This is our final full sea-day.

It's unlikely that anything is going to eclipse the excitement of yesterday's whale-sighting (folks are still to be heard asking "did you see the whale?), this afternoon is the big Art Exhibition, though, so you never know...

I realised there are several things that I've always done on cruises before that I don't seem to have done this time around, and am setting about trying to rectify that today. Last night, I went upstairs to the Skylark Club and joined in the Quiz Night, for instance. Previously, I would always have sought out and participated in these fantastic coming-together-and-battling-it-out events, but it's something I seem to have completely overlooked on this trip. I joined Carl De Marco (singer) and his team in the musical 'Film Themes' quiz, which should have been right up my street; not being able to recognise the theme to Pirates of The Caribbean scuppered us though. The winning team, apparently, have been wiping out the competition pretty much every night since the start of the cruise, much to the upset of other teams who insist that they have an unfair advantage by having 7 in the team, which is against the rules stipulating teams should consist of no more than 6 players. By all accounts, a fracas broke out in the Coral Club Afternoon quiz a couple of days ago. A winning team consisting of 7 players were called to account by another team; the quizmaster asked the room to decide whether or not they should be allowed to keep their winning vouchers and the entire room chanted "out, out out" in a chorus of disapproval.... yessss! Justice prevails!

Visiting the gym is also something I've rather overlooked this time around, and am hoping to catch an hour in there later, before showering and dressing up for our final Formal Night. There are fewer people walking or running circuits around the Lounge deck (5 laps = 1 mile), although there does seem to be a marked increase of activity around about sunset time. Mostly, the decks have been populated by people lounging on sunbeds roasting themselves, reading or doing the daily crosswords or soduko provided by the ship. The Marquee Deck (top deck) has been a sea of sunbathing bodies since the good weather kicked in. This is also where the swimming pools are situated, which seem to have been very busy whenever I've taken a walk up there.

Jeff Diamond payed a fantastic set in the Coral Club last night - he really is a great guitarist, and with the backing of the Braemar Orchestra instead of his usual pre-recorded tracks, he successfully rocked the ship with some good ol' raw blues numbers.

So anyway, this afternoon's big exhibition looms.... There are no fewer than 80 paintings, all to be blu-tacked to the walls of the Skylark Club. Proceedings start at 2pm, and I'm hoping it's going to attract a good crowd.

Bring it on!