We are all at sea and will be for some considerable time, heading for New York aboard Arcadia.  I still have my doubts about cruising, the major one being the average age of the passengers.  I know this is cruel and we are all heading there eventually but it does seem premature to be hanging out in God’s waiting room.

The positives are being at sea, pulling back the curtains and finding yourself in a completely new place, inevitably the food, having an excuse to be idle and the lectures.  The entertainment is probably ok if you once thought the Black & White Minstrel Show the height of sophistication and the ‘comedians’ acceptable if you suffer from memory loss.  The ship’s small cinema is a delight; it seats about thirty in sumptuous reclining seats, what a pity the films to date have been so dire.  Last night it was Darling Companion which could have been made in 1955; a ‘modern’ tale of a stray dog.  Unfortunately the only actor who seems to have his heart in it goes missing for much of the film;  the dog turns up again safe and sound just before the credits.

There is a gym with various instruments of torture, so to ‘keep fit’ we have taken to the treadmill.  So far I have run 7 kilometres across the Atlantic, the only thing easing the pain is the music inserted into the centre of my head from an iPod;  The Seldom Seen Kid and never in the gym.

It is our third day aboard and I have seen but one other sign of life, container ship MSC Tokyo about one mile north on the starboard side and 120 nautical miles south of Cork.  The rest of the time it is just endless sea and sky, a magnificent and ever changing canvas.