Three days out

Today is day three and we really are getting the hang of on-board living! Tea or coffee, juice and toast in our cabin at 7 and then something more substantial about 8:30. Then I do a mile around the deck at a fast pace. The pools are too small to do any meaningful swimming so at the moment I am trying 3 miles a day instead.

Yesterday morning I had a massage, my first ever! I followed it with some time in their aqua-therapy pool. That was amazing! So amazing in fact, that I went back again in the evening for an hour. When I came out of the water my entire body was tingling. It was the strangest sensation, but very pleasant nonetheless!

Today we are going to a lecture on New York skyscrapers. This is the third in the series. We’ve seen the other two on the shipboard television channel but would like to go to the final lecture. What we have seen so far has inspired us to do a self directed walking tour when we get to New York to look at various of the building highlighted.

This evening after dinner there will be a performance of The Importance of Being Ernest by the RADA group. Last year Emma and I saw Under Milkwood by another RADA group. It was wonderful so I imagine that this one will be as well.

After the performance there is a big bands ball so it’s just a matter of deciding which dress I will wear!

Some may be wondering about my writing! Yes, I have been working on one of my novels. I am going through it and making some adjustments. Then once I have re-read all 7 chapters, I will recommence. By then I should have a clearer idea of where I am going and how I am going to get there.

Now, enough of day-to-day goings on!

Finally on holiday!

(I know Cliff doesn't look particularly happy, but he is!)

Well, after everything (finishing school, reorganizing my new library, organizing for our move, moving, trying to unpack at the new house, and packing to go away) we have finally made it onto the Queen Mary 2 for almost two weeks of total relaxation. Unfortunately, we have already visited the medical centre because moments before we left home, Cliff grazed his arm and it keeps bleeding. I’ve never been to deck 1 in the bowels of the ship before so that was interesting but the $40.00 price tag of an adhesive suture was annoying!

The trip down by coach from Heathrow went without a hitch…other that the bus driver getting lost at Heathrow before he found us and the Terminal 5 bus station! I had spent the days and weeks of July full of energy but the moment I was on board and in my cabin, I was overwhelmed by fatigue. I had a short rest on the bed after the lifeboat drill, which set me up to go on deck and watch as we sailed out of Southampton. It is truly amazing how they managed to turn this ship around in such a small area.

Today, I’m still tired but isn’t it wonderful to know that they is absolutely nothing to do. I stayed in bed late, had some tea and toast delivered to our door for 7 (8 U.K. time as we have already changed the clocks back one hour). We’ve made reservations for dinner at the Chef’s Galley for two nights and for dinner in the Carvery tonight. The Chef’s Galley is a very small restaurant accommodating no more than 20 people, where the chef cooks the meal in front of you and explains it as he goes along. You are also given the recipes at the end of the meal. We’ll be going to the French cuisine meal and the steak dinner.

This afternoon, there is a matinee of a reduced Othello, entitled The Spotted Handkerchief, which is performed by RADA students. If I have the energy I’ll go but if not, it may be on again.

Well that’s it for now. Hope everyone is doing as well as we are!

Swimming and me

If I am very lucky, there is no one in the pool when I arrive and the water is like of mirror. If I am very lucky, there is no one in the jacuzzi either and the entire area is silent. I slip into the pool and the water ripples away from me. I do a few laps with my flutter board to loosen up and then I turn on to my back and start to swim. The first few strokes are liberating. I glide through the water. I'm not tired yet so each stroke is effortless. My mind clears and I only count the lengths. I am one with the water.

When I decided to join the health spa in the summer following the end of my cancer treatment, it was to use the swimming pool. I had thought that I might also use the gym from time to time and take some classes. To date, I have spent 15 minutes on a running machine (but only in walk mode) and I've attended one yoga class. However, I swim almost every day and when I haven't been able to swim, I really miss it.

I've always enjoyed swimming but I think that the attraction lies in more than the obvious health benefits. If it were only exercise, the novelty would have worn off by now. I told someone recently that I work on the characters of my novel while swimming and in that lies the other important element- isolation. When I get into the water and start my lengths, I turn off to every one and every thing else around me. This works particularly well when the pool is empty.

When I started swimming two years ago, I wasn't very good at it. I did so many lengths with a flutter board and so many of back stroke. Mostly, I used the flutter board. Sometimes, I managed 20 lengths, sometimes only 10. Why back stroke only? I have problems getting enough air when I do front crawl. I know that I just need to practice but by the time I've swum for 40 minutes, I don't really feel like practicing for a few more lengths.

Now that I am in better shape, I swim a kilometer a day. It isn't always as restful as I would like. Sometimes other swimmers make it difficult to swim and so I have to concentrate on just getting through the lengths. Other times, I can let my mind go and as I mentioned, I may think about what I am writing or something that I've read. I try not to think about the day I've just been through or the one ahead. This is a time to relax, and become one with the water.

My Summer Reading List

Though I haven't really been reading much of late, I have been gathering in books and now I have finally started them. I have Andy Murray to thank. When I watch his matches, I get so nervous that I have to leave the living room and do something else. It is so warm here at the moment that I have been going out in the garden to read. Cliff brings me regular reports on the action so I don't get too anxious... and I read.

So, here's my list:

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Airman by Eoin Colfer
The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Black Money by Ross Macdonald
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Information Society: a study of continuity and change by John Feather
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
August Heat by Andrea Camilleri
A Cure for All Diseases by Reginald Hill (finished today)
Outcasts United by Warren St. John

A strange group of books, if I don't say so myself! I said earlier that I hadn't been reading of late but that isn't entirely true. I have been very tired and stressed out so my reading has tended towards escapist, recreational literature. Some who know me, know that I'm a detective fiction fan and so I have been working my way through the books of Andrea Camilleri, the most famous Italian fiction writer. The stories take place in Sicily and have a wonderful sense of place and equally wonderful descriptions of food!

A Week On

It has been a week since staff were no longer required to be in school, and I have been there every day except Wednesday when I went to Windsor with Chloe! Are you mad, someone said to me when I told them and no, I'm not. I have spent this week completely reorganizing the library and sorting through. It has been very hard work but the library is beginning to look really good. I will try to take photographs but since I don't have any before photos, it probably wouldn't mean anything to anyone but me...I may do it anyway!

The last day

The last day is not today, it's tomorrow. However, I thought I'd make some pre-event comments. For most of the staff tomorrow will be their last day with our head of school. You can already feel a loosening of the bonds. It's rather exciting but there is also an air of disbelief. Perhaps we will all get excited about this and she will will suddenly jump up and say, " Gottcha!" So, I don't imagine that people will be overly demonstrative until a lot later. They haven't found a replacement for her yet so isn't it conceivable that she will be asked to stay on for one more year. There is a president for this.

I have been organizing a tea for those staff members who were retiring this year: the school receptionist, a chemistry teacher, a special needs support teacher and one of the librarians. Within days of sending out the invitations, circulating cards to be signed and collecting money, the chemistry teacher had been asked to delay her retirement for one more year. What to do? Well I told her that this was it for retirement parties and that she wouldn't get one next year. That was fine with her and we went ahead with our plans. Today, just hours before the tea, I heard that the special needs teacher had also been asked to put off her retirement because her replacement had decided not to come. Do you see why I think that Moyra may still come back?

The anticipation that she might make such an announcement could almost convince me to go to the end of year barbecue. No, not really! Nothing could convince me to do that. While insincerity, hypocrisy and the smell of burnt burgers and chicken fill the air, I will be sipping pimms and eating lunch on the banks of the Thames with a few like-minded friends.

Forgiveness

My head of school is leaving. She is quite the most despicable person I have ever met. For whatever reason, she hurts people. So many people have been damaged by her that there must be a huge cloud of negative karma hanging over the school. Alas!

What is truly amazing in the lead up to her departure, is the number of people who, having openly talked about how much they dislike her, are now writing touching best wishes in her farewell card. So, my question for today is two-fold. Is this hypocrisy or or have they forgiven her. If forgiveness is involved, why do I find it so hard to believe?

I'm not going into a religious or philosophical discussion of forgiveness. However, I will say that I don't think I have forgiven her for what she has done to so many. Then again, perhaps I have, since I no longer feel angry towards her. It might have something to do with the writing of my murder mystery. In it I had a character based on her who I killed her off at the beginning and then spent the rest of the novel trying to decide who of many might have killed her. I certainly felt a lot better after the first 5 chapters. One day I might finish it off.

What does this say about me? I'm trying to work that one out!