Sea Day – Saturday 20^th Feb

Bumpy night. Very.  Never noticed before that the trip from the bed to the bathroom was uphill… And likewise the journey back, oddly enough. Or as the passenger info channel PowerPoint on the telly puts it, “Very Rough. Force 9”. There was a calm bit at about half seven this morning. So much so that it woke me up, as if we were coming into port. But we’re back on the bumpy stuff now. How convenient for the worst weather to be hidden in the one place we have no weather forecast, so we cannot see any end in sight.

Up early today. VERY excited. Got to be ready and dressed and in my right mind and at the other end of the ship by 11am. ADAM HART-DAVIS is on board, and he is giving a talk! OMG how cool is that?! I think it’s about explorers, but frankly, I couldn’t care less. Just the chance to hear that man speak is plenty enough for me. The fact that he could make paint drying seem interesting is just a bonus.

Before that? Accidentally watching San Andreas on the telly. Wow, disaster movies are stressful! I haven’t seen one in a while, and now I remember why I avoid them. Hope my blood pressure comes down again soon. Then watched a film about a boy composer in New York, with Robin Williams as the baddie. No idea what it was called. Anyone able to tell me?

Then a bit of Spencer Kelly (BBC Click) getting downright tearful whilst visiting the heart of the LHC. Yes, I think I would too. Humans spend so much time dividing themselves from each other. It would blow my mind to be surrounded by something so enormous that really shows what we are capable of, if we work together. Yeah, you won a bit of land by shooting some people, good for you. We looked at the origins of the universe. The enormity of actually being there must be quite dizzying.

UPDATE: As predicted, Adam Hart-Davies was a wonderful speaker. And I ended up sat next to his wife, Sue, who is lovely. We sat there and pointed out all the errors he made to each other. We had a bit of a giggle. Adam didn’t make many (4 in total, and most so minor no one else would have spotted them). But the Entertainment Director made two, just in introducing him. We were already giggling before poor Adam had even opened his mouth.

Then back to a normal sea day. Lunch, fruit, Sudoku, crossword. Was going to swim, having given my eyes a day off from chlorine yesterday, but, because it was so rough, the pools have been drained. So my eyes get another day off. Probably no bad thing, all in all. It is now definitely calmer than it was, but we are still moving about quite a lot. So then back to the cabin for a siesta and a bit of Notting Hill prior to beginning the preening for yet another formal night.

Lovely dinner with everyone. Wore the red dress. Then to the cinema to see Inside Out. What a fascinatingly intellectual animation! I noticed a Brain Mind Institute listed on the credits, which explains the phenomenally detailed mind map. VERY cool. Loved it.

Then time for an early night. Tomorrow, things get really messy. Tomorrow is Sunday. We will not have Monday. The next time I type, it will be Tuesday. We cross the International Date Line, and we will skip from being 10 hours BEHIND GMT to being 13 hours IN FRONT. No, don’t ask me, I have no idea. I can’t get my head around it at all. I think I’m right in saying that I will go to bed on Sunday night and wake up on Tuesday morning, but, frankly, I don’t really have the slightest clue. How I will communicate with the UK from then on, I cannot begin to fathom. Just thinking about thinking about it is enough to give me a headache. So I’m not going to do it now. I’m going to bed. I’ve got all day tomorrow to try and figure it out. Or have I?!