Two pretty similar days. Weather is similar too: clouds with periods of sunshine. We are now well to the east of Newfoundland and we have started to turn the Great Circle route, changing direction by a few degrees on a regular basis. The sea was pretty rough yesterday but Queen Mary just rides through it. There is literally no movement at all. She really is an amazing ship. Calmer today, less wind.

We spent all morning at art both days.. I finished off my seaside harbour painting. Quite pleased with it. Bob has also finished his QM2 painting. We had a really good session. Today we painted Stonehenge in a sort of sunrise silhouette. It’s ok but not going to be hanging on any walls! Afterwards we went along to present our passports to the UK Border Force representative aboard to clear for our arrival back in the UK. Took about 2 minutes.

Sushi/sashimi lunch as usual. Very nice. We went out onto the rear terrace deck and lay in the sun. It was lovely. Some people were in the pool. I decided to test it and dipped my feet in. Barely lukewarm. They were clearly braver than me. Still, wrapped up in a wool shawl, it was very nice to laze out on a teak lounger. Eventually, the sun went in and we decamped to the Carinthia Lounge. Spent the rest of the afternoon reading, drinking tea and ….. eating cake!

Lat night we were invited to the Captain’s cocktail party for oft repeating Cunarders. An enjoyable champagne quaffing affair. We got chatting to the dance hosts again. A nice couple. He’s from Poland and she’s Japanese. They met when he was teaching at a ballroom dance school in Japan for three years. Very keen ballroom dancers in Japan. Apparently they are mostly working on the Queen Elizabeth as she is based out there next year and will be 99% Japanese market.

After that an excellent dinner. I went for the steak again. Being a black tie night, everyone was in their finery. The threesome on the next table excelled themselves again. This time the two ladies were in massive – think Princess Di’s wedding dress , hot pink, net ball gowns – Cinderella style again – with diamonds and tiaras. The man (!!) was in a black velvet and satin dinner suit that was embroidered and embellished with huge spiders and webs. He even had a big spider on his nose and one on his ear, plus big crystal balls hanging from each ear. I don’t know how they fit these things in their wardrobes!

After dinner we went to the show which was the comedian/singer, Mike Doyle. I don’t generally like comedians but he was really funny and what a voice. He played for over an hour and everyone was on their feet singing at one time or another. No nationality was safe from his wit.

This afternoon, after lunch, we went to see one of the shows in the Planetarium. It demonstrated the links between the sun, moon and stars on weather patterns throughout the Earth. We have continued with our daily gain of one hour and are now only a couple of hours behind the UK. The seats recline right back for viewing the huge domed screen. I was asleep within a couple of minutes. I’m sure I wasn’t alone. Bob had to nudge me. I think I saw about half of it.
Lovely sunny afternoon. We lay out on deck for quite a while with our books.
Tonight we went to the Commodore Club bar to meet some of our table companions for pre dinner drinks. I had a most delish gin martini. Dinner was very nice. Not a black tie night, so smart casual the order of the day, jackets for men. The ladies on the next table came as the princesses from Frozen tonight…. I’m not sure what the bloke came as. It wasn’t Olaf or the woodcutter feller. Bizarre.
Classical pianist tonight which is not our bag so we sat at the table yakking till it was time to turn in.  Wifi is pretty dire this crossing so have been having major probs  with the blog.