On our way to Thailand

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<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Friday 30^th March 2012:

Bug number 5 hit the Tilsons today: the whole ship is full of coughs and sneezes so it is no surprise that it’s now my turn. But it’s not going to get in the way of this trip so we’re stocked up on every cold remedy the boat sells and we shall do Bangkok in a day tomorrow!

Meanwhile today has been surprisingly busy for a day at sea. We went to a fantastic science lecture this morning with the brilliant Professor from the Space Laboratory at Oxford. He showed us the latest black hole that was discovered just 3 days ago and a new star that was born only 2 weeks ago. He showed a video clip of a solar flare given off 2 months ago and he even showed a photo of the surface of the sun, showing the ultra violet spectrum, that was just 45 minutes old! I find that utterly staggering. Of course he has access to the very latest scientific news and images but it feels like a real privilege to be allowed to share it.

After lunch we took part in a couple of tournaments in the casino. Richard made it to the leader board in the slot machine contest and I got through to the finals of the Black Jack tournament. In the final I was the winning female but got soundly beaten by the guys. Good fun though.

Now that we’ve sailed so much with Cunard we’ve gone up another grade in their customer category so got invited to a free wine tasting. I know I don’t actually like wine but heck it was free so we went. Some of the wines were $75 a bottle but I disliked all of them. But the cheese served with it was wonderful!

Then I went to another 3D movie; this time it was Puss in Boots. Not bad for a spin-off but nowhere near as good as any of the Shrek films.

It’s 7pm now and quite dark – a reflection of how close to the equator we are. The temperature outside is 30 degrees and the forecast for tomorrow is 38 degrees. So, pretty warm then.

And after dinner tonight, we’ll be getting an early night. Our tour starts at just after 7 am and we’ll need to have washed, dressed and had breakfast by then. I think I’ll take it as an early rehearsal for getting up for work again!

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