Days 17-20: Laziness, indolence, and lethargy (more sea days)

Day 17:
We did nothing, but not entirely by choice. Emma was a bit worn out after two days of activity, given she was coming off a cold, and I was starting to feel the onset of a cold. Having had three of the bloody things this year I was not interested in round four, so we spent the day in our cabin, primarily sleeping.
The most active thing we did all day was ringing room service, which we ate while watching “Blades of Glory”, a suitably stupid movie for a do-nuthin’ day.
Day 18:
We left the cabin, and spent most of the day plonked in the library (big comfy leather chairs with a big leather footstool. We also went up to the top deck (where I fell asleep for about half an hour), then to our favourite deck, the rather old-style wooden-decked Promenade Deck on Deck 7 (where I fell asleep for about half an hour), and then went back to our cabin (where I fell asleep for about half an hour).
After dinner Emma managed to find her second wind (I was worn out after all that sleep, but was too tired to argue), and we caught another show. This time it was a concert pianist named Christopher Contillo, who was surprisingly good. We saw him briefly the other day, and with his rather wild long hair and chirpy patter (a pianist who speaks? Very suspicious) I was expecting a comedy piano act. I was wrong - he’s outstanding.

Day 19: We were flat out, lying on Deck 7 (pictured left; purty, ain't it?).
Mainly we read; Emma finished her 2nd book today, while I switched back and forth between books 2 & 3 for me. The beauty of Deck 7 is that it’s in the shade, so you don’t get sunburned.
That was the theory. In practice I ended up with a rather red nose, with matching cheeks and forehead. It’s not painful, but I did look a bit like Lobsterman.
We also crossed the equator today. I was almost knocked off my lounger when we hit the bump. Here’s a picture of a guy pointing at the equator (you can just make out the blue line in the water):

That night was formal night, and I managed to manipulate Emma into agreeing to have her photo taken. She hates having her photo taken, so I played the “you had your picture taken with Helen on the QE2 but won’t have your picture taken with me?” card. It worked; about 15 minutes later she said she’d do it, but I better act quickly before she changed her mind.
The young English photographer did a great job. I still looked like Lobsterman, but we got some gorgeous shots of Emma, including my all-time favourite of her. We’ll be buying that one and bringing it home.
The show was a singer named Lisa Donovan. Basically a musical-comedy/showtunes act, which I normally hate on principle, but surprisingly good.
(“Surprisingly good” sums up my attitude to most of the acts. I have rather low expectations of cruise shows.)
Day 20:
Emma did a tour of the ship’s galley, while I played (and won, narrowlyr) two games of chess. I’d forgotten how much I like that game. Maybe I’ll join a chess club again, although it can really chew up the time if you want to be competitive.
We saw more flying fish & birds while doing our three lap/one mile walk around Deck 7, which is a sign we’re getting close to land.
As Day 21 is Bora Bora a lot of the older - urm, I mean “mature” - people on the ship seemed to have an early night. The ones who were awake were either catching the hypnotist act in the Princess Theatre or ballroom dancing in the Vista Lounge, the Shooting Stars nightclub was close to empty.
In this case I define “close to empty” as “absolutely nobody was there other than Emma, and me. Well, there were about eight crew members, but they were paid to be there, and besides most of them were hiding in the back. We had a quick chat with a few them and called it a night ourselves.
After all, we’re not as young as we used to be either.