Days 9-10

Day 9 (Money-making) Monday Jan 14th
Only money-making because I made $50 on the ‘fruit’ machine this evening, I’m sure I’ve probably put that much in it already over the week, we do try not to put in more than $10 a night, the last of the big spenders!
Talk on Fort Lauderdale, Miami and the Everglades this morning, the lecturer also showed slides of each place on the whole world cruise, makes me wish I was doing the whole thing. Joined Martin, Melanie, some friends of theirs and Alan (who had met M&M while learning bridge), for the noon quiz in the pub, we did very well, only lost on the tie-breaker. Rushed straight off to the dance class, Samba today, enjoyed it again but probably won’t go dancing tonight, not confident enough.
Tried to find some accommodation in Auckland, Trisha & Hilary are going to share with me until my sister Hilary arrives on the 23rd, to cut the cost, which will be fun and I can show them around a bit. Didn’t succeed, internet connection is very slow and a total rip-off.
Evening show not very good, English ‘comedian’, singer, musician & impersonator, very unfunny jokes.
Day 10 (Thought-provoking) Tuesday Jan 15th
Went to a very interesting, and to say the least worrying, talk about Putin and the rise of the Siloviki in Russia, all that money and power in the wrong hands is not a comforting thought. Then went for a quick walk outside, air temperature about 15 but cold wind, the sea is much warmer as we are now in the Gulf Stream. We still have ‘The Albatross’ alongside (yesterday’s lecturer called QV that!). Going at 17-18 knots, which makes things rather noisy all the time in my cabin. It will be better after tomorrow when we break free and can go faster. Apparently the QE2 can go as fast backwards as the QV forwards! Went to the quiz again, did quite well but didn’t win, then jive lesson, extremely quick lunch and then ‘the Grand National’, horse racing with dice. I won $24 (sort of, it cost me $30!), so my luck may be changing.
Entertainment this evening featured the same comedian, who was actually brilliant, did rather more singing, impersonating Tom Jones, Ray Charles, Andy Williams, and only a few good jokes, finishing with Nessun Dorma, which could have been awful but was actually very good, some people even gave him a standing ovation. Then the Coasters did a shortened session, & had us dancing in the aisles, including quite a few who look like bank managers (old style), quite disturbing!
Food comments: the food is generally very good, though sometimes the fish is overcooked, & I have been eating a lot of fish (don’t want my brain to atrophy!). The portions are not huge, which is good, not sure what the Americans will make of it though. We only have 3 courses on our table, though in theory you could have at least 5, I bet some people do. Also we only have 1 course at lunch, or sometimes nothing (because we can always make up for it at tea-time if we need to). I eat mostly in my designated restaurant, the Mauretania, which is the ‘lowest’ category, it would be interesting to see what the other ‘better’ ones are like. The self-service restaurant, The Lido, is v useful if you want to eat lunch in 10 minutes flat, see above! I do like the waiter service at night, the waiters are mostly Eastern European or Indian, not sure if that will change at some point, we know ‘our’ waiter is going back to Serbia from Valparaiso, which is the end of this ‘leg’ from New York.