Such good news. Albina joined me for breakfast. That was a good start. Then we returned to the cabin and back she went to bed. We got our usual broadsheet about events coming up on the boat. We agreed to go to a light classical concert at the Neptune Theatre at 4.45pm, but said she had second thoughts again about the bridge for beginners in the morning. I think we can forget about that item for good. I noticed that there was a Masonic gathering in the Card Room that afternoon. I wonder if they all greet each other in a mutually recognized handshake and have other strange ceremonies with a knife to their breast. I am sure Bev will be there. If I went they would throw me out on my ear.
That morning I clambered up to the Forecastle by a somewhat surreptitious route which brought me out on to Promenade Deck on Deck 3 on the port side, and then up a hidden staircase to the very exposed prow of the ship. If it were not so blowy it would be a good place for a class photo for Albina and me. I shall have to get here some time. Then I moved to the Library to enjoy a Chinese Emperor tea and a mouth watering lemon meringue pie. Then I went upstairs to wake Albina and go with her to lunch.
One of the real attractions of the View buffet restaurant is a station or counter which offers a couple of dishes and a dessert which are local to the area we have just visited or are about to visit. I find I can avoid long struggles with my stomach and my conscience about deciding what to eat from an excessively wide choice, by simply picking the food on offer at this particular counter. I had some Brindisi meatballs with courgettes and couscous, and Albina had a Chicken Pancetta with the same vegetables. Together with an Italian lemon souffle and a pot of tea. That was all that we needed for lunch. In and out of the restaurant in no time.
We put on something warm, made our way again to forecastle and finally got a passenger to take a picture of us holding the ship's bell in the bracing wind. Then we retraced my earlier steps around the Promenade Deck. Three and a half times round the ship on the Promenade Deck amounts to a mile walk. Cushions were just being placed on the deckchairs though there were few passengers who seemed ready to take advantage of them. These chairs were reserved for the passengers on Deck 3. They had windows from their cabins looking out to sea across the Promenade Deck, but their privacy was protected by their window being just a mirror from outside.
I attended a lecture in the Neptune Theatre on the discovery of the Tutankhamon tomb and a talk with slides by the Chief Navigation Officer in the Observatory on fascinating details about the ship and about how to steer it across the sea, and straits and canals. Then I dashed back to pick up Albina and take her to a light classial music concert at the Neptune Theatre, with a barotone singer accompanying a pianist. The theatre was about half full for this slice of culture that ranged from German songs by Schubert to excerpts from West Side Story, and we were all made to sing that damned Neapolitan funicular song, as well as the chorus of Arrivederci Roma.
I had a message from Alicja at the Federation of Poles in Great Britain showing me pictures from the Polish Weekly of their participation in the demonstration outside the Russian Embassy marking the second year of the war. Incodentally, I see the screws are being put upon Johnson at the Privileges Committee, while Sue Gray, the previous civil servant who examined Johnson's behaviour, has now been appointed Starmer's chief of staff. That might make hear earlier testimony on Johnson's unsound on grounds of possible political bias.
After dinner at the buffet restaurant we planned an early bed, at least for me. At 2am our vessel docks at Port Said and numerous the numerous groups tavelling to Cairo are being offered breakfast as early as 5.30am, for a 6.30am departure.
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