Wednesday, April 7th

Today was the final day at sea before our long trip to Luxor, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings tomorrow. The temperature was 32 degrees so we did a spot of sunbathing after our morning walk and breakfast. I do not tend to spend as long in the sun as Keith does, mainly because I have very sensitive skin and often get heat rashes. Also, I need to be extremely careful and make sure I apply plenty of high factor sun cream, as I have had skin cancer previously. I now monitor every blemish and mole thoroughly and always wear a hat when out in such high temperatures.However, it does still feel nice to lie down with the sun warming your skin.As long as I'm sensible I feel happy relaxing with a book on a sun lounger. It's so much nicer to be able to do so in the privacy of our own balcony, too.

We managed to watch the lecture on Luxor/Karnak which was held yesterday on our TV in the cabin. They record each lecture and show it again throughout the next day in case anyone misses it. Just had some fruit for lunch - from the basket in the cabin. Today was the much-publicised Tug-of-War competition out on the Lido deck. We wandered out to take photos and some video footage. It was well attended but, to be honest, not much can happen really can it? Two teams tug, one team wins!  Keith got a few good action shots, however. I've no idea which team won, it was all over with so quickly and then I had to go to my choir rehearsal anyway.

Tonight was a formal night, which meant evening dress for me and dinner jacket, bow tie for Keith. At the dinner table, we had quite a laugh when Sylvia mentioned that she'd been talking to Val earlier in the day. "You see" said Sylvia, "I was telling Val that she would enjoy the companionship of a live animal". We all just burst out laughing and then of course all the alternatives to a "live" animal were thrown in to the conversation. Sylvia immediately joined in with the humour and we still laugh about it now!  I think taxidermists may have even been mentioned at one point.

Went to bed early as we have to be up at 5.30 in the morning! Early breakfast then disembark at 6.15am!

I have absolutely no idea what the man in the Spiderman Outfit was hoping to bring to the competition - he paraded around most of the time displaying a singular lack of Spiderman attributes. Not once did I see him scaling walls or even spinning webs. I guess the closest he got to actually behaving like a spider at all was when he clung on to the rope in the middle of the two teams! It's interesting to see how some competitors took it very seriously and even wore gloves with extra grip in order to assist the pulling action. However, when you look closer at that particular photo, it seems he needed all the help he could get on his side, as the older man in front of him just seems to be lightly holding the rope rather than wrenching arms out of sockets in order to win!