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.