The following morning Jinnie and Paolo woke up with the ship already docked in St Lucia. They were in no rush to go to breakfast as they were not booked on an excursion. In fact, the only place they had thought of booking a trip was on the Azores as that was something different. They had been to the three Caribbean islands the ship was calling at, St Lucia, St Kitts and Antigua, on their Christmas cruise, so they had decided they would either stay on board or just take a stroll ashore and maybe share a taxi into town.
It was Paolo’s turn to make the early morning coffee and they sat in bed and watched the news on Sky News International. Of course, it was seven am in St Lucia and noon in London, so it was the lunchtime news. The main story of the morning was a political row between Russia and Germany. Jinnie lifted her eyebrows, as the presenter explained the two countries had signed a peace treaty back in the 1940s when Germany had been masters of Europe. The Germans had invaded Russia, but paused at the gates of Moscow and withdrew a bit when they the Germans had got what they desperately needed, the oil-rich areas around the Caspian Sea.
The Russians had demanded the Germans withdraw back to the old borders of Russia, leaving Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in German control. The Germans were not happy as it made access to oil-rich Azerbaijan difficult as it was shipped across the Black Sea from Batumi in Georgia, and the Russians would have a coastline on the Black Sea and could interfere with shipments. The latest news was that the Germans had fired a missile at a Russian jet that had ‘strayed’ into German territory and tensions were rising. The British PM had issued a statement that translated into ‘Not our problem’.
Jinnie said to Paolo, “You know, I can’t really criticise the Russians for wanting their territory back, I’m just a little surprised they didn’t join in during our war of liberation, when we chucked the Germans out of the U.K. or when we helped Italy, France, Belgium and Holland or more recently Austria and Slovenia. If they had joined the Allies, then they wouldn’t have been on their own. The Germans would have been fighting on two or more fronts and they would have stood a far better chance of getting their land back.” “I suspect the Russians simply didn’t have the military might to do it back then,” said Paolo. “I have seen diplomatic reports that they have been building up their army and air force for years now. The problem is that they are not as sophisticated as the West. Our ambassador to Moscow says much of their infrastructure is from 20 years ago. Most of their railways are still steam-huled. Their fighter jets are primitive and their tanks at least a generation behind ours. But they have one advantage, they have millions and millions of men of fighting age.”
***
As Jinnie and Paolo entered the Epicurean for their breakfast and had been seated, the trans manager approached them and asked if their meal last night had been satisfactory. Jinnie smiled and replied, “It was more than satisfactory, it was excellent, and I should know, I am a restauranteur by trade and some of my restaurants have Michelin Stars. I think we will come again next week to try the other menu.” The manager was clearly delighted and said, “I would suggest you don’t leave the booking too long. On every cruise the last two or three evenings are normally full. So, if you want to have a table for the last Thursday or Friday evening, I suggest you book in the next couple of days while we still have capacity.”
After breakfast in the Epicurean, Jinnie and Paolo decided to take advantage of so many people being ashore either independently or on organised excursions and headed for the Lido Deck and found loungers in the sun. Jinnie complained to Paolo that they had to fetch their own pool towels from the racks, at Christmas that had been a job the twins had relished. Jinnie settled back with the ships ‘Horizon’ daily bulletin to see if there was anything happening that she fancied doing. There was a film on in the cinema that afternoon she wondered about going to see and then thought it will almost certainly be on again later in the cruise, when we are mid-Atlantic, and the weather wasn’t as good as this. There was a pub quiz at noon in one of the bars, quoits on the sports deck, the friends of Bill W were meeting, there was a single ‘get to know you’ event, ‘fun with pastry’ in the demonstration kitchen, and wine tasting at three in the Crows Nest. For the children on board (and Jinnie had seen very few), Shaun the Sheep was holding a tea party.
Jinnie decided that she was going to continue reading the new John Grisham novel she had downloaded to her Kindle. She settled back and enjoyed the peace around the pool on Port Day. Paolo, who now had the daily Horizon bulletin, said, “I bet it is fun in Brodies Bar this morning, they are hosting the Friends of Bill W, a singles get together and a Friends of Dorothy meeting all at the same time. I hope they don’t get mixed up.” He continued, “I fancy a cold drink; do you want one?” Very quickly, Jinnie asked for her go-to soft drink, a Pepsi Max, no ice.
At lunchtime Jinnie asked, “Shall we try lunch in the restaurant today, we never tried it when the kids were here at Christmas, and I want to be able to say we have tried it.” “OK,” said Paolo, “let’s go.” Lunch was on a turn-up and be-seated-anywhere basis. Jinnie and Paolo said they would be happy to share a table and were shown to a table for eight where a couple were already perusing the menu. Jinnie found that the lunch menu was very different to the dinner menu. There was a mixture of snacks, soup, salads, main courses and desserts. Today’s special was chicken korma, boiled rice and poppadom’s for two sharing and Jinnie asked Paolo if he fancied sharing it.
They were joined by four more people, their orders taken, drinks orders taken, iced water and bread rolls served. Jinnie and Paolo opted not to have a starter, but to wait and have their mains with everyone else. Two people started with asparagus soup and the two others waited like Jinnie and Paolo. When the mains arrived, two had opted for a ham and cheese baguette served with chunky chips, two had cod and chips, while the remainder had the curry. When it arrived in large bowls placed in the middle of the table for the two couples to serve themselves it smelt wonderful. Jinnie and Paolo helped themselves from their bowls and loaded their plates with curry and boiled rice.
Before they could take a mouthful, the waiter was back with a selection of chutneys and pickles. The commie waiter brought the poppadoms and Jinnie dived in, quickly looking at Paolo and saying, “This is magnificent, I can’t remember having better.” Paolo nodded ‘Yes’ in reply and the woman sitting next to Jinnie said, “I agree, P&O do fabulous curries. I came here today because I saw it on the menu as we left the restaurant after breakfast. But if you like curry there is one every lunchtime in the buffet, but of course you must serve yourself there, it’s much nicer being served.”
With every scrap of the delicious curry consumed, the menus were back for dessert. Jinnie had not intended to have a dessert, only coffee, but on seeing treacle sponge and custard she couldn’t resist it. Again, it was superb and even the coffee was acceptable. As Jinnie and Paolo headed back to their suite to call the twins. Paolo said, “My was that a good lunch, but I couldn’t eat that every day and a big meal in the evening.” Jinnie replied, “I agree, but a bowl of soup and a baguette would probably be better than a burger and chips.” “True,” answered Paolo, “but could I trust myself if we ate there every lunchtime?”
***
The twins were happy to talk to their parents and told them they were marking off the days until they met them at Southampton, on a calendar. Jinnie told them that there was a Shaun the Sheep tea party that afternoon and Millie said, “We went to that at Christmas, it was good, we still have our masks.” After saying goodbye to the twins, Jinnie and Paolo sat on their balcony in the warm sun and indulged in one of their favourite things, people-watching as passengers and crew came back aboard from their shore trips. After a while they both had forty winks and then made an afternoon cup of tea. Jinnie said, “I think we are falling into a routine here; I don’t think an afternoon nap will be acceptable when we are both back at work.” Paolo chuckled and replied, “I think I still have a bedroom allocated to me at the embassy.”
***
There was a full table of eight at for dinner that evening. The newcomers on the table, who had eaten with Rick and Sue the previous evening were introduced as David and Anne, who were pleasant and, as Paolo said later, ordinary. David was an accountant, while Anne worked in the office of a supermarket. After introductions, Rick wanted to know all about the others’ meal at the Epicurean. Graham took up the tale and gave a rave review of the restaurant, the food, the service and even sitting on the terrace as the ship sailed. He concluded, “It was simply wonderful, and we are going to book for next week when the menu changes to Menu B.”
Jinnie said, “Graham is quite right; it was a lovely evening. This morning, at breakfast, the manager told us that they fill up very quickly for the last few evenings and advised us to book quickly if we wanted a table on the last Thursday or Friday. Paolo and I have had a chat, and we are thinking about the Wednesday, and we intended to book this evening after dinner.” Rick said, “Would you mind if we joined you again?” “Of course, we would be delighted,” answered Paolo. “Would you like us to book a four or is anyone else interested?”
“I think you can count us in,” said Graham, and David said, “I think we should make it a full eight as you have made it soon so good.” After a little more discussion it was decided that they would all go for a nightcap in the Crows Nest after dinner, and call into the Epicurean on the way and make the booking. They could have booked via the ship’s booking app, but it proved a little difficult linking the four couples into a single booking.
The Crows Nest proved to be a bit busier than last night, but they easily found a seat. David who hadn’t been there before said, “This is rather nice. Comfortable, lovely views and atmospheric with the piano. I’m just surprised it isn’t packed.” Jinnie replied, “When we were on board at Christmas it was never packed even though the ship was. I think that it could be its position, it tends to be a longish walk from other places and if you approach it on this deck, it is at the end of long passageways one with some of the lesser-used public rooms and the other past all the single cabins. I think people just can’t bothered to walk this far.”
***
Jinnie woke as the ship was approaching Basseterre, the capital of St Kitts and Nevis. It was here that they had taken the twins on the scenic railway, one of the highlights of the Christmas cruise that the twins had adored. The previous evening over their nightcap, Anne had revealed that she and David had booked to go on it as part of an excursion and asked if anyone had been on it before. Jinnie explained that she and Paolo had been on it at Christmas with their twins and their nanny. That it was what remained of the old railway that had served sugar plantations and taken the sugarcane to the mill. It was a relaxing ride in open-sided wagons through the countryside with lots of rum punch supplied to adults.
Jinnie and Paolo had dropped easily into a daily routine. They had tea or coffee in bed before getting up. They washed and dressed and then breakfasted in the Epicurean; they lounged by the pool in the morning; they lunched and then sat on their balcony in the sun; they had a snooze; had a pre-dinner drink and then dinner. Finally, they had a nightcap in the Crows Nest and went to bed. Jinnie said to Paolo, “We are in a rut. I think I might try to run around the jogging track up on the sports deck before breakfast.” “I suppose you want me to join you,” said Paolo. “Only if you want to,” answered Jinnie.
Jinnie made it round the track twice before she was done. It was then that she realised that she still had a long way to go in recovering her fitness. In the past, especially before she had the twins and was working for the SIS, she had prided herself on her fitness. Even last year when she had joined her sister and the SAS on a raid on terrorists, she had been able to keep up. But the spell in hospital had done for her. She might have been fit enough to be released from hospital but now she realised that she was nowhere near where she wanted to be. What if she was called upon to assist the SIS again?
She watched Paolo complete another lap and come over to her. She said, “I have decided I’m going to have to stop lying in the sun so much and do a bit more exercise. The pool’s a bit small to swim lengths in, but I suppose I could talk to one of the trainers in the gym. I could get a programme to help me back to fitness.” “OK,” replied Paolo, “but don’t expect me to join you in the gym. If you want me to join you on this jogging track that’s alright, but I wasn’t shot and spent weeks in bed, I never lost my basic fitness.”
After breakfast, it was with trepidation, that Jinnie entered the ship’s gym. But she was much happier when she left twenty minutes later. One of the instructors had listened while she explained that she had been in the ‘services’ and had been reasonably fit until she had been shot and spent some weeks in hospital. She was now recovered from the bullet wound but had lost her fitness. The instructor nodded sagely and said, “For general fitness, I would advise swimming daily, but the pools onboard are not ideal. So how about we put together a series of exercises on some of the machines here like the exercise bike and the running machine? We can build it up a bit as the cruise goes on.”
Jinnie agreed and said, “When I get home, I have access to my neighbour’s pool, and he also has a couple of machines in the pool house.” “Excellent,” said the instructor, “I suggest we start with a short session this afternoon; I can assess your fitness level and we can work out a programme to start you back to full fitness. Please don’t expect to be a whole lot fitter at the end of the voyage, you will need to make use of your friend’s pool and machines, but if you keep it up you will get there.”
***
Jinnie didn’t want to go to the gym after a big lunch, so she talked Paolo into going to the buffet where she made herself a salad from all the fresh stuff available. She was about to add some sliced ham when she saw a platter of peeled prawns and went for them instead. Paolo dismissed the “rabbit food” and had put an individual steak and kidney pudding on his plate to which he added peas, broccoli and a couple of roast potatoes. Rejecting numerous inside tables, they had to walk a long way down the buffet before they found a vacant table for two by the window. Paolo joked, “You don’t need to go to the gym now after that walk.”
Jinnie said, “This salad is rather nice, but it is a bit busy in here, I can’t think what it must be like on a sea day when nobody is ashore.” “Have you noticed,” answered Paolo, “that it is jam-packed nearest the pool but as you move away down here it gets less and less crowded. I really must say I preferred lunch in the restaurant yesterday. I know the food is similar, but I prefer being served and I really don’t like the idea of there not being any trays. Tomorrow, I suggest we go to the restaurant, I’m sure they had salads on the menu.”
After lunch, they returned to the suite and sat on the balcony until it was time for Jinnie’s assessment. Paolo wished her good luck and returned to the book he had borrowed from the ship’s library. Jinnie was put through her paces by the instructor on the static bicycle, running machine and rowing machine. Finally, the instructor said, “I think that’s enough. Here’s the good news, your underlying fitness is pretty good, it’s just the time spent in bed has let your muscles get a bit flabby. This isn’t going to be quite as hard as I initially thought. It’s only getting the muscle tone back. My first thoughts are a couple of sessions on the machines daily and you should be in much better shape when you leave us. How about I pencil you in for a session at 8 am when we open and another at 3 pm?”
Paolo was snoring gently when Jinnie let herself into the suite. She poked him in the ribs, and he stirred, sat up and said, “Hello, how did you get on?” “Not bad, Adam reckons my muscles have got flabby being in bed for so long, so he’s organising a couple of sessions a day for me.” “And how much is this going to cost?” asked Paolo. “Nothing,” replied Jinnie, “use of the gym equipment is free.”
That evening at dinner Jinnie told the rest of the table how she had signed up for a couple of gym sessions a day to get her fitness back. Graham asked, “Does that mean you will be eating ‘healthily’ now?” Jinnie said, “I always do anyway, but I might cut out the sugary desserts and eat the fresh fruit salad instead.” “With or without the fresh cream?” muttered Paolo ducking the serviette Jinnie threw at him.
***
Jinnie collapsed on the bed after her first morning session. After a few minutes, Paolo said, “Are you going to lie there all day or are we going to breakfast, I’m hungry.” “Alright,” said Jinnie, “I’m hungry too, but I need a moment to wash off this sweat and change.”
They made it to the Epicurean moments before it closed and were shown to their normal breakfast table. Jinnie apologised for cutting things so close and explained she had an early session gym, and it was a bit of a rush getting there before they closed. The manager said, “Well, as we are at sea tomorrow we stay open an extra 30 minutes and do so on every sea day.” Jinnie smiled and said, “Only one port day now before home, and we were wondering about booking an excursion as it’s the one place we haven’t visited before.”
Jinnie just loved the Epicurean breakfast. The food was excellent, the service superb and the ambience incredible. Today she had a mango and mixed berry smoothie and french toast with crispy bacon. Paolo had his usual cornflakes and followed it with two fried eggs, bacon, mushrooms, black pudding, and fried bread.
They were last to leave the restaurant but didn’t feel rushed by the staff. As they walked to the pool Jinnie said, “That restaurant is classy, I do hope that the Sybaritic is like it, that’s what I intended. We will have to visit as soon as possible after we get home.”
In Chapter 6 – Sea days
© WorthingGooner 2024
