Pam awoke with a splitting headache so spent most of the morning in the cabin and balcony. It is a very windy day again and around 20c so not ideal conditions for being on deck but as that is the only place you can go around maskless we are all doing it. There were some strange people trying to play cards in the wind but each to their own.
Mark tried his hand at shuffleboard again but was eliminated straight away. He then joined quiz partner Chris for a chat in the Neptune pool area. Latest news is that the speciality restaurant Ocean Grill failed to open due to lack of staff and those with reservations were refunded and given free bottles of wine as an apology. Other news is that laundry wars broke out when someone left their washing in the machine and didn’t come to collect it. The next person emptied the machine and placed it into a basket (very reasonable and accepted procedure) and they put their wash on. Apparently the first person arrived later, found their washing in a basket and anything from heated words to argy bargy occurred (depending on the story teller) because offence was taken about handling another wife’s knickers and other underwear. Well they weren’t wearing it at the time it was handled so who knows what offence that would have caused though apparently a pineapple sign on your door indicates you are into that sort of thing. The things you learn! Pam, and Chris’s partner Lesley had joined the conversation by this stage as us men are oblivious to what goes on around us.
We had missed breakfast so had burgers/hot dogs and fries as an early lunch and then switched pools to the Aquarius bar. We tried to get a bit more shelter from the wind but did not really succeed. We did listen to poolside tunes by the duo Clarke & Carter followed by a quiz on movie tracks (Pam got 54/60) and lost by 2 points. Mark sat in for the 1st 8 questions but Pam needed no help on those.
Mark left Pam for cricket. His meeting with Stuart Broad had him fired up. However, not enough to make any telling difference and he recorded his first loss of the series.
He joined Chris, Pam & Janet for afternoon cards in which the men won at canasta though a pod of dolphins stopped play. Obviously they didn’t come into the bar and mess around with the cards or anything but we had window seats so as soon as sea life appears you stop to watch and everyone flocks over for a view.
It is black tie night so we went back to the cabin to get all dressed up for that but also to start packing for Australia. It appears that we will be allowed to take two bags off in Sydney to be looked after by our friends but may have to take them to reception at 6:30am on the morning of arrival. We have also been given more immigration forms to complete - a job for tomorrow.
Dinner was a rather repetitive affair as we have seen this particular menu a few times now. We were given another Amuse Bouche (this time apple, cream and something awful). I think they only amuse the wait staff as they watch the diners faces as they try, and discard the thing.
Mark had a olive salad and Cockaleekie soup. Pam had mushrooms in puff pastry and the same soup. For mains, Mark went with the fish (turbot) which had sporadic vegetables dotted around the plate and Pam had beef wellington again (you would have seen the pictures in an earlier blog). For dessert Pam had vanilla and chocolate ice creams whilst Mark had some kind of deconstructed chocolate cheesecake. It was very nice but it has lost it’s special charms due to repetitiveness.
After dinner we tried to do the spinnaker bar quiz but although we found a table we had no chairs as they had been stolen by other quiz teams. That didn’t stop us as we stole 4 chairs from the nearby Intermezzo bar using a waiters food trolley and a waiter! The quiz was performed by our favourite quiz host (Karl) and all answers were numbers such as how many players, per team, on the ice during ice hockey at any one time. (6). We kept being 1 number out. Mark used the internet to interrogate the port authorities website that showed Arcadia had lodged figures of less than 30 COVID cases per 1000 people onboard which means it is low and should mean no danger to us docking so that is a massive relief.
After the quiz Pam went off to the theatre. Pam saw the return of the acrobats in a shorter version of their act as this was a variety show. This was then followed by the cruise director pretending to be an acrobat and doing a balancing trick with the male acrobat. Very impressive but in a suit he looked a little stupid. Then the second part of the show was the classical duo Pam saw yesterday and they performed some opera and songs from musicals like “Carousel” and “ The King and I”. Pam enjoyed both acts very much.
Whilst Pam was there Mark tried his hand at 3 card poker and ended up £20 better off by the time Pam rejoined him.
We will finish this blog on the ship tour and today cover the Gym as that finishes off deck 9. The gym is at the forward part of the ship and is quite small and even smaller when they do yoga and other activities in here (often between the apparatus). Anyway, here are a few pics.
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