Saturday, 13 December 2014

Shopping at sea

Wednesday 3rd December

I was up so late that I decided it was not worth going for breakfast. Mistake! I had a long wait before eating. I went to the last of the dancing lesson in order to meet Jenny and Judith for lunch. They had decided to go to the dining room for lunch. Unfortunately there was a long queue at the dining room. This was a problem as Judith and I had tickets for the Planetarium show at 2pm. There was no way we would make it. After ordering, Judith went down and got tickets for the 2.30 show instead, and we made this with no problems. It was an interesting show, narrated by Harrison Ford, about life on our planet and the question of life on other planets, including interesting astronomical information. The seats recline and the pictures are projected onto a dome, zooming around and in and out. It’s quite spectacular.

I wanted to wear my blue dress that night, but needed a sparkly necklace to wear with it. I had been hunting around my local shops for something that was both tasteful and sparkly. Of course I found one on board ship! In fact I found two possibles in the Swarovski section. After dressing for dinner I took Jenny and Judith to the shop to help me choose. In the end it was simple. The clear crystal with silver strapping did not show up on my skin; it needed to be over a dark fabric. The teardrop with tiny clear and blue crystals showed up well and the blues blended in with the dress.

The first dance session that night was sequence dancing. I did the Sally Anne cha cha with one passenger and the Saunter Together with a Dance Host, and made a mess of both. Neither gentlemen seemed to know the dances well either. That was a pity as I’d gone over both of those dances with my dance teacher in dance lessons before going away. My memory was not good enough to retain them. I needed a strong lead to remind myself.


The dancing that night was quite good. I have tried the Viennese Waltz with three different Dance Hosts and can’t do it with any of them. I think I get confused because I’m trying to turn 360 degrees (which is correct) but they are only able to manage 270 degrees! Their lead is not strong enough to control my over-eagerness. (Who's leading here?) After dancing a cha cha with me one host said with surprise ‘You’re a better dancer than you make out to be!’ Really? What made him think I can’t dance? Another Host also thinks I can’t dance and is very encouraging when I get things right! I have found that a good dancer recognises my ability instantly, but a poor dancer will spend the whole cruise trying to 'help' me, not realising how much I actually know. My limitations are caused by his poor leading. It was funny later in the cruise when one of the Dance Hosts asked me to waltz and said 'Let's really stride this one out.' I took longish steps and left him behind! I had to go back to small steps.

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