Amalfi Breakthrough

We had a bit of a breakthrough today. Nothing major, but just enough to make life a little easier.

We left all the art stuff in the Amalfi after the first lesson (which, today, was Seaspray and Sandpaper), partly set up for the afternoon session. On past cruises, they’ve served lunch in the Amalfi restaurant, which meant that we had to clean up and put everything away, back into the craft locker, and then take it all out, ferry it back down to the restaurant and set up from scratch again. On the one occasion when we didn’t do that (based on someone telling us in the restaurant that it would be okay), we received an angry phone call from the Maître De, telling us to remove all the art gear.

This time around, the crew down in the Amalfi seem less anxious about us being there, and when we left the gear there today, no-one seemed bothered at all. Which is great, because it took some of the pressure off Tracey and myself, providing us with a little more relaxation time, and when we returned to the room for the afternoon session, everything was more or less ready to go.

It was the first formal night tonight, so I got to wear my new £20 black shoes… they performed well. Speaking of performing well… we went to watch Ralph Allin in the Playhouse theatre after dinner. He is a virtuoso violinist whose repertoire was quite extensive – much of it was jazz-inflected, but there were some fantastic Scottish and Irish tunes in there too. Simply put; he was mind-bendingly good! A brilliant performance.