Here’s a sight you don’t see much any more:  film!  It’s good to see it’s still available, but the advantages of digital on SD cards are far too great for me to go back to film.  The very fact that I can publish this photo, shot only half an hour ago, is proof of that.

______________________________________

Rain!  Steady, soaking rain.  I set out to walk to the MRT station but it was too wet and the pavements are too slippery.  I actually set out to go to the Bugis St station, but due to a building site blocking off the footpaths, I ended up almost back at the hotel where I started, having walked around the block.  Oh well, it’s good exercise.

Brunch at the Sim Lim Square food hall again.  Lemon chicken rice for $3.50. Nice.  Then, plain buttered pancakes and iced coffee at the coffee shop while I read the paper and watched the rain. S$12.20!  That’s a bit steep and reinforces the view that Singapore has become very expensive.

I also read an article in today’s paper about the lack of empathy and consideration from Singaporeans and I’d have to agree.  When I get onto the trains, I’m feeling fairly tired and would really like to sit in the Seniors seats.  But in every case so far the seat has been occupied by a young woman (usually) who pays no attention and carries on her texting. When I walk along, people walk across my path regardless of me, or walk straight at me, forcing me to diverge. Repeatedly. All the time.  No manners, no politeness. Although I must say that when I’m dealing face to face with people, they are very courteous and polite.  But maybe that has to do with me paying them some money.

The theory in the paper, and I agree, as I’ve long thought this, is that Chinese people in all Asian countries are almost entirely focused on money and wealth and the security of their own family and position.  They have little regard for anyone else unless you are of use to them in boosting their wealth and position.  Why is this?  Because China has always been so densely populated and competitive that survival depends on elbowing your way above the ruck, pushing away all distractions from the need to gain the wealth to rise to the top of the seething crowds.  C’est la vie, literally.

_______________________________________________

Phones and tablets!  They are virtually ubiquitous.  Everyone is holding a conversation on their phone. A bike rider is seemingly talking to himself as he rides in the rain. All the young people are madly texting on the trains. People walk along the street playing a game on their tablet or phone as they walk, oblivious to their surroundings.  So many people of all ages have their ears stuffed with ear buds, deaf to outside sounds.  This is madness.  They walk without seeing or hearing or interacting with others.  It’s a revolution.  But where will it lead?

____________________________________________

I return to my room and once again the cleaner has dropped the air con temperature from my 24C – 26C down to 18C today.  Are they too hot while they work?  It’s too cold for me.

The rain is still falling at 3pm leading me to stay in my room to read and write and listen to music.  I brought five good DVDs with me, Gravity; Argo; The Battle of Neretva; The Ghost Writer and Hoffman, with Peter Sellers, but I’ve only watched the latter two.

The Ghost Writer is so obviously based on Tony Blair and his part in putting the UK into the Iraq war that I wonder he didn’t try to suppress it.  I’m sure the producers must have worked closely with lawyers on that one.  Coincidentally, it turned out that I’ve read the novel before I bought the DVD, without realising they are the same story.  I recommend both.

Prattle, prattle, prattle.

It’s been a quiet day, nursing my left foot.  It has been very painful but is recovering quite well.  I set out walking to the Little India MRT about 1pm but half way there realised I’d forgotten my MRT stored value card.  Damn. I had no particular destination in mind, so I turned around and went back to the hotel, very slowly.  It’s a beautiful, if overcast day.  Not hot at all – maybe 28C. While I was standing on the corner of Bukit Timah Rd and Selegie Rd reading the historical sign about Little India, an old guy came up to me and started gesticulating and saying something about “half a mile that way”.  I could hardly understand him, but I got an impression that he was saying there is a parade, as he was wiping his arms and face as if to say, “They are in costume” or something.  I really couldn’t work out his meaning and the idea of walking half a mile out of my way didn’t appeal, so I thanked him and moved on. Pity.  I don’t know what I might have missed.

From the hotel I changed direction and went to the Sim Lim Square food hall.  This is local food at its best.  Well, its fastest, maybe.  I had Vietnamese beef noodles today.  I asked for a spicy dish but this was a bit bland, no spice at all.  Oh well, for $5.00 I’m not complaining.

However, I would complain at the restaurant in the corner of my hotel.  The prices are beyond my limit.  I saw a very delicious looking dish in their window menu, but it costs S$28 !  All their dishes start at about S$18 and rise to S$68.  In a recent survey, Singapore was rated No. 1 of the world’s 10 most expensive cities.  As I’ve said, you can eat quite adequately for S$7.50 in a food hall, but off plastic plates at plastic tables on plastic chairs.  Taxis are now almost unaffordable (avg. S$15 per trip) compared to S$5 – $8 ten years ago.  This hotel is A$140 per night, but although the room is described as “Superior”, the room is very small and as I said, lacked a fridge, or an armchair. I have a small steel framed chair at the tiny desk, but it’s hard and uncomfortable. The room is smaller than the cabin I had on the ship.

As I also said, goods here cost more than they do on-line in Australia now so there’s no fun in shopping any more, except for finding nice things.  But when you’re hobbling along with a painful ankle and foot, it’s not much fun.

_______________________________________

Interesting:  I bought a CD yesterday and played it for the first time in the CD/DVD/BluRay drive in this laptop, listening on these beautiful new KEF headphones from the laptop’s headphone socket.  The CD is an HDCD, meaning extra high specs.

It sounded superb.  Deep bass such as I’ve never heard before, smooth strings, rich sound.

Today I converted and transferred it from the CD to my iPod Touch as mp3 files and listened again on the iPod.  Hmmm.  It’s not as good.  It’s hard to pin it down, but the sound is very subtly grainy, not as smooth, the strings are a bit coarse.  This is the difference between uncompressed CD quality and the highly compressed mp3 format.  Mp3 is not hi-fi.  The conversion to mp3 involves high levels of compression, discarding a huge amount of the original data to reduce the file size and data rate.  Mp3 stands for “mpeg” (Motion Picture Experts Group) “layer 3”, which is a section of the mpeg data packet used to transmit compressed video and audio over satellites and cables.  The method used to compress the audio for the mpeg data stream happened to be convenient for other uses, so it’s become ubiquitous. Pity.

___________________________________

For this post I’ve been trying to convert some video to include in the posting.  But WordPress doesn’t seem to accept anything I try!  I’ve tried .mov; .mpg; .avi; .mp4 – all are rejected.  One I suppose I haven’t tried is .flv.  Watch this space.

OK, it won’t accept .flv either.  So what video format will it accept?  I don’t know.  Annoying.

Albert Street Mall. A Parisian influence?
Do I have a fisheye lens to get this super wide angle?
No I don't.  This is a series of shots taken with a 28mm
and stitched with AutoStitch, that marvellous free software.  Love it.

Good sleep.  There’s a huge apartment block next door so the daylight is fairly weak through my windows.  Oh, my aching feet and legs and back.  I’m paying for yesterday’s walking, so I’m taking it easy now trying to let the aches improve.

Lunch in Sim Lim Square at 2pm. Kimchee fried rice.  I’ve never had kim chee – now I have an idea of what it’s like.  Think chilli hot spicy cabbage.  It’s not bad.

I walked around the ground floor of Sim Lim, but I wasn’t tempted.  I have everything I want and there are no bargains here any more, just instant stock if you are interested in something. Back to the hotel very slowly and painfully.  My left foot is very sore. I’ve just discovered a big blister on my big toe. Damn.  I had a good swim in the pool at 5.30pm and was reminded how good the water feels.  This pool is only 1.2m deep all the way, and that’s ideal for water walking.  I did quite a few laps.  Back to the room, too sore to go out for dinner.  I’d order room service, but they don’t seem to have that.

Singapore at 6.24 am

I was up at 5.15am, showered and out by 0600, only to find that we’d already arrived.  It was still dark but we were turning 180deg. and backing very, very slowly into the wharf.  It took nearly an hour, with the dawn light slowly increasing.

The Singapore Marina Bay cruise terminal. It leaves Fremantle looking like the 1960s shed that it is.

At 6.45 am

The Pan Pacific Hotel at 6.47 am

At 6.53 am

At 7.08 am

There was a lot of haze, and of course, as they announced, it’s from Indonesian forest fires. This is a bad situation. It goes on year after year, caused by clear felling and burning of dense native forests for profit, both for the timber they cut and to plant palm oil plantations.  It’s changing the entire ecology of the region.  I noticed today how dry all the lawns and plants are looking in Singapore and apparently they haven’t had much rain for two months.  I can see it.  This is highly unusual.  This is climate change in the flesh.

Breakfast at 0830, then final packing.  I couldn’t put my suitcase out at 6pm last night as they wanted us to because I needed my CPAP stuff overnight and my diabetic stuff in the morning.  I told them this at the desk and they sucked their teeth and looked disapproving.  Bloody hell, surely it should be obvious that we can’t always do what they ask.  This morning I put the case out in the passage and it was gone when I came back, so someone took it ashore for me.

Then there was a long boring wait until 10am when my cabin group was called to disembark. It was a long walk along the airconditioned catwalk and into the terminal, and there was my case, with a trolley next to it. Good stuff.  After a short walk through X-ray inspections, then through the “Nothing to Declare” channel, I was out.  There was another long walk to the taxi rank, then I had a Mercedes taxi to the Parc Sovereign Hotel in Albert St, Little India, arriving about 11am.  Room 915 is on the ninth floor, but my only view is of the tower block of flats next door.

The room is tiny but perfectly formed.  It’s small, but not claustrophobic.  It has a Queen sized bed, but no fridge!  And Wi-Fi, but I have to pay —  S$10 for two hours, I think. (No, update, the $10 is for a full 24 hours, so that’s good.)

I headed out about 1.30pm after an hour’s good sleep.  I asked at the desk about getting daily ice for my insulin and the guy couldn’t seem to understand what I was asking.  Another guy did understand, suggesting I try the 7-Eleven shop next door.  I have enough ice in the Esky from the ship, so that can wait.

I took a tourist map from the desk and asked the young guy for directions.  He was bamboozled!  He couldn’t even find the this hotel on the map. As for directions, he had no clue.  An older guy had to step in and circle this hotel and the nearest MRT.  Amazing.  The young guy is way behind.

Off to Little India MRT, buying a stored value card for $30. Lots of walking!  Ooowww.  I took the MRT to City Hall via Dhoby Gaut.  I had a very nice lunch of “cereal fried rice” and iced lemon tea.  It turned out quite expensive when GST and 10% service was added – the bill was nearly $20.  Ouch.

Then I walked to Coleman St and saw lots of delicious camera gear,  but it’s more expensive than home prices!  I’m very tempted by the Fuji X-T1, but the body only price is S$1950.  The Australian on-line price is $1250!  Anyway, I’m not really serious.  I have enough cameras.  You never thought you’d hear me say that, did you?

The windows are full of delectable second hand gear, but it’s not the same as 10 or 20 years ago – It’s stuff I used to covet, but I can’t use it any more.  It’s all film gear and different lens mounts from a different era so all the fun has gone.  I used to spend hours gazing at all the second hand bargains but there’s no point any more. Pity, a big pity.

Then to the Funan Centre for a power plug adapter and 16GB SD card, a bit cheaper than Perth.

Then across to the Adelphi building where I found the KEF headphones I was looking for – “Yes sir, we have them in stock, would you like a demonstration?” In Perth, it would have been,  No mate, but we can get them for you.

I said to the guy, “Every time I come to Singapore, I seem to buy another pair of headphones.”  It’s true. But these are special.  They should be, at A$325.  I’m happy.  The sound, especially the bass, is incredible.  I had been using a tiny, tinny pair of Koss  HP1s, but I tossed them in the bin, they are so bad. (But I retrieved them later – waste not … )

Then a I made a loooong walk and MRT rides back to the hotel.  Bloody hell, my feet are aching, especially the left foot.  I’m hobbling and later had to use my stick.  I had a lot of trouble finding the hotel – I took a wrong turn out of the Little India MRT and got lost. Even with my TomTom GPS, I was disoriented.  Which is surprising, given I’m in the Orient.   It seemed everywhere I turned was the wrong way.  Eventually I made it, hobbling, almost dead.  It wasn’t a hot day, or even especially humid, but I was bushed.

When I got back to the room, I found they had installed a fridge for me!  I am very pleased.  At last, someone has listened to me and acted on my problem.  I had been grumping to myself about this, but they’ve regained their brownie points with me.

Then, after sorting myself out in the room,  I walked up to the Albert Street night market.  I was ambling along looking at the restaurants when I heard someone insistently asking me if I was from some cruise ship (insert name here – can’t remember).  I said no, but they seemed to want to talk and it transpired that they were on a cruise and thought they recognised me from their ship.

Anyway, I joined them for dinner, so that was nice.  John and Carol from near Dover in the UK.  He used to be an Operations Technician at one of the Dungeness nuclear power stations. Retired now, of course.

My meal was bloody awful.  My spring roll was good, but the salt and pepper squid was just squid rings deep fried to death in a sweet batter on a few limp lettuce leaves.  Awful, chewy, boring.  To me, salt and pepper squid is big chunks of diamond scored squid, dusted with salt, pepper and flour, then very quickly shallow fried so as to remain tender, no more than 30 seconds or so.  Served on a bed of crispy rice vermicelli. Even I can do that.  This was terrible stuff.

Two big Tigers dulled the disappointment somewhat.  The bill came to S$30.07, and I handed him a $50 note.  I would have given him the 7c, but he took off too quickly. I thought he’d bring me a $20 note as change, but no, I got $19.95.  What a weird …

Dead tired at 1030pm, but the music on these new headphones is great.

Another boat, but heading north.

Must have been a boring day because I can’t recall anything specific, but for two things.

They rigged these at port and starboard stern quarters –

I’ve heard about these. They are high intensity sound generators, designed to ward off pirates by projecting an intense beam of low frequency sound at any boats alongside.  They are designed to be non-lethal but very unpleasant.  Why not?  There were also high pressure water hoses rigged at several places along each side.

Then this:

© PJ Croft 2014

© PJ Croft 2014

Nice, huh?

Another good sleep.  I awoke at 0530 and dozed until 0630.  Two laps of Promenade deck, equalling about 1Km.

I saw a crewman carrying a small rubber mallet.  I wondered if he was detailed to testing passengers’ reflexes in case any were dead.

Grey day, not much to see. A few boats and a big tanker heading south in the morning.  Slept 0930 to 1100. Had a very nice drink at 1pm – ginger beer and lime juice.  Must remember this.

I ate too much lunch at 2pm – cold meat and salad.  Why is fruit juice unavailable after 1145am?  Rigid rules on this ship.

My Olympus battery ran down, so I charged it using the Hahnel Unipal universal charger. This is a good device. It worked fine.  Coffee in the Piano Bar.  I wondered if they’d try to exclude me after 5pm?  Should I try?  I didn’t.

I gave Reception the copies I’d made of my old 1977 Arcadia ship’s cruise log and menu and they seemed pleased.  They asked me to write an accompanying note, then they put it all in an envelope to give to the captain and cruise director.  Did I hear anything from them? Nope.

5:15pm  drinkies. Glorious sunset – and I got it all on “film”.

After dinner I made a 5 min  slideshow.

Sunrise over Lembongan  Copyright P. J. Croft 2014

This was a good day!  It was our arrival at Bali today, so I was up early.  I awoke at 3.30am and didn’t want to go back to sleep and risk over-sleeping, so I stayed up.  I was on deck at 4.30am.

I was rewarded by a spectacular sunrise over Nusa Lembongan.  A huge globe showed through light cloud.  I just kept shooting.  How great it is to never fear running out of film.

© PJ Croft 2014

Gunung Agung, Bali, probably 30Km distant.  © PJ Croft 2014

Gunung Agung (above) was also very visible, but not as spectacular as I’d hoped.  I must have been very lucky in the 1980s to have had such clear air as to get detail in the mountain slopes.

About 8am there was an announcement about going ashore so I went to the Piano Bar as suggested, only to join a queue!  The Poms queue for everything.  I stood at the bar for over half an hour, to be finally issued a flimsy green ticket with number 30 on it.

I asked about our passports. “Don’t worry sir, they are under lock and key.”  We didn’t get them for our shore trip, so I walked onto land with no passport and no immigration process.  It felt odd.

Arcadia in Benoa Harbour, 5Km out.   © PJ Croft 2014

The ship parked 5Km off shore and we had to take a tender boat in.

Laid on to greet us was a Gamelan orchestra and two dancers.  I love this, so I shot a full minute of the orchestra in high def video.  I wanted more, and some shots of the dancers, but at that moment it all ended so I didn’t get any more. Pity.

I changed a $50 note for Rp505,000, then negotiated a taxi, but I think I was fooled.  I paid Rp250,000 for a one way trip to Yudhie’s restaurant, but these taxis were inside the terminus compound. Outside were dozens more. I’m sure if I’d walked through the gates I could have negotiated a much lower price, but I wasn’t aware they were there. Too bad.

We got to Yudhie’s place fine with the help of my Google Map. I had printed out a Google Earth image of the location with all the roads, because Yudhie’s restaurant is a bit hard to find. There’s no street number, but I think it’s 99, Jalan Tukad Balian.

I arrived unannounced and Wiwin was there behind the desk.  Wow, what a moment.  She was surprised and was very happy to see me.  It was a very warm moment. Unforgettable.

I had some Bali coffee and she phoned Yudhie to come.  I tried to get Made Latra as a driver for the day, but he was engaged, so one of the others, Komang came instead.  Then Yudhie arrived and immediately went into his salesman mode.  “I will show you my project.”  So we went to a building site where he says he is going to cater for local poor children, as well as offering paid hotel rooms at low cost.  It seems genuine. It’s not far from his restaurant.

Then he said,  “Now you see my villas at Taman Sari.”  So Komang drove me across to Sanur by a convoluted route. These were two completed adjoining villas waiting to be sold.

This villa is for sale. Get in quick.

Yudhie lays it on very thick!  Tell my friends. About US$450,000.  Discount available, and a commission for me if I find him a buyer. He’s a hard seller. Good luck to him.

Lunch at Yudhie's warung.
That's not Wiwin in the middle - 
I never did catch that girl's name.
Nor did I manage to get a picture of Wiwin!
She's still cute as a button, though.

Then we went back to his Warung for lunch.  I hadn’t eaten any breakfast, so the Nasi Goreng went down very nicely, with two Bintangs.  I had to pay, of course – Rp70,000 = $7 approx. I can’t complain.

Then I made another farewell to Wiwin and I emphasised that if she wants to come to Perth, just tell me when she wants to come. She seems keen and excited about it, but maybe it’s just politeness.

Then Komang drove me to Nusa Dua, Bukit Jimbaran, and Padawan beach over some very rough dirt roads.

There was a group of three rather spectacular girls at the beach doing some kind of photo shoot, so I got in for my chop.

I got very sleepy, so we went back to Benoa – Terminus Penumpang.  I took the launch back to the ship at 3.30pm, then crashed on the bed at 4pm and awoke at 6pm.  It was a tiring but good day.

Two pints of Stella at the Lido bar – and it was hot!  The bar, not the beer.  The roof is a sliding affair like that over stadiums and for some reason it was half closed. It was like a sauna.

Boring, boring people!  Almost cretinous. Ugh.

Dinner – whitebait with carrots, sausages(!), grilled salmon, potatoes – ridiculous. The salmon was tough! Followed by cheese and bikkies.  This food is awful.

Venus before dawn.

Not much to say about today – arose late, breakfasted about 10.30am.  And so on.  Can’t remember anything else. What I do know is that the book I’m reading, Painting the Darkness by Robert Goddard, is terrific.  I’m engrossed.  He’s a great writer.

Arcadia deck 3, looking down to deck 1

I awoke late – 8.30am.  With no windows, there is no sense of time in my cabin.  However, it was a good sleep with lots of dreams.  I had my usual cold shower, as cold as it gets, which was not very.

Late breakfast at 10am.  Omelette, bacon, mushrooms, toast, OJ, coffee.  Not bad but it’s not fresh!  It’s all reheated, sloppy boring food.  The coffee was awful – just dark flavoured water.

I read at the restaurant table and listened to iPod music for a long time – quite pleasant.  Then to the cabin to find my “trunks”, the out to the pool.

This was my first swim and it was very nice. The water was cool, but the pool was crowded with geriatric people, like myself … Goodness, there are some fat, ugly people. I’m not, of course. I got a bit sunburnt on my head.  I tried the Jacuzzi but it was HOT and didn’t swirl and bubble.  No thanks.

Afternoon nap, then a small lunch at 3pm – small prawn rolls, cottage cheese rolls, fruit salad, water. Have to be careful.

Then I adjourned to the pool bar at 5pm.  Brian and Maureen were there again – I can hold a reasonable conversation with them, albeit at a low level.  They’re from Sydney and retired, although Brian still works at his business 6.5 days a week.  His business?  “We cut trees down.”  A tree lopper!  He’s cruising all year!

He said he and his wife have done around 200 cruises.  They do eight to twelve cruises each year, on all the big cruise liners, including the Queen Mary II. They’ve been all through the Carribean on the US cruises. Kerrumbs!  There must be good money in tree lopping.  Money seems to be no object to them.

This is like a five star hotel.

There was some interest during the day, but this drew
the usual derogatory comments from my bar side acquaintances - 
"Bet it's full of illegals. We never had any trouble until
that damn woman [Julia Gillard] came along."
I have to bite my tongue and look away!
It's obvious there are no other people
on this boat except the crew.

At 7pm I had my first ever martini.  A dry one, just gin and dry vermouth with olives.  Not bad, but I won’t bother again.  GBP4.95 = $9.20. Not on this ship I won’t.  (Don’t forget, I was operating on a $200 credit from the travel agency for their foul up. I don’t usually spend this much.)

I was still hungry so had a salad dinner at 8pm, with a big glass (250ml) of the NZ SSB.  Brian and Maureen invited me to join them and two British guys, brothers called Roy and Derek.  Crumbs, kerrrumbs, these guys are barely sentient.  They live in Tasmania and Melbourne. Boring, boring.  It was hard to know what to say, they were so slow.

This is Deck 9, the Lido Deck. See the sliding roof.

I had a good night’s sleep last night.  The slow rocking motion didn’t bother me and probably helped. All I could wish for is a fan for more air movement.  But that’s me.

After waking late I did two laps of the Promenade Deck.  They signpost it as three laps being 1 mile, so each lap must be about 500m.  I did another lap in the afternoon, so that’s more than I’m doing at home. Wow, exercise is the big thing with all our passengers.  We are all of the same age group, 60 and upwards. All those geriatrics are striding out along the deck, almost as a race. Everyone passes me. My stride is quite short and I simply can’t walk any faster.  I was stopping frequently and one Perth guy seemed to take a shine to me, touching me repeatedly on the shoulder.  He was an old guy, nothing sinister in it, but gee, he was a tactile kind of bloke.  I met his wife after a while and she said she brought five four litre casks of wine on board! He doesn’t drink, so it’s all for her. Wow, she’s a drinker.

I had a big breakfast at 0930, took the air for a while, then crashed from 1045am until 1pm. It was a good sleep.

Then I found the library, hoping to do some internet.  Hah!  Double hah!  They charge 50p per minute.  That’s GBP30 per hour or A$55.55.  They must be joking, but they’re not.  Granted, it’s a satellite connection, but there’s no way I’d pay that, so no internet for me.  Perhaps it’s for the best.  I wrote this diary each day in the cabin, so this is why it’s slamming in in a massive post now – 4,900 words and about 30 pictures.  Why do I do it? Well, someone might be interested, I think the pictures are pretty good and it’s my web diary too.  I make a book out of this blog, updated every few months. Someone in the 30^th century might read it!

I had lunch at 3pm – you can eat at any time, it’s only a buffet.  All I wanted was some fruit salad, but they provided mini seafood rolls and prawn sandwiches which I found too hard to resist.

Lazing on the Lido deck afterwards I was falling asleep and jerking awake as the ship rolled, but I realised this deck has a bar beside the pool, so from 6pm I had a few beers.  And a double G&T.  A pint of Stella is GPB3.70 which is AUD6.85.  That’s a little cheaper than I pay at home, so it’s not too bad.  The double G&T was GPB6.50, A$12.00!

The stern wake.  I found this very relaxing. 
I shot a couple of minutes of hi-def video which I'll make into a loop.

Earlier in the day I read the daily ship’s activities sheet and it said the ship was to berth at Padang Bai, not Benoa.  Oh no!  Padang Bai is out on the SE coast about 30Km from Sanur.  I don’t want to be out there and have to catch long distance transport to where I want to be.  However, I got talking to a Sydney couple at the bar who told me the info sheet is old and we do berth at Benoa after all.  I’ll check tomorrow.

I had dinner in the Belvedere Buffet and it was not good.  I chose the Indian food side.  When the tandoori chicken looks and cuts like a Staedtler white pencil rubber, and the taste of the tandoori fish is indistinguishable from the chicken, both being tough and rubbery,things are not good.   To disguise the taste, I had a 250ml galss of NZ Sauvignon Blanc costing GBP6.50 = AUD12.03. That is a bit much.

The reason I’m choosing these expensive drinks is that the travel agency told me they’d given me $200 on-board credit to make up for the booking shambles.  I checked again at Reception and this time they did recognise my credit, so I could afford to spend up, as it was free money.

The cabin steward finally got me some ice to keep my insulin cold.  Brian and Maureen  (these Aussie names!) said their fridge works fine –it’s very cold and almost freezes. They’re on the same deck, so I must have a faulty fridge.  There’s my luck again.

Boy, this is a geriatric cruise. I knew it would be, but I’ve been keeping an eye out for single widows or divorcees looking for a bit of company.  I haven’t seen anyone!  Ugly old women attached to equally ugly old men.  And all boring as batshit.

Not many pictures today – there’s nothing to shoot.