Sunday – The Bay of Biscay

We’re into the Bay of Biscay and heading towards good ol’ Blighty. The swell has died down, and the going has been quite smooth; the sun has shone, but it’s been very windy out on deck, and quite cool, so I’ve spent most of my free time in the cabin, working again.

This afternoon  was the last of the watercolour workshops, on Negative Painting. It’s a challenging exercise, but everyone seemed to enjoy it, and the pile of paintings for tomorrow’s exhibition has grown quite large. I checked with the entertainments office this morning what time the exhibition will be, and was told that it’s going to be 3pm until 5pm outside the Library, on Deck 7 (the location chosen, and insisted on, by Head Office, and confirmed in an email to the Entertainments Office). They even gave me three packs, and a huge dollop, of Blu-tack…. everything is now set…..

…or at least I thought it was….

Having spent all afternoon telling my students where the art exhibition will be tomorrow, and what time it will be (and asking them to tell everyone they know about it, mostly because I can’t envisage many people being in the vicinity of the Library at that time in an afternoon), the craft tutor’s husband pointed out to me this evening that the Daily Blurb is advertising the exhibition as being in the Braemar Lounge. Now, as it turns out, this isn’t a bad thing – The Braemar Lounge is more likely to attract passing interest – it would just have been nice to have been told about it. I cornered Jackie this evening and asked her to confirm the change; she said that Ronnie, the Cruise Director, had decided he wanted it to take place in the Braemar Lounge, and that he is going to have some specially-made boards brought up for the purpose. I pointed out that we have a huge number of paintings, and that they’ll probably all end up being blu-tacked to the walls anyway…. this, I can’t wait to see….

Tonight was a Formal night, so the dinner suit and dickie-bow got one last airing before being packed away until the next time – ‘Formal’ is not my natural way of being. Showtime was ‘The Crew Show’, when crew members from all around the ship, and its various departments, put their hidden talents on display. I’ve seen quite a number of crew shows now, and can’t help but feel that once you’ve seen one, you’ve sort of seen them all; this was no less enjoyable, though. There were the traditional Philippino dances, in traditional costume, a handful of singers and, of course,  the men from engineering doing their own version of ‘In The Navy’. It all culminated in a rousing anthemic Finale from the entire ensemble – these shows are always hugely popular with the passengers, and tonight was no exception. 

So; only one more day left at sea, and a grand art exhibition to round it all off…. nearly home!