Bulletin from Clarence House

The heroic one deserved a glass of pop after she had thawed out and we sat and chatted for a while before getting ready for dinner. It was to be the main restaurant, Atlantide, that was host to our evening and we had a good meal with a couple of glasses of wine, ever mindful not to overdo it while on meds. On our return we finished off a sudoku and then headed for bed, fearing that it might be another night of me barking and no one sleeping.

In the event though, we both slept fairly well with only a few minor interruptions, so we woke at 07:30 to the ship gliding across the sea towards Tokyo. At that point, I did start coughing, clearing the night’s congestion. However, we found something even better for that purpose as we headed to breakfast: Bloody Mary, being served from a pop up cocktail bar in the restaurant entrance. Oh well, if we must. It was soooo spicy it nearly blew our heads off. Kill or cure?

We returned to the room to find our suitcases laid out ready. How quickly they dismiss us! In addition there are new customs forms to complete. I am quite convinced that no one at all looks at these, but complete them we must. This afternoon’s activity will be packing then, mostly adding our laundered clothes that were done for us on the ship. There’s nothing quite like coming back from holiday with a suitcase full of clean clothes.

A pod of porpoises was flurrying alongside the ship as we returned to our room after coffee. At first, they were in the distance but gradually came nearer the ship, leaping sleekly out of the water and arcing back in with hardly a splash. There were dozens of them and they made a welcome wildlife visitation to the artificial environment of a cruise ship.

Gabrielle has declared - you heard it here first - that she is never suggesting another holiday because I always seem to ruin them. I can see what she means. Last year in January I was doing the same thing while we went around Sri Lanka. Similarly, on our way back from  Portugal I was dragging myself around with another severe cold. I explain it like this: I’m old and maybe my body is resistant to all this travel or maybe my resistance is low or perhaps I have a susceptibility to infections because of childhood illnesses. Who knows? All I do know is that I am as fed up with the coughing as Gabrielle is and I’m the one doing it. How we move ahead with future holidays will be a matter of some discussion, I feel.

Meanwhile, we have three days in Tokyo to look forward to. A new hotel, a new environment and hopefully with me somewhat recovered so we can enjoy some proper tourist time.

The packing has gone well with an accompaniment by the Bose speaker of a raft of prog rock anthems to carry us along. There’s a suspiciously large hole in my suitcase which will no doubt be filled when I change my shoes tonight but otherwise, all systems nominal Captain! Gabrielle has been mocking herself for bringing sun cream, shorts and bikinis, but frankly, I did similar. Not the bikini - behave! So we finally reached a point where no more could be packed until later tonight. Steve Hackett was playing up a storm and that obviously signified that we should go for afternoon tea maybe with a glass of champagne to end the holiday!

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