on the ocean again

February 26th Catch up on 2/25/10
So I managed to get my blog written, download the rest of the photos, do some slight photoediting, and upload them before the first lecture of the morning yesterday.
Cosmos lecture
This lady has the most refined but pleasant voice and her content is scientific and up to the minute, yet her audience follows her as if we knew it all. Today she went over the planets and explained why Pluto got demoted. We also learned that there are terrestrial and gas planets. She told us a little about asteroids, coments and such.
Lunch
Sat with the Captain’s Circle staffer and found she is from Coronado, Ca. The rest of the table conversation was pretty mundane particularly since it was pretty much dominated by one woman. One of the staff joked with her by simulating spilling coffee on her. It was clearly a joke and everyone found it harmless. But she remarked that she didn’t like it and that she had a very serious heart condition and the unspoken part of course was that a joke like that could send her into some kind of serious heart problem. She certainly doesn’t look like a frail violet to me.
Disasters
This is the guy who was doing WWII lectures. This time he discussed and showed some pretty stark photos of tsunamis, tornados,earthquakes and such. His next lecture is on hurricanes and such.
King Neptune’s ceremony
This is always fun even when they’ve greatly watered it down. One woman on this cruise has the knack of positioning herself to get attention and the staff fell for it again I guess because she was a single pollywog to be initiated. The rest were staff as is the usual practice. It was fun as always and Frankie played Mrs. Neptune so campy. He was the star of the show. One of the ship’s officers was sent for a dunk in the pool in full dress. Prior to this he was adorned with the stinky kipper award. Other staff were swathed in spaghetti, whipped cream, eggs, ice cream…well you get the picture. There was a good turn out for this. Since it competed with the wine tasting, which is free for us, this was a difficult choice for us to make. Ha. These two events were held at the same time.
When we came back to our room, each of us had a certificate attesting to the fact that we had crossed the equator and the international date line. BTW: after you have gone through the Neptune ceremony, you are now known as Trusty Shellbacks.
Trivia
We pulled in another lady to our group; that meant we were only 5. It was a tough quiz and we had the usual experience of someone actually having proposed the correct answer and the group settling on something else. We didn’t win as you may have guessed but we had a lot of company. This one twisted our brains in painful ways.
Full table tonite
What a delightful group of tablemates we have. Conversation is light hearted but fun. Barbara remarked that before she came on the cruise they were wondering what ever would they do with 6 days at sea! Now she’s thinking, my goodness, we have only 2 more days left until we’re in port. She likes the relaxes pace of the sea days.
I”ve started foregoing the rolls and butter, and settling for fresh fruit for dessert as I’m concerned I’ll gain too much weight. I have no idea what I do weigh and my clothes fit fine but you never know. I still take the stairs with few exceptions and I assume Ed does too. But going from the 5th deck to the 10th is a real test of discipline.
In between events, we lay in the room and read. These are calm and pleasant times. Since my cold continues unabated, and I’m sleepy and tired during the day, I welcome these times when my muscles seen to melt into the flat surface I’ve merged with.
Malaria
We started our pills this evening so we’ll be taking them every week for a while. The only disease we are not prepared for Japanese encephalitis and that’s only in some esoteric area in Africa. Maybe one day we’ll get there but not for a while.
Tonite’s entertainment
It was Donnie Ray again but this time he sang soul songs. He was the young fellow who did the Nat King Cole tribute a few nights ago. He did a fair selection of old standards you’d recognize. And he has a good voice and a wonderful style with the audience. Ed especially enjoyed him.
Precious
They’re showing the movie tonite from 10-midnight. I’d love to see it but I’m just dragging with this cold so Ed’s going to go for both of us.
Rethinking our overland tours
We’ve definitely ruled out the Australian outback and we’re reconsidering the Taj Mahal once again. Both are horribly overpriced and in the case of the Taj, they are changing the itinerary for the worse in our opinion. We figure we can perhaps do these things some other time for less money per day and stay longer and really enjoy these two sites.
On the other hand, there’s a rumor that there may be an overland that goes from Beijing to Xian, The Three Gorges and then to Hong Kong. For the right price, we may consider that one. No details yet; this one is all rumor so far.
FEBRUARY 26 2010
I woke up early and couldn’t tell if Ed was awake. Eventually he got up and we opened the drapes to a gray, unpleasant day. The wind is less fierce and the humidity is suffocating when you go outside. Who would have figured that it would be so unpleasant at the equator? It’s warm but not blistering hot though the sun is really fierce at this latitude. Your skin definitely feels it bearing down.
Health Care summit
Fox News is all we can get and it comes in loud and clear. How is it possible that Fox News comes in so clear anywhere and the others are not available? You figure it out.
In any event, it is interesting to see the interviews and the live broadcast of the proceedings. It is terrible how the interviews with private citizens are so planted; the folks often stumble over the usual talking points and their information is so in accurate it makes one afraid for the intellectual curiosity of our citizenry. And the professionals, elected officials of all stripes and association officials, also include their fair share of inaccuracies. The advertisements mix accurate data with blatant falsehoods. What happened to intellectual honesty?
I do think the reporting of the poll results out to be stratified by age group, disability, pre-existing conditions, etc. I think from a political perspective that would be more revealing than the labeling that is currently going on.
The Brits around the ship are just agog at this whole issue of health care in America. They are frightened to travel without insurance and each has heard a story of someone travelling in America without insurance who came home with hundreds of thousands of dollars in health debt for their care in America. I haven’t had the opportunity to have discussions with folks from other nations but hearsay shares that all are afraid of needing health care in America.
Well so much for politics at his point.