MARCH 6, 2008 – somewhere in the So. China sea

We were slugs this morning. Ed’s foot is much better, thankfully. I went down to this morning’s lecture: you can tell they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for programs.
PASTA DEMONSTRATION: This was done by one of the chefs on board. He (of course) makes his pasta from scratch and showed us how to make some (without a machine by the way). But probably the best thing I took away from this was the following: Put your cheese grater (and cheese?) into the fridge or freezer and then grate it. Keeps the cheese from sticking to the grater.
TRIVIA: Well, we were in our top form today. Val has new glasses and the colds Murray and I are nurturing seem to be improving. Patrick, a very skinny but very strong dancer, had the questions. He’s not as skilled at doing this and it showed; the group was kind however.
Well, we did ourselves well at a score of 16, which meant that WE WON! There was discussion about whether this was the 4th or 5th win. Depends: if you’re talking about our current composition of the (now) “Awesome crocks”, it is 4. The prizes today were Princess Cruises caps; something new to cherish.
Ro commented, and she’s absolutely right, that we beat ourselves up worse when we win than when we lose. We were kvetching about an answer we got wrong, and she pointed out that it didn’t matter because we won! I can recall most of those where I convinced the group my answer was correct, only to find I was wrong per the quiz master. We also agree that some of the answers given are not correct but for purposes of the trivia, the correct answer is what the staff member says it is. They have to do this or people would be arguing 24 hrs a day about answers to trivia.
GRIEVING: Ed and I have started this process already because Val and Eric (boo hoo) are getting off in Singapore, as are Ro and Murray. We plan to tell them they can’t disembark until they find an acceptable substitute for the group. We also have to begin to consider different names for the group after Singapore when we will retire “awesome crocks”.
INTERNET CAFÉ: I had lots of email but the signal was sooooo sllllooowww that I quit. I’ll try after the show tonite. It’s sometimes better at that time. Fr. Sean writes (in response to my stories of the tensions on board) “non illegitimus carborundum”—or at least the same idea.
Speaking of which, the rumor mill (so you’ve been warned) says that two guys got into an “encounter” in – you can guess this one – the laundry room and were warned they’d be put off the ship. The story goes that it did happen again, and they were put off the ship in one of the ports. I have no idea if this is true or not but it plays well at the Bijou.
LUNCH: there are some new folks on board and one was at our table, Barry Brown who was a BBC producer for many years and he’ll be lecturing on movies. I told him he’d have a houseful of trivia players for we have frequent movie related questions. This set into play “this would make a good trivia question…” where we bantered with him about various movie oriented questions. As is often the case, there was one “know-it-all and I’m going to show off” at the table. This is usually, but not always a man. And when you have two men at the table like this, well you simply want to groan audibly. Of course, these types would be clueless as to why you were groaning.
PORT TALK: David started out with an apology because someone was upset by something inaccurate he said. This is getting old: his inaccuracies AND the apologies. I was typing the blog before we started and a woman ahead of me turned and said: “Please tell me you aren’t going to be doing that!” the key stroke sounds on this laptop are very soft. Nonetheless, I was willing to respect someone’s wish not to have this distraction, but her tact was sorely wanting. I ran over various retorts in my mind, and was proud that I resisted the temptation to smile broadly and deliver one. At the end, she turned around and said “thank you.” That made it a little better but I wanted to suggest that it wasn’t WHAT she said, but the WAY she said it that was so offensive. Ok, so I’ll let it go now that I’ve ventilated.
LAWYERS MEET: At this time, they have a get together of the lawyers on board. Ed was ambivalent but decided to go. I didn’t hear any earthshaking revelations from him so I guess it was very “lawyerish” where their punch lines are citations from the penal code.
AFTERNOON TRIVIA: Ed, Val and Eric came rushing in at the last minute. We were concerned because 3 others were looking for a group to join. We wouldn’t have minded having them but didn’t want to include them and then have to bump them for our regulars. Eric and Val were already dressed for the Captain’s Circle reception after this. We had far more fun this afternoon than usual; other groups were looking over asking what was so funny. It was a lot of “you had to be there”. We did well: total number of points was 22; we made 19 ½ but the winners (this is amazing considering some of the questions) won with 20 ½ points. They earned their prizes; I never found out what they were as we were running to dress for the Cocktail party.
CAPTAIN’S CIRCLE COCKTAIL PARTY: Many of the staff were present and it is fun to see them. The Captain was in good form as usual. A large turnout was nice to see while they recognized the 3 couples who have accumulated the most cruises/days on Princess ships. Then the Captain drew cards for bottles of champagne. Ben, who accompanied us to the Galapagos, was the host and he mentioned that the 2009 cruise schedule will be out in a few days. This will be fun to see.
DINNER: What a surprise! Dave is wearing a sling with his left arm bandaged. It seems he had an encounter with the cabin door and has an instable fracture of his pinkie finger. He is still going on the Angor Wat trip (they were put on the list when additional space opened up). It may be necessary for him to leave the ship in Singapore and have a pin placed to stabilize the finger.
Bill came without Lea but when he saw the fruit plate with the blueberries Rod adds for Ed, he asked if one could be sent to the suite for Lea. It really is very colorful with cantaloupe, honey dew, watermelon, pineapple, and the blueberries, and it is all delicious.
ENTERTAINMENT: This is a fellow who wrote with Bennie Hill for 7 ½ years. He keeps the audience focused and laughing. Some of the humor is classic Bennie Hill and uses a lot of sight gags. He is genuinely funny and had 4 men come up for a skit; Ed was chosen…again. But then he was wearing that quiet, sedate Oriental shirt with the tiger and dragon on it. It’s too complex to describe here except to say he kept the audience in stitches.
MARCH 5, 2008 – MACAO

We woke at 6 am and we were already inside the shute to the harbor of Hong Kong. This skyline is one of the most gorgeous in the world with buildings stairstepping up the hillsides. The variety of architecture is amazing; each building is unique. The ship docked next to the Star Ferry terminal (for those of you who know Hong Kong) right in the middle of this urban area.
We had ordered room service so that saves us time in the morning. We piled our backpacks with the day’s needs and headed down to the Cabaret Lounge where all the tour groups assembled. All the passengers had been told to carry a copy of their passport; this is all that is needed here.
ON OUR WAY: Eventually, we were herded to our bus for the day; how nice to be in a big metropolis with modern, cool, clean transport. Our guide was a young Chinese lady named Linda. She greeted us, we started on our way and when she asked if we had our passports, we replied no. Uh Oh. For Macao we must have our passports. So the bus backed up, Linda ran to the ship and returned with a crew member with our passports. He was very apologetic, quickly handed out the passports, and again we were on our way. Linda began her spiel and again mentioned our passports and one…man…over on the side said he didn’t have his. You can imagine how this set with the rest of us. We had been asked several times during all this routine if we had our passports and he hadn’t said a thing. So again the routine (this was getting a little like the movie Groundhog Day by this time). Poor Linda (who is on the chunky side anyway) ran back, got the passport and gave it to him. She then double checked about our passports.
We were headed for the New China Ferry Terminal for the hydrofoil to Macao, or Macau as you wish. Inside the door of the terminal, she gave us our ferry tickets, a 2 part small card. If you watched quickly, you saw that the ticket taker had put a small green sticker on your stub; this turns out to be your seat assignment. Since we are a group traveling together, we were all seated together.
IMMIGRATION: Linda had given us a small piece of paper which we were told we could complete during the one hour boat ride to Macao. When we reached immigration, it turns out they needed them right away. So we hurriedly completed the demographic info (next time I’ll consider bringing a rubber stamp), the nice man checked our paperwork, stamped and dated our passport, and returned them.
The ferry has very comfortable seats, a TV running in several areas, a small concession stand, and small, but clean toilets. The ride is so smooth you don’t even realize you’ve left the pier. We saw lots of various types of vessels and islands along the way. During the trip, we again completed the little form; it turns out we would do this 4 times today as we passed through immigration 4 times.
The little form this time was a NCR form so immigration returned the copy to our passport. There are two categories of lines: Hong Kong residents, and Visitors. Later, we saw that the sign for Hong Kong also shows this message on occasion: For seniors, over 65, and disabled persons, so many of our passengers sped to this line.
MACAU: There are 28 (or 32 depending on your source) casinos at this place made of 3 islands joined by huge, modern bridges. Gambling and tourism appear to be the only commerce. You can’t escape the casinos, most of which are now American. The Sands here recouped the initial investment in one year!
First we drove through some of the downtown areas which are composed of the old, mostly Portugese, and the new (on reclaimed land) areas. There is a statue of a woman with child (Mary with Jesus?) that is a local symbol so the tour guide stopped for a photo op. As it turns out, we passed this same sight numerous times during the day! Each time you stop, people sluggishly get out with their cameras, cross the busy streets, take several (perfect from the behavior of the camera holder) shots, then wait for the busy traffic to allow them to come across to the bus again. This gets old pretty quick. (do I sound annoyed?)
We went past the primarily Portugese structures, most painted a unique color of pink (which we are told the Chinese don’t like), then into the wealthy areas where mansions on postage stamp sized lots are clinging to the sides of the hills. From almost all locations, you can see the lighthouse which is symbolic of the city. On this journey, we went to a famous (sorry, I don’t recall the name) Buddhist temple set on a hillside with many levels. There were some pretty sights, much incense, and as much exercise as you’d like.
ST.PAUL’S: This Catholic church has become symbolic of the hand of God protecting the locals. The façade is made of stone, but the rest of the church was made of wood. During a typhoon shortly after the church was completed, the wooden part of the church caught on fire. The light from this fire served as a beacon for Macaoans to go to safety on higher ground. In recognition of this important part of their history, they leave the façade as a reminder. The façade reminded both Ed and I of Ephesis.
There are numerous steps leading up to this façade, similar to the Spanish Steps in Rome. At the bottom of these steps is the (supposedly) best place to buy almond cookies, which of course, we did. Next door was a place that sold Portugese wine so Ed got a bottle (for us later in the cabin?)
Near St. Paul’s is a museum with high stone walls that looks like a fortress. We didn’t go in but the grounds are lovely. Our bus had parked on a tiny side street as it couldn’t get close to the Cathedral site, so we walked through some older areas of the city to reach it.
LUNCH: This was a special treat. They have a tower here that is the 10th tallest in the world, but which has the longest bungy jump in the world (just in case you are looking to set a record). At the 60th floor, there is a restaurant which makes a 360 degree turn in one hour. Even though there was lots of smog, this was still an interesting site. The buffet extended all the way around the core and included curries, sushi, and other usual dishes.
I started off with the curries. While I’m rather indifferent to curry as a rule, these were delicious. However, the spices triggered a severe asthmatic spasm and I had to give up on them while trying to stop coughing. Later I heard some other folks which the same problem (though their coughing didn’t rival mine). We had some time to walk around below where there were a few nondescript shops.
GAMBLERS: We had some gamblers on board who kept pushing to have some time to gamble, so rather than take us to another historic, local site (which I would have much preferred), they took us to the new MGM Grand Casino for ONE HOUR! Ed and I walked around and took photos of those things we were allowed to photograph, and eventually we exhausted all the possibilities and returned to the bus to wait for the high rollers to return. It turns out that one man won the equivalent of $2K USD on a $60 investment. Folks teased him that he owed us all a drink-which of course never happened and in the meantime, the majority of us were whiling away the time while the handful played the slots.
Now it was time to return to the ferry where we again endured the immigration routine (we’re beginning to look like veterans at this by now) and onto the ferry. All was the same on the ferry boat except that the small concession stand was closed. I’m always grateful for my Treo at times like this when I can entertain myself with Solataire, Monopoly (not my favorite), Scrabble, or video poker to waste time. At the Hong Kong end we again vaulted past immigration and out to wait for the bus to return us to the ship. This took about 20 min. and we then wound our way through the busy streets; by this time it was after 5 pm. We had to be onboard by 7:30pm and we had a lot of folks who wanted to shop.
The bus made it past the security gate onto the pier where we drove down a narrow road, around the U turn of the bend, and onto the other side where our ship was berthed. The pier security stopped our bus about 20 yards from our ship because another (as it turns out, a local gambling ship) was drawing into the pier and throwing it’s lines to be secured. This went on for probably 30 minutes over all during which time the cacophony of complaints and directions from the shoppers on our bus grew ever louder. Thank God the driver either didn’t speak English or refused to listen because the door remained firmly shut. At the first opportunity, the bus moved up and disgorged us into the terminal; the ship was only a few feet away, but we were required to amble through the warren of high end shops before we could enter the gangway. Along the way, young folks were snatching our passports back from us so the ship could have them again. Later there was an announcement asking a couple from “Cabin number XXXX” to return their passports to the purser’s desk.
I probably would have gone shopping a few blocks away, but Ed’s foot was bothering him so he hobbled to the gangway.
DINNER: was open seating tonite. We wound up at our usual table with the usual staff, but Ed and I were alone until we spotted Val and Eric entering the room. I waved and made a fool of myself and they came to join us. What a busy day they had! They found an optometrist who checked their eyes and made new glasses on the spot for them both. Val’s have all the gizmos including graduated powers and Photogray and she only paid about $270 Australian. Such a deal it was that Eric decided to get himself a pair of reading glasses. This was done for them in about 5 hrs!
Along the way, they were routed into tailor’s shops and various ruses were tried on these sharpies without any luck and eventually Eric had two shirts tailor made on the spot. The salesman asked him to buy 6 at a reduced price and Eric said he wouldn’t live long enough to outlast 6 shirts (Eric is 81). In addition to all this, they decided to take the ferry and see some sights in Hong Kong. When they went to get on the ferry, they were waved through as senior citizens (for whom the ride is free). Of course Eric had some story about how they waved Val through and allowed her to take her son along as well. Then they wanted to take the bus around but only had $50 bill, so instead they took a taxi. With the change they got from the taxi, they eventually were able to ride the bus and the view was spectacular they said. They made it to Stanley Market where Val got some apparel for shamefully low prices.
While they were at the table with us, Dorothy and her husband dropped by (these are table mates of theirs) and we had as much fun with her and Ian as Eric and Val provide us.
SAIL AWAY PARTY: The ship had an outlandish buffet and sail-away party planned but Lea and Bill had invited us to their suite to see the harbor during the sail away. This suite wraps around the rear and starboard side of the ship. It is a lovely area and the patio has room for several chaise lounges and a table with chairs. They had invited several other couples and Fr. Austin, who as usual was full of his jokes. We knew about half of the folks there.
When we first came, Lea showed me the gifts she had gotten in Hong Kong including cute paintings of the names of her grandchildren which she will frame and give them to them for gifts. They were darling.
HONG KONG HARBOR AT NIGHT: Words won’t do justice to this skyline description. All this different architecture is lit up in different ways and colors. Furthermore, the design changes regularly. The office lights are also on patterns in some instances. Occasionally, a laser beam or two of various colors would go forth from one or more of the buildings. One could almost imagine music to accompany this light show.
It turns out that several of us have an irrepressible affection for the little tug boats that aid the ship. The one last night has “salvage” in it’s name and we remarked on how we wished that weren’t in the name. Still, we seemed unable to ignore the work of the tug as it pulled the ship a little and then released lines to be retracted into the ship.
Despite the fierce wind off the back of the ship, we had a fun time watching the lights and visiting with the various folks in attendance. When we left you could still see lights along the way but the colored and laser light shows weren’t to be seen any longer.
NINNIES: There are always people who delight in complaining and being the perfect critics and along the way taking every imperfect event as a personal insult. The cluck clucking about the passport ordeal this morning was the beginning and in one form or another, it never died down all day. I only share my complaints with Ed and then return to my Treo games while the malcontents blather on. And then you have the folks who never have a silent thought: whatever comes into their minds is immediately onto their lips and is broadcast at a decibel level that assures no peace for the other riders on the bus. And when you have a couple with a very thick North Carolina accent competing for these honors with one with a different accent, you’re near screaming, which of course would only add to the din and the offenders would be totally oblivious to the reason for the outburst. So we conserve our energy and try to tune out the babblers.
FUTURE TRIPS: In our mailbox tonite were the instructions for our Angor Wat trip. We get off in Saigon but not until 12:30 pm (the ship docks at 7 am: if it isn’t able to make the pier directly adjacent to Saigon, we’ll need to berth about an hour’s drive away from the city - which is where we were last trip). There are so many going, that there are two flights. The times are a little different and one group will miss one of the sites. I hope that we will be on the longer trek since we signed up very early for this excursion. So you won’t hear from us for a few days from March 8-10th.
PHOTOS FROM TODAY: I downloaded all the photos to the external hard drive so I’ll need to reduce their size and put them on the C drive to upload for you on the blog site.

MARCH 4, 2008 – IN TAIWAN STRAITS

We woke well before our 8 am alarm, got ready and went to Buffet for fruit and cottage cheese. Then we joined the other invitees for the
TOUR OF THE BRIDGE: Everything is behind locked doors. The officers’ quarters are immediately behind the bridge. I’m always surprised at how peaceful ships’ bridges are on these tours. We saw the equipment including much redundancy regarding compasses, gyros, etc. Many kymographs tracking the chlorination of the water on ship. Radar with paper charts as well. And a picture of the Virgin Mary; no I didn’t ask. We were allowed to go out on the wing and see everything there. It is larger than I had imagined and it has a part of the flooring that is glass and another part with metal grid so the Captain can see the dock. The command post here duplicates that in the bridge proper and has his “toys” to play with.
The Captain joined us and he is a great kidder. Clearly he loves his job. I asked about women Captains and he pushed all the usual macho buttons about women being temperamental and such. Always said with a wicked smile. He said they had one in the fleet and she’s actually very good but he doesn’t like women in the bridge staff because they are too distracting. Some French ladies grabbed one of the officers’ caps and had their photos taken along with him so Ed encouraged me to do the same. I’ll post the photo.
While I expected this tour to be interesting, I didn’t expect it to be as much fun as it was. We were given a pamphlet with details about the ship, for example about how they make water on board (lots of co-generation going on), and details about the security staff who are Ghurkas. No body dare mess around with those mild looking folks.
The bottom of the ship has only a meter between it and the bottom of the waterway in many locations, for example Shanghai and Hong Kong. We were teasing the Captain for the tight turns he makes with this ship in some very narrow port locations. The stabilizers are not used in tandem at all times; sometimes only one. They retract along the hull rather than being pulled into the ship as I had suspected.
TRIVIA: The whole gang showed up. Val’s eye continues to change color looking very bluish-black. We were all in good form and we won today. We would have gotten all but one correct if we had listened to a different team member for the answer. In the end it didn’t matter. The prizes today were water bottles. Apparently those in the past tasted terrible. These looked a little different so we may give it a go.
LUNCH: Joined some of the folks from the bridge tour and we reviewed what we learned. The other couple found there was a video camera pointed right at their patio. They were debating whether to share this new found information with other cabins with patios.
DRAWING: Ok, I did my best but no one would mistake my facial drawing for anyone known. The instructor is one of the dancers/cruise staff who is quite good. Several of the people who attended, and we had about equal male and female, were quite skilled.
SHIPPING LANES: We are seeing so many other vessels along our trip in these parts. Most are clearly without cargo and they are everything from a cargo ship to tankers. Clearly this is a busy area.
TRIVIA: It was just Ed and I, Ro and Murray. We did well by our smaller group: we again came in second. The prizes were passport holders so we weren’t too upset though Ro needs one more to fill the requests of her friends.
LIBRARY: We did the internet café and then the library to catch up on the news. As it turns out, I left my sweater in one of those places but it showed up in lost and found later where I claimed it.
DINNER: Twyla, Dave, Ed and I. Usual wide ranging conversation. We don’t know how Hank is doing but apparently he and Erna are back doing their water colors on deck 4 in the morning.
TONITE’S SHOW: A young Scottish lady who sings and plays various flutes. Her program was mostly classical with some Andrew Lloyd Weber and Lord of the Dance thrown in.
We have an early show up time in the morning for the tour of Macao so we’ll get to bed early I hope.

MARCH 3, 2008 – TO HONG KONG

Ed got up and got out to exercise. While he was gone, I got ready and when he returned, we went to the laundry room. Yep, it’s that time again. There was a short line and many folks came and went while I was there. I got two washers (of the 3 I needed) fairly quickly and got them started. I tried to read my book but it was useless as folks want to visit. Folks keep track of who’s next for the most part; some men help their wives. I got a dryer in good time and put the two loads to dry. When the 3rd load was done, I was lucky enough to get a dryer for that too. Eventually Ed showed up with his Sudoku and we waited for the dryers to finish. When it was 10:55 am I opened the dryer and began to take out the clothes which had to be hung up and Ed helped sort out the others. When we finished with this dryer, the other was pretty much ready. I headed downstairs with several bags of dry but unfolded clothing and Ed followed with two more bags and the clothes on hangers. We dumped the bags on the bed and made sure nothing else needed to be hung up. I headed on up to Trivia and he joined me pretty quickly after draping some T-shirts around that needed a little more drying.
TRIVIA: Val showed up with a huge black eye and cheek. I immediately said: “Eric finally hit you back, eh?” It turns out that she fell on some uneven stones in Shanghai yesterday (easy enough to do: I trip regularly on these shore excursions) and went flying, breaking her glasses along the way. Fortunately, she had brought an older pair with her. Ro commented that her sweater matched the coloring around her eye, and I suggested this would be a good night for her to take a formal portrait.
We started the trivia and the first few questions were really killers. Eric sat observing our interactions and eventually said, “well, I think it’s time for me to go back to sleep.” We soldiered on, making (educated?) guesses about some of the answers. One I knew for sure: Pancreatic juices are acidic, true or false? Well it’s false as they are alkaline.
LAUNDRY: We quickly folded and put away the clothes lying around. Whew. Finished for a few more days.
LUNCH: We were placed with Lea and Bill and a delightful lady named Gwen who is now a naturalized citizen of the US and lives in San Diego. She’s originally from San Diego and real delight. There was one other couple with whom we’ve had lunch before. They described their ride on the maglev train and a trip to the top of an 88 floor tower where you can look down the inner tube of the tower and see the atrium of the Hyatt 88 floors below.
EXOTIC CRUISES: We went to this presentation by Ben, the future cruises person as much to give him support as to get the info (he went to the Galapagos with us). Gwen was there too and afterwards we discussed a new cruise around the Western parts of Australia. She’s either lived in, or visited all but one of the ports on that cruise and is excited at the possibility of sending a packet of info to Princess to see if they might use her as a port speaker. She’s certainly knowledgable and has taught at the elementary and university level. Furthermore, she’s very personable and is always upbeat. I think she’d be great at it.
AFTERNOON MOVIE: “Evening” with Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Claire Danes, Mamie Gummer (isn’t this Streep’s daughter?) and others. I left after about 15 min. Under other circumstances it might have interested me but it’s about the flashbacks and memories of a dying, and slightly demented woman (played by Redgrave). So I came up to fix some photos to post and write this blog.
TRIVIA: There had been a discussion this morning about all of us showing up for afternoon trivia; Murray and Ro come everyday. So Val woke up Eric to come along and left him in the room (probably went back to sleep as he never showed up and there were at least two questions where Val would have awakened him for the answer as he would surely have known). Ed joined us; Ro and Murray never showed up (go figure).
Well it wasn’t easy. We comported ourselves well we thought though we had no illusions about our performance. In the end, we tied for #2 at 11; 14 won the passport cases today, the group calling themselves “the 4 Nations.” If we hadn’t changed two answers, and if Eric had been present, we might have won. Oh well: there’s always tomorrow. Val went back to the room to beat up on Eric—give him a black eye to match hers—since he let us down.
FORMAL NIGHT: I’m amazed that I’m able to cobble together a different outfit for formal night and I still have 2 ensembles (just listen to me will you) in reserve for future formal nights. Since it is pretty cold on the ship, I figured I could afford to wear a velvet top. I’m keeping my Shanghai jacket in reserve for another time when I don’t want to think.
And speaking of ensembles, I had picked up a teal Chinese style peddle pusher set at the Discovery Shop before we left and several people today came up and asked me if I bought it in Shanghai. Such a deal.
DINNER: Dave and Twyla and us in our glad rags. The Head waiter made Cherries Jubilee thus my resolution about a fruit plate was done in. After dinner, Ed said he was sweating and wanted to take his clothes off as he thought he was getting what I had. That may be, but if so he didn’t get it from me as I haven’t been communicable for a long while now (though with this bronchial cough which remains it may sound very ominous) and the incubation period doesn’t fit.
INTERNET CAFÉ: So I went up to check my email. Ro and Murray were up there. She didn’t feel well and slept through the trivia time. Many of the terminals are very cranky and won’t accept the card swipe, so one has to travel from terminal to terminal until one decides it likes you. No ominous news and more junk mail than serious mail, so I cleaned everything up and emptied all the boxes.
TOUR OF THE BRIDGE: Got an invitation for tomorrow am at 10 o’clock. That’s the same time as the port talk but we are taking a tour to Macao and were in Hong Kong in 2004 so we can miss the misinformation of the port talk. We can also see it on the TV later tomorrow.

MARCH 2, 2008 – IN SHANGHAI

I woke up to the tap tap tap of Ed in the bathroom. I had been waking up periodically as the sounds of the ship change. We entered the estuary to Shanghai much earlier and so the pitch and sway of the ship are no longer present.
We got ready and Eric came down to call his son from our phone. I had just received a text message (funny that Ed didn’t get it on his phone: we are on the same account!) telling us how to do this. Their son is visiting in shanghai and they are going to spend the day together.
Then we went up to hinese immigration. It was pretty much a walk through. We already had our visas. They simply checked the photo with the name on our landing card and we surrendered our passports to the ship again. So again all we carry is a piece of paper while on shore.
This pier is also new and there are new high rise buildings going up right on the shore. Huge multi-story apartment bldgs. Overlook the river; it’s impossible to see in more than a block because of all the high rises. There is a shuttle bus to take us downtown and back.
The weather is cold. I d don’t know the temp. (I have a thermometer on a zipper pull somewhere around here) but it is definitely cold. The Chinese officials are all in dark suits and overcoats. Ed has been trying on various jackets of his to be sure he’ll be as warm as he needs to be. It’s almost like a fashion show with narration and critique.
We met a couple with whom we shared the day. There were lovely young ladies outside to provide us with business cards and information sheets prior to getting on the bus. We all took the shuttle to a downtown location where you are routed through a handicraft store (more like a factory) before you could emerge onto the street. Once there, we took a cab to Yuyuan Gardens in the Old Town. Along the way, we stopped in front of the museum; this is because the taxi driver misunderstood our destination. We had a form from the ship and the Chinese was ABOVE the line, not below. So finally we got squared away and were dropped off across from the Mickey D’s there. The architecture is old Chinese and the lanes are like rabbit trails through the old town. In the end we only saw a small part of Old town but we were delighted with our experiences.
We looked at some of the shops on our way to locate the garden and we promised to return to shop later. People are very friendly and helpful. We found the entrance to the gardens. This was a Sunday and many families were also out for the day. The temperature warmed up but never terribly hot. I’d rather have weather like that than too hot.
This garden is hard to describe. It has many old Chinese buildings, many bodies of water, lots of rock formations, lanes with pebble designs on them. There were bonsai trees everywhere and many in bloom: plum and perhaps cherry: pink and darker magenta ones. We had a map but it wasn’t very helpful; not even the locals could tell us where we were. There are several zig zag bridges and lanes. You’d see an opening in the rock face and when you went in, you’d have to duck down to keep from hitting your head, and zig zag through it to get to the other side. Each time we emerged, it was an entirely different scene. Often this only meant the same scene you had just observed, but now, in viewing it from a different perspective, it looked entirely unfamiliar.
The most fun we had was in a place where there was a large mirror. Who knows what it’s real purpose is. We four stood there and took photos of each other in the mirror. We felt like little kids. It was lunch by this time, so we pulled out Ed’s Frommer’s print out and decided we didn’t know how to find the addresses anyway. So we spied a large restaurant in a busy area; we decided to give it a try. There was a 20 min. wait for a table so we took a number and looked around to see if there was anything else that had a shorter wait. No luck. Even the line for fast food dumplings had 100 people in line. So we returned to the first restaurant where we were seated in a private alcove by ourselves. Ed and Lea chose the foods while Bill and I agreed. Eventually we had hot and sour soup, some kind of egg and corn chowder, sweet and sour pork (really delicious), shrimp, rice for each of us, soy sauce and vinegar, a shared bottle of beer, marinated Edamame with green veg of some kind, cashew chicken with chilis, and hot tea. Absolutely scrumptious every bit of it and we had way too much food. The total cost for it all was $36 USD.
Now it was time to shop so we headed for the shop where we promised we’d return. Along the way, I saw a thigh length jacket I wanted. After some haggling, I walked away with it. I was careful to check the bag and put the jacket on again to be sure it was the one I had actually purchased. Then we picked up some odds and ends at the original shop. They were delighted to see us. Lea got dolls and Chinese outfits for her grandkids. Overall we were very pleased with the day and went out of the rabbit warren to find a taxi which was very quick. Instead of returning for the shuttle, we decided to take the taxi right back to the ship. The piece of paper with English and Chinese on it helped a lot along with the post card with a photo of the ship. We were taken straight to the ship and this wasn’t a short trip. The cost? $2.50 USD. Can you imagine?
We got back to the ship in time to see the folklorico show arranged by the ship. This was the shanghai aifu int’l acrobatic show. We sat with Fr. Austin (who didn’t have a Chinese visa and thus was stuck on board) and had a grand time. These children are so flexible; even that adjective is inadequate. The youngest was probably 7; the oldest surely no more than 16. I can begin to tell you what they did but they can fold their bodies into the smallest spaces you can imagine. They are great showmen even at early ages. An older woman (the mother?) did a breathtaking balancing act with fans and glasses with water. Even if they were magician glasses, it was still a true feat!
Many of the tours were later returning to the ship so we didn’t leave port until we were at dinner. In the meantime, we watched flat bed trucks go down the pier and return loaded with containers. Along the river away from Shanghai we saw several dry docks for boats. Many boats were anchored in the waterway and there had no lights on them. I can only guess that people were living on them. I never did see the end of the lights of China along this riverway until we went to tonite’s show.
DINNER: Just Ed and I. We saw Dave and Twyla run onto the ship from the tour bus; Lea and Bill were simply tired. The dining room was pretty empty actually. Between 130 and 150 people took the overland tour to Beijing; they will rejoin the ship in Hong Kong in 3 more days.
ENTERTAINMENT: A young Japanese woman who is a classical pianist. She’s very good and even included a classical piece written by another Japanese woman about the city of Nara, and one she herself had written. Both were very interesting and quite good.
MARCH 1, 2008 – ON THE WAY TO SHANGHAI

Ed was up early getting dressed. We have a mandatory life boat exercise this morning before 10 am. While he went to breakfast, I got ready and then looked for, but missed him, in the buffet so I sat with Val and Eric and a French speaking lady. All totally enjoyable people. I came back to the room to get things in order and wait for the seven short and one long blast to tell us to get our life jackets and make our way to the Cabaret Lounge.
LIFE JACKET EXERCISE: No one really enjoys this but we’ve been really lucky since we haven’t had to do it since we left Ft. Lauderdale. People were unusually cooperative today and it went along without much fuss.
WEATHER: Last night was a rodeo ride again. I feel really sorry for the poor staff who have cabins at the far front of the ship. And it’s cold. 48 degrees Fahrenheit at noon. Some folks are complaining that they can’t get heat in their room. Ours has not been a problem; Ed adjusts the temp with some regularity and I howl “foul” when I have heat stroke symptoms. It’s been pretty much overcast all day long. The sea is more light green than blue and occasionally we see what is probably see weed floating by. There are lots of fishing vessels seen with regularity and what we’ve decided are flag markers for the boundaries of fishing nets.
TRIVIA: the Crocks were bright eyed today but it didn’t mean we won. Eric lays back to snooze and Val taps him for answers now and then. Once she tapped him and when she didn’t like the answer he gave, she gave him a light tap as if to say, “go back to sleep.” The questions today were developed by a fellow passenger and they all dealt with things you’d see on the ship. Beware of such situations. No one is ever happy. None of us enjoyed it not even those who won. And since they won Princess clocks (which we already had) we could afford to be generous in our congratulations.
LUNCH: We joined a new couple and Bill and Lea and enjoyed discussing the port talks (we need to either stop going, or stop discussing them or both as Ed goes ballistic talking about the errors the speaker makes.
PORT TALK: SHANGHAI: Pretty pictures but the verbiage that went along with them could or could not have been accurate. I did manage to finish one of my needlepoint projects while attending (I started to say “listening”).
INTERNET AND LIBRARY: I had tried to access my email earlier without any success, but with ample amounts of frustration…and I wasn’t alone. I still had to try several terminals before I found one that would cooperate and dispatched my inbox contents pretty quickly by comparison anyway. I caught up on the world news and checked out the ever-increasing supply of paperbacks up there for the exchange.
TRIVIA: Only 4 of us; This is Val and Eric’s happy hour. I asked if there was a boobie prize today since we did so poorly. We weren’t the lowest score by a long shot but we didn’t give the winners much competition either.
TONITE’S ENTERTAINMENT: I’ll get this out of the way right now: Ed likes comedy and juggling so he’ll go. I won’t. Jim asked us what we thought of the hypnotist last night. Told him we didn’t go. He and another fellow were talking about how truly awful that guy was.
DINNER: The menu was Indian themed tonite. There were several interesting dishes that were new to me at least. The best was a banana fried with coconut and accompanied by a yoghurt sauce of some kind. Really good. Most of us had the lamb dish.

FEBRUARY 29, 2008 – KAGOSHIMA, JAPAN

The tap tap tap of the razor was the first sound I heard before the shower’s dripping. Ed dressed and left a little before 7 am. I got up and saw the sunrise over the mountains as we approached Kagoshima. I am excited to be seeing Japan in person. A country and culture which have long fascinated me.
YIPPEE! We turn back the clock one more hour tonite. Such a treat.
JAPANESE IMMIGRATION: We had to complete some questionnaires and sign them earlier in the week and turn them into the purser’s desk.
We lined up at our appointed time and when it was our turn, we were escorted to gather our passenger landing permit. With this in hand, we waited again until we appeared before Japanese immigration officials. They were all in business suits, and of all ages. All were friendly, courteous and spoke better English than some Americans. They had the latest finger print technology. You had your fingerprints taken (via computer: no ink) and your photo was taken. Your permit was stamped and you were off.
KAGOSHIMA PORT: First off: It’s cold here! Locals are in coats with fur collars. The ship’s sale on sweats did well.
This is a brand new pier, and we think we are the first cruise ship to land here. There was a big Welcome Pacific Princess sign on the terminal, and there were tents outside with samples of rice cakes, green tea and sake. You immediately notice how clean, pretty, orderly everything is!
I took Ed over to the flowered “Welcome to Kagoshima” lawn sign so I could take his photo in front of the volcano. A Japanese man with a serious camera around his neck, motioned that he offered to take our photo together. I smiled and gave him my camera. He led us several blocks away from the ship site to the point of the pier and positioned us on a staging area there with the volcano in the rear and took that shot. But he wasn’t done yet! He also took us around to another view and took our photo with the ship in the rear. This is really an interesting picture. I’m going to try embedding photos into the blog but I’ll also put them in the gallery in case it doesn’t work.
They havc a post office, bank, and international phone services available in this small terminal. While I was waiting in the terminal, I was interviewed by a Japanese documentary crew about Kagoshima. They had questions such as: Do you know what Kagoshima is famous for? I answered the volcano and they were very pleased. Did I like sushi? Alas, no. What did I like to eat? I said Yaki Soba, -- blank looks – then noodles – more blank looks, then buckwheat noodles? No recognition there either. I wonder if these are Japanese American dishes?? They moved on with other questions and eventually left to speak with someone else.
Ed got some Japanese yen (100 yen = $1 USD) and we returned to the ship to get warmer coverings. We had a quick bite to eat since there is no food on this changed schedule (due to our later-than-planned arrival). Because of our tour, we had to miss the plaque exchange program on the top deck with the Captain.
TOUR: We got on a modern, comfortable motorcoach which took us to a ferry for a 15 minute ride across the bay to see Mt. Sakurajima, the local volcano which erupts with some regularity adding to the land mass around here and the anxiety of the locals. We had the good luck to see some shadows and sunshine here and there on the volcano but alas none of our photos do justice to it.
So we took the bus back to the ferry: the bus drives onto the ferry. You can stay on the bus or go up top for a view but the ride is only 15 minutes. Now we headed to a villa with a large, gorgeous garden. These lands were traditional, old Japan. There are some shops on the grounds and a modest museum with many artifacts from the feudalistic era. But most of all, we saw CHERRY BLOSSOMS! It’s cold here and this is a type that blossoms in this weather.
Along the route, many other sites were pointed out to us. We note that the apartments and houses are obviously very small, as are almost all of the cars on the streets. There is an robust trolley network for transport.
TAIKO: 5 busses arrived at the same time and so we had a little wait in the cold wind to rejoin the ship. Everyone was supposed to be on board by 4:30 pm and there was a drum group scheduled for 4:40 pm. We got on board promptly at 4:30 but there were many others yet to board. And the drummers began before we got on the ship. We had invited Twyla and Dave to join us on the patio for the drum concert and when we called, they were ready.
You have to imagine multiple drums including the enormous, several ton Taiko drum, on the pier. There were initially 5 drummers; later we established that they were all girls. If you’ve never seen a Taiko drum demonstration, you won’t be able to appreciate what a treat this really was. The girls played non-stop for over 45 minutes. In addition to being excellent musicians and athletes, they are also graceful in the choreography of their movements.
The girls were later joined by two men, one older, one probably 20, who began to play drums also. Along the way, one of the girls played the shakuhachi (sp), a Japanese flute. There were many Japanese dignitaries around along with what looked like locals and news media. Among these was a lady in traditional kimono who began dancing gracefully with some young women in business suits who had begun to dance to the drumming.
The Captain was watching this all from the extension of the bridge on the side of the ship. The last person to return to the ship was the physician from the clinic. When the concert had ended, he began the process of loosening the lines. The people on the pier continued to wave to us and call greetings back and forth for some time after we were away from the pier. The taxi drivers put their white gloves on their windshield wipers and turned them on to wave goodbye to us (how clever is this!).
As you can imagine, this was a really outstanding visit for many reasons but the icing was the hospitality and reception from these local people. They really wanted you to experience Japan and Kagoshima in particular.
DINNER: The Fab Four as usual. Twyla said they saw Erna on the shuttle bus and adopted her for the window shopping in town. She’s really worried about Henry as he isn’t bouncing back as she’d hoped; he’s in bed most of the day. We understand and share her worry but he wouldn’t be better off anywhere else.
I downloaded the 200+ photos Ed and I took today and reduced the size of the ones in this blog.
ENTERTAINMENT: A hypnotist who’s supposed to be funny. You know how I feel about this kind of “entertainment.” Ed enjoys it though and I was surprised when he said he was tired and wasn’t going.
So: I didn’t get nearly enough of Japan but I look forward to seeing more of it in the future. For now, we’re on our way to Shanghai where many on the ship will get off to go visit the Great Wall and other sites in Beijing.
FEBRUARY 28, 2008

WHEE! The ship was up and down, back and forth, around and around all night long. Tilt a whirl it was. As we were cruising (well this is much too genteel a term) along last night, one of the casino workers, stumbled over to the window, looked out and said: “Captain, what in the hell are you doing?” He was trying to outrun a storm as it turns out. The final impact means that we will be late into Kagoshima as you really can’t run a ship very fast in a storm.
We woke up late as it turns out but I got showered and ready pretty quickly to make it to the first talk of the day.
THE SMALLEST ROOM: Our Japanese cultural speaker talked about the bathroom, baths (including sand baths which I gather some passengers are going to seek out in Kagoshima), and the various architectural differences in Japan. She always creates a tasteful and very Japanese looking stage setting as the backdrop for her talks. As with so many of these speakers however, I wonder about some of their background which is often left empty. The theologian is one example and she another. She clearly has traveled and lived in Japan many times and her business is around ikebana and such, but more details in writing would be interesting.
TRIVIA: The crocks were in place and ready. Eric has some sea sickness and that explains why he lays down almost flat in the chair and appears to go to sleep for these sessions. Val tells him: “go to sleep, darling. I’ll wake you when we need you.” And she does wake him when we need his input on a question, usually one around a date, whereupon he’s usually right and always adds the admonition: “I know because I was there.”
We had a phobia and question and the resident with the ethical challenges looked it up (she did find this one it turns out) and gave the answer. The group had already settled on an answer (which as it turns out was wrong and was my contribution which was an educated guess backed by some rationale) and Ed and I gave her feedback about how it wasn’t fair to change it, etc. etc. Val was our scribe and she didn’t make any changes so it stayed that way.
We didn’t win and we didn’t see the prizes for today so we didn’t know whether to be happy or sad.
I’ve been trying to think of how to describe Val and Eric so you could get a clearer picture of why I enjoy this couple so much. Val has a Maggie Smith quality about her: almost imperious but not really and always with a genuine sweetness and charm. Her accent is (to my untrained ear), that rather upper crust British accent. She’s quite bright and indulges Eric in a rather “of course” manner. Eric is white haired and white moustachioed with a wide smile, usually seen after he’s accomplished something mischievious. The closest description I can give is of a British officer in India in the helmet and khaki uniform – with without the pomp. You could mistakenly think he’s a little dotty if you didn’t pay attention. He’s obviously bright but clearly has some health limitations which they never discuss but clearly mean they must adjust some of their activities to manage.
LUNCH: the service in the dining room is horribly slow since Sydney and the new personnel. We finally left after our entrees were finally facilitated by Rod who was walking by, when it became clear we were not going to make Prof. Giles’ last lecture if we didn’t hurry.
Back in a corner a large table had been created with a dolphin balloon and a birthday party for the (now) 7 y/o on the cruise. Fr. Cribbin had been invited I’m sure because he gives the girls all his trivia win prizes. It was a cute event to see here.
FINAL AIR OFFENSIVE: You know I don’t care for battle stories, photos or movies, but I enjoy these lectures with their stories, photos and such when done by folks who have a direct connection. I am especially appreciative of Prof. Giles compassionate treatment of the conditions of the Japanese citizens and soldiers. He clearly lays out the environment in which their militaristic bent was developed, but this was a function of the leadership more than the population, which like most citizens in countries, are merely followers of such doctrines as they continue to try to live their everyday lives without making more trouble for themselves.
PHOTO CHALLENGES: We invited Dave and Twyla to come up to our room so we could download Dave’s photos to the hard drive and put them on a disk for him. He has about 700 by now, some quite good, and some of things where we didn’t get the shot or the experience. He didn’t have the cable for his camera to computer hook-up since he didn’t bring his computer. We did manage to find a way around that and multiple other problems we encountered (running out of hard drive space—we had brought our external hard drive and found a way to get around that) until we finally got them all on disk.
Now I’ll spend some time showing Dave how to do some basic editing I’ve learned in Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
PASSENGER TALENT SHOW: We ran down to see this since Eric was the finale. We came in as the two little sisters on the ship were doing a skit where the younger girl plays a ventriloquist’s dummy to to the older sister’s Edgar Bergin.
As you may expect, most of it was funny because of how bad it all turned out. One lady who has a little bit of a ditzy edge read some poems she had brought along, not because she’s a gifted reader, but merely to have some spotlight for a few minutes. One fellow deludes himself into thinking he’s a comedian and embarrassed himself by telling some highly inappropriate off color jokes. I had already heard them all but they were not fodder for this event and you could see how uncomfortable everyone was. The staff didn’t have a way to cut this short and no one seemed to know what to suggest. Mericifully he ended rather quickly,
So then Eric appears, clearly fresh shaven but still in his shorts and sockless loafers. He introduced another well known Australian song and began to sing it. They asked all the Auzzies to join along, but not many did. After a minute or to, a lady joined Eric on stage to sing; she carried a teeny Australian flag from a cocktail pick. A little more time and a tall fellow also joined, and eventually, Val and one of the crew appeared waving a very large Australian flag as the body all now joined in song. I’m not even Australian and I found it moving. I loved every minute of it all.
By the way, if you want to ferret out the Auzzies in your midst, simply call out “Auzzie, Auzzie, Auzzie!” very rapidly and it will quickly be followed by a chorus of “uuooh uuooh uuooh!” No I don’t know but it is funny when it’s done.
CAPTAIN’S ANNOUNCEMENT: Because we were slowed down by the bad weather, we will be at least 2 hrs late getting into Kagoshima. We did find out later that the immigration officials will come on board with the pilot so that we won’t lose time on the ground to immigration procedures.
PHOTOS OF DANCERS: Claude stopped us at the photos kiosk to give us two photos from the Guam dancers the other day. One is of Ed dancing with the little girl who directed him in dancing with her, and the other of us with the troupe of dancers. He has a wonderful camera and these are terrific shots. The gift of such memories in the form of a photo is a priceless gift.
DINNER: The six of us again. Hank is still very ill and Erna is very worried. Hank is a cancer “survivor” and is on long term chemo for it so that is very much complicating his recuperation. Still there’s nothing to be gained by trying to get back home to Hawaii. He’s got room, board, a medical clinic and friends here. At home, he’d be alone and have to fend for himself.
The conversation flow was a little better tonite than usual. Ed sits near one couple, and I near the other. I feel like I’m the hostess at a large banquet who’s job it is to keep the guests involved and not feeling isolated.
ENTERTAINMENT: This was an Italian singer who looked Middle Eastern and had a similar sounding last name. He has a good voice but it wasn’t one I enjoy though Ed thought he was terrific. I did like his selection of songs. I did feel a little sorry for him as he tried to get the audience to sing along with him, almost always with little success except from those who drowned his voice out. He was wear a Chinese jacket in black with red trim. I wonder if he thought this was Japanese perhaps?
MEDICATION SCHEDULE: My medication schedule these past few days has required a medication nurse to follow me around. Upon arising, I have a nasal spray, 2 puffs from one drug which are separated by 10 min., then 2 puffs from another drug which also requires a few minutes between puffs. One drug by mouth to be followed 30 min. later by another drug. And 10 cc of Robitussin which I absolutely hate.
And once a week on Tuesdays, we take our malaria pill.
The nasal spray is twice a day, the puffer drugs are three times a day, the oral drugs are four times a day. I made myself a schedule like one I’d do for a patient and I’m still trying to catch up. Everything tastes like Cephalexin and thank God I’m almost finished with the Robitussin as I’m not sure how much longer I can deal with it (Oh come on now Bonnie: you’ve been through worse and you’ve given much worse!)
WEATHER NOW: By this time, the ship is fairly well gliding along the top of the sea and the speed is barely perceptible. I don’t know if I’ve told you, but when we have dancers, the Captain slows down the ship so they won’t be injured in the swaying and bucking of the ship. As soon as the show ends, you can perceive the speed picking up again.
CLOTHES DRYER: We’ve found a way to dry clothes faster in the room. The little refrigerator is in a closet and it stays warm and dry in there. So we hang things in that space for a quicker drying time.

FEBRUARY 27, 2008 – IWO JIMA

I woke up, felt around and determined that I was alive, and said: “Thank you Lord for another day above ground.” Actually, I learned this from Rowena. This is all to say that things are moving along in the lungs and I have hope of normality in the foreseeable future.
I turned on the TV and there was a movie with Renee Zellweiger as Beatrix Potter which I watched. The trouble is, Ed is mesmerized by anything on the TV. So I was losing hope he’d go exercise today when, mercifully, the movie ended. So I headed out while Ed went to walk the plank, I mean the deck. I had cleaned up the spam in my email and headed for the library where I began to read the USA Times. Then I had a coughing attack, and though I had managed to make it to the staircase outside, the hacking surely disrupted the serenity of the library. Amber brought me water and one of the red hat friends took me into an adjacent room where I finally managed to move around without pulmonary spasms.
It was time for Trivia, so I called the cabin to ask Ed if he was going to make it on time (he rushed—except for me, the crocks cheered his arrival). We were able to see Iwo Jima from the windows in that room so we got double duty.
TRIVIA: It was the usual suspects again today. The questions were tough today as well. I’m amazed at what we pull from the recesses of our minds and I felt very useful when I knew what logorrhea is. Well actually it’s because I have a chronic case of it! (I leave you to look it up for fun). Nonetheless, we prevailed by 1.5 points! We were almost stunned. So we cheered ourselves on and collected our prizes: ID cases for around your neck. I announced that after the next time we won, we’d have to rechristen ourselves “the awesome crocks”.
LUNCH: Ed wanted to get a Japanese lunch from the buffet and watch the island from our balcony. I went to the dining room and Fr. Cribben and I shared a table. We discussed American politics and shared funny stories about life experiences. I told him we’d have to quit meeting like this or people would begin to talk. We both had a good laugh out of that since we talk about the rumor mills on board.
I then went up to the top deck for the afternoon ceremonies and found that two whales were between the ship and the shore. I did get to see them but I don’t think I got any photos. The weather could not have been more perfect! Absolutely clear with a stiff breeze.
IWO JIMA: This unpretentious piece of volcanic ash was the site for the loss of 25,000 men in 1945. It’s astonishing to contemplate. The total size is only 8 square miles! Today a few people stay there to maintain equipment; it was returned to Japan in 1968. Atop Mt. Suribachi is a flag post marking the spot where the famous Joe Rosenthal photo was taken.
The ship had a wonderful Iwo Jima Commeoration with the Captain and ship’s officers, Father Austin Cribbin, Professor Andy Giles, Cruise Director JJ King, 3 WWII veterans: one 95 y/o, one who survived this island, and one who was on a Navy ship nearby, plus the daughter of a veteran who died on Iwo Jima. Just as Fr. Cribben got up to recite one of the prayers, two jets screamed overhead and made a return pass back; it was a Hollywood moment. Most think there was some coordination for this to happen at exactly the right time. I haven’t a clue but it was an impressive sight and added to the solemnity of the occasion.
It’s impossible for me to convey how moving this experience was. I cried all the way through it. Each speaker was truly profound and thoughtful in their remarks (and I don’t throw those words out randomly).
The Captain, veterans, and Fr. Cribben went to the upper deck where a wreath (biodisposable) was pitched toward the beach. It all ended with the playing of the US Marines song. On the front row with us was one of our Galapagos trekkies, and he stood proud and loudly sang all the verses of this song. It was something to behold.
TEA FOR TWO IN TWO HOURS: This was a quiet, interesting talk which went far beyond a discussion of the tea ceremony alone. It was a perfect way to decompress from the emotional energy of the ceremony on the top deck. Today there was a yakata on display where the kimono had been yesterday. It was also very pretty.
BOAT BUILDING CONTEST: I told you on the Diamond Princess about how funny this event was, so I was disappointed when told it had been rescheduled indoors because the weather by now was rainy, dreary, windy and cold, not to mention the sloshing of the water in the pool. Well, I can’t imagine that this was as much fun with this change. They should have rescheduled the event for a time when we could see how “sea worthy” these home made craft were.
SHINTO: THE HEART OF JAPAN: This lecture was given by the “theologian” traveling with us. There were lush photos and lots of quotations from reputable sources. I was disappointed that I had one of my coughing spells and had to leave. I’ll have to watch it on TV tonite to fill in. Ed said it was very interesting.
AFTERNOON QUIZ: One couple has suggested that we (not just us but all of the crocks) come up for the afternoon session, so we decided to do that today. Since this time is Val and Eric’s happy hour, we were joined by two Brits (we screened applicants as we needed a Brit or an Auzzie to fill out our reference section). We did very well actually but lost by 1.5 points. One of the questions was about a 1980 (?) duet song. We didn’t have a clue about the answer (Lionel Richie and Diana Ross) so we put down Barbara Streisand and Kenny Rogers. Since I was the scribe for the group, I put a happy face beside this line (we never leave an answer empty: we’ll put something in there even if we know it’s wrong). When it was returned to us after scoring, Brian from the group “Nice People” (this title makes me suspicious right away) had put a frown by that answer. We got a good laugh out of that.
You may recall the ethical dilemma I described to you a few days ago. It continues but Ed has dealt with it each time by tell her not to do it, it’s cheating, it’s only a game, and so on. She continues to refer to these teeny tiny reference pages she carries. Today we had a phobia question again, and we had the answer very quickly—still she looks on her list, which, as it turns out, did not have this particular phobia listed. There’s an irony to all this since there isn’t one answer she’s ever been able to find that related to any of our questions from her stash. They are only on to Singapore so I suppose we just have to continue to be her conscience and notice how pathetic this behavior is.
POLITICS: I promised John Hargis I’d put something about the political scene in the blog. I think Hillary needs to rein in those teenagers she’s got running amuck in her campaign. The photo of Obama in African garb is so stupid and any fool would know that it would do more harm than good. Obama has gained polish along the way but I’d like more real substance to fill in for the generic fill ins. Poor John McCain has his hands full with his own party members.
I saw Bill Richardson interviewed earlier today (CNN seems to get better reception where we are now) and while I’d like to see him shave his beard, I still think he’s got good experience and skills for any President’s needs. Which brings up the question of who the possible VP candidates might be. Now there it gets really interesting. Ed thinks Biden would be a good Dem. VP because of his national security expertise. There are numerous possibilities to consider for VP but I don’t hear any female names, nor any minorities except for Richardson. One thing’s for sure: politics is never dull. Stupid often, but never dull.
DINNER: Twyla and Dave with us tonite. Dave got some terrific whale and wreath photos today. Somehow we discussed the ways Southerners name their kids. I recognized this as a mine field when Twyla told us the names she gave her boys.
The dessert tonite was Bananas Foster courtesy of the Head Waiter. Delicious as always. Their ice creams are made fresh each night and they are the smoothest, creamiest ever. And Dave said the Key Lime sorbet tonite actually had enough flavor to make you pucker.
PHOTO CONTEST: Twyla told us the photos were on display so we had a chance to see them. Boy there are some really interesting ones. Sunsets, sunsets over volcano tops, a close up of a hermit crab perched on a branch on the beach, A bird looking into an unusual color and shaped bird’s nest, ours of course, and many others. One very interesting one looks totally blue from a distance. But if you look close, you see that it’s an underwater photo of a sting ray which is visible at mid distance in the photo. Very unusual.
I would not want to have to judge these contests. So many of these photos are breathtaking in their beauty, composition, uniqueness, colors, you name it.
ENTERTAINMENT: This is a violinist/fiddler. I opted to stay in the room, finish this blog, and catch up on the parts of the Shinto lecture I missed.