Our First Cruise - Friday 07/05/2010 Day at sea

The following morning we awoke and sought out breakfast, on deck 10 we were midway between the two restaurants, Plantation on deck 12 and Waterfront on deck 7, we generally walked down to the Waterfront for breakfast. Here we found a chef on duty making omelettes to our own specifications, they were excellent.
We didn’t decide on cruising because we were drawn to the shipboard life so this “Day at Sea” had little appeal for us but we were determined to enjoy as much of it as we could. We passed a quiet morning reading on deck and had a very light and early lunch.
Everyday the ship provides a newspaper detailing the following day’s activities and when in port it provides a map of the surrounding area. We had studied this and decided on a lecture on digital cameras, the Table Tennis competition for me and Pilates for Julia, with that level of activity we would have earned ourselves a Chinese themed meal and beer for dinner.
My digital camera, a Kodak ZD710, was my retirement present to myself, it is a hybrid camera, too big to be taken for a mobile phone and too small to get admiring gasps from passers by. I have achieved excellent results with it mainly using the basic setting and only deciding if I want the flash or not – sometimes I left this detail up to the camera as well. Julia and I turned up at the Photography lecture and we were encouraged to get our cameras out to follow his teaching points. At this stage I found myself robbed of the camera by Julia. I sat, somewhat miffed, while she pressed buttons, fiddled with its small joystick and found it was capable of doing everything he mentioned. When we left the talk we had effectively upgraded the camera and I was forced to forgive my good lady for her interference.
I had noticed that Table Tennis was listed as a pastime on the ship and in my final year of teaching I had been fortunate enough to play many lunchtimes with Ed Moore a colleague and excellent player. I felt that taking my own bat was a step too far so I turned up at the competition ready to use whatever the ship provided. In a field of about eight players there were several very casual players and an older married couple with their own bats and me.
It was clear from the start that the couple were serious players and the husband started by narrowly beating a player who looked very much my sort of standard. I then played the wife, it was a struggle for me, anyone who knows me will recognise that I am competitive but this did not seem the forum for being cut-throat. I smiled a lot, kept saying “good shot” and struggled with the thinly covered plank that passed for a bat. I wished for my own equipment or better still my absence from the event. Despite the limitations I had a match point but failed to press home my advantage and the old lady triumphed, gracelessly I thought. Another pair played next and although I was knocked out I tried to stay and support the event. Neither of the players were proficient but were enjoying a reasonably level game when the professional couple started to point out the illegal serves, it was more than I could stand and as I stood to go Julia was already exiting ahead of me!
Julia enjoyed her free taster of Pilates but didn’t see the need to sign up for any lesson which would cost her.
Later we noticed that the hot tubs were covered over with planking and an athletic group of young people were setting up for their night-time gymnastic display on deck 12.
We ate in the Plantation restaurant and enjoyed a Chinese based mixture of dishes. We later went on deck to watch the display, it was impressive but even my new-found photographic skills were unable to do it justice.
We wandered down from the display to Connexions, one of the bars on deck 7, hoping to get a seat to watch the comedian but it was packed and standing would only have been tolerable if he had managed to be a little funnier. We retired to bed knowing that we required an early start for Cairo and the Pyramids of Giza.