Another sea day.
You’d think I’d be happy for the rest of my life having finally achieved my dream of seeing an aurora. But there you go, human nature is what it is. I was woken in the night by a tapping noise. We’d had the same on our first night but hadn’t noticed it since. Even Simon noticed it, and his hearing hasn’t been great since a course of chemotherapy in his youth.
Feeling groggy from lack of sleep, I contacted our room steward in the morning. There followed a long period of gaslighting which still isn’t over. I’ve asked that they move us if it can’t be fixed but apparently it’s a full ship. I do feel somewhat aggrieved having payed extra for a well located room. I don’t like to make waves, and “I want to see the manager” moments are not my style at all. But on the other hand, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and if I said nothing, then nothing would be done. Let’s see what happens. If necessary I have some earplugs.
After a late breakfast, I went to three back to back lectures. The first one was from the astronomer on the importance of dark skies and the dangers of light pollution. I bought his book afterwards, and mentioned that I’d given up my astrophysics degree to do medicine and he said that was a shame, but there was certainly no money in astronomy. That may be generally true but considering this is his seventh Norwegian cruise courtesy of Cunard I think he’s doing rather well.
The second talk was on digital safety from a former spook, and then one on Norwegian traditions from a social scientist.
Back to the room for more conversations about the mysterious tapping noise, and then off to the yoga studio for an afternoon stretching session.
Having been so virtuous I’m now up on the rear deck at one of the twenty or so bars having a cocktail. They have terrific range of very good low and no alcohol cocktails which is very pleasing. I’m planning another night of aurora spotting tonight if the clouds lift, so keen to keep my head clear. Simon is doing some remote work up here, managing to find some data on his phone from one of the nearby islands. There is WiFi on the ship but it doesn’t like his VPN.
Simon’s had a couple of episodes of pain in the early hours of the morning but is relatively good in the daytime. This in spite of very rigorously keeping to a very uninspiring no fat diet, and the antibiotics. He’s in touch with the general surgeon who is now back home, and the surgeon has expressed his surprise and disappointment that Simon’s isn’t better. Tests are being lined up for our return and Simon is confident he can last that long.