Packing begins

 Borealis Friday 5th May 2023

When I got up this morning I continued saving the remaining photos that Tony had given me. By 9am I had finished, and I pocketed the USB link to return it to Tony. I went for a pre-breakfast one mile walk around the ship (3 and a half laps around the ship on Deck 3). Others were doing the same, but there were no more groups of whale watchers perched with their binoculars on the bow of the vessel. I also passed the sad gentleman with Alzheimer's three times, as he stood there aimlessly staring out from the vessel's stern. 

After breakfast I attended a lecture on the geology of the Caribbean, under the mistaken impression that it was going to be one of two lectures on pirates in the Caribbean. Instead it described how the West Indies emerged from volcanic activity and left an archipelago of islands with beaches on one side and coves and hidden caverns on the other side which pirates were able to utilize. I then remembered to arrange for a wifi link for my phone which Albina uses for her Whats App telephone calls, in order to match the link I received yesterday for my laptop.  

As we were so concerned about the packing in time for our departure in 8 days' time, I pulled four of our six cases from under our bed for Albina to plan the packing. I should add that packing is one of her major contributions to our 50 year marriage. I left the room and she set to work. I lay in the sun by the pool, and afterwards attended a real lecture about the pirates in the Caribbean, all about Blackbeard and Morgan and Calico Joe, hanged with his two mistresses, after they had given birth to his children. When I got back to the cabin, she was in the last throes of packing the third case. She put away everything that she thought we would not need for the next week, which unfortunately included some of my more colourful shirts. The only trouble is that all three cases now weigh about 20kg apiece and are too big to squeeze under the bed. We will have to leave them stacked up in the corners of the roomfor the rest of the voyage. The fourth case went back under the bed again to await being packed another day. It was a really impressive achievement and it left Albina physically exhausted..  

After dinner, which Albina had in her cabin, I attended a show by a brash lady comedian called Jo Little, who mixes working class humour from her native Pontefract with coarse but passionate renditions of songs by Edith Piaf, Lulu and Dusty Springfield. We had a very poor showing at the General Knowledge Quiz ending with only 8 correct out of 15, although some of the questions about advertising slogans were indecipherable, due to the quizmaster's bizarre pronunciation. After that I promised to give moral support to Sharon in her entry for karaoke night in The Observatory. She had a brave bash at singing Super Trouper. After that it was time to retire as we were losing yet another hour tonight.

Latest news from elections in England and Wales: the Tories had lost more than 1000 Council seats. I wonder how long Johnson and Truss will continue to evade responsibility for this mess?