Sunday January 7th.
After what most passengers on this ship have called a dreadful night, which I slept through, (George told me this bitterly when I awoke this morning....was I snoring I wonder?) we are still bumbling, rocking and shuddering our way towards Japan. Ex SAS-ites will remember the seas as we neared Casablanca on our last voyage and Mikey's brilliant performance in the Union as he explained bargaining to us? Well we have a repeat demonstration now by the Pacific. Rumour had it last night that this was a result of an earthquake in Japan, so of course I googled the information. Sure enough there was an earthquake, 4.9 on the Richter scale, off the East coast of Honshu island, south of Yokohama and Tokyo. There is disagreement as to whether this would cause rough seas....George tells me no. it's coming from Siberia... Siberia?! All we do know is that we turned north off our nice calm southerly route (to the Phillapines) and the sea changed as it is wont to do.
Have just been to a hilarious meeting of our Sino American group. We had to solve the conflict between China, Taiwan and the United States. We had 4 teams, each with a delegate who spoke. I was on the UN International team and we decided to do a sort of counselling session and first of all ask alot of questions...guage where they all stood, then offer suggestions be concilatory but if necessary threaten sanctions! It was great fun especially listening to the students who got very passionate even if they were American but representing China or Taiwan. What a great way to understand every perspective and point of view. The most obdurate was the American student representing the US, he wasn't going to budge on anything and was quite aggressive towards China...Why are you so interested in aquiring this island which represents just a little over 1% of your whole land mass?" the response was "Why are you?"!!
The seas are awful and the ship is both rolling and pitching with 13 foot swells. One student said to George "I hate this ship!" and one Chinese student told me he loved everything but the sea sickness. He shares a cabin on the 4th deck in the bows of the ship and he and many of the students didn't sleep at all last night. I imagine the Wellness Spa and exercise room are closed, it would be almost impossible to do hair dressing, pedicures and manicures when both you and your client are kareening across the floor! Everyone is looking forward to being on terra firma again and we are really praying it's gonna be firma!
I'm going to give up writing until we sail into calmer waters, sooner rather than later we hope.
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