25th May

Sea Day. Temp 28c smooth sea.

We are now heading in a north westerly direction across the Arafura Sea which is called a shallow tropical with an average depth of between 50 to 80 meters. Another port talk this morning about Langkawi which is an island and is part of Malaysia. The last time we were here we took the ships tour to the cable car ride which I remember well as a white knuckle ride straight  up the side of a mountain. We will not be doing that again. In the Horizon Court today the was a Pub Lunch served. After lunch we went to, guess where, Ballroom @ Sea where we reviewed what has been covered so far. Afterwards we stayed on to see how the Line Dancing was going and someone must have got into the instructors ear because he has toned down the dances and we actually stayed and joined in.

Tonight we had a choice of going to see Patrick Roberts in a brand new show or Vocalist Michael Votano who not only sings but also plays the Saxaphone. We elected to see Michael and we are glad we did. His show was excellent, he not only sang the sort of songs we like but he also had an unusual presentation. He said he had worked in Disney World and he put together 3 Disney songs complete with matching visuals. We finished the night off with a hot chocolate in the Atrium while listening to David Crathorne playing music from musicals on the grand piano.

Sent 

25/05/14

Sea day Temp 29c Sunny with smooth seas.

The Church Service today was at 8.45am so rather than spend time getting food in the Horizon Court we decided to have breakfast in our cabin. We arrived in the Vista Lounge where the service was to be held when the Tai Chi session was just finishing. I thought we had stumbled in on an alternative spiritual meeting. The church service was led by a passenger rather than the Captain as is usual. Herman Ruyters is his name and he is the Pastor at a Community Church in Queensland. He preached on the Prodigal Son and gave it a new slant. I hope he continues to lead each Sunday Service. After the service we just had time to scoot down to the Princess theatre for Deborah’s port talk about Phuket. She gave another very informative talk. There is of course some slight doubt as to whether we will go there in view of the problems they are having, however as Phuket is 500 kms from Bangkok where most of the activity is we should be OK. If Barbara & John are reading this blog they will remember visiting Phuket with us and going to the James Bond  Island and the village built on stilts above the water. We have chosen a different tour this time but more of that later when we go.

At lunch today in the Horizon Court they served a Fruit Flambe Buffet and it was just as well that Ballroom dancing followed because we both over indulged. The dance today was the Parma Waltz. Betty could not stay for the full session because she wanted to go to another lecture at 2pm so I finished the dance with a lady whose husband will not come to the lessons. I stayed on for the Line Dancing but he has slipped back into his bad ways and was putting on dances that have jumps and hops etc. so I left.

Today we are now among the islands of Indonesia. I am enclosing a photograph taken of the display we can get on our cabin TV which shows a map of our position.

Tonight there was another Production Show entitled The Piano Man using the music by people like Elton john and Barry Manliow. It was another high energy show which only lasted about 40 minutes but it was none stop.

Our clocks go back an hour tonight to put us on Singapore time.