Another busy day at sea! Hideous weather outside: grey, pouring with rain and a bit of a swell. Force 9 apparently. The outside decks closed because they were so wet. The ship is still riding smoothly through the seas with very little motion indeed. I highly doubt anyone would feel even remotely queasy. It’s unbelievable!
After breakfast we went to the watercolour class. Today we worked on a starry night sky. Very interesting new techniques again. Using loads of water and just letting it run. Also we did the stars by using an acrylic white paint and a toothbrush, dipping it in the paint and then rubbing (yes, more rubbing!!!!) along the bristles with your thumb. Incredibly effective. Shall have to work on this more at home
After that we attended a lecture on the North Atlantic (Arctic) Convoys of WW2. This is particularly of interest to us Bob’s dad served on a Corvette escort vessel on the convoys. He talked of his time serving on the convoys and wrote about them in his wartime diaries and letters. It was fascinating to see archive film from that time which confirmed his tales of the icy sea conditions which resulted in the ships becoming encased in ice which had to be hammered off or blasted with steam.
Sushi and sashimi for lunch again. I can see us tucking into that every day to be honest LOL. The salmon sashimi is just delicious.
Following lunch, we went to a play in the playhouse given by the RADA graduates. They gave us a show which was written for the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death. The show was a combination of some of Shakespeare’s most famous death scenes, a mix of comedy, tragedy, scenes, sonnets, fights and dancing. Absolutely excellent and very well spoken as you would expect.
We were quite tempted at that point to rush straight off to a lecture on Sinatra in the Movies given by the film historian, followed by a film at the cinema “The Glass Castle” which I’ve seen the trailer for. But…. It’s the Captain’s Cocktail party tonight and I need to sort my hair out, plus we were desperate for a cup of tea so we decided to catch those on the in cabin tv instead.
Got togged up in our finery again and headed off at 730 for the Cocktail Party. Tonight’s was one for everyone eating in the Britannia Restaurant i.e. everyone not in Grill Class (staying in a suite). So, most of the passengers, which is pretty generous of Cunard. Normally these affairs are just for the Loyalty Club ie repeat cruisers. There are apparently about 2500 passengers aboard, mostly British with Americans and Canadians coming second and third. There are 35 nationalities represented in the passenger list. I managed to enjoy 3 glasses of champagne during the course of the party and enjoyed talking to other passengers.
Dinner was a great menu. I started with a trio of salmon and then had chateaubriand steak. They very kindly served it with asparagus and spinach for me instead of any sort of potato. Our waiting duo are exceptionally nice. They are outstanding.
The show tonight was a West End singer who we have seen before. She has appeared in several hit shows and tonight she gave us a medley of songs from Barbra Streisand, musicals, Adele, Cilla Black. Very good. `