25/4/2016 Final sea day to Southampton

Well the Bay of Biscay came and went without swell, nausea, or anything unpleasant. We are now in the English Channel, and it is predicted we'll be near the south of the Isle of Wight at around 3 a.m., I expect the phone will come back on then, which will be delightful. So today, instead of typical BOB behaviour of groaning and lying down, our last day was a good one. It was all about finishing off our time away, saying goodbyes especially to our cabin steward Austan and our most favourite waiter, Shakti. We have also been attending final concerts, final art exhibition and of course packing and getting ready for the grand disembarkation in the morning. We both put two of our paintings in the art exhibition - mine were Woman Carrying Fish on Head and Arch 22, Khachik's were Humming Bird and Monk Seal. The following are Khachik's gorgeous creatures.

EVERYONE on the ship was wearing jumpers today, including all the restaurant staff, who have long sleeved navy jumpers for when the weather is in single figures like today.

So we have enjoyed our last rounds of haute cuisine looking out to sea, enjoying the endless sea in its many states, the blue, grey, red and orange skies, sun rises and sunsets, iced drinks, the balcony, our lovely cabin and of course these amazing countries: Singapore, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion Island, South Africa, Namibia, Cape Verde, Canaries and Madeira.

Tonight after the final dinner we went to the final concert in the Curzon Theatre - it was a bit like a Royal Variety performance. By the way we were sitting behind the 5 young men in Collabro, and that felt really funny having been sitting where they were when they were performing on stage yesterday.  Then there were 5 separate performances, The Headliners, the Opera Boys, Clare Bonsu and Brian Conley. So we have been well and truly light-entertained.

Khachik made use of the gym for the last time, walking on the treadmill for an hour. He must have the healthiest heart and circulation of a 70 year old on the ship, he hasn't missed a day. I on the other hand have been resting more than ever! I engage in the most gentle restorative mobility and stretch now. I do think about cardio and strength, and how long it will be before I can do something else, but for now they are on hold.

Just a quick word about hips - I honestly didn't know how this cruise would pan out, or if hip pain would detract from my enjoyment. In brief I can honestly say that it has been much better to be here doing this, with the many distractions I have had, than in the cold. Next up are the two hip replacements but I can't say exactly when. I hope it is soon because intractable pain can be very tiring and it will be such a good thing when it has gone. I have had a very good time, in spite of it, and feel very lucky and very grateful to have this kind of a distraction in my life :)

Now for the next chapter, and whatever that may hold. Maybe I will add a little bit on here tomorrow about the morning once we arrive home, let's see, but I will say bye for now. xx

19/4/2016 Sea day to Tenerife

We are well on our way to Tenerife - this morning something serendipitous occurred when I was checking our position, the weather and our speed.  We were at 21 degrees north, 21 degrees west, 21 degrees Celsius and 21 nautical miles per hour. Not much chance of that happening to us again.  What could that mean in the great scheme of things? ;)

Anyway, times have since changed and here they are at 10 p.m. 24 north  18 west  21.5 nautical miles per hour and and 20 degrees celsius.  This means we have crossed the Tropic of Cancer today, have passed Mauritania and are around the same latitude as Western Sahara. We will be saying goodbye to Africa tomorrow and re-entering Europe as we visit Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Madeira over the next 3 days.

Tomorrow we are on an excursion called "Northern Panorama", a half day in the afternoon by coach with very little walking to help me deal with hip ache, instead taking in the views.  It is only 3 months since our last visit to Tenerife, so we remember Teide by cable car very well, and didn't really want to spend a day on the beach either so this one sounds new and interesting.  I am reluctant to promise live contact via wi-fi, but am more hopeful than ever!  Let's see.

Just a quick update on our sea day activities today: super healthy breakfast on the windy deck (force 6), painting a Cape Verdian woman bearing fish on head, roast turkey dinner for lunch.

                      

Our high spot today was another inspirational talk by the most wonderful Chris Lubbe, a repeat of his first talk for those who had missed it with a few extra explanatory slides and a BBC feature about race classification during apartheid. A couple of times Chris alluded to the pre apartheid times and the segregation that pre-existed 1948, the colonial times, and the embarrassment it might cause us to to know that the British started it.  Here's a timeline - it might help to clarify.

The BBC world Service has whole projects about African History to support Chris's talk,  and the extract below is from there

"A large number of laws were passed to establish the apartheid structure of government. The three most important blocks of legislation were:

• The Race Classification Act. Every citizen suspected of not being European was classified according to race.
• The Mixed Marriages Act. It prohibited marriage between people of different races.
• The Group Areas Act. It forced people of certain races into living in designated areas.

The apartheid regime had a number of pseudo scientific tests for classifying people as belonging to one of four main groups: White, Black, Indian, Coloured (mixed race). One of these tests involved putting a comb through hair - if it got stuck, that meant the person being tested was identified as African.

Every year, people were reclassified racially. In 1984, for example:
518 Coloured people were defined as White
2 whites were called Chinese
1 white was reclassified Indian
1 white became Coloured
89 Coloured people became African"

Chris gives personal perspective to the following table showing the inequality,  taken from http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html.  He speaks of the day his family's land was confiscated, resettling in a squatter camp with no possessions, attending a school with 60 pupils per class and no books, having to scavenge rubbish dumps for discarded books.



After Chris's talk I went to a second art class while Khachik went to gym, then an afternoon nap for me, just because I can.  Tonight there was another 5 course dinner and a thoroughly enjoyable Shirley Bassey night with a rather good west-end musical performer called Clare Bonsu, with all the arm, eye and hip drama you'd expect from Shirl, two Beatles numbers, two Bond songs, Big Spender, I am what I am and everything!

Until tomorrow, so hoping to get some pictures up and chat! Bye for now xx