Makeover Day

 

Borealis Thursday 20th April

At 7 in the morning the sunlight simply burst into the cabin. Its sheer brightness woke me up.

After having my own breakfast and bringing down a bowl of cereals for Albina, I decided to chance out for a half hour or so on the Observation Deck at the end of my corridor. The usual handful of whale watchers were there. Personally, I had still not seen any whale on this trip but remember Dolphin Dave telling me that there would be  a lot of whale mating in this area when travelling south to Acapulco. I asked them how things were. Well, we had many sightings of whales apparently between San Francisco and San Diego and they hoped for more over the next couple od days. Typical Lewis Caroll. Jam yesterday and jam tomorrow, but never jam today. I asked politely if we were now in Mexican waters. Oh no, not yet, he said. He showed me his online map and said, "See we are still proceeding down the coast of this Baja California." I had to explain to him that Baja California was already in Mexico, and he evinced genuine surprise. He may be an expert on whales, but he knows bugger all about geography.

Initially Albina relaxed reading a book on our balcony with the morning sun shinng on her but after 11 it went colder again.              

After lunch Albina went to the health spa on the ship to have a makeover including a massage, a pedicure, a manicure, a shoulder and neck massage, eyebrow tinting and many other necessities which kept her and her tormentors in the spa busy from 1pm to 5.30pm. I went back for half an hour with the whale watchers. One of them told me he had seen a school of whales, 15 strong, pass us on the port bow. Yeah, well I will still be the doubting Thomas until I see one in these for myself. I finished writing my notes on the San Diego excursion.

I lay around on Deck 10 in the sun, but it was also very exposed and windy. Eventually I collected Albina who seemed very pleased with her treatment. But he hair looked plastered and sticky and she asked for a haircut and shampoo for tomorrow evening.

In the evening I joined the star watching group again. Again we were issued with these grandiose electronic tablets that show the appropriate planets and constellations in the sky. By holding them above your head you should have been able to identify the stars you can see. However, it was still cloudy with occasional moments when cloud cover would disappear, so you could barely see any stars at all, let alone identify them. Secondly, I could not even read the names of the stars or constellations on my tablet. Has my eyesight deteriorated so much since my cataract operations? I notice I have problems reading names which appear in smaller script on the family atlas or on street maps. And that is despite whether I wear glasses or not. That is a depressing thought. So anyway, one way or the other, there was littl point to spending more than 15 minutes or so up there before handing back the tablet and going back down. By down I meant going back to the cabin and bed, and not to another quiz night session. Especially as my ususal team woul still not be appearing.