MARCH 16, 2008 – HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY SON!

We woke up as the sun leaked through the curtains. So eventually we started moving around but it was more like a crawl. It takes us forever to clear out the cavities in our head and lungs. I got dressed and put on the kebaya I got yesterday. Ed approves and I got so many compliments on this outfit, particularly since Ed had prevailed on me to get the scarf that went with it. The ensemble is lovely and I tell everyone that I have an appointment to apply for a job as flight attendant for Singapore Airlines.
I’ve suggested Ed go to the MD this morning as his diabetes complicates his recovery though his blood sugar seems to be doing fairly well despite all this. Perhaps all this exercise we’re getting is balancing that.
PORT LECTURE, PHUKET, THAILAND: David has left and today’s lecturer was from the company that provides the busses and tour guides in Thailand. The gentleman had lovely photos, and though he speaks with a heavy accent, he enunciated carefully and was not hard to follow. His daughter was helping him with the computer. He answered all the questions folks had at the end.
ED’S MEDICAL APPOINTMENT: He finally went and the MD gave him some antibiotics to take: Azithromyacin. You may know them colloquially as a “Z pack” in the US. Once we get up and get our lungs and noses cleared out, we keep pushing ourselves daily.
TRIVIA: We formed a new group and made a name out of the initials of our first names: JESMEB (or jesbem I’ve forgotten now). One fellow is new to the ship (again); he does the decorations so he’ll be up all night tonite doing the St. Patrick’s Day décor. Elizabeth and Sid are from British Columbia and Bermuda; Mary (or Margaret) is 100% Irish, lives in London. We came in #2…again. The prizes were Princess tote bags.
SUNDAY BRUNCH: We sat with some folks from other trivia teams and relived this morning’s questions. The food includes a nice selection of meats, both cold and hot, seafood of various kinds, fruits and salad selections.
SPYING 101: THE IMPACT OF ESPINAGE ON HISTORY: Apparently this speaker gave a talk while we were on the overland to Angkor Wat. Some of his assessments were in contrast to those of speakers we had on the first leg of our trip. He sounds British and I think it’s always interesting to hear a different perspective though with these spy guys they can’t always tell you where their information I is from. He says that 85% of intelligence is from easily available public sources.
HOLLYWOOD’S MAVERICK: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF CLINT EASTWOOD (1930-): Barry, the BBC producer again doing a bang up job. Eastwood is hardly my favorite person but Barry did him justice in terms of his career and parts of his personal life. The film and video clips are always absolutely perfect and illustrate the points extremely well.
TRIVIA: #2…again. The prizes this time were passport pouches. I was the scribe and I put down moderation instead of modulation for one answer; I showed the written answer to all at the time. I felt bad that it was written incorrectly even though two of the men in the group knew the difference. Much like my dissertation where so many folks looked at the manuscript and still there were errors of transcription, I remain amazed at such events. We would have tied were it not for that error. Otherwise, we weren’t sure of the answers, such as a quotation: which Shakespeare play is it from? We didn’t even discuss the one it was attributed to. We did get some really tough ones correct that other groups missed. So overall, you win some, you lose some. Next sea day we’ll be at it again, but I won’t be the scribe next time. Ed can do it and hope they’ll be able to read it.
DINNER: Hank and Erna, Dave and Twyla (in her new Thai skirt—now I have to figure out mine). Hank had he venison and Erna, who is pretty much a vegetarian at this point in her life, tried to look the other way. We had a wide ranging discussion.
JAMILA: This young lady, who sings with the 5th dimension when she’s not doing a starring role in Aida and such Broadway shows, was a delight with a very robust voice and a nice entertaining style; and she’s got a great figure and the dress to match.
We have an early “call” in the morning for our tour in Phuket (pronounced Poo-ket) so Ed’s preparing the room service order.

MARCH 15, 2008 – SINGAPORE

We still aren’t feeling great but we did manage to get ready and leave the ship around 10:30 am. We took the cable car to Sentosa Island. Val had told us this was a nice trek. There is a very tall tower on the top of the hill here but it is only an circular elevator that goes up and then down. We had good views y of the city from the cable car and this is one of the fastest ways to get around in this city if the cables go to your desired destination. Before I forget: Singapore is only a few degrees north of the equator and the humidity rivals the temps for wearing you out.
SENTOSA ISLAND: This is kind of an amusement park. There is a show here called Images of Singapore and we went through that. It has some clever devices used in the show such as holographic images projected inside a fountain. Once you see the initial show, you then walk through numerous life sized dioramas which depict various events and circumstances in Singapore history; not all of it is flattering by the way. For example, they talk about the opium use by the Chinese coolies and how bleak their lives were.
At the end of this is a shop where they have many Singaporean related items including batik items; the dress for the ladies (think the advertisements for Singapore Airlines) is called a kebaya. It is quite lovely. Ed insisted on getting the silk scarf and fan that matched. I thought the scarf was too expensive but I didn’t realize that it is a full sized silk scarf, not just a neckerchief. The outfit is gorgeous but identifiable as Asian.
We had lunch here at a small café. We had a corn chowder, satay and mixed vegetables. It was Ok but I wouldn’t order any of it again.
BACK ON THE CABLE CAR: Ed had gotten the extended tickets which took us to Mount Faber. I should tell you that the entry near the cruise ship terminal is in the middle of this cable car route so that in one direction is the island, and in the other, the mount. On the Mount there is an elegant restaurant where they have taken old cable cars and made them into intimate spaces for a romantic dinner. It’s quite cute and includes two kissing bears and heart shaped pillows. There are resorts here, as there are on Sentana Island where there are world class beaches. We stayed long enough to get into a very long qeueu which snaked through the shop. They had some of the same items we had purchased previously for slightly less cost but there was no place to try things on and no room or privacy so I didn’t regret our previous choice.
HARBORFRONT CENTRE: We found a pharmacy in this huge mall and Ed restocked his pharmacy for the room. As we headed back to the gangway, we met Dave and Twyla. Dave saw the MD here in Singapore about his fractured pinkie. As it turns out, it was healing nicely and so he’ll have to wear the brace for two more weeks and then gradually begin to reuse it. In the meantime, he’s trying to get the range of motion back in his wrist which has been immobilized all this while.
Twyla said their were about 20 people on the shuttle to the medical center. Jim came up and he had a root canal for an abcessed tooth. I don’t know what the other problems were.
The man who won the photo contest had hurt his spine during a ride on the tender. He has been in the “hospital” downstairs and was taken off the ship by ambulance to fly home for future care. As I’ve noted before, we have numerous folks with knee problems and a lesser number complaining of hip pain.
During the conversation with all these folks, another passenger came up and he had gotten a haircut in the mall. We had been looking for a place to do this and so he gave us the card he was carrying. If we hurried we had just enough time to do this.
BEYOND A SIMPLE HAIRCUT: We had trouble finding the place since the design of this huge mall isn’t very straightforward. They were busy but agreed to do our cuts. They seated us and gave us each hot green tea and magazines (Cosmo and Women’s Mags for me; car and business mags for Ed). Soon enough this tiny Asian woman quietly indicated that I should join her. She is the hair washer but that doesn’t do justice to her.
The chaise lounge looking chair you sit and lie in is so much more comfortable than any others I’ve been in. There’s no neck strain and it is a very relaxed position. Folks with carotid narrowing would have no problem here. So the wash starts. But this is MUCH more! She gives you a long scalp massage. But she’s still not done! She does acupressure on your scalp and neck—and she finds all the trigger points; you can feel those chakras. She rinses your hair and starts again, this time with another solution which I think must have been a deep conditioner as my hair is wonderfully smooth and soft now. And the spoiling continues. Eventually, it ends and your head is wrapped up and you’re taken to the chair where the owner, Liz, takes over to cut your hair. I showed her my driver’s license photo as a sample and she asked about the back and I told her straight across and shingled, which is exactly what she did.
The touch of these women is so gentle but there’s no question about what they are guiding you to do. When another person comes to ask a question, their conversation is so low you can’t make out any sounds. So she cut my hair, dried it a little more, cut it a little more, and I have a new hair do.
By this time Ed had finished his massage; all I told him was “you’re in for a treat.” Now he knows what I was smiling about. And Liz cut his hair nicely as well.
We boarded the ship at 5:20 p and our curfew was 5:30p. We feel we accomplished a lot in the long run.
DINNER: Hank and Erna weren’t here but someone had spoken with them in the mall so they’re getting better. We all talked about our experiences on our outings. Lea and Bill went to Raffles where they had 3 Singapore Slings and a bottle of beer; the bill came to $99. They did some shopping but one of the bags was left in the cab on the way back; it had a shirt and two small toys for grandkids so most of their purchases were intact. Bill wore Ed’s shirt to dinner (that is, they had purchased shirts exactly alike).
Lea and Bill, Ed and I went to the Casino Lounge to listen to a singer who is with us for the entire trip and whose voice is marvelous. Then we headed for the cabaret lounge; I made a side trip to our room and Ed joined me there saying: You don’t really want to see a juggler do you? So that took care of that.
I was doing some things in the cabin and Ed turned on sports (he’s watching much more sports events in the last year than at any time I’ve known him). I took the book Water to Elephants to the Casino Lounge and read as best I could here until folks started gathering there for an event. As I returned to the room I saw Ed and Rich in the hallway talking and Ed had the laptop with him to download some stuff.
Then began my nightly routine of washing out my medical devices, taking out my contacts, washing my face, brushing my teeth…jeez, I don’t remember it taking so long when I was younger!
WHOOPIE! We get another hour back tonite; we are back on Bangkok time again. Don’t ask; we don’t understand either.
We valiantly tried to get as much sleep as we could last night but neither of us got much sleep; both of us hacking and coughing periodically. When one of us finished, the other began. I will say I think this Nasarel (what a nasty medication) does help and I’m taking my puffers religiously so I don’t get asthma attacks.