Easter Monday

Easter Sunday 4 3 10


We both woke up before seven and eventually I wandered out to Easter Sunday services. The priest debunked the Shroud of Turin myth by using historical information and then went on to discuss how much “stuff” we need to be happy. He talked about jealousy and gave an example of one time when he felt jealous. He went to visit a man of great wealth and among the many amazing things he saw in the house was a shower with multiple spigots which sprayed you all over your body. But more than that, it had a brush that went up and down your body like a car wash. But the basic idea is: how much do you really “need”? There is good attendance at the Masses even on weekdays and the husband of one of our occasional trivia team players is a minister and he volunteered to do the nondenominational services. And we have a rabbi on board through Rome though there is much raising of eyebrows because he’s not exactly what one expects of a rabbi. I’m staying entirely out of these latter discussions! Ha.
Easter Sunday Brunch
The ship outdid any previous brunches with this one. The lay of food was astonishing; I can’t imagine anything that they missed in offering. Champagne was available and of course a dessert board that groaned under the weight of all the offerings.
There were Easter displays everywhere with gigantic chocolate eggs beautifully decorated. I took waayy too many photos of all their displays but they were darling.
Trivia
Tough questions both morning and evening. We had a full team this morning with volunteers who don’t usually play. This afternoon there were only 5 of us and one fellow about whom I’ve complained (and not solo) many times before. There’s no gentle way to refuse him participating on our team and his wife is a wonderful team member but he sets our teeth on edge. It is always very tense when he is with us as he MUST be right and will keep on until you just want to scream. We need to figure out how to manage this. When Chuck returns we will need to see about arranging not to have spaces as Chuck said he’d quite playing if this guy kept it up; and I might just join him in the boycott much as I like trivia. There was some complaining about the answers given by the staff but folks are getting better about verbally “sitting” on the complainers.
Afternoon
There was another celebrity event which we avoided. Ed slept while I read. At 3 we had conflicting information about a wine tasting. It turned out to be an error so I went to the open lab for the computer class and played trying to memorize the commands and create the changes I want in the photos. It is really time consuming and I see that it’s going to take a lot of practice time for me to get as fast as I’d like in editing photos. In the meantime, I’ve been editing our Beijing photos in Picassa and will try to begin posting the photos I’ve not yet posted tomorrow.
Formal night
We dressed up in our glad rags and went down for formal portraits with the Easter environment. Carlos was the photographer and I’ve grown quite fond of him. We kid a lot and as it turns out, he was the one who did the table photos tonite as well. And two of our tablemates brought their cameras to take photos of us all. We laughed about all the photoshop damage I might (potentially) be able to do to the photos. And as usual we laughed and talked about a variety of topics. Some techy topics came up with “slingshot” and other TV and computer related products that do unexpected things.
Tonite’s show
We’d been seeing ads for the show tonite which was an extremely clever idea. There were videos on TV and before the other shows, handmade signs all over, balloons with team names on them, and small slips of paper being given to us to encourage us to vote for a specific team. It reminded me of high school campaigns. During the show, folks would raise huge posters exhorting us to vote for their favorite team.
Staff who have never danced before were matched with one of the dancers on board. So a bartender, nurse, jewelry seller, 3rd officer (he was SO shy), excursion director and others have been practicing for about 2 weeks now. I have no idea how they found time with their long schedules. The dancers determined the dances and the choreography and this included lifts and other very difficult dance moves.
Well I was just agape. They were all fantastic! It made me believe there might actually be hope for me. I laughed, I got tears in my eyes at how beautiful it all was and how clever. And I was so proud of the formerly-non-dancers as they all looked good though as you may expect, some took to it better than others. There was a salsa, a tango, a waltz, a cha-cha and much more.
Frankie came out with his hair poofed up. Sonja feigned getting drunk and not being able to keep the scores straight. And the judges were JJ the entertainment director, Sarah Harlow the lead singer, and Mike Harris a hilarious comedian on board. And now my favorite Aussie term is “gobsmacked”. It basically means you’re just blown away by something. After the judges scores were added up, the audience got to vote by hoots and hollers. We were told to only vote for one couple. After it was done, a lady turned to me and said “I only voted for two; you voted for all of them.” And we had a good laugh.
This clearly was an extremely popular event but one of the funniest parts was where they showed us a clip of those contestants who didn’t make the finals. The Purser on board, Angus, is about 6’7” and about 2 inches wide. The band leader is a tiny woman, Sara, who can’t be more than 4’10”. They put them together as if they were rehearsing to audition. It was hilarious. Sara walked right through Angus’ legs. And to see them in a dance frame was funny all by itself. They did so much more and it was such a funny skit. There was the librarian and a fellow from the engine room; they were also terribly mismatched but clearly Angus and Sara will stick in our memories long after all the others are forgotten.
These people have such a good sense of humor and they seem willing to do the most outlandish things to entertain us passengers. Ed enjoyed it so much, he went back for the second seating show. Had I not been so tired, I probably would have joined him.
While some folks have talked about doing their laundry lately, there are no tales to add to my collection recently. Perhaps after we get a new set of passengers in Singapore, the stories will begin anew.
The lady who fell at the first restroom stop on the way to Beijing apparently broke her wrist and her hip and wound up in a hospital in Beijing, then Hong Kong, and is now being sent home somehow. Another object lesson for having good travel insurance. That’s going to be an expensive medical and travel bill.