Day 10 Shakespeare and Ralph Lauren

We lost another hour last night. This morning we are GMT+1. The plan was to again rise at 7:00 am for breakfast in The Restaurant, but T decided (at 7:00 am) it was too early. I went to the Colonnade instead and returned to take a short nap until noon. By that time, T decided it was time to have lunch. We had red snapper and spring rolls in The Restaurant. Very good. We did not attend the 9:45 am bridge class. However, I did sit at a table in the Colonnade close to the table where Harry and Mary (Bridge teachers) were sitting with another couple. Harry was telling these people how they have sailed the high seas for years conducting Bridge classes. That might be an interesting way to retire!

After lunch we stopped by the gift shop. When we boarded, we were given $1,000 of non-refundable on-board credits. We used $200 to attend the wine tasting last week. Since this is an all-inclusive cruise, there is not much on which to spend the credits unless you want a special bottle of wine or you find something in the gift shop. T has not been very impressed with their jewelry or clothing offerings. However, they did have a really nice Polo Ralph Lauren leather Gladstone style travel bag. My leather carry-on bag (which T bought me years ago) is getting frayed and torn. They wanted $495 for it and, with my birthday coming up next month, it seemed to be a good fit. When I was "paying" for the bag, the gift shop lady (British) asked where we lived. I told her we were from St. Louis, Missouri. Her facial expression was one of confusion and embarrassment. I hastily added "It is just west of New York". To this she exclaimed "Oh yes, of course!".

Our next stop was to attend an acting workshop "Speaking the Speech; Early Modern Text Work for Today's Actor". Before going however, we stopped by the Sky Bar and chatted with our favorite bartender Stewart Mcintosh. Tomorrow is Stewart's last day with Seabourn. He is leaving the ship when we get to Funchal and going home (Scotland) where he is opening his own bar/hotel, the Buchan Arms Hotel in Broxburn, West Lothian, UK  (about 50 miles west of Edinburgh).

Stewart Mcintosh

It may not look like much, but he is very excited. It has a bar, eight hotel rooms and a beer garden out back (with parking!). He told us the drinks are "on him" if we should stop by. T told him she would let her English blog readers know about his grand opening next Monday.

With drinks in hand, we journeyed to the acting workshop. From the description, we did not quite understand what to expect, and almost did not go. We are glad we did however. T participated and I watched. I will let T elaborate if she wishes, but the host, Adam (British), essentially taught the participants how to read a couple of scenes from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. After "warming up" their vocal cords, T read the parts of Viola speaking to Olivia (Act I Scene 5 and Act III Scene 1). Her partner was Martin (British), who played the role of Olivia.

Tonight we are dining at The Restaurant. Tomorrow we dock in Funchal. We have a four hour shore excursion scheduled during which we will explore the "back country" of this Portuguese island.

We actually ventured out after dinner tonight to partake of the smooth jazz band in The Club. Pretty good, but they did not play long. About half way through their performance, a single lady sat down in the audience with us. This increased the number of people appreciating the music (and applauding) by 50%. Later, another single gentleman joined the "crowd". It turned out however that he was part of the band next to play. We did not stay for the next show. Off to bed.