Today was the first of 4 days we would be spending purely at sea. The weather was glorious, if not a tad humid. When I went out on deck with my video camera to try and film some flying fish, the camera seized up on me. I saw an error message come up on the screen, which I thought read "TAPE EJECT" so I duly took the camera back to the cabin in order to try and rectify the fault. I thought the tape had got jammed and was not looking forward to having to try and extract it. However, that was not the problem. It was only when I could actually read the message properly that I realised it had said "DEW DETECT" - similar to "TAPE EJECT" if you say it really quickly with your eyes closed!!! Anyway, after leaving the camera in the cabin for an hour or so, it recovered - but by then the flying fish had all flown away!!! They were amazing to watch; shoals of them at the side of the ship emerging from the water at great speed and with a seemingly endless flight path, only to submerge once more with grace some time later. It was probably not that great a distance, their flight, but when you are not used to seeing fish flying, it really is a remarkable sight!
Unfortunately, Keith never managed to get a decent enough photograph of them as they moved so quickly, but to give you an idea of what they look like. here's a beautiful photo I found on frogview:
When we returned from our walk after breakfast today, Marven (the cabin steward) was just leaving our cabin after cleaning and making the bed. We had a nice surprise waiting for us on the bed - an Easter egg each from the Captain! We'd not even thought about what day it was, as you tend to forget when you are on holiday, so it really was a surprise to us to see these:
The rest of the morning was spent doing a bit of clothes-washing down in the laundry-room of the ship - a trek down several decks and long corridors to a small but well-equipped place in which you took your chances with the system. We'd overheard one or two tales of the "whites" not getting washed properly and coming out with brown marks on them, but not really taken much notice. We should have done, obviously. The whites had slight yellow tinges in places - not sure if this was due to the rust in the pipes feeding the machines or something more sinister, but to be honest it wasn't that much of a problem as it was mostly underwear and we knew the tinges would wash out next time we did a wash at home.
We had our lunch in the Lido Cafe today for the first time. We don't have much to eat at lunch-time so only really wanted a bit of salad and cold meat or cheese. However, we didn't really study the form properly, as when Keith went up to a table containing all the paraphernalia you would expect for such a dish (lettuce, cucumber, pickles, bread rolls, cold meat, tuna, cheese) he seemed to get a strange look from the serving staff. When it came to my turn to get something similar, the man in charge of this area told me I was in the "sandwich making" area - if I only wanted salad, that was somewhere else entirely. I went back to my table suitably admonished and not wanting to venture to any other food area within the lido for fear of doing the wrong thing! I didn't even get any bread with my meagre bits of "salad" (let's face it, they were really sandwich fillings, so what could I expect???). We spent some time after lunch on our balcony, reading and (in Keith's case, at least) learning lines for the next play.
We also went to the afternoon tea today for the one and only time on the cruise. Each day at around 4pm, a huge display of delicate cakes, buns, croissants, sweets, savoury snacks hot and cold was laid out in the ballroom. The attention to detail was spectacular and we just had a small amount of what was on offer - tea included, obviously. I was surprised at how popular this tradition is - I guess afternoon tea really is a British tradition that, for some people, will never die out. I just don't know where people manage to find the room for yet more food in their daily consumption!
We did our mile long walk at 5pm as well today, this time in reverse for a change. We then went back to the cabin to get showered and ready for our first "formal" night of the cruise. I really looked forward to these nights, as I thoroughly enjoy getting "dressed up" for dinner. There's something so romantic about it, in my mind - it makes me feel good, to get dressed in a long (or short) "posh" dress, do my hair and make-up, put on matching jewellery and evening bag. This evening I decided to wear the dress I'd originally wore at my sister's wedding in 2006 - I didn't have my photo taken in it on board but here's one taken at the wedding. You can just see my mum and dad behind me!
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