MUSICAL COLLABORATION

Today, we were once again at sea, heading towards our next destination, Argostoli. This meant I had classes to run; a continuation on the theme of trees, only this time featuring the summer variety.

At breakfast this morning, we got chatting to one of the musicians, Joanne, who I discovered is responsible for playing the piano at 12noon every day, an hour into my morning class. One of the perils of running a class in what is essentially an open space on the ship, means the sounds from the piano four decks down drift up from the open stairs and intrude upon the proceedings. I’ve learnt to live with it, and aim to complete all my major audio instruction before we get to noon, to avoid a clash of interests.

On a whim, I happened to suggest how brilliant it would be if Joanne could play something appropriate to the lesson, on this occasion, summer trees, and Joanne instantly came up with ‘Summertime’. In that moment, a cunning plan was hatched, with Joanne agreeing to open her lunchtime set with ‘Summertime’ on the stroke of twelve. All I had to do was to come up with something to say to the class that would appear to magically cue the music.

So, at just before 12noon, I glanced over the railings down towards the piano directly below, and caught the eye of Joanne who was preparing to hit the first notes. I can’t remember precisely what it was that I said as a segue, but spoke about how satisfying it was to paint trees in full summer foliage, and conjure up the essence of summertime…. and bang… the music started, and I voiced the opening lyrics… “and the living is easy. Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high…. etc.”

If I’m honest, I reckon it deserved a much better reaction that it got. Most folks were just so immersed in the process of painting their trees that they didn’t even notice. A couple of people cottoned on and gave me knowing nods of appreciation, and one lady asked me “did you arrange that beforehand?…” To which my answer was… “it’s just a little bit of magic”.

And it was. Needless to say, both Joanne and I exchanged a mutual appreciation for our synchronisation skills later on, even if they hadn’t fully been appreciated by the group.

In his lunchtime address, the captain told us that, what with the extra time we have on our hands, we would be taking the long way round to Agostoli, passing from North to South through the Ithakis Strait, between Ithaca and Kefalonia. At its narrowest point, the strait is only a mile wide, and we would be travelling only very slowly in order to appreciate the views.

Unfortunately, he also told us that we now have two Covid cases on board.

The crew, guest artists, speakers and tutors continue to be tested daily between 4pm and 4:30pm. This clashes with my class, though, which starts at 3:30pm and does’t finish until about 5pm, so Rolando, one of the staff from the Cruise Directors office came down to the art and craft room to test Tracey and myself at 3pm, before the class started.

Our diversion through the Ithakis Strait was pleasant and slow, with interesting hills and coastline visible off both sides. To fully appreciate it, we went up to the Observation Deck (Deck 14), so that we could take it all in (instead of only being limited to the starboard view from our balcony).

By early evening, we’d positioned ourself just south of the entrance to Argostoli Gulf, ready for our visit tomorrow.