APRIL 18, 2008 – ON ROUGH SEAS

Woke up after 8 but I had been awake for a long time in the night. Throat is still not fun and my arm is hurting somewhat as well. Ed seems to be OK and has passed all his pharmacy along to me. I feel guilty, but I’m taking the elevator to the higher floors while I am not well. The oxygen deprivation just kills me.
ROUGH SEAS: The seas are really rough though the ship handles them well. You must hold onto the wall or rails when walking about; in the room we crab crawl around it. There are barf bags taped to all the trash cans and you see folks looking very peaked everywhere including much of the staff. For whatever reasons, Ed and I have cast iron guts; this rocking and rolling doesn’t bother us a bit. It is very cold and windy outside. All the doors and stairways to open decks are taped off with “X” of yellow tape so that the dummies who ignore rules will not be able to go out. I think they were right when they said we’d have 12 foot swells; it’s at least that or more. We see them touching the 5th deck where the dining room is and the bow much really be swinging a lot; most of the crew live in the forward part of the ship.
Did you know that by tradition, the Captain’s cabin is always on the starboard side of a ship? Has to do with the old ships. Why don’t they ask that at trivia?
At lunch Gwen said we may not be able to land for Cork, Ireland because there’s a very bad front in this area. It is North Atlantic territory. It would be a shame if we had to miss that stop but we’ve been exceptionally lucky with our ports on this cruise.
CULINARY DEMONSTRATION: This was a real challenge with the pitching sea. Renzo, the Maitre d’ was the MC and made cherries jubilee after the chef finished his appetizer and main dish. The pastry chef is sea sick and couldn’t do his own demonstration. There was a lot of teasing and jokes which we all enjoyed. And somehow the salt shaker seems to work just fine for the regular chef.
TRIVIA: We had a full team this morning but boy the questions were awfully tough. Patrick, one of the dancers, did the questions today. We were all flummoxed when he said for the last 2 questions we had to name the two #1 hits of the group WHAM in (I’ve forgotten the exact date). Well our youngest participant is well over 50 and we just threw up our hands in despair. Many groups, including ours, have a rule that you never leave anything empty. So I was thinking of George Michael, who I think was actually with the group WHO, and I like his song “Faith” so we put that down for #19 and Bill, our scribe today, put down Hope & Glory for #20. We were no threat to the winners today who won after a tie breaker. The prizes today were Princess tote bags. That group has scads of them and Ed got one from Brian for me. Yippee! I finally have my very own, brand new, never used, princess tote bag. Those of you who know me will appreciate how much I needed another tote bag.
INTERNET: I’ve had some trouble getting on the net but eventually connected to take down emails and reorder prescriptions (to be mailed to the house) and MD appts for follow up when we get back. Lisa caught us up to date on her family. Anniken is recuperating from nose surgery and Adrian is back home after some time away for some studies. Amy wrote and said we’d really appreciate her when we got home. This was in response to my entry in the blog about the bang trim costing me $15.
LUNCH: Ed and Jay, from another trivia group, had gone to lunch and I joined them there. Ed had ordered a muffelata (sp) as had Jay but they had it put on Chibata bread instead of the focaccia bread originally listed. They were very small but Ed shared with me. I had a good hot, nourishing soup, and a salad with fresh fruit for dessert. Their soups are consistently good on this ship.
THE LIVELY ARTS: This is being done by Rita Moreno and I knew Ed would want to go to that. So I’m spending the time catching up on the blog.
PACIFIC PRINCESS BOOK CLUB: This is the last meeting and I feel obligated to support Amber’s hard work on this endeavor, so I went to this instead of the competing presentation: DRESSING FOR YOUR BODY SHAPE/ACCESSORIES. I’ll have to watch it on the TV.

4/19/08 8 AM in Cobh Ireland. Will finish this blog later. Tomorrow LeHavre France, then a day at sea, then Southhampton. Probably last blog during day at sea.

TRIVIA:
DINNER:
ENTERTAINMENT:

APRIL 17, 2008—AWASH AT SEA

I woke up with a painful sore throat. I had an inkling of it yesterday but had hoped it would go away. In one of our recent ports, a man coughed right on me and I was hoping I would escape this. The weather and the ship’s air and heating condition doesn’t help any of this. It is somewhat better when we are in humid climates.
LAUNDRY (perhaps the not quite last entry): Ed took all the laundry down a little before 8. I got dressed and took a plate down to the laundry room to give him a break. He told me to go back to the room, which I did. Now for today’s entry into the soon to be published book about Laundry room events on the seas: Ed was checking something in one of the machines and had left his Economist issue on the seat of a chair in the room while he did this. Now that issue probably cost us around $8 in Egypt or Greece and neither of us are finished with it. Some guy came along and just took it!
The other inexplicable event involves a sign on one of the machines that said it was out of order. A woman came in, removed the sign, and proceeded to do her laundry! Now THAT’S chutzpah!
HORATIO NELSON: This was Capt. Irving’s last presentation and it was extremely interesting for many reasons. Nelson was a colorful figure in many ways, and had some scandal in his life as well. He died of war wounds in his 40s, a glorious end to a very brave man.
TRIVIA: I don’t recall much about this game except that we didn’t win and I recall, we weren’t any threat to the group that did win.
LUNCH: Since I didn’t write this at the time, I don’t recall this part.
COLOURS FOR YOU: The Majarini and I wore red hat attire and the speaker declared our category as “dramatic.” This was interesting and a lot cheaper than the thousands of dollars some women pay to have their colors done. I’m probably a Spring or more likely a summer, but I also violate all the rules from what I can recall. The speaker is a lovely British lady, not pretentious as you might expect. If I paid as much attention to my looks, I’d make all of you proud of me.
TRIVIA: We didn’t win, nor come close as I recall. We had been moved to the Casino Lounge as there was a meet up scheduled for later in the Pacific Lounge. And Champagne was the prize from Gisela.
GET TOGETHER FOR OVERLAND GROUPS: Those of us who went on the Taj and the Egypt overlands got together with the tour desk staff for drinks and snacks—all free so you know lots of folks showed up. Ed and I sat with a lady and her husband who is so pleasant and down to earth. We’ve seen her around but this was the first opportunity to really visit with her.
DINNER: Everyone except Hank and Erna were present. We talked about almost everything including today’s trivia questions and grandkids. Folks are getting lonesome for home and family.
ENTERTAINMENT: We didn’t go. I didn’t feel up to it and Ed wasn’t interested in a singer/impressionist/pianist (this was a surprise), but instead he watched a Rita Moreno movie on TV.
PHOTO CONTEST: This is the last competition and the category is Creative or Artistic. As usual there are some fantastic ones entered. Ed’s is a Nile scene I put on the blog; mine is a photo from the Galapagos of a lava rock that just looks like rock until you look closely. Then you begin to see all the lizards laying around on it. Their camoflage is perfect. It reminds me of an Escher drawing. I put it in only because it was an interesting shot especially for those who didn’t go to the Galapagos.
But I already know which one will get my vote: a fat little bird looking at the camera and he looks like he has his lower lip jutted out. Ilana says she thinks he’s a French bird. It reminds me of the mad blue bird photo that is often seen in catalogs. Voting begins day after tomorrow.