The Persians and the Beetles

Wednesday 11th March.

Today has been back to work and normalcy after our no-lecture day yesterday. I have dropped one of my lectures so that I have more time to learn a considerable number of lines in The Persians...it certainly isn't conversational stuff with cues that naturally lead you into your dialogue! We actually had an hour of the rehearsal in the Union tonight which is where we shall be performing: it helps to fix the blocking and give us some sense of the space we shall have. The Union is used almost every evening for something or other and it is a battle to get it at all. A couple of times I have thought we could very easily turn this play into an uproarious comedy...in fact that's what it looks like quite often!

We are entering the Straights of Molucca between the Malaysian peninsular and Indonesia on our way to Singapore to refuel. I remember Singapore and sitting in a huge peacock wicker chair in the Raffles hotel tea lounge under whirring ceiling fans, sipping Lapsang Suchong tea and consuming cucmber sandwiches, curried yokes in halved hard boiled eggs and scones with strawberry jam and devonshire cream! What a fabulous mixture of colonial delights! I was all by myself (on that trip to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand nearly 25 years ago) and felt wonderfully decadent! This time I shall have to gaze from afar as we are not allowed ashore when "bunkering".

Then on Sunday we arrive in Bangkok at 8 am and our docks are about a two hour drive from the city. We are staying in what looks and is reviewed to be a lovely Boutique Hotel, The Davis, (in fact the first of that genre in this city) and there was a really good booking deal on line. George has been avidly reading the Lonely Planet's 'Thailand' so will as usual know far more than I and he hasn't been there! Once again much as we are enjoying this voyage and ship it will be good to be on terra firma for a while. It is also wonderful to eat a different diet and we both love Thai food.

I have been listening to The Beetles while writing this and thinking how fast time flies...John and George gone; Paul doing stirling work composing, singing and playing and Ringo I presume enjoying his life and his fortune. We thought of them often in India where they spent so much time with their guru/yogi on an Ashram; George tells me that Windmills of my Mind was written for him...one of my favourites.

Another day gone and time for bed: I promise the coordinates tomorrow Liam and Katie.