14th November 2009

I suspect that by now you know how I'm starting this blog – the clocks went forward an hour overnight and we are now 13 hours ahead of the UK. Thankfully this is the last time we will lose an hour and we will get 2 back by the time we reach Sydney.

We went to the Friday night Shabbat Service again last night. If it had been a balagan last week, this time it was even worse. Others must have felt the same as only 9 men turned up and half a dozen women; but we muddled through some sort of service anyway. I nearly lost my rag and thumped a WOMAN who insisted on trying to tell me where we were in the service. I told her that I knew what I was doing and that the prayer book I was using was different to hers so that obviously my page numbers were not the same! What had really made me angry with this particular woman was that last week she had asked if at least a part of the service could be in english (it wasn't), so on that basis I reckon she is either Reform or not even Jewish!!!!

We woke up today to a grey, misty and cold day. The sea is running rough enough that the outdoor pool has been drained of its water. Strangely enough though, the indoor pool in the solarium still has water in, but even this has not proved safe from the rolling of the ship and water has slopped over the edges despite an 18 ins high wall. The Captain always gives an update on the ship's position, sea conditions and weather at noon. Today was no different until he announced that 3 icebergs had broken off from the Ross Iceshelf in Antarctica. One was known to be floating northwards towards us – then he added that it was over 700 miles away and would probably melt by the time it reached our current position!!! After lunch (not lost our appetites) we did a backstage tour of the theatre which proved very interesting. An answer and question session told how Royal Caribbean is the only cruise line that holds its own auditions. Performers simply send them their cvs and dvds and hope to at least get an audition. The orchestra is made up of individuals and when headliner acts are booked the orchestra has only one hour to practice with them before the show! The entertainment has been hit and miss, but tonight's was excellent with a theme of 'country and western'. We understand that next week's main headliner act will be Bjorn Again (probably the best of the ABBA tribute bands) and Rosalyn is already getting excited.

We are retiring early tonight as we will be in the first of the 3 Sounds (fjords) just after 6 am. and we want to try and get a good view.