Day 47 26th February 2011

We went to the Café Bordeaux music night, yesterday. It is a simple idea that you can have a meal while listening to live music. Last night it was a band called Caravan who seems able to provide music from across several decades in many different styles. They are very popular with the passengers since they can offer something for everyone. It was a sell out event with many ships officers eating with groups and getting up to dance. On the next table was the Deputy Captain and ship’s doctor while on the other side of the restaurant the Captain and Purser were sitting with another group. Chris wondered who was driving the ship. Many people got up to dance and it was a good night. We even shuffled about. The band did several encores finishing up with Bohemian Rhapsody.

The only negative is that the waiters who served us breakfast were also working on the music night. We asked a headwaiter did he ever sleep and he told us when he was at home. The staff are ‘only’ supposed to work a maximum of 10.5 hours a day but since this is broken up into shifts they never seem to get a long break. The headwaiter said he was not working between 11pm and 9am. The waiters have all chip in to buy an internet card so they can watch the India versus England, the World Cup cricket match so I suppose on Sunday they will get even less sleep.

We had to be checked through Australian immigration today. This was quite a straightforward process of queuing up to be seen by an officer who checked our passport pictures against us and then stamped them.  It was done on the ship to save time when we land in Brisbane tomorrow. We had to complete an entry and exit card which the ship will submit at the appropriate times for us. For several hundred passengers the trip ends tomorrow in Brisbane or two days later in Sidney. Other passengers then join the cruise to complete the final two legs of the voyage. We have met several couples who are leaving in Australia to visit family and friends or simply to have a holiday. Australia marks the end of the third stage of the trip.

We were up early this morning and even managed to have breakfast in the main restaurant. This is only the fourth time we have achieved this event. The restaurant stops serving at 9.30am and we never quite manage the time. The ship moved a good deal last night which may explain why we got up early. The weather had clamed down a bit by this morning but we have had some heavy rain showers.