ooops

For some reason I'm being blocked from this site and I'm not sure why so this may be the last blog fromthis site. I have an idea for another site so folks may need to share information.
Happy Birthday, Ed!


Yep, the old man has a 68th birthday today. He got up after 7 and went to the gym. What a great way to begin today! (Never mind about me and exercise, please). I made my usual trek to the library to do the computer related stuff.
Port Talk: Aqaba
This was really interesting since we had seen the bio on Queen Noor the other night and Aqaba was their favorite place to relax. I also did not realize that it is directly across from Eliat: one can practically throw a stone from one across the water to the other. The tours that are offered are snorkeling, swimming, SCUBA, of course. And one to the Wadi Rum: you go a long ways in a bus and then switch to 4x4s for a trek through the desert including visits to bedouin tents. (Some folks laughed that they probably leave their apartments in Aqaba each morning to go to the tents to receive visitors and then return to town in the evening.)
The one we’ve been excited about the whole cruise is to go to Petra. This is an old city cut into limestone mountains. It is a very long bus ride there and then you walk 3-5 miles to see the better things to see there. My concern is the heat but some folks say the weather is predicted to be high 70s to mid 80s. This sounds too good to be true but I hope it is the case as I don’t mind the walking but I absolutely dread the heat! And I’m glad we’re doing it while we’re “younger” because I don’t plan to do this again this way.
Trivia
We didn’t win this morning but we didn’t shame ourselves either. But this afternoon, we tied for first place with another team and the staff member didn’t have a tie breaker question so she just gave us all tokens. This was a good start to what followed—see later in this entry.
Lunch
They had a French buffet today so Ed and I went there and tried out odds and ends. I love the Brie cheese though Lord help me, I don’t need the calories. Ed went to do some stuff on the computer while I went to audit another computer class. But before the class started, I managed to take some monkey photos Ed had taken on Elephanta Island near Mombai and seat the monkeys around Ed on the couch as if they were actually in the cabin. I need to do a lot of clean up work for it to be a good job but I was so excited to be able to do that even crudely. Even Ed was impressed and the computer instructor who is about the same age as my oldest daughter, was smiling broadly.
In the Land of the Pharaohs: The Egyptian Quest for Immortality
This is the lady I’ve described before with the soporific voice but terrific content. This time her husband, who is a professional journalist, did a good part of the presentation and talked about Alexander the Great. He declared himself a Pharaoh of Egypt when he conquered it. He really was astonishing since he conquered all those lands before he died at the age of 32! He apparently had a serious drinking problem along the way though.
Egyptian travel slides 1968-1989
This was an impromptu slide show by a man who was born in Egypt, went to Berkeley, taught at the University of Cairo and has many other credentials. It was fun to hear his version of his native country and see it through relatively older slides.
Celebrating Ed’s 68th b’day
When we left the cabin this morning, there were three balloons of different colors with Happy Birthday attached to our “mail box”. So now everyone who knows your cabin, knows you’re celebration.
We took a bottle of Port I had purchased in Ensenada (yes, there ,and terrific!), dark chocolate, and dates so that we could celebrate with our trivia team and two spouses after we played trivia. We had such a good time just having fun and celebrating in this funny way. I had washed up all the little appertif glasses we get each time we go to a wine tasting, Ed had purchased the dark chocolate at two different ports, and the dates were from Muscat. We put everything on a tray, laid out the cocktail napkins from our room and just had fun toasting and visiting.
Supper
All present and we had Sunil, the junior waiter, served the remainder of the port to our table mates while we passed around more of the dark chocolate. Again more toasts and fun. But that wasn’t all: Princess always brings a special cake and birthday card to the table and the wait staff sings Happy Birthday so that was a nice touch as well.
Earlier in the day we had found the formal photographs from the other night including the two Carlos took of me with my Middle Eastern headdress on. I thought it was pretty dorky but they are kind’ve cute and we’ll see if they make the final cut when we decide on our final set of photos. We have been having the photogs save our favorites as we’ve gone along.
The ocean view today
Gorgeous. Lovely. Blue, nice seas, smooth ride. A few ships in the distance here and there. Not one mention of pirates. Yippee!
The Pacific Princess Crew Karaoke Pop Superstar Spectacular!
This was many crew members from various departments: Purser, Maitre’D, computer instructor, hair stylist, quartermaster, waiter, stewards, cook. All of them were fantastic entertainers. All but two were Filipinos and on all of our cruises, they are the majority of those who are in the crew shows. They entertain families from an early age. There was only one woman in the show. We were supposed to vote on a winner but the audience simply didn’t want to decide so we toasted all of them as winners. I tell you the talent and the potential is amazing. And I was glad to see that the Lounge was filled and the audience was wild in their support.
One of the photographers (I love them all and they are the age of my g’kids!) was there to take some fantastic photos of the performers. Really outstanding photos. We were teasing him (this one is from Brazil) that half of his photos are of the sole woman in the show. It turns out, they are an “item.” I had to laugh at my naivete. And Ed took two photos of Carlos and I together and Carlos had me nose to nose for one of them. He is so adorable. And JC, the other one, is also so much fun.
Thought for today
From a blog written by a cousin of Trudy who is travelling in SE Asia, now with a group of students from Evergreen University where he teaches:
In 1963 Thich Quang Duc got in his car, drove to Saigon, and lit himself on fire. How does one do that? Were his actions positive or negative?

There is a story in the bible: when the Jews escaped Egypt and wandered in the desert for 40 years, they came upon the land of Moab. The King of Moab feared them, and ordered is priest to go to the Jews’ camp and curse them. The priest went to their camp, but instead of cursing them, he blessed them.

My rabbi explains the important lesson here: at every moment, you have the choice – to curse or to bless. Every event is a blessing, even the painful ones, for they are often the most important lessons.

I heard a story about the Dalai Lama, the God-King of Tibet, who fled the Chinese to India in 1959, and has been a refugee ever since. Depending on your sources, one to four million Tibetans have died due to the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The Dalai Lama, believed by the Tibetans to be the reincarnation of Chenrezi, the God of compassion, was asked about the Chinese government. And he said that this had been one of his most important lessons, for it is easy to feel compassion for those similar to you or for those that you love, but to feel compassion for the Chinese government has been a challenge for him.

Sometimes you feel anger, jealousy, pain, or frustration
All those feelings are inside of us
No one is doing anything to you, or making you feel a certain way
No one else is responsible for your feelings
Each one of us is responsible for our own thoughts and feelings
Things happen. You have no control over that. But you do have control over how you respond.
Maybe the only power we ever really have is how we respond.”
Reminds me of Viktor Frankle’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”, the second half.