Began the day with another one mile walk around the ship. It was warm but windy. I tried to reach the forecastle on Deck 4, up a special staircase from the Promenade Deck, but the door was too heavy for me to open and I gave it a miss. Albina did get up for breakfast, but she had had a bad night with arthritic pains in her shins and her right foot. A lot of the time when she sleeps in late and gets to bed at odd times in the afternoon it is not primarily because she is lazy (although she often boasts that it is), but because these pains give her sleepless nights. Also when she is up she cannot either stand up, or sit down for long. This is compounded by the fact that she used to work on night shifts at the British Airways cargo terminal. Ever since, her biological clock has never fully readjusted to a daytime routine. That is why I cannot really criticize her when she does choose to sleep in daylight hours and misses her breakfast.
However today she did not miss her breakfast. We went to breakfast together. We had planned to go to the morning briefing for the excursions following India to be given in the theatre. Unfortunately, I had got my timing wrong, as the talk was due at 11 and we had turned up before 10. We found the theatre stage had been transformed into an altar with a cross. It was a Sunday, of course, and the congregation were arriving slowly for their interdenominational Christian service. We beat a retreat and I even tentatively suggested that we finally go to the beginners bridge session. Albina half-heartedly agreed. However, on our way there and within sight of the cosy little Bolette Bridge Room, we passed through the empty Morning Light Lounge. Here were all the table games lying there entycically waiting to be played. Albina caught sight of a box containing a tempting set of white dominoes. She had never played them before. So once again we stopped short of the bridge room and played a couple of rounds with the dominoes. Albina won both games, as is only fair. Beginner's luck. That's my excuse.
We then finally went to the very comprehensive briefing on the three ports to follow India, namely Singapore, Nha Trang in Vietnam and Hong Kong, with about five planned excursions for each one. We had already prebooked and prepaid in London for our three excursions at each of these destinations, mainly on the basis of those requiring the least walking. We were pleased in the end with the selection we had made, now that we knew more details. However, the air conditioning has been set particularly strongly in the theatre. Albina was chilled to the bone. All she wanted to do was get back to the cabin, wrap hereslf up warmly, and go to bed, even asking me to chuck the bathrobe over her. In the end she did not even go to lunch. During lunch the captain made his report on our journey and told us that the nearest land to us was Oman.
That afternoon I penned an email to Sammie, the Entertainment Manager, suggesting I can give a talk comparing the book to the current cruise, in case she had made no provision for this. Hope she does not get offended by my offer. Then I attended a classical music piano recital in the theatre played by Martin Cousin. Less than 40 people in the theatre, but at least it was an appreciative audience responding enthusiastically to selection of nocturnes from Brahms, Chopin, Grieg and Rachmaninoff. I went back to the cabin to see if I could get Albina to come with me to the pool centre. But Albina was still lying in bed listening to podcasts recordings on her phone. She said she preferred to use the time to trim my beard and clear some hair from my neck.
Albina did not go to dinner either. The bones in her behind, particularly the right one, are beginning to cause real pain and distress. She simply cannot sit down for long. White arthritic spasm play hide and seek over her hands and feet with occasionally invading some limb and then disappearig, this particular pain in her lower back is continuous. It is a new factor, at least in its intensity. And it is ruining this holiday for her. We have had an initial debate about whether she should go to the health spa and pay for some kind of pain relief massage treatment. She is concerned about the cost, but what the hell! We are on this voyage in the latter part of our life to enjoy ourselves. There are many suffering even more than us that we see around the boat, old and frail, with walking sticks and wheel chairs, battling for the quality of their life as light slowly fades, attending the pool and lectures and even going on tricky excursions, just to eke out what pleasure they can in their later years. One or two of them even wander arond the boat in pyjamas. And Fred Olsen Cruises serves them magnificently, as it is totally wheelchair accessible except for the highest deck and the forecastle. Compared to them we are young and able, but Albina must allow hereself to be treated. In the meantime my massages seem to help her considerably.
Last night there was a splendid show put on at the theatre by Tom Crosbie, the international Man of Memory. He can quote any excerpt from Shakespeare's Complete Works, based on page numbers and even the left or right column, given him by select members of the audience. Also an absolute wizard with a rubic cube, including a blank coloured cube whose colours are only revealed when he shines a torch on it. nother time change tonight, but this time only one half hour forward. The Indian government decided that it would not share the same time zone as its neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh on either side of it, so that opted for a separate time zone half way between the two.
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