A little incident today reminded me of just how gracious and utterly charming some people can be. After a late start this morning (I got into some video editting last night which kept me up until almost midnight), I only just made breakfast, which finishes at 9:30 and spent most of the morning on online business and preparing for this afternoon's workshop. After lunch, I decided what I really fancied was to find a quiet spot somewhere to read my book for an hour.

Peter Roach had recommended the upper deck, by the golf-practise nets, as being out of the wind and quite pleasant in the fresh air and sun, but when I got there, I found it far too windy, despite moving around in search of a sheltered spot, it was too stressful, so I headed for the Lido Lounge. Unfortunately, the Lido Lounge had piped music playing (even though there was no-one there to listen to it), and I couldn't concentrate; I found I was reading the same line over and over again, to the tune of Robbie Willams singinging 'Angels'.

I shifted out into the long lounge that connects the main stairwell to the Lido, which was occupied by just a few passengers who also were reading, and several who were snoring. Unfortunately, amongst these other passengers were an elderly couple playing Scrabble. Now I've never really thought of Scrabble as being a particularly noisy game, but this couple succeeded spectacularly. Every time he placed tiles on the board she had a right old go at him, either ordering him to speed up a bit, or chiding him for putting down a stupid word. She talked incessantly, and at high volumne, at one point ordering the poor old geezer to wake up and take some tiles. I stuck this for about 5 minutes before upping and heading for the Library.

Now it has to be said that there are specific rules applied to the library, as with other parts of the ship. For instance; out on deck, it is expressly forbidden for anyone to reserve sun-loungers by leaving towels and personal belongings on them while they go for lunch. In the Library, the same rules apply to the very precious armchairs that look out over the ocean. The Library is a quiet place, where folks can help themselves to the books on the shelves or avail themselves of the few tables there to work on laptops  or read their own books. At this particular time of day, it wasn't very heavily populated. Many people lay with books open on their knees, heads back and snoring or dribbling....

I spotted a quiet-looking corner that fitted my agenda perfectly. Out of four armchairs, only one was occupied, by a lady who had also succumbed to sleep, her book fallen open on her knee. Two other chairs, placed opposite each other with a small table between then were unoccupied. On the table was a paperback book and a magazine. I looked around and decided that these two chairs must be free, the books abandonded, as many people seem to do, so I settled down to read....

I reckon I'd been sitting there, blissfully, for about 25 minutes before two large ladies approached. One loomed over me, blotting out all available light, and announced, with a very big plum in her mouth, "I'll have my seat back now". I looked up, quite astonished at her rudeness, shaking my head, and said "Oh, I'm sorry; didn't realise it had your name on it...". But the perfume-soaked grizzly bear wasn't budging, and I wasn't going to let the moment descent into an argument because I'd be the one losing out and having a complaint made against me. She was pointing to the only other free chair in that corner, saying "you  can have that one..." I got to my feet, glared at her and walked off. What annoyed me most was hearing her behind me saying "Oh, some people are soooo rude!"

Quite seething, I wandered back to the Lido pre-lounge and read for the last of my available 10 minutes to the sound of Mr & Mrs Agro-Scrabble.

This afternoon, we passed Gibraltar. Unfortunately, we are currently fighting a 50mph head-wind and a heavy swell which is holding us back somewhat, and so instead of passing the Rock at 2pm as promised, we passed it at 3:30pm - bang in the middle of my workshop!

The headwind and slow progress has had another knock-on effect. As I predicted, I have been offered tour-escorting duty tomorrow; a Panoramic tour to Sintra and somewhere else I can't remember the name of. Unfortunately, the captain has just announced that instead of the planned arrival time of 7am in Lisbon tomorrow morning, because of the delays, we are currently not expecting to pick up the pilot until 10:30am, to be free to leave the ship at about 11:30. This has rather upset all the shore excursions, so everyone is now waiting to see how these might be rescheduled... if at all.