03 APRIL 2012

I was a bit disappointed last night to hear that Ginny had cancelled her horse riding trip. I suppose it is not such a tempting prospect when you are a raw beginner or even a raw finisher! Well, I'm still up for it anyway.

The head chef came to our table last night to ask if there was anything he could cook for us that we hadn’t already had. I came up with chicken tikka bhuna which I had to spell for him. From that I gather that it will be his first attempt. Just to set his mind at rest I told him that we had the best Indian takeaway in the UK! I’m not really expecting much.

We had a day at sea today and I decided to have a nice lie in, so I fixed up the 'Do not disturb’ sign and finally got up about 10am. By the time I got up to the 14th deck for brekkie, they had closed off most of the buffet to start bringing out the lunch. Managed to find some nice fruit and some rye bread so I was happy sitting at the blunt end again feeling the warmth of the new morning sun.

Unfortunately it kind of clouded over and by midday we even had some rain! I decided to day would be a Me Day. I really enjoy my own company and have found it a bit hard to have people around me all the time, lovely though most of them are. So out came the new book and on went the glasses and I read for most of the morning. I appear to have sat among the gay male German community this morning, don’t know if they’re territorial or not. The stooper side of the partnerships all had nipple rings – now, excuse my ignorance, but is this a secret sign?

Early afternoon found me partaking of a pot of Darjeeling in the tea room. All very refined and my nose stuffed firmly into my book. The problem was that there were only some large armchairs available in pairs with a reasonably high table in between. As soon as I sat down, I knew it was an error. The chair was very soft and I sunk down, so my eyes were just a bit above table height and did a sterling impression of Ronny Corbett!

Then I just couldn’t resist. I kind of rolled out of the chair whilst trying to maintain a sprinkling of dignity and rewarded myself with a large dollop of Italian coffee ice cream in a cornet. I just love coffee ice cream.

They had a half price sale at one of the ship’s shops yesterday. I popped along to have a look-see. The perfume prices were still too high but I did get Ayla a pretty little bag for her holidays, just to put a few bits in and a long strap so she can put it over her neck and not lose it. Most of the shops on board are for the very rich, I suppose if you want to pay over $100 for a watch then there may be bargains. Young Julian at our dinner table has bought three or four, I’ve no idea what he does for a living but it must pay well.

The other good thing today was that now we are voyaging north, my balcony has come into play in the afternoons, so I had a couple of hours sunning myself and guess what – reading. Nearly finished the book now, I’m going to donate them to the library.