Thursday – At Sea – More Cocktails

This morning they advertised ‘Can’t Cook Won’t Cook’ out on the poolside deck at 10:30am, to be followed immediately by an ice carving demonstration. It’s an event I’ve seen done on pretty much all the cruises I’ve worked on; the head chef takes two novices, usually the resident comedian and one other entertainer, through the process of cooking up a dish, with additional contributions and hilarious running commentary from the Cruise Director. The deck was damp from  rain earlier, and despite being warm enough, the sky was, and has been throughout the day, rather overcast (what we call in the North: ‘Claggy’). At 10:30, when I went upstairs to watch the entertainment, they were still trying to get everything set up. Unfortunately, the main problem was electrics; they’d set up three electric hobs – one for the chef and two for the novices; who today was Andy Rudge, the comedian, and Leo, the show singer – they could only get one to work properly, while one would only work intermittently, and the third wouldn’t work at all. The Stage crew were working frantically, swapping leads and plugs around to try and get the show underway, but things never quite got sorted out right; even the microphones weren’t playing the game. They got started eventually, but it didn’t really work quite right. The chef had to manage without a hob, and just talk the other two through making a beef stroganoff…. It was okay, but I’m thinking this is probably the last time they’ll try it out on deck. The ice carving has been put back until tomorrow.

At noon, the captain gave his daily update from the bridge; telling us how far we’d travelled from Palma, how far we have to go to Gibraltar, air temperature, sea temperature, sea depth and a weather forcast for the rest of the day. As has become traditional on this cruise, he finished with a couple of his ‘Believe It Or Not’s…. Believe it or not; The largest milk producing country in the world is india, and ‘Believe it or Not’; a lion can mate more than 50 times in one day… fascinating.

Hurrah for cocktail parties!! Today. I received an invitation/request to attend a cocktail party in the library, at 5:45pm (after my workshop), for guests who were in the suites. Fantastic! Free booze! I had an enjoyable hour and a half, not really mingling as much as I think I’m expected to do, but enjoying the free wine and canapes and hob-nobbing with the Bridge tutors and the Future Cruise Manager who had organised it all. Slightly pickled on four glasses of red wine, I left not caring a jot that I would now have to eat in the Glentanar Restaurant…. as it turned out, as I approached the restaurant at just gone 8:30pm (after a bit of a power nap), Neil, the concert pianist, was getting a cup of tea at the tea station. I asked him if he’d already eaten, and he told me, yes he had; he’d eaten in the Garden Cafe because there were loads of free spaces if you spoke to the man in charge… I ended up enjoying the Spanish Supper in the Cafe, with Glen, the musician from the Lido Lounge… so it turned out to be not such a bad evening after all…