23rd February 2011 – At Sea

23rd February 2011 – At Sea

Not quite as stiff as we thought we might be, we have taken it very easy today. A very strong rumour going round the ship is that a couple of Americans were left behind in Hong Kong yesterday because they had not got Chinese Visas. One would like to assume that it was a simple oversight on their part because, if nothing else, they would have had a letter from Princess to tell them they needed visas. Whether they can organise anything and then catch up with the ship I don't know, but it could be an expensive mistake.

We went to the pictures this afternoon to see 'Sherlock Holmes'. Our friend Geoff Radivan is an extra in the film but we either blinked and missed him, or he has ended up on the cutting room floor.

We continue to meet really nice and interesting people. This morning we shared the breakfast table with two Canadian couples and somehow the subject of wine was brought up. Did you know that Canada makes a wine, red and white, from grapes that have been subject to frost for at least 3 days in a row? The jokes about frostbite to ones feet whilst crushing the grapes flowed (but sadly not the wine). We have also been offered somewhere to stay if we are ever in Sidney and even in Missouri.

Typing this whilst watching the terrible news coming out of Christchurch. We were there a couple of years ago and thought it was a lovely place. TV in the cabin is not brilliant. The BBC channel is the World Service, which means it gives news about everywhere but the UK. It would be nice if they devoted even only a few minutes on the hour to what is happening back home. I know we are on holiday but we do like to keep reasonably aware of goings on at home. CNN and FOX only talk USA and the world, but even they don't acknowledge the UK. Coverage of sport is even worse. Considering Asia is football mad, no TV channel carries the football results. A few Premier League match results do trickle through, but not all of them and certainly not the Championship, so as I type this I think I am right in saying Hull City played last night (Tuesday) but we have no clue as to the result (1nil to City – thanks Adam); nor do they show tables, so we have to assume Manchester United are still top, but nothing else. The cost of going on the internet on the ship is prohibitive and we certainly wouldn't do it just for football. On the occasions we have updated our blog we have often had only time to do the more important things like the blog and emails; to start looking at football results only eats into our time ashore. The weekends on the ship are quite funny as Brits wander round the ship asking if anyone knows the results!

The 6 of us met up for drinks before dinner. Happy hour(s) starts at 8 p so we waited until then to order. Stephan had a Singapore Sling but said it tasted absolutely nothing like the ones we had had in Singapore. After dinner we went to one of the shows which was very good, but as we had an early start the following day we went straight back to our cabin after it had finished.