At sea

Saturday 3rd December

The last day is always disturbing. I know I have to pack at some point but keep putting it off as long as possible. I decided it could wait until after afternoon tea.

I attended the last dance lesson, had lunch with Jenny and did various odds and ends.

Here are photos of the central lobby and the lovely flower decoration.

I accessed the internet but again it was very slow so I adopted my frequent habit of standing in the corridor underneath the internet point. That worked better. However, on my return to my room I could not get back in. My key would not work. I assumed I had demagnetised the key by holding it near the iPad. The only thing to do was to go to Reception to get another key. Unfortunately I was barefoot! I walked to the lobby, got another key and returned to find that it, too, would not work. I walked back to the lobby, still barefoot, and was told that my key was fine. I then had to go to my room and wait for someone from housekeeping to sort out the problem. After about 10 minutes along came the supervisor who had let me in a few days earlier. His card worked so he could let me in. He spent about 10-15 minutes tinkering around with the card reader and fixed it so my key would work. He then came into my room and shut my door and started chatting to me. I was not happy with this! I picked up my things and said I was going to afternoon tea. (I’d told him when he first arrived that I was waiting for that.) He retreated in front of me.

It was nearly 4.00 by then and there was quite a line for tables. By the time I stopped and chatted to someone on the way, I did not finish my tea until close to 4.30. I thought about it during tea and decided to talk to someone at Reception about the supervisor coming into my room and closing the door. She said she knew the person and was sure everything was okay and that it was just a cultural thing. In other words, we Brits are more uptight about such things. She said she would pass it on as a reminder to the staff to be more careful. I actually think that it was completely against all staff guidelines as I know them.

Luckily my packing did not take long and I still had time to get dressed and ready for a last dinner with our dinner companions.

The early dancing that night was once again Sequence, and by then I had been reminded of most of the dances and was able to make my way through them. I did not stay late in the evening session but decided to pack the last-minute things and get to bed as early as possible.