May 6 - Great Balls of Fire

I’m sitting on the ship in Cherbourg.  I was just here 12 days ago and that wasn’t the first time I’d been to Normandy.  It’s dreary, rainy and cold (what happened to the beautiful sunshine of the last two days?).   I have seen the main things on my to-do list so I made an executive decision to stay on the ship today. I may pop in to see the coronation in a little while.  I mainly like to see the outfits people are wearing.

If you’re wondering why I entitled this post “Great Balls of Fire” it’s because last night there were actually about eight or nine of us dancing until the wee hours of the morning!  It was  quite fun and lively for a change.  I don’t know if it will keep up, but I enjoyed it for the moment.

Dinner tonight is at a hosted table with one of the singers.  I hope it's not a big table.  It's hard to make conversation at those except with your immediate neighbors.

It's later and it was a big table.  I had some very nice people next to me so the conversation was interesting.  It was a "Coronation" dinner so the only thing we could choose was the main course.  The meal was good but very rich.  After dinner I went to the show which featured a British pianist who was very good.  At the end we all were encouraged to sing "Rule, Britannia" and we had little Union Jacks with Charles' picture in the middle to wave.

I spoke too soon about dancers.  There were zero in the Club and the music playing was not suited for me dancing by myself; it was mainly slow tunes.  The singer I sat next to at dinner told me some things I thought were interesting.  The band that I don't think is very good is not really a band at all.  They are five musicians who were hired separately who arrived at the ship.  For example, the bass player just joined the other day.  No wonder they don't sound like a group!  They look like five really bored guys doing their individual thing.  The singer told me the vocalist with the band, who does have a very nice voice, is a Filipina who isn't very fluent in English.  Hence her reluctance to sing any songs not on her playlist.  It's hard to fathom she can't play a Rolling Stones song though. I paid attention to her singing last night after my conversation with the cast member and it was clear that she is not familiar with the real pronunciation of the lyrics she's singing.  It's too bad.