IGUANA DAY

Today, we’ve been at sea, and following a last-minute change of mind yesterday, I had them painting iguanas this afternoon.

At lunchtime, a cocktail party ot on the back deck saw cocktails being sold at rock-bottom prices. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that after half a dozen cocktails, folks are generally up for anything… or want to sleep. We’d had lunch and had set up the room for the classes, and still had time enough left to pop back into the bistro for a cup of tea before starting. At that point, there was only one perso waiting for the art class. Looking out onto the back deck through the bistro windows, supping our tea, we could see a lot of dancing going on, mostly by the officers (it was their cocktail party – they’d invented the cocktails). A good time seemed to be having had by all, and the drinks were flowing like they were going out of fashion. Pretty soon, the second crossing of the equator was being celebrated by a customary pushing into the pool.

The good news is; all of this didn’t affect numbers at my classes as much as I’d feared. Sure, folks were well-oiled, but they’d turned up.

Competing with cheap cocktails is one thing; competing with a lecture on the forthcoming Panama Canal is quite another. Numbers were definitely down on the second class.