27 August Sunday, At Sea

Up at 6.30, early breakfast in the Lido and then I created a 24-hour internet account (about $A35 for the one day!!) so I can catch up on everything and check in with the family. A lot of people complain about shipboard internet, but I haven’t had any issues on the laptop. I’m wondering whether it’s the other devices that are a problem, because I can’t seem to get my phone working successfully: I’m always glad to have my laptop when I’m away.

The service at 9.00 am was well attended – about 40 people at least. It turned out that there were two retired pastors on board; one of them, Dennis from the US, did the order of service (very un-structured) and the other one, a guy from Kentucky, did the message. We had a great time belting out the hymns in the hymnal (provided by the ship) and a prayer time when people contributed as they wanted to. The message was good (if a little to long) on Mark 2. Dennis asked me to speak at the end about organising further meetings, which I did, and then went to the Front Desk to get these in the schedule.

No sooner had I been back to the room to check email (with yet another cuppa), when it was time to go to the Mariner’s luncheon – yes, we really need more food! I took it easy because tonight is our first formal dinner. We also, of course, got a glass of champagne, so that’s 2 out of 3 days with a free drink. Tomorrow night I’ll take my bottle of champagne down to the table to share (another gift from my travel agent), as I’m sure the ladies will like that.

I had another 1 mile walk on the deck and had little else in the way of food during the afternoon. I went to a tech session about Cortana and was going to ask the girl if she had any suggestions about connecting my laptop with my phone. So I booted up the laptop, ready to ask and connected the charger to the opposite USB port: that must be the data download one because there was the connection. So I’ve been able to download all my pics from the mobiles.

Dinner was formal tonight: a nice menu again but I must remember to avoid their cheesecake: it’s the real crumbly cheese texture and I don’t like that – I prefer the smooth, creamy one. A walk on the deck after dinner to observe the sunset. I got a video of the red ball slipping behind the horizon but there was no colour show afterwards. Off to bed early.