Not a good night’s sleep. Hot and sticky. And I still have a roaring sore throat. Lots of vitamin C today, methinks.

Woken before 9 by an announcement about Manila health inspections. A little five-day cruise/jaunt for the erstwhile chaps and chapesses of Philippines Immigration.  Anyway, I fell back asleep – having not slept for much of the night, it wasn’t difficult! Woke at 11.30. No more announcements, bizarrely. Went to the inspection, only to find they had knocked off for lunch! Handed my form in at Reception, anyway, and went up on deck to have lunch with mum and dad.

Fruit, Sudoku, a bit of reading for the OU essay I have to summon into existence in under a week, swim. Only managed six lengths because (a) it was rough as hell and (b) I am clearly coming down with something and my arms and legs could not do any more. Seems silly to have got wet for so little achievement, but it was worth a try. Apart from anything else, it confirms that my sore throat is working very hard on becoming more than a sore throat, and I need to take it easy for a bit. Mind you, I drank so much, I imagine the chlorine has pretty much sterilised my throat!

The essay is on whether it is possible to discuss the value of human life without recourse to religious doctrine or terminology. Had a chat with dad about this. He thinks that the value of life is extrinsic and based on your utility to others and what you do with your life. Mum thinks the opposite – that the life of a nurse is as valuable as the life of a rapist, because, as she put it, “where there is life, there is hope”. Both arguments intrigue me, so I may actually quite enjoy doing this essay, for a change.

The sea was turquoise green for most of the past week, but we have now reverted to cobalt blue. There are sporadic dark patches here, under the water, that do not match the clouds above. Don’t what is down there, but it looks quite sinister! Thank heavens for radar and sonar, to protect us from bumping into whatever they are. Probably volcanoes that are gradually growing towards the surface. In a few decades’ time, there will probably be new islands here to steer around. This is the ring of fire, after all.

Tomorrow marks the end of week 9 of 16. Another Sunday rolls around. This is passing far too fast for my liking.

Then dinner and back to the cabin. Actually very tired, but my brain is buzzing about this essay. So maybe not quite such an early night as I was originally planning. Need to get some ideas down on paper.

Not a bad night’s sleep. Didn’t go to bed til 1.30 am, because Christine and I went out for a drink. She is a truly amazing person, who has had an extraordinary life – much of it pretty miserable – and she is also really, really nice. We chatted for hours (obviously!). Later, I had some very odd dreams, but not unpleasant, and at least I didn’t get woken by cramp, which made a pleasant change.

Woken by a crew drill at 9.55 am. This crew alert thing is very annoying. I’ve finally found the beginning of an episode of Ambassadors that I have not seen (as usual, I have seen the END), and it is being constantly muted while the Captain blathers on, every few minutes. Here we go again. *Sigh* Heaven forbid those of us who are NOT participating in the drill should be left in bloody peace. They’ve been bugging us, on and off, for over an HOUR now.

28 degrees in the shade as at 8 am this morning. It’s cooling down quite quickly now. 28 may not sound cool to you, but it’s a damned sight cooler than the high 30s we were dealing with last week.

Do you remember the pre-recorded tv channel that I have mentioned before – Prime US – that runs trailers for stuff due out last Christmas? Well, it has just dawned on me that they show weather forecasts for US towns in between shows. They are labelled Monday to Sunday, but with no date or month. That’s bizarre. This could be the forecast for Honolulu six months ago! Very odd.

Hang on, did someone just say that Jack Warner had an apartment in Trump Tower just for HIS CATS?!?!?!?!?!?!? I need to do look into this. That’s astonishing, if true.

Baltic lunch. I went up a loyalty tier at Sydney, due to points/ nights accrued, so now I get to go to the same lunches as the parents. Three courses (asparagus, beef, bizarre dessert), free drinks. Fairly pleasant company. Sat with the doctor, and her dad. Her name is Emma! Chatted with two sisters called Pam and Pat. Turns out, they were on the same Alaska cruise as us, on here, and on the Aurora cruise where mum broke her wrist, so we had quite a lot in common.

The bizarre dessert was called Rocky Road, so you would expect ice cream, right? Wrong. Two balls of chocolate mousse (marbled mix of milk choc and white choc), three cubes of white marshmallow (one coated in cocoa), three VERY small cherries, a handful of salted peanuts and a handful of walnuts. When you mixed it all together, yourself – rather like the Eton Mess you have to mix up yourself – it was surprisingly tasty, but it didn’t look very good on the plate!

No internet. *sigh*. The first real outage of the whole cruise. And it has been out all day, so far.  It came back at 5.20 pm, just as I was off out to do stuff, but it’s a good thing I decided to be late for the stuff, as I had some rather urgent emails to deal with. Like it’s not complicated enough being ten hours adrift…

Have just realised I never set foot outdoors today. That ain’t healthy. No wonder I have a sore throat. Hope it doesn’t become anything more.

I think I have been glutened. I had four bouts of cramp during the night, and my mouth has once again been fitted with wall to wall carpeting. I don’t recall tummy issues, so it might have been cross-contamination, rather than a full on bread intake. Still a tiring way to start what are supposed to be rest days for recharging.

Found out why it may be that we did not see the eclipse. We were told it would begin at 11.30 am. It started at 10.08 am. Spot the difference. Seriously, if you can’t trust P&O to get even something as simple as that right and inform you accurately… It took me precisely 98 seconds of googling to find this.

So anyone who looked up at 11:30 would have been disappointed.  But, to be honest, it didn’t get dark, and it didn’t get cold (it was nearly 40 degrees – how would we have noticed?!). There was no birdsong, so we wouldn’t have heard them stop singing. Papua was actually hundreds of miles off course and so we wouldn’t have seen much anyway. Still a bit annoying though. Time to book for the States for next year perhaps (August 21^st, fact fans – get as far south as possible – Central America would be better still)?

10 am for me, midnight for you. At least we are now on the same day, at least for a while!

I have just watched a documentary showing coral eating plankton. . I had always thought plankton was a form of seaweed – turns out they are really really small fish. With surprisingly big blue eyes. What a barbaric way to kill. The fronds paralyse the passing plankton, and then they drop them down into the mouth. Alive. They drop very slowly, because they are moving through water, not air, of course, and this big black hole opens beneath them. The last thing they see is the faces of other paralysed plankton inside the mouth hole as they fall towards it. And then the mouth closes over them. Utterly horrible. I may have nightmares.

We are now passing an island called New Britain. No prizes for guessing who got there first.

Fruit, Sudoku, 26 lengths (one cramp I can survive, two bouts is time to give up and get out). To be fair, I had been in the pool for an hour before I started swimming, chatting to Christine. It was like being in a rather warm bath that someone tipped up once in a while, sloshing everything down the other end. In fact, I was in so long, I think I got a little sunburned on my nice white watch strap mark, which is annoying, because it won’t prove how pale I was when I boarded, but it’s not the end of the world, in the grand scheme of things.

I am surprised Sky News is allowed to talk so much about the Islamic State membership flash drive they have obtained. Call me cynical, but it makes me wonder how long this has been in the hands of UK/other intelligence organisations. I cannot believe they would be allowed to trumpet it, if it was brand new data. If they publicised it before handing it over to the authorities, they could have done significantly more harm than good, and they could find themselves in VERY serious trouble indeed. It’s an interesting story, though, and it has been fascinating watching it develop from a triumphal but limited announcement last night, to a detailed analysis (after having woken up someone who can read Arabic, presumably!) later in the day.

Black and white night. Lots of women wearing red and blue, as usual. It is very tiresome. Seriously, I know I say this every time, but how frigging hard can it be to dress in black and white? Really? If I’m being unreasonable, feel free to say so, but I simply cannot comprehend that this is in any way hard. All black or all white is fine. It doesn’t have to be black AND white. But how you get from black and white to “head to toe bright red”, is utterly beyond me. Yes, I have a red dress. I might wear it. TOMORROW. When it isn’t BLACK AND WHITE NIGHT. *Sigh*

Couldn’t get back to sleep. Neither did mum. Am literally shaking with fatigue and the effort of just being upright. Have drunk some caffeine. Hope it kicks in soon and is enough to keep me going.

We went ashore about ten. The heat and humidity hits you like a wall. It was 30 in the shade by 8am. It’s devastating. It’s like carrying a weight around your neck and legs. We walked to the end of the quay and found a taxi to take us into town. He tried to change the agreed price once we were already moving, but I soon put paid to that idea. Cheeky bugger. It was only a five minute run. But bless his little entrepreneurial heart for trying. I hope it works for him with other cruise passengers, at least sometimes.

Alotau is a very simple town. There are not really any proper roads or pavements, just damaged tarmac and dust. I walked to and through the market, which was made up of two open-sided buildings – essentially roofs on stilts. One had stalls where almost everyone sold cigarette lighters, batteries or doughnuts, and the other was fresh fruit and veg – but mostly betelnuts. These are the local fruit, about the size of a kiwi fruit, and when you chew them, your mouth goes red and you get a small high. Everyone was very relaxed and happy and friendly – mostly, probably, because they were all very slightly stoned. When I asked why all the stalls sold the same thing, the guide simply shrugged and said “Demand”. And everyone was very kind and concerned about mum – we couldn’t leave her on a bench, because everyone kept stopping to try and help her! Luckily they all speak perfect English, however many other languages they speak as well.

There are two horseshoe-shaped streets of shops, with car parking up the middle – rather like Yorkey’s Knob, but not so much a bird in flight as the Golden Arches on stilts. Long, thin versions. Everything is a surprisingly long way apart from everything else, for somewhere so essentially small. They have put flower beds in the middle of the car park – it looks very pretty, for a car park!

I bought a t-shirt in the supermarket, which had air con! And then we took a cab back to the ship. I don’t think I’ve ever been back on board from anywhere in under two hours, but although the people were very nice, there was precious little to see or do, or buy. I completed a questionnaire from their tourism team – they really want to improve the lot for future visitors. Last year they had nine cruise ships come in; this year they are expecting 14, so I imagine that, if we ever come again, it will look very different indeed.

No postcards bought – none available. Likewise no magnets. No wifi seen. Although they have a mobile phone system run by a company called Digicel, who are really hot on advertising.

Had lunch and then went back to bed. utterly shattered. Slept for just shy of two hours.

Didn’t see any sign whatsoever of a solar eclipse. P&O probably got the time wrong.

My knees are killing me. What the heck have I done to them?!

Apparently lunch time yesterday was bang on halfway round. I forgot the actual timescale is sixteen weeks and three days. So now you know.

We left at 5pm on Wednesday. We won’t see land now until next Tuesday, in Manila.

We are in the doldrums. Both physically and metaphorically. The sea near the Equator is dead calm. It once again resembles not so much water as slightly baggy/ badly-laid carpet – with barely a wrinkle to suggest movement. There is no wind. At. All. I knew where we were without looking out or even at the telly this morning. It’s too calm. I can’t sleep, and I am, once again, plunged into a phenomenal depression. Going out onto deck doesn’t help. The humidity is ludicrous, and the heat is quite oppressive (30 in the shade), even in the restaurant, where the air con is doing its best.  So fruit, Sudoku, back to bed. Bleurgh. Why the change in air pressure makes me so down, I have no idea. I wonder if anyone has ever studied the effects of air pressure on mood. Maybe part of Seasonal Affective Disorder is to do with the repeated Lows we get passing over us in winter? This merits proper investigation, methinks. When I win the Lottery, I will fund the research myself, if no one else has done it by then.

Now that we are in the Coral Sea, and have almost escaped the reefs (the pilot will be free to give a talk after 3pm), I feel I can now say, Dear Australia, single ply toilet paper is not a thing. Stop it. Even the ship manages two-ply and we have The Most Temperamental Plumbing System On Earth. Single ply just means people will use twice as much and fold it over. You’re saving nothing, but you’re annoying everyone. Stop it at once.

Spoke to Pauline, who snorkelled the GBR yesterday. She said it was very badly damaged – mostly, it would seem, by the boat they were in, which kept hitting the coral! Surely a tourist guide should know how to avoid damaging the reef that provides his livelihood?! Very worrying.

Enough typing for now. I need a nap and some chocolate, and not necessarily in that order.

0246AM Woken by a call through the cabins on the emergency “headboard” channel for a first stage assessment party to smoke in the lift mechanisms on deck 11. Fair enough, although how waking 1800 passengers helps with this, I have no idea, because we are none of us are assessment party members. Very odd. Are we to believe that they do not have a channel that broadcasts only below decks or in the public spaces? That every emergency means waking us all, no matter how temporary? And it was REALLY loud. I was woken, despite being sound asleep and having my ear plugs in. So it does its job (which is good to know for if it should ever really matter). It’s just that its not an emergency that is, at least for now, in any way relevant to me. Maybe they think they should wake us all just in case they have to muster us later? It’s all very peculiar. I’ve heard assessment party calls before, but never in the cabins. Someone is either really worried, or about to get demoted in a few hours’ time for waking up 1800 people unnecessarily.

0251AM The team have been stood down. Again, by blasting through the cabins.

0252 AM. There has been a “small”* fire in the lift machinery by the East bar on deck 11. The Captain has just apologised, personally, for waking us, but wanted to reassure us that the fire is now out. Gosh, that was all very exciting. Right, now, where was i? Oh yes, asleep.

*Remember, as the fireman attending next door once said to my dad, there is no such thing as a small fire.

Sometimes this starts to feel almost normal. You get up, you do stuff, you go to bed, you have perfectly ordinary dreams – well, as ordinary as dreams get. Last night’s had a full orchestra, and the entire cast of All Creatures Great and Small, but still… And then you get a tender port. And you are reminded that this is not a normal life. You do not get to live it as you want. You do not get to decide when you wake. You do not have much control at all over your day. The announcements start at 7.30, if you are lucky. There are immigration announcements, import restrictions and quarantine announcements, tender boat ticket numbers being called, weather reports (28 degrees by 8am), crew drills. Sleep is moot. You can try, but you won’t get far. Even with ear plugs. If this sounds like a grumpy paragraph, bear in mind its content. I’ve been awake for an hour and a half and it’s not yet 9am. I’m probably not quite as grumpy as it sounds, but I do wish I was still in bed!

Had to wait a while for a tender. I don’t know why they were only loading one at a time. They had enough pontoons out to load four simultaneously, if they could be bothered. It took about 15 minutes to get to shore in Yorkey’s Knob. Yorkey was apparently the one-armed landowner who bought this stretch of coast. Allegedly. We went into the yacht club to (a) use the loos and (b) ask what there was here to see or do. You can’t rely on the port guide or the port talk woman, and the sum total of their information was precisely zero anyway. We were told there were some shops, so we took a taxi there. It turned out to be one enclave of shops, like they have in the USA – in the shape of two birds in flight, with car parks under the ‘wings’ (or two quadrangles, if you prefer). That was it for the whole town. So we had a drink in the Tasty café, bought some stuff in the Post Office (standard fare: postcards, magnets and a t-shirt), and the nice post lady called a cab for us. It never came, so we hailed one in the street and went back to the yacht club.

We then boarded the free shuttle bus, which took us into Cairns, about half an hour away. We drove through seas of sugar cane. This is flood plain, so no one builds here, apparently. That sounds smart. Hmmm. Maybe the UK should consider that? Not building on a known flood plain. What a novel idea.

Between the cane and the mountains that surrounded us on every side (except the one with the ocean), was the rainforest. It looked beautiful. But the humidity was so high where we were, there was no way we were going to get any closer to it! Those of you who remember my piece on the Panama Canal, will remember my mentioning how the clouds come so low, they literally seem to be catching on the branches of the trees, and shreds peel off. It’s really very pretty to watch, and it happened here too – more so on the way home, as the weather deteriorated somewhat. There was even a brief spate of windscreen wiper usage on the return shuttle bus.

Cairns is a biggish town, but well laid out, by the ocean, and very friendly. The oddest thing about it is that, whereas the rest of the world considers their coastline an asset and tourist trap, Cairns considers their coastline to be a positive danger. After having heard talk about jellyfish, crocodiles, sharks and cyclones, I can see why, mind you! Instead of putting hotels and cafes and watersports on their waterfront, they put their hospital there! It’s HUGE! It takes up several entire blocks. What a tragic waste of seafront. But, on the other hand, if you get caught by any of the aforementioned hazards, I suppose the location is very sensible indeed!

We eventually found a café overlooking the water –sort of – which was outside a shopping centre (both called The Pier). The food was quite good, although the service wasn’t marvellous. The sparkling water was out of date, but only by a couple of days. Does that count?

When I walked through the shopping centre afterwards, I found two other bars and cafes, both with amazing views of the water and the marina. And both SHUT. This is the venue nearest to the Cairns Cruise Terminal (where we clearly did not park because it was cheaper to moor off and tender in – there was no other cruise ship there). Why, if you know there is a cruise ship terminal, and you are located slap bang next door, would you be shut?! It’s Monday, it’s not even the weekend. Very puzzling. They knew we were coming, because you could see Arcadia moored out in the bay. In fact, several of the shopowners guessed we were from the ship, as soon as they heard our accents.

We browsed the shops and I very nearly bought a beautiful cocktail dress. I was, however, somewhat hesitant at paying £75 quid for a dress that doesn’t even reach the floor! I appreciate it was handmade, etc. but it still seemed prohibitively steep. Am still considering that decision, even now. Good thing they have a website, in case I change my mind… If you would like torture yourself by looking at some lovely dresses, the site is at http://www.wildsugarbysajeela.com.au. They ship to the UK, if that helps.

The heat and humidity was really tiring – 30 degrees in the shade and over 60% humidity, last time I checked – so movement and energy for exploring was severely limited amongst all three of us, so we headed back to the ship in time for 5pm. Confusingly, we had been told by P&O that the last bus from Cairns was at 6 and the last tender from Yorkey’s Knob at 7, but the bus driver, who drove us into town at lunchtime, said the last bus was 5, so we felt like we were cutting it pretty fine! Who was right and who was wrong, we may never know, but better safe than sorry (We eventually sailed a little before nine, so I have no idea).

Factoid of the day #1: Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse places on Earth, and has 841 languages spoken there. Apparently.

Factoid of the day #2: Only one in four in the UK reaches the age of 75. Woah. Really? Yikes.

UPDATE: This morning I left two letters at Reception. One, addressed to the Captain, about the church bells being piped into the cabins, and one addressed to Helen, the Hotel Manager, about her continuing lack of apology for the sewage incident.

This evening, the Captain has written to me to apologise for the church bells. He says it won’t happen again. He says he has personally seen to it.

The Head of Housekeeping (who recently changed) came to see me after dinner. The Hotel Manager, Helen, has also changed, and we now have Peter Someone (possibly Thomas). But Andrew Salinas, the new Head of Housekeeping took personal responsibility for the issue, despite not being on board when it occurred, saying it was his job to fix this. He was very apologetic and offered me some on board credit by way of an apology, both for the incident, and the delay in resolving the whole issue. This is a good deal. Most people get a free meal in one of the fine dining restaurants, that you normally pay extra to eat in. On board credit is a much better response, because I can spend it how I please. So I’m happy with that. And he said that, if I ever have another issue, I should contact him and he will PERSONALLY deal with it. This counts as a very satisfactory ending. Shame it took two months to sort.

The church bells toll the death knell of another week. *sigh* (And, yes, before you ask, they did broadcast them into the cabins – grrrr). This is going WAY too fast for my liking. We have passed halfway now, and have done over 19,000 miles. We are, essentially, now – via a rather circuitous route, granted – on our way home. Much as I love you all dearly, that’s a miserable thought. On the one hand, it’s a bit early for the post-holiday blues, but on the other, we have, to all intents and purposes, now finished three holidays, and only have three (well, two and a bit) left to go. So you could argue we have a right to a few post-holiday blues at this stage.

We have already said goodbye to Hugh, Bob, Sheila, Peter and Nicky from the first leg, Chris, Fran and Abigail from the second, and Paula and Dale and Laurie and Michael and Michael from the third. I am in email contact with Paula and Dale and Single Michael. So far, none of the others have made contact.

81 in the shade. Grey, overcast, not a breath of wind, sea like a millpond, H.A.H.(humid as hell)

Mum got her Mother’s Day cards first thing, and then her gifts at lunchtime – a small fluffy penguin from The Falklands, and a koala magnet from Sydney. I don’t think many people on the ship got Mother’s Day cards. I wonder if she realised how special she was?

Then we pretty much all went back to bed! We are shattered. I was way too weary to swim. I would have sunk like a stone. My arms and legs feel like jelly. And my brain has turned to mush (again). Couldn’t even complete a simple Sudoku today. And there were two crossword clues that stumped me as well – so it’s not just my logic, but my language centres that are affected. And as for my concentration…

Turns out the tablemates are quite good company, as long as no one mentions refugees…

We won’t be Skyping anyone tomorrow (Yorkey’s Knob/Cairns). We are currently at GMT +10, so 11am for us is 1am in the UK, which is no good, and we have to think about heading back (as it is a tender port) at about 5pm, which would be 7am, which would probably not go down well, either.  All this time zone nonsense is very confusing. Life was much simpler before Skype – we just sent postcards! Now we have to constantly think about what time it is at home, which is, frankly, exhausting.

10 hours’ sleep. Definitely needed that.

Fruit, Sudoku, pasta, swim. 20 lengths, I think. It was hard to keep count. An Australian man got in, swam very aggressively, spitting profusely with every head turn, showering everyone with his spat out water, and then he started kicking people as he passed. He got me right in the thigh muscle. Mercifully, he got out, eventually. It wasn’t as rough as the other day – when I swear there was at least one stroke that was so ineffective against the waves, that I think I actually went backwards. Today it was dead calm. Easier to complete a length, but not nearly as entertaining. Or, thanks to Spitty Kicky Man, as enjoyable.

Now here’s a statistic. 1 in 12 of the British population are being studied by a scientific study or survey of some kind. Wow. That’s a lot.

On deck today, a woman kept pushing her sunlounger backwards, ostensibly into the shade. But what she was actually doing was blocking the only thoroughfare across the deck. A waiter politely asked her to put her sunlounger further forward, but she shouted at him, saying she needed shade. I decided to back him up, pointing out that waiters and trolleys and wheelchairs needed to pass by. She said she would move if she was asked to. I asked her why she thought that someone in a wheelchair should have to ask her permission to cross the deck – I forgot to point out there are also blind people on board. She had a go at me, saying I was shouting at her, and I didn’t need to worry, as I am not in a wheelchair. I responded that I am capable of thinking of people other than myself. She moved her lounger. Some people.

Formal night. Teal dress, CZ necklace and bracelet. Pop socks to keep the toes warm. Early night. I’m getting too old for this.

For the first time on this whole trip, I forgot to put my watch back last night. I’m normally quite good at remembering. Not like me to forget something that important. On the upside, it meant that I was up and showered in time to watch Stranger Than Fiction, which is a lovely film. Might well go straight into my top ten ever.

We disembarked and found mum’s cousin, Joyaa, waiting for us. It was a long walk from the ship to the meeting point. They really should have warned us and offered wheelchair assistance (we found one for the return trip later!). It was lovely to see Joyaa. It’s been nearly seven years since we last saw him (we think!).

He drove us to Mount Coont-tha (?) (different spellings are available, but Kunta doesn’t seem any better), which gave us a spectacular view over the whole of Brisbane. We drove around the botanical gardens twice before we found the summit restaurant, so we got a good view of the local flora and fauna of the area as well, including getting very up close and personal with a bearded dragon, a kookaburra and an ibis. The road that runs around the mountain is shaped like Africa, so I navigated it as such (I was on map-reading duty all day). So I would announce, for example, that we were at Senegal, and aiming for Cape Town.

At the summit café, we had a snack lunch and some well-earned drinks and took lots of photos of the view. We also did some family tree surfing – Joyaa has built the most amazing website for grandpa’s tree – it’s phenomenal. We read out bits of mum’s great-grandfather’s UK naturalisation application, which turned out to include a drink driving conviction! Seriously, Wales let anyone in, in those days.

Then we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (biggest in the world – are there many?!). No hesitation about student or senior discounts here. I pushed mum around the place in a borrowed wheelchair. It is all very smooth tarmac, but no one has given any thought to GRADIENTS, and sometimes I was very worried about stopping in time at the bottom – I had to swerve at least once to avoid some tables and chairs. And several times, on the ups, I was laid out at full stretch trying to get her up the hill. They are VERY steep. At one point, I thought I was going to give – either at my back or a knee – in which case, she would have rolled back down onto my head and probably killed me instantly. Someone really needs to talk to them about their wheeled access.

Mum had her photo taken with Cinnamon the koala – who was so lazy, she wouldn’t even open her mouth for eucalyptus, it had to be posted in – and then, after another drink (it was about 28 in the shade – maybe 35 in the sun), we drove to the University of Queensland, as Joyaa had an appointment. We used the free wifi in a nearby café and I bought some items in the Dental Faculty’s student shop, while we waited for him (flash drives are particularly cheap here, for some reason).

When Joyaa got back, we made our way to a wonderful restaurant, called The Odyssey. It is inside the Greek Club, which is a community-owned venue on the South Bank. This seems like a superb way to fundraise for your own community. Provided you have a proper restaurateur to run it, like they do here. We had one of the best meals of this entire trip. Even the live music wasn’t too loud. But the portions were VAST. I had something called lemon potatoes, which I had never had before. But I am now utterly hooked. They’re absolutely divine.

After dinner, Joyaa drove us all the way back to the ship – we weren’t in a container port this time, we were in a GRAIN DEPOT at the very end of the city. It was MILES away from anywhere. Literally at the end of the road. Any further, in any direction, you get wet. Poor Joyaa had an hour and a half journey to get home again afterwards. We felt quite bad about that.

But what a wonderful day. Glorious weather, and the best company possible. I hope it isn’t another seven years before we see Joyaa again.

The things to do list for next visits (if any) currently includes:

Sydney: Fort Dennison, Manly again – properly, paddle steamer.

Brisbane: Fort Lytton

A lovely sea day. I slept eleven hours straight. That will fix most things, I think you will find.

Fruit, pasta, Sudoku. 20 lengths with the new goggles. The whole world looks yellow, but they don’t stop the glare of the sun. Need to work out how to wear sunglasses over the top of them! They do their job, but because they are adjustable, they have rubber bobbles along both sides to act as stoppers at different lengths, and the bobbles leave a row of dents in the side of my face!

Then dinner. They are quite a pleasant group, I think. Jerry doesn’t say much, but when he speaks, he is invariably hilarious. And very quick-witted. Katie seems somewhat of a racist. Granted we were talking about Europe and the referendum and the refugee crisis, but making a comment about Asians taking over the whole country seemed a bit of a leap, and one I was not happy to hear. So I ended the conversation there and then. I’m not dignifying shit like that with an answer.

Quick Facebook check to finalise plans to meet our cousin tomorrow.

Then The Equalizer and bed. I’ve never seen this film. I remember the tv series with affection, and I was concerned about the hijacking of the concept. But it is rather good – a little formulaic in places, but none the worse for it. You know what you’re getting. It’s like eating in a Mcdonalds in Japan. It’s familiar enough that you know what you’re getting, but with the occasional extra twist to keep things interesting.  And a rather superb soundtrack to add to my list of wants – that and the Bourne soundtrack, if there is one.

Then Chicago on another channel. LOVE this film. One of my favourite musical movies.