Well go figure

We are in the port of Safaga Egypt at the moment and will go out later as I'm hoping for a camel ride at a minimum. If we're fortunate, we'll find a souk.

In the meantime, I had no problem at all getting onto the blog site this time. Perhaps they were doing repairs yesterday? It also occurred to me that I'm using up a lot of space with this blog. In any event, I'll post yesterday's blog and also create a new site just in cast. I'll hopefully put that new address into this site as well when it's established.

Cinco de Mayo


The sun was BRIGHT as it came through the drapes this morning. Still we didn’t get up until after 8 am. I got ready and left to do internet stuff in the Cabaret Lounge and Ed came in sometime during the demonstration.
Spectacular Culinary Demonstration
Commendatore did his usual phenomenal job of making the preparation of quiche, Tequila shrimp with rice, and other side dishes look deceptively easy. I do learn a lot of new tidbits about foods and equipment but I doubt I can retain it long enough to put any of it into practice.
Trivia
Since this was done by another passenger, the man who spoke on King Tut the other day, we were ambivalent about showing up. We decided we owed it to our team to show up. There were the core 4 of us. We thought this time, it might be different with a passenger doing the trivia but after about half the questions, it began to get deep. And when the answers were read, this became an opportunity to wax on and on about various thing Egyptian. By the time the answers come along, we all just want to know the answers and get on to lunch. In the afternoon, there were 5 of us. In each instance, our team scored one point below that of the winning team.
Cinco de Mayo Luncheon Buffet
Everything was delicious. I’m just sorry I couldn’t afford the calories to try every thing. We sat on the back of the ship outside where the weather was so pleasant. I just hope it lasts through our next ports! We were joined by the Aussie couple who teach the Bridge classes. We enjoy their company and spent time talking about the financial crisis all over the world and the housing “bubble” in the US.
Computer—audit
Ed joined two other folks to take this class which I audited. I used some videos on our computer to do the various tasks since it is done in Windows MovieMaker. I was actually able to remember more about how to do this than I expected.
At 2 pm Estelle Harris who played George’s mother on Seinfeld was speaking again. We aren’t that crazy about these kinds of programs but I was really put off by her use of foul language repeatedly (never matter that she was quoting others) even when JJ indicated he didn’t want that on tape. She is in her 80s and while I know she thinks it’s cute, it was very unattractive and off putting.
So Ed sat on the patio and watched the ocean float by. His neck is bothering him but he did say he forgot to take his arthritis medication this morning. I kept reading the interviews with President Ford.
Princess Grapevine
There were a few new wines today but the speaker drones on and on and we simply want the core information and to try out the wines and get out on time. At a little after 4 p, I left to meet our trivia team and Ed followed a little bit later. This is the last wine tasting of the cruise.
Two Stories, two histories: a profile of Egypt in contrast to it’s neighbor Israel
We were at the wine tasting when this was given so we watched it on the TV between 5 and 6. This was kind’ve a stretch in terms of the theme but I could see her point though I thought it was simplistic and really doesn’t comprehensively explain all the problems in the region from an anthropological perspective.
Dinner
We had made arrangements to meet Chuck at Sabatini’s for supper so we could visit. He was also on the 2008 cruise and lives in LA. We know many of the same public figures and he’s just a very nice fellow and a good conversationalist. Our discussions range widely including discussions of folks we know in common, some of the ship’s gossip, and talk about our waning years and how we plan to situate ourselves so we are intellectually stimulated but not a burden to our family. We opened up the restaurant and when we left at 10:30 pm, there were only 2 people left there and they had arrived much later compared to us. Besides the air conditioning had gotten to Chuck and he was pretty congested and needed to go out on deck to see if that helped his lungs.
Yippee! We get another hour back tonite. We always look forward to that.