Wednesday – The Grand Exhibition.
I missed breakfast this morning; what with the clocks having gone forward and not getting to bed until gone midnight, I didn’t emerge until about 10:30am.
At 11:45, after making an attempt to start packing, I made my way up to the Columbus Lounge to start preparing for our Grand Exhibition.
Loads of people turned up to help, of course, and it was all hands on deck. I had a Blu-Tack Team and a Hanging Team; when the blu-tack was all gone, we used masking tape.
When we had finished, there were exactly 400 paintings stuck to the walls of the corridor outside the Craft Room and the Columbus Lounge. I know there were 400 because one chap asked me how many there were. I told him I didn’t know and suggested that he should go ahead and count them all for me so that we’d know definitively. He came back to me some time later and told me there were 399. I told him that that simply wouldn’t do, and asked if he could come up wiith another painting to make it a round 400…. bless him, he did!
Pam and Michelle exhibited their stuff in the Craft Room, Linda showed her jewellery on several folding tables in the middle of the Columbus Lounge, and Peter (Wood) showed his wooden work on the bar in the Columbus Lounge, whilst our paintings adorned all the walls.
I think I can safely say that it was all a roaring success. The Daily Blurb advertised the event as being on from 1pm until 4pm…. it was busiy for the whole length of that time, during which I sold the very last of my own remaining paintings (a bit of a record, actually), and the work was dutifully admired by everyone who attended.
My work is done here.
At 4pm, all the paintings came down – most were collected by their owners, the remainder were taken to Reception, from where they’ll be delivered by Housekeeping (saves me the job of playing postman).
At 5pm, I dashed to the Marco Polo Lounge for a Dress Rehearsal of this evening’s show, when everybody… that’s ‘everybody’ has to take a curtain call at the end of two shows.
And so we come to the end of another adventure.
Tonight, all the luggage has to be left outside the cabin, from where it will be whisked away in the middle of the night. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be in Tilbury, and as soon as I’m given clearance, I’ll be leaving the ship, collecting my luggage and car, and heading home.
To everyone who’s been reading the blog, I’d just like to say thank you, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed it. Internet access has been sporadic at times, so posts have been a bit hit and miss… but I think the whole story got through, and I know (because I’m able to see the Statistics) that there have been a large number of regular readers.
Until the next time……….
