Slept late. Woke up hungry, which is unusual.

It’s a sea day. What do you think happened?! Fruit, pasta, Sudoku and a bit of reading.

Met the new Seco today (Security Commander/Head of Security). Had to report a woman threatening me. Very odd, really. Yesterday, we had a chat with a guy who was whistling on deck. All perfectly pleasant. Just a chat about how it’s unlucky to whistle on a ship and it makes some people nervous. End of. Or so I thought. Today he and a friend were sat at the next table to us, moaning very loudly about the lack of music by the Neptune pool. So I thought I would try and help them, by explaining that if they wanted muzak, that was available at the other pool. They somehow took offence at this, and started singing loudly, and badly, and whistling – which was pretty immature, but easy to ignore. When I suggested, quite politely, that some people might want to sleep, including those on the sunloungers less than two feet from them, they said “If you want to sleep, go to the library”.  Which is a level of aggression and rudeness I was definitely not expecting. You can’t dignify that sort of crap with an answer, so I just went back to my book (Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Terry Darlington). If you want to be an inconsiderate bully and ruin other people’s afternoon, that’s your decision. I’m not mucking up my day dealing with your psychological issues. Mum was quite cross, because she likes quiet, but we calmed her down.

A few minutes later, some woman comes screaming at me about how she is not spending the rest of her expensive cruise with her lips zipped shut and how dare I tell her to shut up and what is my name and cabin number and am I threatening her, am I threatening her, am I threatening her, all the time jabbing her finger in my face and getting louder and louder and louder. I have no idea what she was talking about or where she appeared from or who she even was, for that matter, but there was no way I was leaving that as was. That was assault. So I went down to speak to Martin the Seco. Turns out he has been replaced by a new Seco, also, bizarrely, named Martin. Is this a job requirement?! I reported the incident – I was still shaking – but as I had no idea who the woman was, I couldn’t really give him much information. He came up on deck, but they had all run away by then (turns out they were all together – her and the psycho whistling bullies at the next table). Cowards and bullies. Dad says that he thinks that one of the men is a renowned bully, who is already making such a name for himself on here, bullying both staff and passengers alike, that the officers are considering banning him from all P&O ships in the future. Sadly, we are stuck with them until Southampton, unless something gives in the meantime…

They reappeared about an hour later. But much quieter… We shall see how this progresses.

Then a siesta and an edible dinner, although the guy who now prepares the avocados has yet to figure out how to SQUEEZE them before he slices them, to maybe check whether they are ripe yet or not. Nor has he learned that serving ‘any old shit as long as it looks like an avocado’ is not acceptable to the passenger.

But the rudeness on this ship is starting to really get me down. It’s like everyone who is now on board thinks that only what they want matters. No one else. Whether it’s a disabled woman who won’t allow others to use a dipped kerb, or these obnoxious Scottish people who don’t believe in peace and quiet, for anyone, it’s like the whole ship has gone completely mad. I don’t want to feel unhappy, on a trip this amazing, but it’s hard not to feel disheartened, when this is the best version of humanity you can find.

What it’s going to be like once cabin fever kicks in as well, I dread to think. We have eight sea days, remember. People can start to get a bit bonkers after about four.