Mark was up before Pam as usual and out on the balcony where it was dry and humid - apparently 25c. We had to get our passports back, duly stamped. We have been all round the world and this is our 1st passport stamp - very disappointed with this lack of evidence. Pam opted to miss breakfast and go to the Port talk on Durban. This was about the history of the city and some the excursions available.
Mark opted to have bacon and sausage butties and not go to a port talk in order to avoid a stomach talk.
We met up again afterwards for the morning trivia where we achieved a shocking 9 out of 20. We were on our own so need to find partners as Diane and Andrew seem to focus on music trivia only.
Mark went to a lecture on space exploration by the Aussie scientist/philosopher who is now being consistent with his stance on everything being “we are a bit shit now but maybe better in the future”. Mark is more optimistic that there will be a big breakthrough in space travel in the next 50 years or so just like when we suddenly jumped from horses to cars, trains etc…
We had lunch at a venue called Sir Samuels on deck 3. This is because we have seen the items below as we have previously walked by. The food on offer (free with a drink purchased) varies throughout the day and Mark had hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream with a Turkey and cranberry croissant. Pam went for a cappuccino with whipped cream plus a large roast beef and salad roll.
As per usual, Mark had an afternoon nap whilst Pam attended another talk by Dr Kate Schroeder whose lecture was about reconstruction of skulls to produce faces for criminal and archaeology work. It was very interesting considering some of the skulls are so old (before you ask they cast a copy of the skull to work on and never use the original - this is so their findings can be challenged in court - if needed). Kate works with clay in her reconstruction of faces - normally sent in the post to her. Others use computer programmes but Kate says she prefers clay. She uses 52 points on the skull for reference in her construction, others only use 26 and don’t always seem as accurate. She also mentioned a skull found on Manly beach in Australia that halted redevelopment until it was determined whether it was a criminal or an archaeological case. It turned out to be archaeological and was dated well before the settlers came.
Tomorrow’s lecture is on her criminal work. Pam is really looking forward to that.
We tried our hand at the wipeout quiz and shouldn’t have bothered as we only got 3 questions out of 12 correct and also got the wipeout question wrong as well. We then collected a scavenger hunt quiz sheet in which we have 24 hours to answer 20 questions on the history boards around the ship. The questions say which deck the board is on so it should be doable. We knocked half of them out straight away though they were the easier ones.
Pam was peckish so went for a late afternoon tea, in the buffet, of a ham roll, carrot cake, scone and jam only plus tea. Mark went back to the room and the balcony and had a glass of coke and read.
Pam is addicted to the TV show Death in Paradise - can Mark use that as an excuse to get to Guadeloupe? Anyway, an offshoot called Beyond Paradise is on BBC so we have been downloading and watching those when we get a spare 45 minutes. There are programmes on the TV, including repeats of port talks and lectures, but unlike many ships it is not an on demand service so you often join items in the middle.
Then it was off for pre-dinner drinks with nuts (no crisps - boo) and canapés in the Chart room with the Brevis string trio (Violin, viola and cello). They were good especially when playing musical numbers or film numbers though we did recognise some classical pieces. You can tell where our tastes are!
Dinner was in the main Britannia restaurant and we were moved around again. We were not sat near anyone tonight. We both had mushroom soup but Mark then had pork medallion followed by ice creams whilst Pam went with cod with shellfish sauce and spinach plus Bakewell tart and custard.
We knocked off a few more scavenger hunt history questions before going to the early show which was by the in house theatre company and was called Rhythm of the Night. It was an amazing show with great projected backgrounds and different costumes depicting lots of different dance styles. It had 4 singers and 10 dancers - we recognised them from 6 months ago except for one new dancer. One of the company later told us they have been together now for 8 months except the one newbie. There was a lot of dancing to different styles - from Paso doble to samba to cha cha. It was very colourful and energetic and got a standing ovation from many.
Upon leaving the theatre we bumped into Paula and Martin from the Arcadia, who were close friends of Sandra and Paul - now back in England. Then Janet found us and there were big hugs all round followed by lots of chatting and catching up.
We left Janet to go to bed whilst we headed up to the Carinthia lounge for drinks and crisps and the late night quiz called Listergories. These free crisps, nuts and canapés are dangerous to the waistline. The quiz was hilarious and involved you being given sets of 10 questions and you have 90 seconds to complete them but your answer must begin with the letter chosen. Unique answers score more. As mentioned, cruise quizzes can be competitive and Brits especially are pedantic. A foreign couple wanted Lancashire as an English city and got no joy as it is a county and the crowd were not sympathetic. Lemon washing up liquid got no joy for something in the kitchen beginning with L and the team were very put out when lemon squeezer was allowed. The highlight though was the young lady compère (Charlie) asking for answers for a sea creature beginning with C. An American couple (we later found out they were the ship’s Rabbi and his wife) said crabs when they were selected to say their answer and Charlie said ok, this couple have crabs, does anyone else have crabs? No? Well done, 2 points as you are the only ones with crabs. This was all done at speed (to get through the quiz) and it was then she realised, with everyone else cracking up, what she had said to the Rabbi who played along well and accepted her apology.
We shall end the day on the usual ship tour section and we will go from Illuminations to the Grand Lobby on Deck 3.
Pics
p.s The cover pic is the new flower arrangement in the Atrium. It is a wonderful peacock.
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