APRIL 1, 2008 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANIELLE! You’re growing up much too fast!

PASSPORTS: We had to pick up our passports for Egypt this morning. They start right on time and work quickly. I can’t imagine where any more stamps can be put in my passport but we’ll see how it goes.
PORT TALK: SAFAGA: This speaker Maged, is obviously Middle Eastern but it wouldn’t surpise me if I learned that he had studied in the US. This was probably the most professionally done port talk I’ve ever heard. He used Google Earth to zoom in on the various sites we would be visiting on the tours while giving all the pertinent information. Sprinkled here and there were old photos to give you background to better appreciate the history and where things are today.
TRIVIA: Would you believe it? #2 again. It’s really quite amazing and we pretty much laugh about it and now congratulate ourselves that we didn’t garner another can cover. And I didn’t know the Spanish word this time though I had been exposed to it at one time. The group dynamics are somewhat improved but some of the more powerful personalities are still a little disgruntled now and then.
One of the questions asked who the 3 Wise Men were. I immediately put down (don’t hold me to the spelling): Shadrach, Neeshack, and Abednigo so I could get them out of my mind; I knew they weren’t the right names. So I both Melchior right away, eventually someone came up with Baththasaur, but we could never dredge up Kaspar from our “little grey cells”. As a consequence, we got no credit for that answer. Father Austin told me a funny version of the 3 Wise Men but I couldn’t retain it long enough to get out the door. Our brains ache each time.b
LUNCH: Ed went to the dining room and I went to the Buffet and got rabbit food and fruits. I sat with Phyllis and Ralph again and we talked about dining table dynamics and other non-hurtful ship gossip.
PHOTO CONTEST: This time it’s architecture and we have until after we get back from the overland in Egypt. But there are already some fantastic photos. There’s one that I still can’t figure out how it represents the category; perhaps the person just thought it was a pretty photo.
While there, I ran into the Capt. and we talked about the blogs on the ship. One of them has a lot of photos and I discussed the difficulties of uploading photos with this slow baud rate. I’ll have to check out that sponsor when I get home to see what that site offers. On the other hand, one lady is interested in blogstream because folks can choose to be notified when there’s another entry on the blog.
There was another officer with the Captain; his mother plays trivia. He made a comment that he thought the trivia was easy. I shared this remark with his mother and she made an appropriate observation about the arrogance of youth (my phraseology, not hers: I’m paraphrasing.
COOKING AROUND THE WORLD: Commandatore was in good form today. He cooked a dish from a recipe submitted by a passenger. It looked very doable and she got a bottle of champagne in recognition and acknowledgement in his handout for today’s lesson. These demonstrations are very well attended.
TOUR OF THE GALLEY: It was offered again but we didn’t go as we had gone earlier in the cruise. When I get home, remind me and I’ll tell you a backstory to the first tour of the galley.
THE TERRORS OF SCURVY AND THE SPANISH TREASURE GALLEONS: This was a most interesting lecture about scurvy and other diseases common to sailors on long voyages in earlier times. Fresh water was also a problem and the Spanish hung clay pots from the sails and their path was between 30 degrees north latitude and about 35 degrees where they were sure to get lots of rain to replenish their supplies. The Captain who gives these lectures has done a fantastic job of pulling together data and writing it in an interesting manner, but it is so hard to keep awake. They turn down the house lights, there is one, usually rather dark, slide on the screen, and he reads in an almost quiet voice. He is a good reader and has a pleasant voice, but it is all very soporific.
TRIVIA: This was a tough one. We didn’t even come close to #2 never mind winning. Can covers again. We had to rush to dress for the penguin display (formal night).
CAPTAIN’S COCKTAIL PARTY: This was a way to recognition frequent sailors. Then they drew the names of 3 folks from a bucket to give them a bottle of champagne. One of the winners was Sid from our trivia group. So I told him he had to bring it to trivia tomorrow, we’d sip and if we won, he’d have to bring a bottle for each trivia episode. It turns out this was the 2nd bottle of champagne he’d won today. The other one was for golf. (don’t ask, I don’t know because there isn’t a patch of green anywhere here.
FORMAL NIGHT: DINNER: All of us were present. We had a lot of fun. We talked about how folks from other tables are bored to tears with the conversation at their tables and are approaching various ones of us to see if they can get to sit at our table. There has been a lot of shuffling of table companions on this cruise and as you know from these blogs, ours isn’t always free flying.
ENTERTAINMENT: RHYTHMS OF THE CITY: Fantastic, high energy show again. These kids have more energy than I can imagine. They must each 10 K Calories each day but none of them is skinny. Nice to see well rounded bodies.
HE’S AT IT AGAIN: Ed and I changed to “more comfortable” clothes before going to the show and he picked seats on the front row. You know he doesn’t do this often as he doesn’t want to be picked out of the audience to do something in the show. At least that’s what he says but just between you and me, it’s hard to miss his Tiger shirt! Lauren picked him out of the audience to dance and he did a very nice jitter bug with her.
OUR OVERLAND: We got the directions today. I won’t include details of where we’ll be staying as you can contact the ship if necessary and they will know. We have to meet in the Casino Bar at 6:40 AM to leave. Our first destination is Luxor and we stay overnight in this area. We will see the sound and light show at Karnak that evening. The next day, Friday, we have another early call, we have to leave for the airport at 6:15 am. We fly to Aswan and we stay overnight in that area. Saturday, we have to leave for the airport at 7:30 am to go to Abu Simbel. In the afternoon, we again fly, this time to Cairo; we have a lunch box on the plane. We stay overnight in Cairo, go to the pyramids and Sphinx on Sunday and wind up back at the ship in Port Said about 7 pm. I’m looking forward to this trip.
PIRATES AND SUCH: Someone asked the Captain about pirates and he reassured them that we were out of pirate territory. Knew you’d want to know. Clearly we are traveling at a good clip and the seas are a little higher than we’ve had in a god while.
I’ll try to post a blog tomorrow before we go to bed but I won’t post again until sometime next Monday. Our schedule will begin to get more hectic now bcause the number of sea days is very few in the next few weeks; we have several days in a row where we’re in a different port everyday with early tour calls. Good news, bad news situation.

MARCH 31, 2008—CONTINUED

They were having a 50% off sale and among the items were the world cruise ladies tops; the designs are embroidered onto the fabric and Ed has been after me to get some each time they were displayed. I told him I didn’t want to pay what they were asking ($26 USD), and that I was sure they’d be on sale before the end of the cruise since they are unique to a world cruise. So today I relented.
TRIVIA: We sat in a different place this morning because the Pacific Lounge is full of the art and paintings for the auction later today. It is a cooler spot and with a little more space between our group and the next closest group. I can’t even tell what our score was because one of the groups, as it turns out the one we graded, got a perfect score. They got luggage tags. Just for future reference: Kiki Dee is the singer who sang a song (whose name I’ve now lost) with Elton John years ago, and Clarence Birdseye was the first person to freeze things in plastic bags (I had written Birds Eye Green Giant since I knew that this company had done that with peas, but I never knew that Birdseye was the name of the owner/inventor).
The group dynamics were a little less intense this morning; we have one of the men who is doing the scribe task now and he “suggested” some procedures we should use to get our answers. Hallelujah! We are doing better and I’ve noticed we do much better if the women are at one end and the men at the other; might not mean anything, but you never know. We’ll check it out again this afternoon.
LUNCH: Mary was at Sabatino’s last night as well and like Ed, she said she ate too much, that there was too much food. I didn’t stuff myself but I think the panna cotta put me well over my calorie intake for a long while, so I decided to eat fruits until supper. Ed went down by himself. He feels he does better with his diet in the dining room; I do better with mine at the Panorama Buffet. And Mary has another commitment tonite that takes her back there. Her job will be to report the changes in the menu if any.
TERRORISM REVISITED – HAVE WE BEEN HERE BEFORE? Ambassador Fritts talked about the Barbary pirates and the history of the US’s capitulation to terrorists by paying ransoms etc. during history. He focused on how many years it took for these situations to resolve and how many presidential terms were involved before a resolution, often via military intervention. The pattern, assuming one believcs this is a pattern, is for the time lines to increase and the number of Presidents involved to increase. It does give you much to talk about but no real answers. I’ll be fascinated to see what others “heard” of this presentation.
CALLAS: LIFE AND LEGEND: I learned so much from this even though I had to leave before the finish to get to trivia. For example, she was Greek, she had lived in the US a good part of her life, she died at 53. I do recall when she died but not why she died, and of course her relationship with Aristotle Onassis made her front page news. She did have a wonderful voice but apparently even that fact is argued. Since I claim no real knowledge of opera, it’s Ok for me to simply enjoy listening to her artistry.
TRIVIA: Ok, again, we were #2! Our dynamics were slightly better this time but I had to stand my ground with someone near me that Costa Rica is not the southern most country in Central America. And the final question was a Spanish question (the staffer from Argentina always ends with a Spanish question): what is the Spanish word for Moustache? I didn’t have a clue and when she gave the answer, I had never heard it. But we have an agreement that we never leave an answer blank so I gave them carapelo. It didn’t have a chance but it was an interesting thinking process. Ed tells me that bags were the prizes today. Darn it: I still want one of their bags; they are reversible black to blue and while we have lots of tote bags, we don’t have this one.
And speaking of tote bag, water was spilled into the bag I carry all my stuff in so I had to take out the scrap paper, camera, crossword puzzle book, and more and they are now laying out to dry.
I saw Hank and Erna in the hallway and got them to promise to come for dessert at least this evening.
DINNER: Hank and Erna did come but only for dessert. The rest of us were there too. We talked about relatively innocuous topics: plants (Hank is a botanist), recipes for various things, Arkansas trivia (Dave and Twyla are from Ark. And Lea was born in Little Rock and she still has relatives there.
Other folks who are bored with their dinner conversation have commented that we look like we have fun at our table and they may simply move sometime when there are empty seats. Of course, Rod has to watch out for flying arms and hands when we’re all at the table because we all talk passionately and always with our arms and hands. Food would go flying all over if he didn’t take defensive action as he puts our plates before us.
MORE ON OPERA: I asked Phyllis today what her career was since we hadn’t really gotten into it last night. I turns out that she sang with the opera in New Orleans and she did a performance with Placido Domingo when he came there, his first performance in the US. He doesn’t list it on his resume however. Chemo for cancer and not using her voice for a long while, has resulted in the loss of her lovely singing voice, but she still gives private lessons to a few students.
TONITE’S ENTERTAINMENT: Annette Yeo: musical star, direct from London’s West End. She did a selection of classical and Broadway musical type pieces. I liked her classical voice better than the others as she was screaming the Broadway pieces.