Day 41 of 102.  HALF A MILLION DAY!!  1,238 steps average/day since January 11th.  

I don’t always get it right!  For whatever reason, I imagined that there were three sea days between Laem Chabang and Phu My.  Looking closer at my notes, I find that just two sea days separate these ports of call.   I get to see Vietnam for the second time tomorrow and have booked a trip that visits numerous temples and am warned involves climbing 850 steps, thankfully not in the one location. 

My sister reminds me that Ash Wednesday in two days’ time is the prelude to Lent.  The couple who were seated next to me in “church” yesterday were next to me for lunch today.  I would ascertain that until recently, he was church organist (and presumably choirmaster), I think in Dorset.  They, like 921 others are travelling all the way back to Southampton. It’s a lot of work for the World Cruise Concierge, who usually has less than half that amount of people to take care of. 

What should I give up for Lent?  I’m not sure. Does walking for Christian Aid count?  At home (not every year), I would unplug the telly until Easter…but not the radio!  That didn’t impress many at church, some of whom rolled their eyes at the prospect of…. whatever.  But it was the church, from the pulpit, that encouraged meaningful and challenging sacrifices during Lent. No telly (at home) for the period of Lent certainly was an imposition. Yep, I think walking in aid of the less fortunate is probably a worthy cause.

I usually give mention to that day exactly 36 years ago in February 1987 when the breaks partially failed on a freight train I was working, resulting in my ending up in a spectacular heap at Chinley Junction.  I didn’t think then, or for many years afterwards, I would end up in the circle indicated on the map above.  Nor did I invisage the amount of travelling post retirement.  Yesterday, after slipping our moorings at Laem Chabang the previous evening,   we would steam south through the Gulf of Thailand/Siam, with the coast of Cambodia on our port-side, Thailand on the starboard side.  We must have been too far off both coastlines to be able to discern them.  No wonder I was up early today. Sunrise was at 06.22 hrs, sunset tonight at 18.06 hrs. We shall remain at G.M.T. + 7 until after our call at Phu My, Vietnam.

I should have posted this yesterday. Many thanks for reading, David, 21/2/23 23.23 hrs, GMT + 7, in my cabin.