The exhibition yesterday afternoon was FANTASTIC!!

With many hands making light work, the blue-tack, which was actually white, rolled freely and before you knew it, 81 paintings were proudly presented in the Skylark Club. The DJ booth, which has glass windows was festooned with work from 25 or so very proud students, and a free-standing display board was drafted in to take the excess, and it all looked terrific.

Because the event had been highlighted in the daily blurb and the Cruise Director had mentioned it in his address in the Neptune Lounge the night before, the turn-out was excellent, with folks doing lots of milling about and mingling and entering into the whole spirit of the thing. I was pleased; proud of the achievement, happy with the sale I made and, above all, pleased that Anthony the Cruise Director came up to see it and reported good feedback, which is the bottom-line as far as I'm concerned. All the work is in vain if the students haven't enjoyed their experience or the passengers are unhappy in any way with my performance.

Last night was the final Formal Night; dinner jackets and ballgowns were aired for one last time and the photographers flashed away capturing the occasion. The highlight of the evening was the Crew Show, where engineers, chefs, cabin staff, waiters; basically, the people who keep the ship running and operating on a day-to-day basis, entertained us with dance and song. The show was run 15-minutes apart, concurrently in both the Neptune Lounge and the Coral Club, twice, to take account of the two restaurant sittings. This was all very well, but it left very little in the way of alternative options. I had a drink and a sing in the Morning Light Pub (Jeff invited me up to sing 'The Boxer' again) and then sort of drifted about aimlessly looking for something, anything, to entertain me that wasn't the Crew Show. I joined in the quiz night again, and our team scored 20 correct questions out of 20. Unfortunately, so did 5 other teams (cos it was so easy), and the tie-break question was a tough one - what year was Nelson's flag-ship first launched? Who cares? Needless to say we didn't wiin.

Later on, they announced the Chef's Grand Gala Buffet in the Thistle Restaurant. This wasn't so much an opportunity to eat late , as a feast for the eyes. Apparently it is a very long tradition dating back to goodness knows when. The Head Chef and his team carve animals out of great lumps of ice and do lots of arty things with meat and butter and anything else they can lay their hands on. People queued for ages to walk through this grotto of delights, like you would to see a rare exhibit at a museum or art gallery.... now, I was brought up being told not to play with my food and, despite being quite clever; castles built out of butter; a joint of pork made up to look like a... pig; a miniature playground made out of chocolate; eagles and dolphins carved out of ice... I'm not sure I entirely GET it.

Anyway, today we arrive in Key West in Florida; the last of our port stops before concluding our trip in Miami tomorrow morning. Interestingly enough, this is the last year that Fred Olsen will be flying passengers into, and sailing out of, the United States, I've heard. This is because the US immigration system is changing; they're doing away with the green waiver forms which we have to fill in - instead, anyone travelling to the States will need to fill in an on-line form, personally, 72 hours before entry. This is all very well, but many passengers are not on the internet and don't own computers (and travel agents will not be allowed to do it for them) - all very inconvenient - kind of makes you think they don't really want us to visit, doesn't it? In future, then, cruises will fly into, and sail out of, Barbados, where no such silliness applies.

I have a tour today. It's a short day, and we'll have the fiasco of all passengers having to have a face-to-face interview with immigration officials who will come aboard, before being allowed onto US soil (even those who are not going ashore). The good thing about being on a tour is that I'll be amongst the earliest to be seen. I'm a little disappointed at the excursion I've been given though; out of a list of trips which includes two 'White Knucle Thrill Boat Rides', I've been given 'Homes and Gardens', which all sounds a bit sedentary to me. Hmm... we'll see!