Good entertainment in theatre.

Wednesday 18 May.

 

It was another wild day with huge waves, luckily the stabilisers on the ship did a good job and we didn't rock about too much. It was dry and the sky was cloudless but the wind was blowing a gale and it was cold. We were nearly blown away when we crossed the open deck by the pool to the buffet, after that we crossed the ship by the corridors below that ran along by the cabins.

 

I was feeling much better when I got up, the pills must have done the trick. The clocks were moved forward and hour this morning so we were later getting our morning cup of tea. After breakfast I thought I would be all right sitting inside even with the air-conditioning and we went to the Sinfonia lounge, it was too wild to sit out on deck anyway. We were only there for a short time and I started to get stuffed up and my throat sore. We decided to go up to the seats in the covered area between the buffet and the pool. It was still difficult to find a place that wasn't being buffeted by the wind but a spot in the corner turned out to be fairly sheltered. There was a couple already there, we had met them in the queue waiting to get off at Walvis Bay, they were from Cape Town. The woman had run the Two Oceans half marathon this year, so we had something to talk about. We chatted with them for half an hour before they headed off for breakfast.

 

We stayed in this cosy spot until 10:00 am when there was a talk on in the theatre. It was called, 'Its all Greek to me !' and was done by the entertainment director, Stephen Cloete. This was about Greek Gods and Goddesses. His talk concentrated on the story of the '12 trials of Hercules'. He was very good and made the subject lighthearted and interesting.

 

The air-con in the theatre couldn't have been on as I was now a lot better, my nose and throat had cleared of phlegm. But I wasn't taking any chances and we headed back up to the sheltered spot we had before. Another couple were sitting there but there was room at the table and we joined them. It turned out they were from Benoni and lived in Bentwood Park. This was their first cruise and we gave them some tips about ways to get about cheaply, by local buses, in the Canaries and Malta. When they left it was time for lunch and we had it where we were, we didn't want to lose our good spot. We went in relays to the buffet and brought back our food.

 

We sat and read, the paper and our books until late afternoon when there was another talk in the theatre. Stephen Cloete was on again and it was the second part of his revelations about cons and scams, 'Scammed'. This one concentrated on marketing and advertising cons and even showed that documentaries are faked, especially wild life ones eg the Walt Disney animal life cycles of the '60s, it wasn't wild animals but trained bears and wolves for instance, more of a circus act!

 

The talk finished at 5:00 pm and we were going the show later in the theatre. They had now put on three performances because of the demand, there was an early one at 6:30 pm which was better, we could see the show then have a leisurely dinner afterwards. We went to our cabin first and had a glass of wine before returning to the theatre early, to get a good seat. We read our iPads until the performance began.

 

This evening show was the best yet. It starred the presenter of the SA version of 'Strictly Come Dancing' Ian von Memerty and his wife and dancing partner Vivienne. He was an very good jazz style pianist and singer and they were both excellent ballroom dancers. Also all the music and songs were well known; 'Summertime', 'Lady in Red', 'Fever' and his solo song and dance routine to 'Mr Bojangles' was outstanding. I hope we get them again before the end of the cruise, they are well worth seeing and I said to Moira that they should recruit him as a replacement for 'Brucie' on the UK 'Strictly...'.

 

When it finished we headed to the buffet for dinner. We now could have a relaxed meal and not rush to get to the theatre to get a seat as we did previously. After we had eaten we went to the Sinfonia lounge to listen to the country duo. When they finished their early session there was a dance instruction class starting so we made for Shelagh's House where the woman sings easy to listen to pop. We read as usual with her as background. When she finished at 9:00 pm we headed to the cabin and read in bed for an hour. I took another load of pills before getting to sleep.

 

 

 

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