At sea

 

7June

We rounded the southern end of Sri Lanka at about 6.30 this morning. Lots of shipping out there. The seas have calmed a little but it's still very windy – Force 7 according to the bridge. The sun's out and they've reopened the pools although there's a lot of swishing about. Should be interesting swimming. While we were at breakfast looking out at sea through those huge windows, we passed a pod of whales – it doesn't get much better than that. I managed to spill a glass of orange juice everywhere. The waiter said I would be confined to my cabin for the day. I offered him a huge bribe and he said OK – deal, would just have to clear it with his boss!! The waitstaff are amazing, efficient, friendly, helpful and often entertaining even though they must know most Australians have cancelled their $10 per day tipping charge. We've left ours there but don't know many other people who have. Our assistant waiter at night is teaching me to speak Serbian. I'm not coming along very well in that department. Went to the show last night – Roland Storm. The name vaguely rang a bell before I went to see him. He was a wannabe rocker in the days of Johnny O'Keefe and had a couple of hits. His performance was really good – sang lots of old rock and roll songs and made lots of jokes concerning his age. Half a dozen of us or so went on to the Wheelhouse Bar or "The Wagonwheel" - have a great band. I reach my use by date about 11.00 but the rest of them kicked on until about 1.00am. Barry (Barry 7) showed me a photo he'd taken of George (GTR58) in his kilt at formal night. Am trying to get a copy so I can post it. George spent his morning at trivia today pretending to take photos of Rick and Barry's answer sheet. They were sitting in front of us. We've already asked the people who sit behind us to write their answers backwards as they sit under a mirrored ceiling. George even brought his binoculars one morning but to no avail. Guess we'll just have to keep losing but we certainly have fun. Would you believe it was discovered some teams keep two answer sheets. If they are tossing up between two answers they then record both and have the sheets marked by different teams...and it's supposed to be a game. I suppose the prizes of luggage tags are worth all the effort, ha ha.

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