Days 13-15 Jan 18-20

Day 13 (Fun) Friday Jan 18
Lost an hour last night as Barbados is considerably east of Florida, and didn’t sleep well, I think because sea a little rough. Just made breakfast & then went to half the Rumba lesson, before going to lecture on the Falklands conflict, which I was interested in because we were living in Texas at the time and got a totally different view of the whole thing than the propaganda in the media in England. Unfortunately the lecture was a little like a list of all the ships & planes which took part and little else, apart from some acerbic comments about the Belgians (who didn’t send the ammunition) and praise for our other allies who did provide intelligence information. Met some nice American ladies at lunchtime, Stephanie and Allora, who it turned out are just across the corridor from me. There is a lady in the next-door cabin who keeps banging on the wall even though they don’t get up till 8. They’ve decided to have a party one morning so I’ve received an invitation as long as I take my Ipod. Emma did manage to load up quite a few albums so I’m sure we could give her something to really complain about! Stephanie has been on about 30 cruises and has never had anything like this happen before.
Evening entertainment was Kyle & Adrian, which was extremely good, & I won $50 on the ‘fruit’ machine again.
Day 14 (Serendipitous-is that a word?) Saturday Jan 19
Arrived in Barbados very early this morning, which I was of course aware of because of the slowing down noise but managed some sleep after we docked. Went into Bridgetown with Alan & Sylvia, absolutely chaotic in the terminal because 4 cruise ships arrived today, everybody trying to get taxis or Shuttle buses. We did get one finally, & then took photos, tried to find some lower heeled gold evening shoes for me (unsuccessful), and I finally managed to post my tax return, took a great many ‘Bajan’ stamps, I wonder whether it will ever reach England?
Went on a tour of the island in the afternoon, ending up in an old Plantation house for tea. The island is beautiful, the people are lovely & friendly, I would definitely like to come back some day, if I can ever afford it. We didn’t get back on the ship till 5p.m. & were supposed to be leaving at 5.30, but in fact it was nearer 7 before we left. I missed what was apparently a great show given by locals brought on board for the afternoon, the evening entertainment was not so good, a ‘physical entertainer’, he was a juggler and comedian supposedly, but not funny.

Day 15 (supposed to be sun-bathing) Sunday Jan 20
2 weeks gone already, but at least I have more than another 4 to go, I’m quite getting used to this, I can see why people go on back-to-back cruises now! I am still tired, I am not sleeping particularly well, probably too much food & not enough exercise. Have resolved to walk up the stairs as well as down now, otherwise I definitely will not be able to get my beautiful dresses on! Wore my ocean green satin for the Captain’s reception this evening and lots of people commented on it, I did need Sylvia’s help to do up the zip though! I also told the captain that I was enjoying the cruise very much now, I know he didn’t remember what I said before but it made me feel better. In fact the ship is rolling quite a bit today, I think we are in relatively open water sailing down the coast of South America, we don’t get to Salvador de Bahia until Wednesday I think.
I did go up on deck and sat in the sun for about half an hour, but it is incredibly windy, should have realised that too. I’m sure there are sheltered places on the ship but I expect they get ‘snapped up’ early. Haven’t been swimming yet, the pool is a little too public for me!
Learnt the waltz today, but I am pretty happy with the basics of that. Had the dance instructor as my partner, so that was very good, obviously he is extremely good at leading! I usually end up with one of the dance hosts, some of whom are better than others, and they have to have 2 or more partners because ladies out-number the men (the ratio on Barbados is 3 women to 1 man by the way). I didn’t go to the entertainment because it was a diva which I didn’t think I’d like, but apparently she was extremely good.