My massage therapist, Shona, is very pleased with my progress. There is almost no yelping now from me when she works on my upper or lower back.  Today I had that special offer thing I mentioned, which lasted an hour and a half in total. And, yes, during the scalp massage, I did fall asleep. Which is a compliment to the masseur. Woke this morning after about eleven hours sleep, on and off, and went to lunch alone – Mum and Dad had a special meal for their loyalty points tier.  Feeling very rested and a bit more human. Then my massage, and now it’s time to get ready for a formal night. Busy, busy, busy.

Black and white night tonight. It’s always interesting to see how many women are either unwilling or unable to follow the dress code on a theme night. It’s not like they don’t know in advance. We are always told about theme nights weeks before departure. It’s just cussedness that causes them to rebel. But I don’t think it is a positive rebellion. It’s not cool to rebel against the rules in this instance. It’s just rude. It’s saying to everyone else, you can do what you’re told, but we’re not going to. We’re going to spoil the photos and aesthetic effect for everyone because we are so desperate for attention that even disapproving glares will do. There is no gain to this rebellion. Rebel against important stuff, by all means – sexism, homophobia, racism, prejudice. Fight against the status quo if it has a positive benefit to society. But wearing red or blue on Black and White night just makes you look like a petulant child, stamping your foot because you’re being told which dress to wear to the party.

There is currently a fascinatingly racist woman on BBC World, talking about the Saudi prince’s promise to give away all his money.  I think they said she is Lebanese and allegedly knows the Saudi prince personally. She keeps spouting anti-West and anti-Christian racist nonsense. First she said that Islamic charitable giving is more complicated than Christian giving and amounts to 3% which is much more than Christianity requires. As I recall, the Jewish and Christian tithe is 10%, and it isn’t just cash but also goods, i.e. a portion of your crop if you are a farmer, which she was claiming as a purely Muslim idea.  Then she said that it was even more complicated in Ramadan. I don’t think it is. It’s more important, but it doesn’t get more complicated – at least not that I know of.  And then she said that because Saudis pay no tax, when they give, they give from the heart, whereas Westerners only give for tax reasons. What a load of (very offensive) twaddle. I have no idea what her name is, but if anyone said stuff that denigrating about Islam or Saudi and Lebanese citizens that she is saying about Westerners and Christians, all hell would break loose. Racism works all ways, people.