Saturday 10th January 20 degrees but north wind

This is likely to be a slightly shorter note than usual as looking back, not much happened as I seemed to spend quite a chunk of the day in the laundry…… whilst I learnt a lot (which I will share later) it was not exactly exciting.

It was another sea day of glorious sunshine, a balmy 20 degrees first thing but quite breezy so the white horses were back with a vengeance but the ship is steady as rock.

Having said this, the only place you have any sense of being at sea is in the bathroom. I am not sure why this is but we have both experienced it.

The day started as has become my habit of not getting up early enough for breakfast and an early morning walk before my ukulele gathering – a sacrifice us ‘artistes’ are prepared to make for our art! In actual fact the ukulele session was a bit more organised today, my big problem being that I could only see the right hand side of the screen so I could only join in the right hand side of the music, An interesting approach which I don’t recommend, but I think taking part is important. I really must try and find a better spot in which to locate myself….. I am so anxious to disappear in the crowd that I fail to establish that I can see before I sit down. Note to author – get your act together.

There then followed the rather challenging bridge hour. I thought I was pretty dire, but I heard Keith tell someone that he thought I was improving which is nice to hear even if it doesn’t feel like it to me. (if you’re defending it’s probably best not to lead trumps. Ed)

Anyway after that we went to the laundry, There are three laundries on the ship and, according to some seasoned laundry attendees that I spoke to, the Aurora has markedly better laundry facilities than most other ships. Well that’s as may be, but we were present at what had all the makings of an ‘incident’ while we waited for our washing. The situation arose because a lady removed an absentee someone’s washing from a dryer. This is a cardinal sin apparently which has, in the past,, given rise to fights and one incident of a hurled iron (this particular lady was invited to leave the cruise she was on apparently). Anyway our incident, although tense, did not have such an extreme outcome – in ours the washing was removed from the tumble dryer by one of the ladies present and placed in a basket. She then put her laundry in the said tumble dryer. Then sometime later, enter stage left the man whose washing it was. He was not at all gruntled and immediately removed the lady’s washing and replaced it with his own, muttering under his breath and glaring at the assembled ‘washees’ obviously expecting someone to own up to the misdemeanour. Of course no one did which made him more cross. He then stood watching his laundry tumble around the dryer for a good half an hour giving off a distinct chilly persona. Not good karma,

The dryer problem is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that four of the seven dryers are out of action a point that Keith took it upon himself to report to ‘management’. Whether or not something will be done remains to be seen…..

Anyway when we could not find a free dryer we abandoned the washing and went off to lunch and returned later to do the drying. However, having washed, dried and ironed our clothes I think I probably spent the best part of three hours with the lovely ladies there. I made another new friend – Lorraine – who regaled me with tales of the cruise laundries she has known in considerable detail……

Needless to say i had to lie down for a few minutes in a darkened room after this experience to recover my equilibrium – I may try a late night wash next time which hopefully be less challenging.

After a few more laps of the deck we separated again for an hour or so – Keith went off for a pedicure with the lovely Tonia and I went up to an upper deck with my daily puzzle codebreaker book and a half of lager for some sun time.

I was a little apprehensive about how Keith would feel about his first ever spa treatment experience but he was so taken up with the result that that he has signed up for three more pedicures apparently! Good for him! He will have the best looking feet in Buxton!!

After dinner we adjourned to the theatre to be entertained by two highly skilled musicians, one very Irish guitar player and the other an amazing Scottish, kilt wearing violinist. They were extremely talented but let themselves down a bit with the songs that they sang, The theatre is very plush. It was full to bursting this evening!

And so another day ended. Tomorrow the excitements of Cape Verde.