15th April 1984 - Birthday on the Boat

We had added another hour to our clock, so I got up at 8.00, breakfast at 8.30. Bit of ham, orange drink (THIS IS SUNDAY 15^TH APRIL 1984) and omelet with cheese, which I didn’t have. It’s probably best to eat toast and bread.

 A very smooth sea today. We’re still going up the east coast of the main island of Japan – mountains and snow, and still a lot of ships. Chilly but sunny.

At 10.15 we went up to the bridge. The purser or his assistant, or whoever it was, showed us the modern equipment, including the radar screen and the automatic driver-thing.

At this stage we were still going up the east coast of Japan – mountains with snow. Not much coastal plain to speak of, but quite spectacular nevertheless. I didn’t realize that it would take so long to get past the island [of Honshu]. There is certainly a lot of shipping hereabouts.

  It’s difficult to remember what one does on these marine vessel voyages. After the bridge, I probably wrote or talked or fell overboard until lunch at 12.30, which was some battered minced meat concoction with chips, and raspberry jelly. Laspbelly jerry.

  After mangeons, I and some other lazy slobs sat in deck chairs in the sun. I read an article in Elly’s Time magazine about classical versus ‘French’ violin-making methods. [Maybe I mentioned it because I was planning to visit another old school friend, David Morgan, who was studying violin-making in Germany. As it turned out, I missed visiting him in Germany, but I met him in London.]

  Ah, yes. I have played euchre with Robert, David Withell, and Greg. And 500 with Sandy, Leanne, Debbie and some guy from Palanga Tours.

 A sponge cake for afternoon tea at 4.30. Dinner at 7.30 – some kind of steak. Horse doovers was tongue, which is all right and a bit like roast lamb or beef. I can’t understand why people are turned off on being told it was tongue. Liver and kidneys, yes. Tongue’s O.K.

  After dinner we went outside to watch the sunset over Hokkaido Island – by this time were we in the strait between this island and the main island? Yes, we were. More shipping, a lot of fishing boats with their net markers. Cold and clear it was. Just for something to do, we carried Jane in a deckchair to the Music Salon up t’other end t’boat.

 At 5.00 we met with our onboard Intourist man who had given us our baggage tickets and compartment numbers for the train to Khabarovsk [where we would join the Tran-Siberian Railway].

   In the Music Salon at 9.30 some of the crew members performed a little show for us as farewell. They sang in Russian, which is hardly surprising. Over-capacity performance. After this thrilling entertainment, Jane bought me an orange juice; later I went over (was called over) to sit with the McCarthys, Walshes, Elly and Jane. They bought me a Fanta and insisted that I stay. But they couldn’t keep me. I went down to have a shower, and just as I was about to get into bed they all came in singing Happy Birthday. It turned out that they were insisting that I stay in the Salon because they were going to get the Purser (or is it Bursar?) to make an announcement. Fortunately they couldn’t find him. 

  [I can't remember what the name of the ship was - probably something like The Pushkin.]