Life on East China Sea

I was woken up this morning by the Hi-De-Hi style announcement that echoed throughout the ship. The wonderful Chinese girl was telling us that breakfast is now being served in the restaurant from 7:30 to 9:00. I left Ali asleep knowing that she wouldn't appreciate getting up so early. So I headed upstairs to the restaurant as instructed on my own. I drank coffee and ate a croissant with a boiled egg as I gazed out of the window watching the East China sea pass by me. The service on the ship is impeccable. I saw a guy this morning polishing the leaves on a large plant. Or maybe they just have too many staff onboard. I sat in the reading room which is at the front of the ship located directly under the control room. I could look down at the ships hull and out across the sea. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to read "Roland Synthesizer Magazine" or "Shanghai TV Weekly". Unfortunately neither were an option as they were both written in Chinese. I wasn't quite sure why they had covers written in English. I thought about this for quite some time. It just didn't seem to make sense. Again, I am kindly informed by Su Pollard that lunch was now being served. She ended the announcement with "you are welcome, thank you" followed by a series of cheerful electronic 'dings' and 'dongs'. After her much needed long sleep, Ali eventually found me and I was reading the only book written in English called "Welcome to China". It was a tourists guide to China that was published in the early eighties. I learnt some interesting facts about the country I had just left and got excited about the new places that I will discover when we return in just over a weeks time. Shortly after, we moved to the sun deck for a 360 view of the sea. I wasn't satisfied until I had checked out every square inch of the ship. I felt like a restless kid never still for 5 minutes. I kept thinking of new things to do, experience or explore on the ferry. The next thing I thought about trying was the hot bath. It looked like fun.