Saturday, March 7^th, 2020

At Sea

Sea days are meant to be relaxing, but they often turn out to be busier than port days. This was one of those days.

I got up early to do the laundry, but by the time I got to the launderette all 4 washing machines were in use, and 2 of the 4 dryers were in use, the other 2 were out of order.

There were already 2 women waiting for a washing machine, and one gentleman who had his wet laundry in a basket, who was waiting for a dryer.

I told the assembled group about a story Brian heard last week in the launderette.

A man told him that on a prior cruise there was a lady on board who had nabbed one of the “Out of Order” signs, and when she would put her clothes in the washing machine, she would also place the sign on an empty dryer, thus ensuring that there would be a dryer available for her when her washing was done.

Could she be at work in our laundry room we all wondered? The man decided to test out the allegedly non-functioning dryers. He tried the first one. Although it did indeed rotate, it didn’t produce any heat. We all agreed that it was indeed out of order. Then he tried the other one, and it rotated, produced heat, and seemed to be functioning perfectly well. He risked placing his wet clothes in it, and it dried them perfectly. Hmmmmmmmm.

Due to the delay in the launderette I missed the craft class and morning talk, and then all of a sudden in was time for lunch in the Carinthia Lounge, followed by choir practice. I had decided to join the choir again for this segment.

After choir there was a classical concert – “La Traviata” , clarinet and piano music with Westlake and Hay. A lovely way to spend a relaxing 45 minutes.

Then it was time for the Cruise Critic meeting. The previous one had been hijacked by the “Concerned Cunard Passengers” group and had turned into a bit of a shouting match. This time there were only 2 CCP members there, who left half way through because they couldn’t hear what was being said.

This meeting was more of the usual sort of meeting – members introducing themselves and discussing their interests and port plans. It was nice to meet Roy whose blog I had been following whilst he was on the Crystal Serenity heading for Sydney.

Later in the afternoon Stuart Usher gave a talk on “United we Fall – A Naval Drama in Two Acts” about the almost forgotten naval battle which occurred in the Java sea on the night of February 28^th/ March 1^st 1942. I must confess I had never heard of this battle before, so it was very interesting to learn all about it. My dose of education for the day.

Four of our tablemates had left in Sydney, so tonight was our first chance to meet our new companions, a British couple from Somerset, and an Irish/French couple who live in Spain. They seem nice enough, and it was a fun evening.

There were 2 options for our evening’s entertainment that appealed to us – Dance Through the Ages with Purple Haze in the ballroom, which invited us to Twist, Hustle, Moon Walk and Macarena our way through the decades. I think Brian vetoed it at the word Macarena, so we ended up going to listen to an Eagles tribute band, Desperado.

Deidre took one look at the members of the group, and commented, “they all look so old”. Well, yes they are old, but then so are we. And so are the real Eagles.

The show was great, and they finished with my favorite, Hotel California, so I was happily humming away as we returned to the cabin. It had been a good day.

It has also been quite rough today – well you feel you are on Queen Mary 2 rather than the Queen Mary Hotel. No big waves, just a little bit of gentle rolling. We really haven’t experienced any rough weather this whole trip, which is a shame. Still, tonight there was enough movement to gently rock us to sleep.