2nd November- Captains Log day

Sorry, it’s a long one today.

Over breakfast this morning was an announcement about having dinner with the Captain of the Ship, for a small fee that is. Perhaps I don’t understand the ropes but when I go on an aeroplane, train or cross channel ferry I have no wish to meet the Captain as he is only doing a paid job. Quite frankly had the Captain of the Titanic not been milling around having dinner with his passengers in upper class and had spent more time doing his job from the bridge perhaps it would not have hit an iceberg. How would we feel if the Captain of an Aircraft was having dinner with the passengers as it flew in to a mountain, Nah! not for me. One other comment from Noel, many years ago when he worked for a P & O subsidiary company he was sent on a ‘organisational’ training course for a week which culminated in a meeting at the London HQ of P & O. Unfortunately, this had been arranged at the time of the London Motor Show and so the organisational factor fell out the door as they had not booked the Hotel rooms correctly and they ended up by sharing a room. Noel’s roommate was a very large chap who was one of the Captains of the MV Canberra; He wasn’t, say, as large as his ship, but close. Anyway that night he snored so loudly, just like a ship’s foghorn and Noel did not sleep a wink for the awful noise. Noel has not forgotten this and so his views on ships Captains are perhaps different to most people. Oh well, such is life.

I am writing this blog in the cabin at around 10.30 and Jennifer has gone to the cookery demonstration at the front of the ship and looking out the balcony window its beginning to rain and the wind is getting up and there are some whitecaps on the water (sea).

It would appear that you can do a tour of the working parts of the boat, for another small fee, why would you want to pay to see something you have sort of paid for anyway?. Please don’t misunderstand my comments but perhaps this the norm on a ship like this?

Over breakfast this morning and sitting at the next table was an American lady who was complaining that on a trip to China recently, which promised 12 nights, that two of the nights were on an aircraft going there and coming back. Oh dear! always check the small print.

Just heard on the ship announcements that Picasso is alive and well and will talk about his paintings, just in case you want to impress the people back home.

A long walk followed by a sandwich lunch outside as the sun has come back and the weather is now very nice indeed. After lunch we had another walk and then back to the cabin for a quick zizz ( Note – only Noel went to sleep, poor old man). We had thought of using the ships internet connection for blogging and email but they charge about fifty pence per minute for a very slow connection. I know that they use a satellite connection as to run a cable might be a bit of a challenge but even so to charge so much is a bit off. The plan is to update the blog hopefully when reaching the various ports en-route.

We have been watching the screens which show how full the various restaurants are, this is a good idea, but what they don’t tell you is that some people are booking restaurants days in advance and no doubt blocking out the odd punter like us. It would appear that the main restaurants are booked up to 80% and the remaining is standby. It’s a shame they don’t tell you this information when you board, No doubt I will pass on our comments later in the voyage. Another small gripe is why the hell they play music in every bloody public room apart from the library all the time as it’s a pain in the neck.

Anyway, we arrived at the restaurant for our table for two only to find that they had no more tables for two and would we mind sharing on a table for four, only somebody could not count, as it was a table for six. Its not that we are unsociable but sometimes it’s nice to be alone.

We were joined by a Dutch couple and also an elderly American single guy. The first thing he said to the Dutch couple was where in Germany do you come from? Not a great start but what do you expect from US military personnel. So just to shake it up I said “what do you think of President Obama”, needless to say he did not like him and felt that Bush who fully supported the military was the best man. We then moved on to issues in Iraq and Afghanistan and it would appear that he had no idea who the real enemy was. He then said that the Iraq Government was bent and I said well if you will give so much cash to these people what do you expect. I mentioned that many governments like to give cash to foreign Governments for future treats but this was lost on him. The Dutch couple were fairly quiet and then he started talking about the Americans bombing in the second world war at which point I tried to change the subject.

Dinner was sort of alright and afterwards we went to the Disco and requested a few tunes that we like and then left there around 1030 as tomorrow we hope to leave the ship and walk around Malaga and perhaps find an internet café to upload this and perhaps a few photos.