day 25, Feb 6 at sea

Hi everybody,

This is Nana writing you. I am actually writing it out and granddad will type it because the Dragon software that lets you talk to the computer and then types it doesn't work too well for me. It's quite funny really because it thinks you are saying a different word than you are really saying. When that happens you are supposed to say get rid of the word. When I did it I was trying to say deck six and it printed Jack six – when I said get rid of the word it printed out Billy so my message looked like this Jack six Billy Billy oh shoot.

Today we are in Capetown, South Africa and we are going to go up table Mountain in a cable car and have a tour of the city. Yesterday we went to an ostrich farm – there is a picture of granddad sitting on an ostrich. Granddad is the one on top

We didn't exercise today so we sat out on our balcony with our coffee and watched all the stuff going on in the port. We both had a feeling of unreality – are we really in Capetown, South Africa watching the ships silently moving below us? We are on deck nine which is very high up so people on the shore look like little dots moving around. Unfortunately we are on the port side so we don't get a lot of sun.

That reminds me of something I learned the other day. Do you know where the word posh comes from? (If you don't know what posh means ask your mother or look it up). Anyway, in the days when many English people were going to India they had a long hot sea voyage ahead of them. Of course there was no air-conditioning so they wanted to be on the shady side of the ship which was port out starboard home or posh.

We have just finished making the videos of the Indian Ocean and getting our exercise mats out. It is Sunday morning. It has been really great hearing from all of you and I am glad you are looking at our pictures and videos. Those of you who haven't commented please write something – it doesn't have to be comments on our stuff – we would love to know what's new with you.

Yesterday we took a lot of pictures and video of table Mountain but the results are a little disappointing. Pictures and video just don't do it justice. It was really spectacular!

Yesterday almost all the Brits left the ship and 1100 Australians got on. The Brits had been teasing us that we would find the Australians a rowdy crew but the only thing I've noticed is the gym is a lot busier in the mornings. I couldn't get a weight bench this a.m. but there were still treadmills available. We have been on the ship for over three weeks now and our weight is holding pretty steady. Dad has really enjoyed the weight machines and he is getting so much arm and chest muscle that one of his sports coats is a bit tight across his back. I can still wear my smaller size close but I think they are a little tighter.

We are a bit concerned about the situation in Egypt and how it might affect us. We were talking to another passenger who seems to know something about the security and he said there are 24 Gurkhas on board (very specialized soldiers) and they were bringing on a senior British military person. Also a big warship will follow us through the Suez Canal to protect us. It goes without saying that our visit to the Pyramids and our camel ride will not be allowed. Hopefully the situation will improve not just for our sake but for the poor Egyptians.

We are going to the church service in a bit and we will take some video there.