AT SEA

Te Ao Hou, September 1960, Page 36

AT SEA A sea voyage is not spent in a narrow cabin. First you consign some of your more cumbersome luggage to the baggage room, then you push the rest of your possessions under the bottom bunk and these you pull out as little as possible. Next you find your way to the main deck, the sun deck, or to the bar, the pool or the sun deck lounge, and the confined limitations of a tiny cabin are forgotten in the mellowness of exotic wines and exotic company. The first night was a pleasant confusion of a six-thirty dinner in a noisy excited dining room and a leisurely two hours of slow sipping of brandy in the sun-deck lounge. We sat at a greytopped table in this little lounge and sipped brandy till the harsh warnings of sea-sickness melted into oblivion. It was an intimate little room with a cream and brown patterned oval mosaic dance-floor. An Italian band was playing a mixture of Latin-American music, interpreted in an Italian way. Ah! Lovely intoxication! You are in love with everyone and the music plays on. A girl with blonde hair dances with … her husband? … her boyfriend?… Perhaps … soon find out … what a superb figure … like a Greek Goddess. “That's a typical German girl out to have a good time,” says my husband. The music softens. The room gets cosy. My clothes pinch me. No wonder! I've got my slacks on. I really ought to go and change. My eyes grow pleasantly heavy. I am in love with everyone. We go to bed. We were both sea-sick for four days.