First cruise after Lockdown - Scottish Isles Page

Breakfast in the Borealis restaurant but it is all service because of the Covid, I had an edited down full English. It was overcast & pretty cold out. We reported for Lifeboat Drill at 10:00 but this consisted of telling the lad we knew what to do & being ticked off the list.

Lunch: soup, salad & cheesecake, as no sundae in the Borealis Restaurant. In the View Cafe, where we had been watching the view, there was a tremendous buffet to be avoided. The classical concert was a clarinet (Ben) & piano (Tyler) duo & no mucking about. Movements from the 3rd Crusell, Mozza & Weber Grand Concertante with Chopin’s Op 53 & 7-12 of Op10 in between. The pianist Tyler practising for the Leeds, where he is in the 21 selected to compete. Splashes of sunshine in the afternoon but generally, grey. We saw Ben & Tyler later by the Poolside Café & had a long chat. Then, we got into our bling for the formal dinner. Because of Covid, there was no senior crew parade with booze & nibbles before but just the parade, which took place after. Dinner was quite tough duck. Then, the show was just too loud, so we did not stay. The Driver then announced that we would go into Greenock later to disembark some crew members who had tested positive for Covid, which was not very encouraging.

We woke up in Greenock & took quite a while to leave. I had smoked haddock & egg for breakfast. There was a talk about the waters around Scotland, which was quite interesting. Snack lunch in the Borealis Restaurant after not a lot & a chat to Diane & her Mum Jean. I had sushi. This was not enough for Avis, so we went up to the View Café & she had a cheese roll.

Ben & Tyler gave another concert.Tyler played the 2nd Legend & 1st Mephisto Waltz of Liszt (the latter very differently from Dominic John). Later, we chatted to them again. This was a day at sea anyway. Lamb shank for dinner & Gordon Cree, a multi-instrumentalist & singer I’m sure we’ve seen before. He is quite good.