FIRST CLASSES – FIRST FORMAL NIGHT
It’s Monday, which means I had to run my first two classes (or to be more precise, my first class, twice…).
The alarm was set for 7:30am, and the original plan was to go up to breakfast first, then head on to the Art and Craft Room for the art classes sign-up. In the end, we changed our mind, opting to get to the room early, in readiness for what we believed might be something of an onslaught.
As it happened it was all very civil. It has been decreed that passengers must sign up for art and craft sessions on the morning of the classes, between 8:30am and 9:30am. Signups will be for that day only, and not for the entire cruise, which means folks will have to turn up at 8:30 each sea day if they want to bag themselves a place.
Unsurprisingly, we filled both classes (of twenty people per class) very quickly, and at 9:30am, we headed off to The Grill to get some breakfast. To our surprise, champagne was being served, which we both declined… it really was far too early in the morning for that sort of thing (not that either of us is into that sort of thing… champagne for breakfast?… quite bizarre…).
At 10:30am, ful breakfasted, we headed back to the art and craft room to get things set up in readiness for my first class, due to start at 11am.
If I had to describe how it went, I would probably say that it was a little clunky and not quite as efficienty delivered as I would have liked, which I would put down to having not run such a class for the last two years.
I would have to describe it as clunky because, in my description of how to mix paint, I concentrated almost entirely upon good ‘Palette management’ and the need to have both a storage area and a mixing area and not just squeeze out paint willy niily and add water directly to it. Unfortunately, due to my sparse instructions, more than one person who was totally new to the medium applied paint directly to the paper without adding any water to it first… ouch.
Another issue we have is a lack of spare paper. Saga provide all the art materials, and despite there having been a delivery of paper due in Southampton, I’ve been told that it never arrived, and that they were arranging for the port agent to have some ready for us when we get to Gibraltar. In the meantime, we split some of the the painting kits (which included a small amount of very lightweight paper) to give out to the passengers.
By lunchtime I was starving (and also quite tired and drained of energy). After eating, we relaxed in the cabin until it was time to go for our daily covid test at 2:50pm, before returning to the Art and Craft Room for the second class of the day (after receiving a phone call confirming the result on the covid tests to be negative). This afternoon’s class, at 3:30pm, went much smoother, and without incident.
Tonight, we had our first formal night, and I’m pleased to report that the new jacket performed well. After dinner in The Grill (which is where all guest entertainers, lecturers and tutors are asked to dine, for all meals), we went along to The Playhouse to watch our first show of the cruise, preceded by a short presentation by our illustrious captain who took the opportunity to introduce his top team of officers.
Top of the bill was a trio who call themselves The Flyrights, backed by the resident Spirit of Adventure Orchestra (who is also a trio, consisting of bass, drums and keyboards). They were slick and highly professional, and a joy to watch, with an eclectic selection of Soul, Swing and Motown hits, and a particularly memorable rendition of ‘Mr Bo Jangles’.
The evening could only be satisfactorily completed in one way; with tea on the balcony, enjoying the sound of the sea and the sight of the star-filled sky.
It’s an early night, though, as clocks go forward one hour, and we have to be up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow morning to sign up people for the second day of classes. Tomorrow’s sea-day is due to be followed by our first port stop – Gibraltar – on Wednesday.
