NOT VERY CLASSICAL...

Not very classical (written Sunday 19 December @ 22:00)

Mark joined me after his bridge lesson in the Grand Lounge, and we did part 3 of the music quiz. As I mentioned in yesterday's posting it was classical. So I got only 2 out of 15. Pity as when they had been reading out the cumulative scores I had been doing well. After the music quiz was a cookery demonstration by 3 of the chefs that we were going to watch. We started speaking to Howard, who had been one of the people I had been talking to on the Cruise Critic message boards as he lives in Baltimore and had offered to give some suggestions about Washington. He kindly had brought a Zagat guide for us.

Being good boys, and also worried about all of the fabulous food, tea and treats we are eating, we headed off to the gym and then to lunch. We both had Chicken Yakatori for starter for our lunch, then Mark had lasagne (which he raved about) and I had sweet and sour pork (which was the best I have ever had!).

I went off to one of the lectures live today instead of just watching them on the telly. I went to listen to Stephen Fox in the theatre taking about "The Cycles of Advertising". It seems he wrote a book on advertising in the 80s, and his theory is that there are only 2 types of advertising (reason why and image) and they go in cycles based on the economic trends. The talk was not that well attended, and just before 3pm all these dears came noisily clanking into the theatre ready for the 3pm film which put him off a bit. But the talk was interesting.

While I was doing that, Mark had gone to get a book by Brian Hoey signed (as the lecturers have book signings on the days they are not talking).

We decided to give the bingo a go today. It is held at 3.15pm in the Royal Lounge. You pay $20 for a pile of cards and then play a series of games (the X, BO, 2 lines and then the cumulative jackpot which you have to get a full house in 55 numbers. Today it was up to £1200 and no-one won it and so tomorrow it has to be one). It was really good fun, much more than I had expected it to be.

Every day after tea we go out on deck and play a few rounds of deck shuffle board which I am not sure that we are very good at but play the first to get to 5). Mark is the champion so far, but tomorrow will be the deciding one!

This evening is our last formal evening. 4 of the 6 nights are formal (tuxedo), and the first and last being informal (jacket and tie!).

I ate far too much this evening. We had chateaubriand as main, with a rich chocolate pudding for dessert and for starters Mark had a salad and I had caviar again. We headed off to watch the "Broadway Bound" team do their "can't stop the music" show (a medley of songs from the shows) in the Royal Lounge. It was pretty awful, and they are definitely not "Broadway bound" any time soon - of ever! We could not watch it all, and I was feeling so stuffed we went back to the cabin intending to relax a bit before going to the casino but fell asleep and went to bed by 10