Who knew juggling could be such fun?

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Sunday 20th February:

Bad news this morning: for the first time since we left England the clocks had to move

forward an hour. Every time we've had a time change until now we've gained an extra

hour in bed but today we lost an hour. Which meant we woke up late so went to breakfast

late so only just made the lecture at 10.00 (all about the air fight in the Falklands

War). Notice anything missing from the list? This all meant we went to the gym late -

just before lunch. And it was horrid having to dredge up motivation on top of a full

stomach. Boy did it hurt today.

Thank goodness the afternoon was dedicated to a classical guitar concert, swimming,

reading, drinking tea and snoozing.

Tonight we ate from a wonderful Chinese buffet before going to the show in the theatre.

It was the best of the entire trip. A comic juggler. And he was a blinkin' fine

juggler and a damn funny comic. The time flew by and we both ended up with tummy ache

from laughing so much. Even bought the guy's DVD - Pete Matthews if you fancy Googling

him.

Weird moments of the day today included talking to another passenger in the swimming

pool. The pool was doing its usual of sending the water in waves from one end to the

other and splashing about quite dramatically. This woman was asking how does Cunard put

the waves into the water. At first we thought she was joking but after asking the same

question 4 times I guessed she really wanted to know. When we explained that Cunard

didn't have a wave machine it was just the motion of the ocean causing it, she looked at

me in a very spaced out kind of way clearly convinced I was nuts and that Cunard has

hidden wave machines in the pool. The other weird moment was someone's interpretation

of the semi formal dress code tonight. She seemed to think it called for what can only

be described as a pink duster to be tied in circles round her head. I guess it's a good

job we're all different. Dusters never made it to my packing list!

We arrive in Auckland, New Zealand tomorrow and we're very excited about what we have

booked: we're going sailing on an Americas Cup yacht. Auckland is called The City of

Sails so it feels very appropriate and a real chance of a lifetime. Like so much of

this trip. New Zealand is as far away from England as it's possible to get so it won't

be long now before we actually begin the journey home. But as we don't get home until

April 27th, the second half of this cruise is going to be slower than the first. Less

ocean and many more ports. If the first half is anything to go by, it's going to be

great!

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