Well…. the good news is that the sea is now calm and the sun is out! The bad news is that I have spent the last 48 hours, mostly asleep in the cabin, drugged to the max, cold wet flannel over my head, suffering from the worst migraine I’ve had in 70 years! It must have been brought on by these awful colds we both have, possibly blocked sinuses in my case but very unpleasant indeed. Bob has been a gem bringing me some toast, tea and on one occasion a dish of ice cream which went down well. For whatever reason we were really tired and run down at boarding and Bob had started with a cough so it was probably inevitable I was going to get it.

We’d had a lovely day on Thursday – more talks, art class…. I finished off a landscape of Madeira that I’d started. Really pleased with it.

In the evening we were invited to a Captain’s cocktail party which was rather super – all the officers turned out in their best bib and tucker, free drinks and canapes, and then a show from a Hungarian virtuoso violinist, Susana, who was simply amazing.  Here’s some pix before the lurgy hit!!

It was only after I turned in that it all began – ah I had a temperature too.

Friday was a blur. Today was too. It is only now on Saturday evening that I am feeling even a bit more human. Sadly not enough to contemplate another Captain’s Cocktail party or the Venetian Gala night. We will slip up to the buffet for something light and hopefully let the steward into the cabin to tidy up and change things. We are just praying this is the start of the end of being ill. We have one more sea day tomorrow, then on Monday we arrive in Port Canaveral where we have to disembark, line up for USA Customs and Immigrations checks before re-boarding. Today I don’t know how I’d have done that but hopefully it will be OK by then. Frankly, it has to be.