Today is supposedly Albina's birthday. Well, near enough. She is actually a leap year baby and there is no Feb 29th this year. She likes to pretend she can do without a birthday in such years. But today, or thereabouts, she is 75. Such a non-birthday cannot be ignored despite her reluctance.
A considerable swell had picked up in the Mediterranean and the ship was rolling and swaying, and it was making movement around the room, let alone around the ship, a little crazier. Weather was still overcast even though bits of blue sky peeked through now and again.
I woke Albina at 8 and served her with a cup of tea and a birthday card. I suggested we go to breakfast but she said that as I had claimed it was her birthday she would stay in bed for longer. I went to breakfast on my own, and, as before, I brought down two buttered rolls and two slices of water melon as tribute. We checked the programme in the Daily Times and I suggested an beginers lesson on bridge at 10am, Lunch at 12, bearing in mind that Albina had had no breakfast and so would be hungry, a scavenger hunt at 3pm and a dinner at the Colours and Tastes Chinese restaurant at 8pm. She decided the scavenger's hunt was not for her and the beginners bridge session was a little too soon. Maybe tomorrow. We spent a quiet two hours in the Piano Bar drinking tea and made our way to tea. We could just make out the coast of Algeria. In the meantime, I asked one of the senior catering staff at the Vine to be book us a place for two at Colours and Tastes.
I get the daily newsheet. The situation is getting more alarming with every day as Chna playing a double game, offering to meduate between Russia and Ukraine on the one hand, and agreeing to sell drones and other weapons to the Russians on the other. This is serious because it seems that the Western strategy of defending democracy with the last drop of Ukrainian blood in order to see Russia implode, is no longer realistic. China will make sure Russia will never collapse, and will want to ensure both sides wear each other out, a prospect that Ukraine may not endure forever. China cannot let America and the West win this conflict, while it still has the goal as the takeover of Taiwan and the consolidation of the South China Sea as Chinese territorial waters. Interesting too that Sunak now claims to hae a sensible agreement with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol under the so-called Windsor Framework, but we still do not know if the DUP will go along with this insrutabable settlement based on fitting the Brexit square into the EU single market circle. If they do not there will be no devolved government in Northern Ireland, some 100 Tories will vote against, a couple of ministers will resign and Sunak will squeeze the agreement through with Labou otes, this further undermining his authority. After that either Johnson will return, or the country would face a snap election, perhaps at the same time as the local election, while we are still on our tour. The ship publishes a daily 4 page newspaper to keep things up to date.
I remain concerned because all my instructions to my bank are not coming through, ever since we left London. I have a dialogue of sorts with their problem team but with intermittent connections this is a worry, especially when I will not be paying off my credit card or paying the Council Tax in the middle of March.
After lunch we rested in the cabin, while I prepared myself for going on this Scavenger Hunt. The aim was to look for clues all around the ship which will reveal letters amounting to a missing anagram. We started at Times Square at the foot of the large central statue and we all got selected into pairs. I partnered Helen from my evening quiz team. We started from the top and took in the Observatory and Arts centre on Deck 9, and worked our way down through Deck 8,5 and 4, until I finally dropped down to Deck 1 to take in the medical centre. Of course, we took far too long and the winning pair did the round after 32 minutes, winning a free meal in one of the ship's speciality restaurants. We just made it in 50 minutes, by which time the ship's crew who acted as judges had given away the prize voucher and gone home. The word hidden behind the anagram was Phileas Fogg, which we could have guessed once we found one letter F and two letters G. But it was a fun way to spend an hour and a good exercise. Helen glided around the ship by lift, while I ran up and down the many staircases like a madman. But it was a fun way to spend an hour and a good exercise as well. I need to move around the ship more now that Albina has barred me from the gym.
Slowly the turbulence of the wind and waves tempered itself. We were sailing on calmer waters again. We had booked the restaurant for 8pm and the time seemed to drag on relentlessly. We sat in the piano bar for some time listening to the ship's in house piano vocalist Steve Thiebault and drinking our Kopparberg cider, when I suddenly realised that my watch had stopped. Checking with the time on our phones we realised it was not 6.30pm as I thought, but 9.30pm! We had missed our booking at the restaurant. I rushed downstairs to apologize to the restaurant staff and found that it was still quite busy. The lady manager, impeccably polite, seemed quite happy for us to come in even at this late hour. We quickly repaired to our cabin to look more presentible and made our downstairs to the Colours and Tastes restaurant, armed with the birthday card I had given her that morning.
The restaurant looked as delightful inside as it was from the outside, decorated with Chinese screens and various Asian motifs. There appeared to be two rooms. The front one was dotted with individual small tables, while at the rear in another beautifully decorated was a larger communal table where guests could meet and share their experience of the food. We had our reserved table for two still waiting for us, despite our lateness for which we profusely aplogized. We ordered a bottle of the Chilean La Rocas red wine that she likes so much. We were given a clear description of the choices of Asian dishes for the starters and main course, and some clear recommendations. Albina chose a tasteful avocado based starter, while mine wasa seafood concoction. then for the main course she served a pear shaped stuffed lobster formation, while I had grilled beef with a selection of vegetables, plus jasmine rice and long pepper salad strips offered in separate bowls. The presentation in each case was as colourful a attractive, as the taste was delicious, full of unexpected sensations as different flavours manifested themselves. Once we had finished the main course, we realised that at least five of the elegant uniformed staff waitresses gathere around our table. I sensed a moment of occasion which I was somewhat apprehensive about. Obviously, they had wind from their computerized records that it was Albina's birthday, and the last thing would have wanted was for them to burst into one of those aggressive birthday greeting song, as they had done a few days before to other victims in the Borealis Restaurant. However, they chirped a sweet spoken birthday greeting to Albina and then stepped aside to allow in the chef who brought in a rich looking cake topped with chocolate and adorned with one single lighted candle. The ladies then clapped and invited Albina to blow out the candle. One of staff then took a picture with my camera of Albina and the cake. Albina thanked them and joked about this really being a non-birthday as she was actually a leap year baby, with a proper birthday only once every four years, and was therefore in fact only 19 years old.
I then chose this moment to make a surprise of my own. In the presence of these ladies I presnted Albina with the ring encrusted with three diamonds which I had secretly bought for her near Hatton Gardens on my underused credit card, only a week before our departure. I could read on her face that she was both astonished and delighted by this present. that was the best news for me. The waitresses who witnessed this also took in a sharp intake of breath before they squealed excitedly at this presentation. They even called over their colleagues who came to admire the ring perched on Albina's third finger. Albina quoted them Shirley Bassey's theme that "Diamonds are forever", and they responed knowingly with Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds are a girl's best friend". The whole atmosphere was just perfect. And yet it had nearly not come to pass, because my stupid watch had broken down.
The cake looked almost too rich. We asked our main waitress to cut a small slice for each of us, and then to share the remainder among themselves. Even that slice was so rich we could barely finish it after the meal we had just enjoyed. They even offered us a dessert from their menu, but we thanked them profusely, and just opted for camomile tea, to give our stomachs some relief from the preceding heavy tastes. We left them a proper tip of course, as a thank you for the whole experience, a true cocktail of sensations, both in sight, taste and smell. On the way to our cabin, still clutching the half empty bottle of Chilean wine, we popped up a floor to the Morning Light Lounge, where my colleagues were participating in a somewhat delayed general knowledge quiz. I introduced Albina to them, explained why I could not join them this time, while Sharon and Helen admired Albina's ring.
We finally dragged ourselves down to our cabin and let our beds take the weight off our heavy bloated bodies. And one other satisfactory note. Following considerable correspondence with the U.S. network staff of Barclays, I was able to arrange the transfer of 450 pounds to my Barclaycard, the first down payment for Albina's diamond ring. Well, you got to start somewhere.
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