Had a nice dinner with Alan, Kathy and Kathy;s mom Midge and with Jim and Pat last night. YES I did order the rack of lamb with a Brassfield Cabernet - very nice.

Lovely day at sea today the seas are so calm, the sun is shining and we are having a July 4th type barbeque on the deck.

Played hearts this morning but this cruise is going to be so busy this may be the only day we play. Plan on playing at 2.00 pm as well. We pass Istanbul around 3.30 pm and everyone will want to see that. Particularly today in the brilliant sunshine.

Feels like old home week with Captain Felice's voice, Michael the GM's smiling face everywhere and the wonderful Chimi now the Restaurant Manager.

Hopefully we will have bags tomorrow. I only have one pair of pants so too scared of losing them to send them to the laundry or even put them in a dryer on the ship. So I wash them out at night and hang them up and they are dry in the morning. But they are getting really loose they need in a dryer to get the shape back. Trying to tell myself I lost weight but I know that is not true. They are like lycra warm up pants I wore on the plane, no zippers, belts just the pull on type so no way to "tighten" them up.

Off to lunch back later.