D&N

After lunch and tea/coffee this afternoon. 23 hour days are playing havoc with our schedule. You need at least 25 hours every day to appreciate Queen Mary 2! Probably Nora's most casual lunch outfit of the trip.

And as a very rough estimate I would guess 10% of passengers and 100% of crew are wearing masks.

If that's our posts to show off my wife's outfits, then perhaps this photo of us entering Britannia heading for Club at 13:15 today is more representative of our mask policy. We wear masks whenever it is practical to do so. It is only mandatory in medical centre, advisory everywhere else.

@Host Hattie Thank you again. Your administrative assistance is much appreciated! 🤣

Not sure it can be a sunrise, I woke even later today. But it's quite nice. Should say it's from deck 13 around midships on QM2 today. T/A eastbound.

Weather wise; it looked a bit rougher yesterday, there were some lovely white tops on waves and the spray and mist created as they colided was beautiful. There was a gentle roll all day. Party night in ballroom with Amethyst Duo. Their playlist was ok but we thought their delivery was a bit average. And as there were quite a few on floor static dancing, it would be difficult if a track suited to ballroom came on. It was all night canned Ballroom and Latin in G32. Most challenging thing was being even further into bow movement was even worse. We probably spent more time rolling about laughing at our attempts to beat the roll than actually dancing.

They were short of a drummer tonight so I got a gig even though I've never played before!!!🤣🤣🤣 And Nora had to get in on the act too even though she's never played piano before!!! 🤣🤣

Drinks package doesn't extend to anything in the Champagne Bar but we stopped to use the backdrop, after checking that the waiter and those sitting in vicinity had no objections. We like our aperitifs in the Chart Room.

To do a bit of diy on board of course! 🤣

Precisely. Cunard's Corporate colours.

On way to lunch I remembered to count steps on stairs between decks 12 and 2. There are 191. We usually do that 5 times per day plus one trip to deck 7, which is 99 steps each way. Assuming staircase A is same as B. Coincidentally; 57 steps down from deck 12 takes you to a landing with a painting. Parts of the painting remind me of Heinz's Baked Beans!

Today we invented the Royal Cunard Red & Gold Gala Lunch, well Nora did! I just went like a slob. We then hijacked the ship and went on a cruise to China, Australia and India. I'm sure most of you know where we were. I then forced poor Nora to join me for about 20 bars of a Samba with Exxile trio at Pavilion just a few metres from our cabin. Here we are in China with a nice panda.

In practice we took one of each of the 4 sandwiches and 4 cakes offered between us and halved them so we tasted everything then a scone each and several tea refills. It was more than enough for us as a replacement for lunch. I wouldn't be fit for dinner if I'd tried to have both. It was lovely but I think we'll stick to lunch for rest of trip.

But I had plenty of space in luggage for one of my Bosch cordless drills! 🤣🤣

More sun this morning. I wasn't up early enough for a sunrise. Think the gentle rocking kept me asleep. I've realised that often when I think there is no movement, there is. I keep missing letters on this keypad and there's no other explanation why that would happen at the times of day it does. There is quite a bit of lateral movement today but it's continual and predictable.

Tonight's outfits after dinner and before dancing. My suit isn't needed again, which gives back up options in case anything else gets damaged or I want a dressier garment for day wear. I'm not a big fan of Nora going "out" in trousers but I suggested we buy this cat-suit/jump-suit when I saw it online. She looks sensational in it. Would have been good to see how it looked in turns tonight although everyone had to be extra careful as the Queen's Room was literally rocking tonight!

We started planning around October 2018 for the double crossing we are on now. It should of course have been in 2020 but something unexpected happened. In some ways we were happy to start again as my wife lost nearly a third of her body weight between March 2021 and May 2022. On 19 December 2021 we photographed my wife wearing 67 of the dresses in the wardrobe. We then went through that and picked out best 14. We then photographed the best of the separates and picked 3 that were better than some of the dresses and substituted them. We also went through any new garments and assessed if they were better. Some of those were substituted for separates. We also snapped accessories with most of the garments and chose what would go with each and ordered up anything online that we felt was missing. I'm regretting not having packed a basic tool kit. The wardrobes are too short for about 5 garments and there are no hooks on the wall either side of the TV. I've improvised with the curtain rail and hooks! I'm not a fan of management speak but one phrase rings true to me: "Fail to plan; Plan to fail" We're happy that we're getting the benefits of that planning now. We're unlikely to do this again for various reasons and it's important we capture everything on camera. By the way; the jazz trio we're listening to in the Chart Room are superb.

I saw a picture of under bed space in an old post where most of space was taken up by large wooden structures. Our's only has a small box of Tita's spare bits and bobs. There is lots of room for any bags we don't need while on board.

In September we're meeting friends in Sorrento for a few days in an Airbnb. The Wakeley and the SHEIN silk top might be good for that trip.

@Victoria2, @exlondoner Do I recall that one of you mentioned traveling with mainly silk garments? If so, how do you stop them creasing? This afternoon's outfit and Saturday night's dress, which isn't silk, were extensively creased after being packed a few days. If we were taking them somewhere else we wouldn't have luxury of the Queen Mary 2 laundry to straighten them out.

Update; Notices prohibiting it have gone. Barman in Chart Room says they've put out more seats. I think they want to limit numbers to those seated at the bar.

Title of this photographic study is: Afternoon Tea - The Aftermath

I imagine we've taken at least 500 pics so far. In past we've made mistake of snapping things rather than us and regret not having as many of us when youger as we'd like. To your point; the photographers here seem desperate to create staged informal pictures. I let them take a couple on first gala night with hands in pockets then said. I was brought up to regard putting hands as being rude and slovenly. And it can also pull the garment out of shape. I would only put hands in pockets on a really cold day if I had no gloves. So I just tell them to dream up something else before we start.

Heading for immigration then grabbing a table early for Afternoon Tea. And a photo opportunity of course! We thought the shorter day was a chance to miss lunch and experience the tradition. More than 3 meals a day is not for us.

Yesterday was much better on dress and music fronts. Still some really untidy attire but the vast majority made an effort to glitz up. Politely explained my music concerns to Jack & Esther before their first set although from the conversation with them and another with the DJ in G32 about how brilliant Exxile are, I think play lists are governed by Cunard. I should say that last night's set was very good. One downside is that the female singer of that group has been ill for 2 nights. I'm assured that it's not the dreaded disease and she'll be back soon. They are great as a trio but her voice adds more depth to the sound.