisle from us. Hilary liked his guitar selection so much that she bought the CD after the show while I came up to the cabin to grab our laptop and there I had a very pleasant surprise because laying on the bed were two gifts addressed to us and an envelope. I opened the envelope first to find a voucher for the Gary Rhodes restaurant that reduces the price from a surcharge of £17.50 to £10.00 and that is handy as we have booked to go there with the rest of our table to celebrate Christine’s birthday on March 4th. When I opened my gift it was a very nice pair of folding binoculars and when Hilary opened hers it was a silver plated make-up compact. Not very practical for her but a nice thought at any rate. So that’s it for tonight, no photos as we have been at sea and not taken any, but undoubtedly there will be a few after we have seen Jess and Nathan on Sunday. Nighty, nighty.