The sun rose at 2.55am and will not
set for about a week! We will cross the Arctic Circle this afternoon (66.5
degrees North). We hit the gym by 8 after brekky and then rolled straight into
the 45 minute aerobics session with Joseph, the little Kenyan. That was well
worth doing. We skipped the morning game (rolling soccer balls into a hoop) in
favour of much-needed showers.
The morning quiz was very
different. Sebastian ran it and only had 5 questions! There were probably only
about 6 teams and we tied with the Germans. We hadn’t written our names on –
only the cabin number, so we only won one Tshirt. We wore the new ones this
morning. Nobody seemed to be getting answers from the staff this time and we
still don’t know if Streisand is the woman who won Oscars for best actress and
best song.
We went for the restaurant lunch
because I had seen the menu, which looked appealing. When we sat down, they
gave us a totally different menu! The one I had seen turned up at dinner time L we found ourselves
seated with one couple who only spoke German and one couple who only spoke
French, although we did manage to prise a little English out of her. No way
were they going to talk to each other, but I had a bit of a flurry in French,
which led to some chat. It ranged here and there, with the Frenchman explaining
he had fought in Algeria. He seemed too young but it turned out that he was
referring to the war of independence rather than the world war, which he seemed
determined to expound on. We know by now that this is a very sensitive issue
for Germans and luckily he relented.
Janine made a further attempt to
involve the German couple, who said they came from Cologne. Aaaah we know all
about Cologne- we said we had just been there and to Bonn and Bruhl. Aaaaah they
said . . actually we are from Bruhl! So
we name dropped shamelessly with Clement August and the Schloss. They said
something that included Balthazar Neuman (the architect) and we managed to
convey that we had geschlaffen in his restaurant. Well didn’t that liven things
up . . suddenly everyone was chattering happily away, much of it going over
everyone else’s head but we all smiled and nodded.
We had time for a nap before the
next quiz, in which we were bundled into a team with a lady from Hamburg and a
couple from . . . . . Meadow Springs (5km from us). This is apparently going to
be a recurring progressive event so we will see more of them. We did pretty
well but apparently a team of youngsters (who had a crew member sitting with
them) did better.
We got dragooned into the following
pleb game, which involved wearing luminous wigs and a hybrid of musical chairs
and noughts and crosses. We would never have dreamed of joining in such an
activity with the Lunatics from Achentina on the other MSC boat, particularly
the women who didn’t take any prisoners when there was an MSC keychain at
stake. We thought this middle aged crowd would be safer . . . . Wrong! We
managed to survive without injury and J’s team managed to win, which earned her
a MSC mousepad. Start placing your bids for cruise merchandise – please specify
which cruise line, type of merchandise and Tshirt size.
Dinner was the Italian banquet,
which was ok. J went and learned the tarantella – Italian folk dance. We sat and
had a coffee in the Umma Theesda Lown Juh, being pestered by the entertainment
girls who were looking for men to compete in the Mr Made In Italy show. I tried
to explain that I was made in England actually and furthermore I was quiet and
shy, but they seemed to have misconstrued some things I might have done on
stage this afternoon to the contrary. They managed to get a dozen or so
volunteers and the show was very good, although Mr Made in Italy was
transparently Chinese.
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