Day 19 Tuesday 18th October 2016
Holy hairy
hell! They put the clocks back another hour last night! At this
rate, by the time I get home, I’ll be 35. It actually works
in our favour because we are now 3 hours closer to UK time than
when we left Sydney.
I get up at 7.00am (8.00am really) to find Tam already sitting on
the balcony feeling a little bit the worse for wear. I’m not
surprised with the quantity and strength of the alcohol she had
last night. Actually we’ve both been waking up feeling good
until this point – must be the sea air.
Tam retires to bed to recuperate and I go to Blu for breakfast. I
just have the granola parfait and some toast. It appears that
people talk to you more when you are on your own as I converse
with an American couple for a few minutes before a really nice
Australian couple sit the other side of me and they talk to me as
well. I can only come to the conclusion that Tam frightens people
off.
Back at the
stateroom, Tam is up and about so we walk to the Solstice Theatre
at 9.00am for John Manka’s talk on Krakatoa as we are now
sailing through the Indian Ocean and Indonisia has the highest
number of active volcanoes anywhere in the world.
Before the presentation starts, John Manka always asks if anyone
has a question for him and has a little chat with the audience.
He asks if anyone saw the birds following the ship yesterday and
tells us that they are Brown Booby’s. If he’d asked a
couple of days ago whether anyone had seen the Brown Booby’s
around Yorkey’s Knob I think I would have lost it.
The presentation is again very interesting and gives an insight
into tectonic plates and continental drift that cause earthquakes
and volcanoes. I wish we had attended more of his talks in the
first week.
After a relax
for a short while on our balcony, we go to Celebrity Central to
see a presentation about Celebrity cruises to the Galapagos
Islands with the option of an add on to see Machu Pichu. It looks
fantastic as the largest Celebrity ship in this area (the
Expedition) only holds 96 people. The trouble is the price is
fantastic too. Around $7,000 without flights.
Lunch is next and we go to the Oceanview Café for some more of
the lovely grilled fish along with some buffalo wings and ribs.
Another relax on the balcony and then we are off to the Reidel
Wine Tasting in Cellar Masters. Reidel wine glasses (there are
many different shapes and sizes for different wines) are supposed
to enhance the taste and smell of the wine. I’ll admit I was
pretty sceptical beforehand, but willing to give it a try.
You have different Reidel glasses with different red and white
wines. There is also a ‘joker’ glass, which you use to
compare to the Reidel glasses.
It’s very
interesting and the glasses really do make a difference, although
there is one wine (a Pinot Noir) that Tam and I both think tastes
better in the joker glass! The lady running the presentation is
very knowledgeable, but not snobby in any way. She makes it clear
that any wine that you like is a good wine for you.
You get to try 4 different wines and she is quite happy to top up
your glasses with anything you want more of. One Australian lady
certainly makes full use of this, not only topping up her
glasses, but also grabbing the glasses of someone that has not
turned up. Good for you madam.
It cost $30 (US) for the wine tasting and you can get 4 Reidel
glasses of your choice for an additional $57 (US) plus posting if
you want, so we decide we will.
We sit around for an hour or so after it’s finished talking
with the left over attendees and have a very nice time.
Back to the
stateroom to relax for an hour (notice a pattern here?) before we
get ready for the evening.
At 6.30pm we go to the World Class Bar where Tam has an El Don
Julio and I ask Rahadian if he can make a Hawaiian Lava. He
doesn’t know how, so I write out the recipe for him and he
gives it a go. It’s pretty good. I thank him and he gets me
to promise not to tell Loida as it’s her speciality.
We take our drinks to the theatre to watch a Phillipino lady who
was a runner up on their version of The Voice or X Factor or
Antiques Roadshow or something. She has a good voice and the
audience certainly like her.
We are eating
in Tuscan Grill tonight, the last of our 5 speciality restaurant
package. We are seated at a nice table by the window again. We
both have soup to start, Minestrone for Tam and White Bean and
Sausage for me. Tam has Carbonara for her main, but doesn’t
enjoy it as the pancetta is overcooked and it’s a huge
plateful. I do better with my filet mignon with garlic mash and
eggplant parmesan. We are both stuffed and can’t face
dessert.
I think we are both having one of the days that you get on every
cruise where the overeating and overdrinking catches up with you.
You feel blown up and tired and you don’t really want to eat
or drink anymore. Being troopers, we decide to keep going and end
up at the Sunset Bar as it’s a lovely warm night.
I have a
Negroni and Tam has a Southern Comfort and lemonade while we
listen to Ryan Andrews playing acoustic songs. It’s nice,
but we are struggling to get really enthused about anything
tonight, so I get a Guinness and we walk back to our room. I sit
on the balcony and write up the trip report while Tam relaxes in
bed for a short while. To be fair, it is 11.00pm, which is really
midnight as the clocks went back this morning.
Mind you, it’s still beautiful sat on the balcony cocooned
in the warm night air, listening to the sea as the full moon
filters through the broken cloud and reflects off the ocean.
Beats a day at work, doesn’t it?