We're back online!

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Days 3 to 6 are all being uploaded together. Sorry about this but internet access has been non-existent.

Day 3:
I don't mean to shock you too much but we actually did what we said we would do this morning. We went to the gym! And built up a sweat - not exactly a pretty image I know but definitely a surprising one. One of the instructors appears to have taken us under his wing but I'm sure he just sees us as an enormous personal challenge. But he's very motivating and got us both working hard and feeling decidedly noble at the end. We spent an hour there and I definitely have bits and pieces that are still sore even 13 hours later. The best of intentions have us back there again tomorrow morning but Mother Nature may well get in the way. We have had 2 days of blissfull weather with blue skies, very mild temperatures and wonderfully flat seas. But it's all about to change. Storm force winds are due to seek us out for about 19 hours out of the next 24 and the seas are due to go from 1 foot high wavelets to 10 metre high waves! If it's as bad as they predict, I can't see us leaving our cabins tomorrow never mind heaving our wobbly bits and pieces round rowing machines and ab crunchers. Pop a Dramamine and sleep until it's blown itself out. That's a much more realistic plan.

But during today's calm before the storm we have gone to a great lecture by Jane Asher telling all about her life in movies. She was young when we were young but boy is she aging better than us. She's over 60 now and looks about 35, slim and lovely. We also listened to a guy who was the UK's Consul General to the USA for 5 years and he was very interesting. He's talking again later this week about the UK's winning Olympics bid and, as he was part of the bid team, that should be pretty interesting too.

Every meal on board is a chance to meet more interesting people and the main topic of conversation today is what wildlife people have seen. The booby prize went to the couple who saw a sea gull. We got the runner's up prize for a pod of dolphins but the current winners are anyone who has spotted a whale. Apparently there have been quite a few but I guess we've just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mind you we did spot two greater spotted loonies today. How else do you describe people who don their swimming cossies and lie out on sunbeds in the middle of the North Atlantic in January. I know the weather is good but it's only good for the North Atlantic in January. It isn't actually good. And definitely not good enough. They certainly attracted more than their fair share of suprised looks from their fellow guests.

Not wanting to join the cold weather brigade, this afternoon we went to a concert by a brilliant classical guitar player. He got a standing ovation at the end and it was well deserved too. Tonight is another major dressing up opportunity but we're probably going to give it a miss. One night of posh frocks is fun but 2 on the trot is too much like hard work. Cunard clearly try to recreate the heady days of the transatlantic liners and they have 3 formal nights on this week long crossing. A lot of the passengers are only doing the crossing to New York so Cunard think they want lots of balls. We find they are way too restricted by return flight luggage limits. I think our choice tonight may very well be room service and a movie.

Our stow-away (PC the pussy cat!) has settled in well to our cabin and should soon be featured on Richard's Facebook page. Our next land fall is New York so we'll definitely take her for a run ashore. We're poring over all our New York Guides to try and make the best plans given that it was minus 10 there last week and was snowing this morning! I wonder if the loonies will still sit on deck in their swimming cossies?!!

Day 4:
if you're trying to follow our daily blogs, apologies for the fact that day 4 could very well upload at the same time as day 3 - and maybe even day 5 as well. 1400 miles from Southampton is not exactly a wi-fi hot spot so connectivity is a major issue which isn't being helped by being in the middle of a pretty lousy storm. But the bumpy seas do add a certain frisson to your gym session in the morning. Sitting on an exercise bike feels more like being on a bucking bronco machine! Our cabin is pretty close to the pointed end of the ship and when Elizabeth hits a big wave, the spray completely envelopes our balcony and it's more like being on an aeroplane in turbulance than on a cruise ship. Fortunately we've sailed enough to know how to manage sea sickness - a dollop of modern chemicals and a full stomach to prevent anyhing from being able to slosh from side to side. Mind you, our table for 6 at dinner tonight was one of the few full tables. I think a lot of people have stayed shut in their cabins today. But we are very nearly half way towards America now and the weather forecast is improving for tomorrow - although reumoured to get to much bigger waves before they get smaller. On our in-cabin information system the sea state is already described as "rough mounting seas" so goodness only knows what the description will be in a few hours time!

I can't fill today's blog with tales of adventure because we've just dossed the day away. Which I think is spot on for what our plan was. Several more idle days to follow too but then we'll put our work in the gym to good use next Tuesday as we hit New York and have some snowy pavements to pound!

Day 5:
Well day 5 has enabled us to take dossing into an art form. We started out well with our third trip to the gym so managed to get to breakfast feeling very noble. We even maintained a high sense of self worth throughout breakfast having porridge followed by kippers. But from then on we just started doing less and less. Picked a book up from the library. Even managed to read a dozen pages. But then the book started to feel heavy and that sense of increasing weight coincided with an increase in the weight of my eye lids! Richard could have told me if I'd started to do anything embarrassing such as snore in such a lovely public lounge ... if his eyelids hadn't shut at the same time!

Next it was on to our only cerebral moment of the day and that was an excellent lecture on how London won the bid for the 2012 Olympics. It was a fascinating 45 minutes of insider information on what had made the UK bid stand out from the others. Clearly, using children to prompt the shedding of the odd tear or two in the panel's eyes was a winning tactic.
After that it was lunch, snooze, watch a film, realise the time, run to the bathroom and wardrobe to change for dinner and then eat again. We have such lovely dinner companions including an Irish psychiatrist and her daughter who are wonderful company every evening. They leave the ship in New York and we shall definitely miss them. But it becomes interesting to anticipate what new people we shall meet who join the ship in America. There are a lot of people going all the way round the world on this ship but we've only found one other couple taking the same option as us to swap ships in Australia. There is one couple on board now taking their 14th world cruise having spent over 2,000 days on board! I wonder how much money they've spent over the years. Let's hope they hold a wedge of shares in Cunard to offset the costs!

In the early hours of tonight we shall pass 50 miles to the north of the spot where the Titanic sank and that seems extra poignant in light of the Costa Concordia's tragic grounding in Italy yesterday. The Captain here spoke with some of the passengers about it today and it's clearly affected the crew quite significantly. In an odd way, it probably makes cruising even safer right now because everyone is extra conscious of safety. At least when a boat goes down, especially so close to shore, many people can get off either by swimming or in the life boats. If a plane ran aground, the outcome would be very different.

The seas have been much flatter today but still quite a way off being flat. It's been raining and very windy. But that's probably good training for the minus 1 and snowing that we're expecting when we dock in New York on Tuesday.

Satellite connection to the internet is still almost non-existent so apologies to any of you who had hoped for daily updates. If not before, at least on Tuesday and Wednesday we should be able to upload at will!

Day 6:
It's now just about 10 o'clock at night on day 6 and we are due south of Newfoundland and south east of Nova Scotia. We have travelled 2,330 miles from Southampton with just 844 miles left until we arrive in New York. Thankfully the storm has now moved into history and the sea is much calmer and with it, comes the ship. The dining room was full tonight which it certainly hasn't been during the stormy waters of the last 2 days. We even had blue skies and sunshine for much of the day today but tomorrow we move out of the Gulf Stream and the temperatures are bound to plummet. We've been up at 13 and 14 degrees but there's a good chance we'll be at minus something by the time we land on Tuesday lunchtime.

We've met such a wide range of people: some utterly charming, others really interesting and one at lunch today who was a complete bozo! We reckon he must be phobic about laundries as he says he packed 15 pairs of shoes, 30 pairs of trousers and 42 jackets! But by far his favourite subject was himself so here's to George. May he long be fufilled with his own company. And may he long be directed to share a table with someone else!

We're still being good with our gym work but must confess that a chocolate and rum truffle found its way to my plate with tonight's after-dinner coffee. It would have been simply rude to send it back to the kitchen uneaten. So I didn't! I think I might need to do a bit extra work on the exercise bike in the morning.

Being on a world cruise still feels a bit unreal and I think it's because we've spent nearly a week just looking at water and by crickey, there's a lot of it in the big pond. I think we need to go somewhere now for it to really kick in. Tomorrow is a packed day on board with lots of interesting lectures to go to and then by late morning on Tuesday there won't be a single spare space at the ship's rail as we shall all be out there looking for our first glimpse of the Big Apple. We love sailing into Venice as it's such a beautiful city and I have a feeling New York is going to feel similar. From the sea, you normally spot land in the order of 3 senses. First you see a yellow haze in the far distance and that's the first sign of pollution. Secondly you smell the land. Corsica smells of wild herbs but I'm not sure New York is going to have a similar aroma. And, of course, thirdly you see it and I can't wait to see the Statue of Liberty in front of Manhattan where once again, the Empire State Building is the tallest on the skyline. It's all starting to get very exciting.

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Comments

[Also Claire Tilson!]

Woop woop!
So glad you're back online I, and everyone else at my work, was getting withdrawal symptoms! I did suspect wifi was a bit patchy in the middle of the Atlantic, but very glad you've kept up to date on your blogging duties, what a treat to read 4 days worth in one go. It all sounds very exciting, and I'm definitely jealous of you going to NY, although not quite so jealous of the cold weather and stormy seas you've been experiencing! I'll be keeping an eye on the ship's webcam when I can, to see if I can get a glimpse of NY! Nice to hear you're making some friends, apart from gobshite George, and doing all this gym work - you'll be skinny malinks in no time! Can't wait to read the next installment xxxx