FEBRUARY 16, 2008

SNOW? Is it true? CNN international is showing substantial SNOW in San Diego? No more morning yoga stretches for you, Barbara! Prescott is probably warmer!
EXERCISE: Ed was up before 7 am fumbling around to get his exercise stuff together without waking me up. It’s a nice gesture, but futile. Still, I’m grateful he’s doing this but I wait to see 21 straight days so it may become a habit.
TODAY’S WEATHER: Overcast, foggy, drizzle, gray sea. Occasionally we see some sunshine breaking through.

FEBRUARY 15, 2008

We woke up before the alarm went off but didn’t start moving around until it went off. Got ready, uploaded the blog, took my book and went to get a good seat for the 10 am port talk. The speaker sat down with me and we talked a little about his job. He was asked to do this at the last minute and thus was not able to get a China or India visa. He spent the whole day in Sydney at the India consulate without any luck as it turns out. He will be lecturing on over 40 different sites. Some people have become very critical saying that the things he chooses to discuss aren’t important. In the case in question, it was the discussion of the Battle of Gallipoli (sp?) and the lost generation (Australia and Turks?). Subsequently, this battle has been mentioned by others including our reef pilot.
He is a delight to speak to one-on-one. I just wish he could convert that to his public speaking style; perhaps then folks would be a little less harsh with him. One fellow told him he could do his job better. As one who’s seen many port talkers, I assure you it isn’t an easy job particularly if you do your background work.
CAIRNS: This is Great Barrier Reef territory. In addition to the expected sea areas, there is rainforest (the tour we are signed up for), odd animals we’ll all curious about. My goal is to cuddle a koala bear; apparently this might be possible.
We get into port at 7 am and leave at 6 pm; our tour is not that long so perhaps we can see some “stuff” in Cairns in addition to the tour which is a distance outside.
LAST NIGHT’S PHOTOS: are really cute. The Chinese jacket I wore is vibrant and the photographer put us into some cute poses. For example, in one, Ed is clenching a rose in his teeth. So we’ve put them aside to make a decision later.
IT FINISHED IT! The book “Eat, Pray, Love” that is. It was the book club choice discussed at the meeting the other day. She is a good writer and it was an easy read. She is very self revelatory and there is something for all of us to learn from it.
So now I’m back to “Iberia” by Michener. I now have two folks waiting for that one: Dave and Linda. Next I’ll do “Miriam” by Maggie Anton. Dave said he’d be interested in reading the next book club selection: “Water for Elephants” so I’ll get it to him.
COMPUTER RELATED: Finally got all the pics and such out to the folks to whom they were promised. Jim, my dyed-in-the-wool Republican friend has one of me and his wife (before the blowhole drenched her, poor dear) and so I gave him my flash card so I can have a copy. Roy bought me some disks in Sydney and I managed to get some American money to him which I hope covers his costs though not his time, which is very much appreciated.
I helped Ed connect to road runner so he could take down some of his email that way. It is such a nuisance to go to the internet café to use email. But that is almost free versus the cost of using WiFi and the laptop—darn it.
LIBRARY VISIT: This is such a quiet peaceful place. I read the one page newspaper to catch up with some news. That and CNN leave me feeling I’m not so isolated from world events. CNN is the international version so we get a wider variety of info and though it has Wolf Blitzer, I’ve yet to see him on this trip.
TRIVIA: Ed and I were joined by a delightful couple, probably in their 80s, who joined the ship in Sydney. They are from Brisbane and will leave in Singapore. Sharp folks. We had a good time playing with them even though we didn’t win. You should hear some of the questions though: What was the nickname of John Dillinger? My suggestion was America’s Most Wanted. The correct one was Public Enemy No. 1. What sport has shifters and I’ve forgotten the other term? Answer was Shotput. However, we were one of the few to get the date of Frank Sinatra’s death correct: 1998. We gave a shout for that achievement.
LUNCH: We sat with a variety of folks. It wasn’t the best fit but not terrible but I was glad when it was over. We were all laughing sharing the jokes told by the Irish comedian last night. Everyone’s # 1 favorite was the guy who took a Viagra at the beginning of a plane flight. When asked why, he said he wanted to keep the guy in the seat in front of him from putting his seat back. Another was that when men get into their 50s, they start peeing in Morse code: dot dash dot.
SIX AUSTRALIAN BATTLES: This was our reef pilot again. He is clearly very proud of Australia but he’s not blind to the unsavory aspects either. He is himself an interesting fellow. He began and ended the presentation with poems, delivered beautifully and very appropriate. In the process of relating the stories of these battles, you learn a lot about Australia, it’s origins and culture, and the adjacent lands. He is such a well rounded, interesting fellow. Very straight forward and very curious to learn from others as well.
CERAMICS: I got a pencil and tracing paper so that when Ed and I finally find a time to do the ceramics, we’ll be ready. I don’t want to give the details away as whatever we make will probably become a gift.
DINNER: We were joined at our table by an interesting fellow, Duncan, who is originally from Portland but now lives in San Francisco. He’s in the entertainment field and has worked as a DJ and producer. But on this leg of the cruise he’s moderating a discussion about the mysteries of scripture: the mysterious stuff called faith: Part III the Acid Test. All faiths welcome. If I don’t have another conflict sometime, I’d like to see what goes on.
COMEDIAN/MAGICIAN: He was interesting enough but you know I’m not crazy about magicians in this setting. And when I was so warm I was fanning myself, I decided I’d leave.
FAVORITE MOVIE: tomorrow night at 10 pm they are going to show one of my all time favorite movies “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. I think I told you Terence Stamp is on board and he’s in the movie. This will be tough as we get into port at 7 am the next day and if I stay up to watch it, I’ll get seriously short changed on sleep. They won’t be showing it on the TV as some folks will take offense at the language and content. Too bad. It’s very poignant in some ways.
FUTURE WEATHER: We’re holding our breath for good weather in Cairns as there’s windy and rainy weather in the vicinity. We’ve been pretty fortunate weather-wise actually, so we shouldn’t complain.

FEBRUARY 15, 2008
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, L I S A !

I’ll write more later about today’s events. But at 8 am the ocean is slate gray with cirrus (?) clouds and the wind howling around the ship. There are small swells (by comparison to what we’ve had in the past) and small to medium waves. I’m beginning to notice the difference between the impact of the swells and the waves; these two phenomenon may be totally unrelated, a fact I’d never been able to imagine before.

FEBRUARY 14, 2008
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
HAPPY 24TH ANNIVERSARY

The alarm went off at 8:15 and I got up, got ready, and downloaded all the photos from yesterday to the laptop. Then I took the laptop to the Cabaret Lounge with me so I could edit the photos while I listened to the new speaker.
REEF PILOT: He’s with us until Cairns and will be giving lectures and keeping the ship from going aground. I didn’t realize the size of the reef and the fact that ships negotiate inside of it kind’ve like the inside passage in Alaska except that here the tolerances are much less. For example, in some places, at high tide, there’s only 1.2 meters between the bottom of the ship and the reef. Can you imagine? No one better jump up and down or we’re in trouble. We learned a little about his background, about Australia, it’s economy (lots of minerals and natural gas; China is a big customer), and more. And of course a lot about the Great Barrier Reef.
LUNCH: Boy did we get lucky: at lunch we were seated next to Peter, the Reef Pilot. We were joined by a couple from Maryland and some folks who are Italian: one lives in London, the couple live in the States. We tentatively discussed GWB (Peter brought it up) until we determined that we were all of a like mind at this table, and then it was an interesting sharing of ideas. It was interesting to hear how an Aussie views the US, our entertainment and other influences, and particularly our politics and foreign policy.
Australia just elected a new government and it will take them in a different direction. They began by apologizing to the Aboriginies yesterday for the way they’ve been treated. This apparently was a sea change (no pun intended) from the previous administration’s stance.
Peter has a daughter who is going to Italy for 3 mos to practice her Italian.
There’s so much more we discussed—we talked for 1 ½ hrs—and he is so interesting and interested in what Americans think.
COMPUTER WOES: We were able to pick up some disks yesterday but I’m still having problems accessing the D drive. Well to condense several hours of frustration, Ed eventually was able to download the Galapagos photos for the lady who ruined her camera in the ocean water when she fell there. And I put photos on another disk for a couple –remember the rabid Republican I like so much who didn’t know who Ann Coulter was?—When we were at the blowhole at papeete, she got absolutely drenched with the water so there’s a photo of Ed and I flanking her. She’s such a good sport and it really is a funny photo.
EXERCISE TOLERANCE: Well I’m not out of breath, nor is my heart pounding out of my chest when I go up to the top of the ship. Each flight of stairs has 18 steps. So each time I go to the internet café or the library on deck 10, it’s 72 steps. I don’t really count descending. And in Sydney I have no idea how many miles we walked, but it was a lot. I don’t mind that kind of exercise but I sure don’t like to do it just for the sake of exercise.
CNN: Yes! We have CNN now. Earlier in the day we saw a black screen with “no signal” and then suddenly this afternoon, we actually have London and Hong Kong feeds! There are other screens that had the message about no satellite feed into the Pacific but we haven’t had anything on those screens yet.
DINNER: Everything was decorated for Valentine’s Day. Appropriately, it was a formal night. I wore that classy Chinese jacket I have with black slacks and Ed was in his penguin suit looking very gallant. The ship gave us a little chocolate Anniversary Cake and the staff sang Happy Anniversary to us. I cut it into 6 pieces and asked for vanilla ice cream so everyone had some of it. Twyla had gotten a card for us and they, Hank and Erna had signed it. She is a sweet, thoughtful lady and I was touched with this gesture.
IRISH COMEDIAN: I always expect a lot when the listing is “irish comedian” (it’s close to being an oxymoron) but this guy did not disappoint. And how he remembers all that stuff is astonishing. And he works off of the audience too. I hope we see him again. I could have listened to him and laughed right out of the chair all night long.
OUR ANNIVERSARY: 24 yrs. Mercy. And we’re still able to enjoy the other’s company. I brought my (by now) ancient garland of red hearts to decorate the mirror in our room and wrote Happy Anniversary in lipstick on the mirror. Our poor steward will eventually clear it off. Better than using the permanent marker with was the other alternative. And the ship had put 3 colored balloons that say “Happy Anniversary” on our door. In the dining room tonite, there was another couple with an Anniversary too. Overall, it was a nice way to celebrate this milestone (I did NOT say lode stone you know!)
We did have formal portraits taken with champagne glasses (full of ginger ale for the record), and a pink rose—in one photo with Ed clenching it between his teeth. Good thing we don’t have to worry about whether we have to buy these. We’ll see how they look. We enjoyed doing them regardless of what they look like.
MESSAGE TO AMY: who asked for a picture of my hair cut to see how the gal on the ship did it. Well, before I have it cut again, I need you to tell me exactly what to tell them to do. Greta (she has 3 yrs experience just for the record and is from Britain) did a nice job but she didn’t layer as you do. That’ll probably be OK for this round, but next time I’ll need more shaping. My right bang area needs to be cut shorter and I’ll drop in for that when I can’t stand blowing it out of my eyes any longer.
And if I remember, I’ll put up a photo taken of us in the Valentine heart tonite. You can zoom in on the face to check out the hair cut.
YIPPEE! We turn our clocks back one more hour! It doesn’t get any better than this folks!

FEBRUARY 13, 2008
SYDNEY

We went to breakfast which was served ever so late. New staff I guess; the server seemed to be a little oblivious to what to do. Then we ran upstairs to meet the Australian immigration authorities. This is a long queue where you pick up your passport on one side of the Pacific Lounge, go through a snake line until you find yourself in front of one of the 3 Auzzies from immigration (mine was Shannon so I remarked on a fellow Irish), they look at your form you filled out, stamped the passport, and you continue to the other side of the Pacific Lounge where you once again surrender your passport to the ship’s crew and they gave us a small piece of green paper to carry in lieu of the passport when we are on shore. It has a logo of the ship a nd says something like passenger in transit. We had to present this, our ship’s ID, and a government issued photo ID, to leave and return to the ship. Leaving only involves one check; returning is a minimum of three including the X-ray of your parcels and taking your body through the detector.
It was drizzling and so we put our windbreakers on with our hats and set out to follow a map for a walking tour that had been in an advertising piece we were given. This became soggy very quickly and required some diligence to continue to use it. Most things were closed but we played lookie-loou past these older buildings, checked out the sea gulls arranged with their necks pointed into the wind and their heads tucked under their wings. Eventually the drizzle stopped and was replaced by sunshine for the rest of the day. But it was overcast so the weather was never terribly hot.
The lanyard on which I carry my camera broke as we were leaving the room and so we spent some time picking up the beads from the bedspread and floor. I found a photo shop in the quay near the ship while Ed was at the ATM getting Aussie dollars (exchange rate: $0.87 USD = 1 Aussie dollar). As I have said many times, there are no bargains anywhere. We saw churches, old and new buildings, lots of different ships (This is a magnificent harbor with many quays and wharves), and eventually found our way to the visitor center where we ran into Dave and Twyla. We picked up some maps and a few other odds and ends in this complex. Twyla had told Ed about a woman’s clothing store with gorgeous clothes. She was right but neither of us would pay these prices: regularly $600.00 Aussie, on sale for $399.00. I don’t think so. But they were gorgeous.
We stopped at a “chemist” to pick up some eyeglass cleaner, diet Cokes and large print crossword puzzles. We went to the Opera House with the intention of taking the one hour tour. While wandering around there, we met another ship couple; he from Holland. The cost was $27 Aussie for this one hour tour per person. We decided we could enjoy just wandering around the building in the open areas and feel just fine about the visit. After we left there, we checked out the menus and prices at a few restaurants in the area. Lunches started at about $20 Aussie. We found a few other things that interested us and eventually made our way back to the ship to drop our purchases in our room and have lunch on the ship.
After lunch, Ed led the way on a route that had been recommended to him by the visitor’s center. We passed the government buildings, Sydney Hospital, and lots of other interesting buildings with lots of history. Eventually we came to a large central park with a dramatic fountain there. We spent time looking and taking photos. Both of us were intrigued by the Ibis’ wandering around here amongst the sea gulls. There are some funny photos of these basically comical and ugly looking birds.
Then we headed to the sky tower via a underground shopping mall where we did manage to get a few souvenirs. We finally discovered how to buy tickets for the sky tower and it seemed to take forever as some folks in front of us kept asking more questions and changing their minds about God knows what. In the meantime, there were two young Chinese men behind us who knew very little English but had great smiles, and wanted info about the cost of tickets and such. All we know is Nee-How (hello) and Chay-Chay (thank you) and those didn’t get us too far. We wound up giving them the discount ticket that we couldn’t use since the senior rate was better.
You can bet we didn’t sign up for the sky walk (over a glass flooring) or the bungie jumping or “sky walk”: walk around the 1.2 m wide ring, no handrails, 192 m high. For dare devils that love life. Prior to taking you up to the observation deck, there was a Oz – something experience. We were happy just to survive the stampede of Asians who were trying to trample us along the route. We sat eventually in some chairs and were surrounded by 3 screens. The movie played and the chairs mimicked a wild helicopter ride over the bridge (I can do this: I’ve seen IMAX), and other Australian tourist spots. It was fun but Ed and I are both thinking we’re getting too old to have our necks swung around like this.
From there we just walked around downtown and gawked at the architecture, old and new. Sydney is a beautiful city and fun. People dress well; Ed says he’s never seen so many iPods in one place, and we were stunned by the numbers of Asians (tourists?). Eventually we made our way to Darling Harbor; by this time it was after 5 pm. We moseyied here and there taking photos of those stupid ibis’, sea gulls, and people just going about their lives. The harbor is busy and there’s lots of watercraft whizzing here and there.
Eventually we settled at a restaurant “Wine and Meat, Co.” Their info says they’re in Dubai too. The couple who were also on the Prinsendam with us last year came back with their daughter who came from Canberra with their 2 y/o (adorable, blond curly hair, vivacious) granddaughter. Ed ordered a steak; it was terrific. I had the chef’s salad with biltong: jerky but it’s soft. Then we shared an apple and rhubarb crumble with vanilla ice cream. All of it absolutely scrumptious. While we were there, a young couple from Colorado sat next to us and we visited. It is 17 degrees there now and here they are in balmy Sydney. They return in 4 days—boo hoo.
We then tried to decide how to return to the ship. We could have walked it but Ed’s plantar fasciitis was acting up by this time, so we wandered aimlessly until we ran into one of the couples we met at the Captain’s table the other night. We wound up visiting with them and taking the ferry back to the quay and the ship. We got on board at 9:20 pm. Our “curfew” was 9:30 pm.
As we left Sydney harbor at 10 pm, we stayed on the balcony to watch everything. I took some photos of the bridge and the opera house at night but while we enjoy them, they aren’t very focused (I’ve got a point and shoot after all).
Overall, a wonderful day in Sydney and we’d love to come back for a long stay. Australians are friendly and smile a lot. And of course, the accent is a fun thing to listen to no matter what they’re saying.

FEBRUARY 13, 2008: WE’RE IN SYDNEY!

The alarm went off at 6 am. I rolled out at 6:05 and we were almost to the turning point for the pier in Sydney Harbor. You could see the Opera House and the Bridge in the beginning dawn light. They say that Sydney is the best harbor in the world. It’s certainly gorgeous to sail into. We’d rank it up there with Rio de Janeiro.
It’s always amazing to me how they can berth these huge ships to the pier with a kiss. The hardest part is getting the tie lines secured. This time, the cruise passenger terminal has gangways similar to those on the planes at LAX, so that meant that the match between the door on the ship’s side and the gangway had to be perfect. This was easily managed after a few maneuvers.
So we were tied up well before the Captain’s 7 am target. Those who are leaving permanently, about 50 people, and those who are going on an overland trip to Ayers Rock, will be cleared by immigration first. This latter group is a lot of people as many folks are making private arrangements and will pick up the ship again in Cairns. One lady found a one way plane ticket on line (probably cost her a lot with the price of internet access on this ship!) for $90 from Sydney to Cairns. So several are going to do Sydney for a few days.
You see lots of joggers, then a few minutes later, bikers, and finally, lookie-loos.
Between 8 and 8:30am we have to present ourselves to Australian immigration for “inspection”. The Captain last nite gave us some idea of what he has to endure with American customs. After he left, the Canadians discussed the same thing and highlighted many of the loopholes. Basically, if you want to get into the US undetected, it ain’t that hard. For example, a Canadian can use a driver’s license to drive into the US. Once in here, they can roam freely. If they fly in however, they have to have a passport and go through all that rigamarole.
I’ll write tomorrow about our day in Sydney.

FEBRUARY 12, 2008 CONT…

EMAIL: Both Ed and I tried to access our email without success today. But I was able to upload the blog entry. Go figure.
OCEAN; WEATHER: there were a few sprinkles just as we finished the Komen walk this morning and the weather has become increasingly angry over the day. It is gray and over cast and the sea is a slate color with winds whipping around.
LUNCH: A couple from Australia and one from San Diego. One of the latter had a USC sports shirt on and I had my UCLA lanyard so we had some fun rivalry at the table. The latter couple was an interesting political mélange. It’s almost certain they are Republican, but they aren’t knee jerk Reps based on much of their observations about politics. They also have a dtr and g’children who live near Oslo, plus another set in Brazil.
The Australian couple were delightful. He has business in Australia so will be leaving the ship in Sydney and rejoining in Cairns. They have traveled extensively in Norway and we had a great time discussing the best of Norway train, bus, boat trip.
COMPUTER: We took the computer and peripherals to the computer teacher and he showed us another way to access the drives. Now we have to get disks to see if they’ll burn properly. Clearly, the way he showed us, they read whatever disk is in the drive, whether CD or DVD. That’s a relief.
AN INTERVIEW WITH TERENCE STAMP: I knew the name but couldn’t recall anything else about him. When they said he was in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, it all came together. His career has had a second resurgence and he has an interesting story to tell. Some of his movies will be shown on board though I don’t know if they will show Priscilla. I hope so. It’s such a hoot.
CERAMICS AT SEA: Ed went with me to check out what’s happening and we stayed to talk with the cruise staff. One is from Argentina so we had a rousing discussion about that country. A man at the table, who is a talented artist, joined this free for all. We have a lot of time to decide if we want to try our hands at doing a ceramic. We’re agreed in advance that they will probably resemble Jackson Pollock.
BOOK CLUB: I’m about 80% through the book to be discussed today: Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love.” This is an Oprah choice and it seems Princess is using this and other lists to select books for this activity. (You may recall that Carol lent me her copy to read so I’m rushing through it). There were about 3 tables of 6 who showed up. The staff member had arranged for little bite sized sandwiches, coffee and tea. I found some errant grapes in the display and enjoyed them. One of the ladies at the table where I was said a friend of hers onboard is complaining that her clothing is shrinking in the laundry. Ha!
I was chosen to be the leader of the discussion at our table. We had a mother and dtr team (I thought they were sisters: they live down the hall from us; both have very long white hair in a single braid each day), and a gentleman who is a professor of Ecology at a University in Colorado. One other lady was American and the last, British. There are a set of suggested questions to answer and these served as the structure for our discussions. They are an easy group to converse with about this book.
The next book for the book club is Water for Elephants. I brought it back to see if Ed’s interested in reading it. When I finish Eat Pray Love, I’ll start it. But if it doesn’t interest me, I’ll turn it back in for another person.
AFTERNOON MOVIE: Ed is watching one of the Harry Potter movies—and once Ed sees something on the tube, he’s lost until it’s over.
TIM BEVERAGE: Honest, this is the name of the singer tonite. He’s from New Zealand and was the youngest person ever to sing as the Phantom of the Opera. He did a lot of Sinatra and Bobby Darrin. You can see he is being very technical but there wasn’t anything else to be said about his performance.
DINNER WITH THE CAPTAIN: It was our turn so we put our glad rags on. He has a table in the dining room for 8; he and his female hostess, the art person on board, and 3 couples. We were joined by couple from Regina and one from Vancouver. I was to the captain’s right. A little background here: I’m not crazy about these kinds of situations. Ed says no one could tell unless I tell them. We discussed a range of topics; he seemed to warm up to discussions of northern Italy. He is very personable, probably in his mid-40s to early 50s. Clearly he runs a tight ship. Like many of us, he worries about his caloric intake on board. He enjoys getting off in the ports as much as the rest of us. We thanked him for the newspapers in the library. He remarked at the cost and wastage when they were delivering a newspaper to each cabin every day. I can understand that; if one is serious about reading a paper, the library is open long hours.
He also recognizes that there are always going to be a certain number of complainers.
He, like many of the crew, was fighting a cold but other than a little voice change, one couldn’t tell. The wine he chose was a Chianti from Italy but he volunteered that he often prefers wines from California. He also said that wine consumption is going down in Italy and is being replaced by beer consumption. That will be hard for me to picture when I think of Italian men.
After the Captain left, one of the men said that if he were to do such a job, the hardest part would be having dinner with people. I agreed with him. I know Ed would love it.
CASINO LOUNGE KARAOKE: As we came back from the dining room, we heard a man singing karaoke very well. It was the cruise director, JJ! A nice surprise and a hard act to follow.

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

The alarm rang at 7:30 but I didn’t roll out until some time later. Got showered (though this wasn’t such a hot idea considering my schedule today), dressed, and joined 70+ other ship mates to do a 5K Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure. Ed was there in fine form. The cruise staff played songs and danced to keep us entertained as we made our laps. We were told 36 laps, at about a minute per lap, would be the 5K. Walkers were to be on the inside and runners on the outside. Like a lot of these things, it became a mixed mess. Most folks were engaging in conversations as they walked. One fellow in a wheelchair was pushed by staff and passengers alike to allow his wife to walk on her own. It was actually a very touching thing to see.
The cruise staff including the dancers were all part of this endeavor. Their youthful energy and enthusiasm injects the event with an extra dose of fun.
We all had baseball caps with “On the deck for the cure” with a pink ribbon and Princess Cruises logo. More than 30 other folks cheered us on and also donated. Later we’ll get the details about how many participated and how much money was raised. This is the first of 3 such walks that will be done on this trip.
A SENSE OF COMMUNITY: Many of us were discussing what a pleasant comraderie has developed among the passengers on this cruise. Even the oddballs have settled into a niche. This was relayed to the Cruise Director who took great delight in hearing this. We’ve all agreed that JJ is the best cruise director we’ve ever met.
JJ said that someone had asked him to wear the tutu from the skit last night on the next walk. Then Ed added a challenge for donations to see how many laps JJ could endure in that hilarious get up. JJ said that we’d better adjourn before any more great ideas came forward.
The computer couple also walked this morning. She is a red hat lady as well. We’ve made an “appointment” to see them during the noon hour to see if we can diagnose and cure this computer of it’s bizarre behavior.

FEBRUARY 11, 2008

One luncheon companion said she was keeping a journal and for many of the sea days, her entries were:
Wake up
Shower
Eat breakfast
Do stuff
Eat llunch
Do stuff
Eat supper
See show
Go to sleep
Some days it may feel like that.
DINNER LAST NIGHT: Everyone was there and we had our usual sharing of anecdotes. Dave is just grateful to be cleared from quarantine. Tonite was formal night and everyone was dressed in their best duds. Since lobster and premium prawns were on the menu, Ed was more than happy.
ENTERTAINMENT: A tiny little gal named Caroline Dennis. I admired the tailoring on her dressy suit. As far as her entertainment, I wasn’t as impressed as Ed was. Still it wasn’t a terrible show and it had it’s moments.
We’ve spoken before of Elena, the young woman from the Ukraine that we are so fond of . She’s getting off at Sydney so Ed took a photo of me with her so we’ll have it. I’ll give it to her on a flash device.
COMPUTER AGONIES: Thank God my USB drives are working fine. But the computer does not recognize the D drive, or the external E drive. When we check the device manager, it says they are working properly. It has worked in the past in between times when it didn’t work but neither one of us can recall what was different. Since there aren’t any computer gurus on this ship, we’d be very grateful for any ideas of what to check or do.
In the meantime, we’ve made arrangements with Roy to get disks from him when we leave Sydney as he’s making a run for the store when we’re there. Linda had her friends bring a disk to see them in Auckland and she gave me that disk. I now believe that it may have some corrupted files on it and it isn’t a reusable disk.
So woe is me. I’m so bummed about this. There are some folks who probably could help us but the shipboard folks are not available for laptop consults, the computer teachers are doing group classes, and it seems presumptive to approach a fellow passenger to help with the troubleshooting. So I am severely bummed about it.
DINNER with the Captain. Ed and I were supposed to do this tonite but the Captain has cancelled for this evening so it’s rescheduled for tomorrow night. There are still plenty of opportunities and we’ll give you a complete report afterwards.
PORT TALK: SYDNEY: Ed’s teeth are on edge with this port speaker by now. I like his photos but I tend to tune out his narrative since he sometimes gets things wrong. People in the audience mumble the correct info among themselves but he seems not to hear. In a way I feel sorry for him. He is knowledgeable about these ports, but perhaps we’ve all begun to wear on each other with too much intimacy. We’d better cope with it because he’s with us to Southhampton.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to Sydney. We are there from 7 am to 10 pm, the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise. We have several walking maps and there’s an on-again,off-again trolley so I think we’re in good shape. The ship comes into the famous harbor by which Sydney is known. We may be luckier since we’re there on a weekday.
LUNCH: It turns out the previously mentioned lady from Palm Springs worked at UCLA for a thousand years. So we reminisced about the great place.
$ALE, $ALE, $ALE: they have Princess logo and other items on sale for 50-75% off today. I picked up a few items this morning and when we returned this afternoon, there were yet other items, so we did buy a few things. I found a swim suit that was $80 originally for $9.99; a windbreaker for 50% off. The irony of the latter is that Ed has been trying to talk me into buying one in the boutique since we got on the ship. I did manage to find a size small, a minor miracle anywhere these days. I am definitely not a size small but with the size creep, I now find that those marked small are the ones that fit me. There were some knit tops in a size small for $9.99 and so I bought all 3: the girls can wear the other two. Ed picked up some T-shirts for exercising (well, he is doing better even if he didn’t go today) at $3.99 each. They were $5.99 this morning, and $12.99 a few days ago. Clearly they do want to get rid of all they can before Sydney (when I suspect they’ll take on a new lot to tantalize money from us). One lady has a cruise to Alaska scheduled later in the year, so she picked up several Alaska related, logo items.
DOLPHINS? They announced dolphins playing on our side of the ship. We looked…..and looked…..well you get the picture. All we see are swells and a few white caps sprinkled across the surface. Again the ocean water is the most incredible blue you’ve ever seen. So we know if we fall overboard here, it’s a looooonnnnnggggg way to the bottom.
Speaking of falling overboard, the ship’s rumor mill (so you’ve been alerted to the quality of the information) says that a few doors down from us, a bolt on the rail came off and the rail either came loose or fell. In any event, I am being more careful about not leaning against it. Oh yes, they did find the missing bolt and repaired it.
CERAMICS AT SEA: I have stopped by here a few times and looked at some books today. There are some real pros who do this each day and unlike other cruises, the majority are men. Most are doing large plates, but one is doing a bowl in which to put change, much like the one I did years ago on another Princess ship and which some believe, after seeing it, that I did it in the primary grades.
LIBRARY: This is such a quiet serene place. There is a paperback exchange and books to check out. Quizzes are here each day; newspaper summaries for US, Australia, UK are available to read here. Jig saw puzzles are out on both sides of the space for folks to put together. They seem to go pretty quickly too no matter if there are only a few working on them now and then. Most are over 1000 pieces. Makes my eyes tired just to contemplate it but I’ve been known to figure out something now and then.
TITANIC: The Drs. Weber are discussing the Titanic today and Curious George is dressed out in a life jacket. That little monkey brings so many smiles to everyone’s faces. What a hoot.
TRIVIA: I’m trying to convince Ed we should do this this afternoon. He’s got FOX (non)NEWS on and they’re on their celebrity bashing right now.
GUITAR MUSIC: they have a guitarist who plays so quietly in the Casino Lounge before dinner so we decided to go hear him and have a strawberry margarita. These drinks are enormous on here so I was glad to share. It was very thick with strawberry syrup. I think I like them because I like sweet snow cones.
DINNER: Dave and Twyla were there. We talked about the new additions to our table who will be joining us after Cairns and discussed the staff who are leaving in Sydney. We will have some new folks and many of the ones we’ve come to know. We all had rack of lamb and it was terrific. As always Ed helps me out by cleaning the bones, as delicate as they are.
ENTERTAINMENT: Halida Dinova a classical musician who does Russian and American modern pieces. She is so different from the other pianists than we had because she doesn’t beat up the piano, she caresses it. Ed and others said her Clair de Lune was the best they’ve ever heard.
ENGLISH PUB NIGHT: This was a rollicking addition to the evening. There were sing-alongs with outrageous competitions. If you’ve ever seen the balloon popping contest where women try to pop a balloon on a man’s lap and visa versa with out using hands, you will not be able to appreciate how funny it can be. And they ended this hilarious farce with my all time cruise ship favorite: If I were not upon the sea, something else I’d rather be. I’ve seen it done on several ships over many years and this was one of the better renditions of it. And the staff who were the funniest were a surprise.
ANOTHER HOUR BACK: I look for a city to represent this time zone without any luck, so I just set my Treo manually. Tomorrow night we drop back yet one more hour but that time we’ll be on Sydney’s time zone. It should get easier to identify the time zones in the future. It isn’t necessarily important except that the Treos also keep track of what time it is in LA and Oslo so we don’t wait for a response to a text message in vain—or worse, decide to call someone in the middle of the night!
A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND, ELLEN: Dr. Ellen McFadden passed away February 8 at 3 am after over 3 mos battle, over two of which were in hospice. Her sister was at her side. I am fortunate to have good friends who gently told me of her passing.
I am grateful for her friendship and professional teamwork for 10 years. I learned much from her and will miss our joking about which Saint to petition for the current crisis we find in our lives. When I think of Ellen, the words that come to mind are mischievous, tolerant, patient, supportive, skilled, reliable, real, dependable, fun, and so much more. Her colleagues, friends, family, and students will feel the void of her loss in our lives.
Ed was kind enough to be sure to take me to see Ellen before we left despite the inclement weather. I was so grateful. We had fun, met some of her other friends and family, and had an opportunity to have a photo taken with her. She is so cute, so tiny, so vulnerable but strong in that photo. I’ll carry the memory of her with her cat Simba as she talked to her comfortable that Simba, Prissy, and the undisciplined Buffy will be taken care of lovingly now that she is gone.
Ellen cared for her parents until her father died a few years ago, and in more recent years, caring for her mother at home because she didn’t think she was as well cared for in a nursing home as she could do for her at home. In early October, Ellen had a stair chair (a device that you sit in and it takes you up stairs) installed for her mother’s use. As she said to me: Little did I know I would be the one using it. When Ellen’s condition became serious enough that she couldn’t care for her mother, her mom was put into a nursing home near one of her sisters.
In one of those unexplainable ironies, her mother died, at 92+ yrs., one week before Ellen.
To those of you who had Ellen on your prayer lists, on her behalf, I thank you. She did know of these prayers from far and wide.
The family requests donations to the Susan G. Komen Foundation in lieu of flowers. In another coincidence, the ship is having a Komen event on the ship later this week. I will participate in honor of the joy and acceptance Ellen brought to my life and to so many others.
. I asked her to be my “spirit angel” on the other side. She said How do we know there is an other side? I told her she had to send me a sign to let me know. So Ellen, I’m listening carefully and I have my best glasses on.

FEBRUARY 10, 2008
NEW ZEALAND TO SYDNEY
Happy Birthday to Jeff!

I GOT LUCKY! Ed went to exercise and I got the laundry ready and hit the laundry room. There is a merciful God as I got two washers right away, followed by two dryers right away. Since the washers go for 20 min., and the dryers for 40 min., there’s usually a waiting line for one or the other. There was a steady stream of folks in; as soon as one machine would be empty, someone new would arrive to use it. We had enough quarters to get things going and I went to the purser’s desk to get more. They have Princess Cruise’s slugs that they put into the change they give you; I had forgotten this so I’ll have to remember to use them first next time.
There were at least 3 people in there at all times and this isn’t a large room. Someone had left folded clothing on top of a dryer and when my clothes were finally dried, I moved this pile to an ironing board so I could use the top to fold clothes. One fellow wanted to jabber and I tried to be polite but I had brought a book with me and further, it is hard to hear in there with all the machines running. He eventually started with some other ladies and then he left when they got busy too. One poor fellow came in looking for a lost men’s sock. Since I had a load of Ed’s black socks and I had used that dryer, I checked diligently with no luck. So whoever used it in between us likely has a lone black sock that will never find it’s rightful home.
We were told last night that we are now known as THE FISH PEOPLE because of our unique fishing technique. One guy said I should be given an angling award. While in the laundry some folks started discussing the fish. It has grown in size with the retelling and this lady told me it was about 3 feet in length. Then I revealed that it was actually about 7-9”. The aforementioned fellow wanted to know what kind of fish it was. I didn’t have a clue. He suggested tuna and I replied that it could be; the tail would indicate that. Then he asked if it was a flying fish which has been most folks’ first guess. I know it wasn’t a flying fish because of the location and color of it’s fins.
So the laundry room continues to be a source of rumor. However would we know the real news without a visit there periodically.
SUNDAY BRUNCH: This is a nice change of pace for all of us. They have various stations and a scrumptious buffet. A couple from Yorba Linda sat with us and we traded stories. They are going to do a Buenos Aires to Chile by way of Antarctica cruise soon so we gave them lots of ideas of what to see and do.
We had a discussion of whether or not we like the sea days. I don’t mind them but many folks get cabin fever. It seems that a one or two day stretch at sea is OK, but anymore than that, and many of the natives get restless.
HAIR CUT AND SUCH: I had a pedicure as much to straighten out the big toe where the old nail finally came off. The new nail had been pushing up against it for a long while and when it was denuded, it really was gross. So this gorgeous young lady from Jamaica made me presentable again.
Gretta, who sheared Ed on Friday, did my hair. It’s so hard to tell someone how to cut your hair when they’ve never seen you before. She did a good job but when I look at myself I’m reminded of the motto from our childhood: That’s my dog Tyge, he’s in the shoe; I’m Buster Brown, look for me in there too! There are worse indignities to suffer in life and perhaps by the end of the cruise, we’ll get it right.
THE MOVIE “INVASION” WITH NICOLE KIDMAN: This was the movie in the Cabaret
Lounge. We are all missing popcorn for the ambiance. Most of us had no idea of what it was about. As soon as it started I knew Ed was in for the duration. I left to do this blog.
I looked on the TV just now for the interview with Terence Stamp this morning that we missed. I know the name but can’t place him. I found out that he only introduced the movie in which he appeared. It is supposed to be on one of the channels now, but when I looked, the channel was blank.
And speaking of blank channels. It defies logic that we STILL can only receive Fox News. What’s wrong with this picture? I’ll be fascinated to see when they start allowing us to have some variety in our digested news.
FORMAL NIGHT: So we’ll get fixed up in our fancy duds. I brought along a Chinese theme formal outfit but no one seems to know if we’re going to have a Chinese themed dinner for Chinese New Year. So I guess I’ll need to wear it at some point anyway.

FINISHING UP WITH 2/9/08

So I told you about the writing for effect. As the speaker said, there’s nothing you don’t know in it, just different emphases and organization. Still it was a good review and I wish we had his powerpoint slides because he had several acronyms that help. The only one I can remember is FAB: Facts, Advances (or was it Advantages? Or something else?) and Benefits. And he has no problem with the one sentence letter if it does the job.
LINE DANCING: We didn’t make it. It conflicted with the lecture. This is a common dilemma we have.
MORNING QUIZ: We didn’t do as well today as yesterday. Of course, we would have won yesterday if we’d have felt a little more risky. Still it’s good brain exercise. Whereever do they get these questions from?
LUNCH: A new set of folks and different assessments and conversation. Never a dull moment.
FRANKIE (one of the cruise staff) AND FRIENDS – PREVIEW SOUTH PACIFIC. This included a featurette “Making of the movie”, interview with James Michener back on the islands where it all started, original movietone news & trailers, and Vintage Broadway excerpts. I brought Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific” along and I started it. But it was so full of military detail, that I gave up and donated it to the ship’s library. It’s been gone ever since. We sang along with the songs and reminisced about Mitzi Gaynor and Mary Martin, and so many others.
HISTORY OF OCEAN NAVIGATION: We missed this one because of South Pacific but we had seen it on the Diamond Princess.
DID I TELL YOU that Ed got his ears lowered yesterday? He sometimes worries because of how short Amy cuts his hair, but this was even shorter. Oh well, it will grow back.
AUCKLAND AT LAST! The Captain gets another gold bar; he got us into Auckland 45 min. earlier than he had anticipated. The trip into the harbor on the ship was a fun experience. Auckland’s nickname is the “City of Sails” because of all it’s sail boats. You may recall that the America’s cup is on the schedule here. We had plenty of sail boats around us.
The ship berthed right downtown. It’s quite amazing how they can get these huge ships so close in such tight squeezes. But they also have thrusters on the sides of the ship to help.
We had from about 5 pm to 11:30 pm to see what we could in Auckland. We first hit the FoodMart a few blocks from the pier, along with at least 75% of the passengers on this ship. Many went solely to buy wine; I saw one guy with 3 of those green ecology bags absolutely full of wine bottles. Ed and I stocked up on diet and Zero Cokes and some snack nuts and such. They took our credit card, even giving us credit as if we had one of their discount cards! There was an ATM there so Ed could feel better with local currency in his pocket. We are told that this currency will be accepted in Australia as well. In any event, I later saw folks purchasing things with USD and getting substantial USD in return.
We took these back to the ship (we really needed to steal a shopping cart for this trek: I had a backpack full of stuff, Ed had 2 boxes of sodas in his backpack and then reinforced bags in each hand. By this time it was 6 pm and we figured we had about 2 ½ hrs more of sunlight. We had a quick bite on the ship and then went off again to stroll up and down Queen street to gawk at the souvenirs and other goodies in the shops. They have lots of gorgeous lambs wool clothing here and soft as silk leather wear. All tempting but we can’t use them in So California. I never looked at the price tags or I’m sure I wouldn’t even have looked at them.
While sauntering around looking rather lost, we met some ship mates who recommended the tower ride, especially laying down on the glass and having your photo taken as if you were falling from the top. This is the tallest tower in the Southern Hermisphere, over a thousand feet. This didn’t especially interest me for a variety of reasons, so Ed went up with the camera and I watched the short movie about New Zealand and the making of the tower.
I love the architecture in this town. Much is old and reflects the British influence. All that we saw were lovingly maintained. Then there are the new, ultra modern bldgs many of which are sky scrapers. In some places, it is a conflicted pairing, in other places, old and new look well together. I tried to think of a way to describe this sense. Chicago has diverse and interesting architecture as well but it isn’t like Chicago in any way except that they both have diverse architectural styles living next to each other.
Ed and I both agreed that we’d enjoy returning to New Zealand for a longer stay. Ed looked at Starbucks for an Auckland coffee mug without luck.
HAKAA. You’ve all seen the pictures of the Maori warriors who stick their tongue out to touch their Adam’s apple. Well, the ship had a dance troupe come onboard to do Maori dances. The narrator was a gentle lady with a wonderful style of description and introduction to the songs. The dancers were of various ages though the males were all young. All 3 of them were heavily tattooed on their faces (permanent or temporary I don’t know) and on their bodies (these I’d bet were permanent). We’ve learned that the body tattooes tell the story of the person’s life. It makes it much more interesting to view them.
All of the voices were wonderful; a few in particular. The men are ferocious and work hard at their dances. The music and tunes are so interesting to let wash over you. I laugh when I think of the first white men to encounter these Maori with their bulging eyes, heavily tattooed bodies, grunts, elongated tongues, and fierce demeanors. I think I’d just turn around and go back where I came from.
We got to sleep just as the ship was pulling away from the pier for our over-1000-mile-trek to Sydney.