Saturday, February 6, 2016

48 YEARS AGO TODAY

February 6, 2016

It wasn’t February 6, but it was the first Saturday of February, 1968, that Bonnie and I proposed to each other.  We had met on Friday, January 19, and now, two weeks later, sitting in the White Coffee Pot restaurant, I told her I was going to seminary after finishing Frostburg.  She said, “You’re not going without me.”  I said, “You’ll go with me?”  She answered in the affirmative.  And romantic such as it was, that was that.

We celebrated this anniversary at David’s Steakhouse with Katie and Marie (from the entertainment staff) and Andy and Beth (the dance instructors for the second half of the cruise).  It was a good evening of food and fellowship.  No melting chocolate cake tonight, but the cheese cake I had was 4 inches tall and 6 inches from stem to stern.

Walking up on Deck 9 for breakfast this morning it was cold.  At lunch, it seemed colder (maybe just my imagination).  But as cold as it was there was a DJ setting up his equipment to play for 90 minutes, and other than Bonnie and I walking past, the venue was empty (and the venue contains the ship’s swimming pool).  There weren’t even any smokers outside – that’s cold!

As John Denver could have sang, “All our bags are packed.  We’re ready to go.”  We are in Section 2, and our disembarkation call is to be at 10:30 tomorrow morning.  Time to get a shower, then two more of Razan’s eggs over easy and toast, and off to meet our chauffeur and chauffeurette.  It has been a great cruise.  We’ll regale you with stuff when we are back at 233.

Until then ...

TTFN

Friday, February 5, 2016

ROCKING AND A ROLLING

February 5, 2016

Rocking and a reeling, Barbara Ann.

Yesterday our captain announced that he was steering east of Cape Hatteras to spare us as much of the winter seas as he could.  The smooth seas are now behind us as we head for the Chesapeake Bay, and we are encountering swells.  Because the ship rolls from port to starboard – or left to right for all you landlubbers – the bed rolls from head to toe instead of side to side.  Which makes for good night’s sleep.  Side to side would produce uncomfortable symptoms and the loss of Chocolate Melting Cake.

I did “The Incredible Hermitage” talk today.  I think of all my talks, this is my favorite – about the incredible museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, created by Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.  There’s great history, some funny stories, and beautiful artwork.  Tomorrow I’ll do “Are We There Yet?” from the astronomy menu, and then we’ll pack our bags to be picked up on Sunday by the Bro and CJ.

Bonnie is trying to get a sore throat.  Please pray that she does not.  If she’s feeling good, I’ll ask her to blog her day tomorrow.  She was into a lot of different stuff, and had a good time stuffing.

Until tomorrow.

TTFN

Thursday, February 4, 2016

THE SECOND LAUNDRY DAY

February 4, 2016

While I got up and began rehearsal for today’s 10 a.m. talk, Bonnie got up and went to the laundry, and now our clothes are clean and sweet smelling, with fresh duds to wear for the rest of the cruise, and also while hanging out in Edgewater.

All was normal after that until I arose from my after lunch nap to prepare for my 2 p.m. talk.  Bonnie was napping, but she rolled over, looked at her watch, couldn’t read it, and asked me what time it was.  I told her it was 1:45.  She said, “Don’t you need to get moving.”  And then it dawned on me.  For 4 days I’ve been doing my afternoon talk at 4 p.m., and now I am back on the 2 p.m. schedule, and I almost missed my own talk.  As Charlie Brown says, “Good grief!”  But I made it, and it was a good audience.  Two more talks tomorrow (“The Incredible Hermitage”) and Saturday (“Are We There Yet?”) and the assignment for this cruise is completed.

Bonnie went to arts and crafts and got a door hanger to cross stitch on a plastic form.  She has enjoyed the crafts.  One was cheesy, but the rest have been nice, and a couple have been extra nice.

Katie is taking Bonnie and I and Andy and Beth to the steakhouse Saturday night.  That is a great treat.  The only negative is, we will miss our great waiters and Table 168 and tomorrow night will be our last time with them.  So we will take our tip envelops with us and give them tokens of our appreciation for their hard work.

Andy told a story at dinner tonight about one of his cruises.  I am on board as a lecturer.  He is the dance instructor, with Beth as his partner.  Sometimes he sails as a single dance host, and dances with any lady who needs a partner – some are single, some widows, and some have husbands who don’t like to dance.  One cruise, he was dancing with all the ladies when the Captain called him over to give him orders for this cruise.  His job, the Captain said, was to dance with a woman about 50, who was on board with her daughter, a real beauty, in her early 20s.  Andy did as ordered, and danced virtually ever dance with the mother for the 30 day cruise while the Captain sat every night with the daughter, pitching woo.

The captain had a cocktail party reception for all on board guests and we went, consumed cokes and some tasty hor d’oeuvres, and then went off to supper.  This is the final formal night of the cruise, and I think there were more tuxedos out tonight than at the earlier times, or maybe I was just in a better position to see them.

Tonight’s after dinner entertainer was “The World’s Fastest Juggler.”  He is also a comedian and put on a great show.  Tomorrow night the kids in the crew put on a variety show – we’ve seen it and look forward to the repeat.

So ...

TTFN

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

BACK ON GEORGIA TIME

February 3, 2016

In each cruise, sailing east, we spring forward an hour, sometimes two, in order to be on island time.  We have stopped at our last island for this tour and are cruising west towards home, so we have Fallen Back, and are back on Georgia time!

While on St. Maarten today we visited the local historical museum.  Like other museums on other islands, it is small and the total number of exhibits could be observed, with careful study, in under an hour.  That being true, what is important is the people of this island, and the other islands have collected items that are important to the revelation and understanding of their past.  And while they cannot compare in any stretch of the imagination to the Hermitage, the Louvre, or any such big name compiler of historical artifacts, these are important sources of local information, and a source of local pride.  And we enjoy visiting them (this one was tough to find, but they are working on solving that problem).

We walked out to the Salt Pond, or what used to be the Salt Pond.  At one time St. Maarten was a major producer in the world’s supply of salt and the finished product from here won awards around the world.  New sources of supply gradually undermined the local industry, but for a while, “White Gold” was king.  The Salt Pond is but a small portion of its original size when the workers opened channels to the sea to let in salt water, let the brine collect in sections called salt pans, and then separated to dry, evaporating the water, exposing the salt.  At one time there was also a monument which was dedicated to the thousands who worked in the industry, but we couldn’t find it.  If we were in the right area, and I’m pretty certain we were, it has been removed.  A sad omission.

We got to see six ships docked in port today – the most we’ve ever seen.  When we walked off this morning, there were already 5 here (counting us, and the Celebrity Silhouette, Mein Shippe, the Silver Wind, and the Norwegian Jewel).  Before we sailed a Costa ship docked.  Guessing on the number of guests on board each, there were more than 20,000 of us ashore.  And with the crews getting liberty, that number probably increased by 20 percent.

While we were out I scored a 6-pack of Mountain Dew.  Enough to get me back to Baltimore!


We have three straight sea days and I will do my remaining two talks twice each day – at 10 and 2.  Tomorrow is food, Friday is art, and Saturday is astronomy.  I was talking to Katie, the entertainment director, and she said they are already getting comments back from the first half of the cruise, and they are strong for what we’ve done.  Hopefully that will lead to some new assignments.

Tomorrow is laundry day, so we will be up early – Bonnie to do laundry and me to rehearse for my 10 o’clock talk.  And on that note ...

TTFN




BLOGGING BONNIE'S BACK

Good Morning – Wednesday February 3, 2016

Well, did the ground hog see his shadow yesterday. I don’t know but it was HOT and sunny in St. Kitts. We got up, had breakfast and David studied for his St. Maarten talk. By 10:30 were off to explore St. Kitts. And believe or not we were not parked in the cargo dock. Whoopee. We were parked beside the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Sea and way across we could see another ship and it was parked in the cargo dock. Haha!

We walked in through all the tour hawkers and the monkey holders (for a fee you can hold a monkey and have your picture taken) headed to find the Catholic church, Methodist church and the Anglican church. We were successful. The Catholic church is easy to find and it was open today and we entered. The other two were not so easy. But after wandering we finally found the Methodist church and it was closed today. It is located right next to the large soccer stadium. But we looked around the grounds. It is a beautiful old church. After walking around a couple of back streets and blocks we were finally able to find the front of the Anglican church and it was open. We went in. It has a bell and clock tower. There are very narrow steps up to the top of the tower which you can go up if you want. I didn’t. David started but came back down because they were so narrow, and if he had met another person, someone would have had to walk backwards.

All the churches were beautiful. We took a lot of pictures and a bought a postcard from the Anglican church showing the front and the tower. I also got a pamphlet with the history of the church.

We then headed back to the shopping area. I wanted to get a t-shirt for me. In my packing I did not bring as many shirts as I thought I had. Got a very nice one. I really wanted one without the island name but that just wasn’t possible.  While we were walking looking for the churches we passed a local bakery on one of the back streets and bought a drink. The bread and sweet rolls and fried pies smelled so good! But we resisted.

Well, it was hot and after searching unsuccessfully for Mountain Dew cans we returned to the ship. It was after 12:30 and lunch time. After dropping our stuff off in the room we headed up to Lido. I had a salad and David had a cheeseburger. I stayed a while and had some ice cream then headed to the room for a nap because I was tired.

I took a short nap and at 3:00 headed to arts and crafts to pick up the craft of the day. It was a pack to make a journal. Everything you needed included. After getting mine, I headed to the Butterfly lounge to go to the cooking show that started at 3.  I thought he would be cooking something different today but he made the same 2 dishes from yesterday. He is a local restaurant owner and chef from St. Maarten and he was cooking, selling his $45 cook book and advertising a special tour to shop with him, have lunch with him, and take a steel drum lesson all for $129.99 per person. We thought we might get a free tour, but Katie couldn’t get it arranged.

David’s St. Maarten talk follows his so he was about 4:30 getting started because they have to tear everything down. But he got started and we had a good crowd. There was a new tech and he was late! And not as good as the old one. As David finished his talk a guy came walking in and headed down to the stage carrying a lap top and pulling a case. I saw him going toward the stage and headed to where David’s computer was plugged in and saw a disaster about to happen. This guy who was the shopping tour guy just took a hold of the cable which was still attached to David’s computer behind the curtain and started yanking on it. Fortunately I was able to alert David and he was able to rescue his stuff. Very rude dude.

Well it was back to the room and dress for supper and off to supper. We were a few minutes late and our dinner companions were all ready there. Had a nice supper, went off to the PG comedy show and then to the show in the Taj Mahal at 9:15. I was not impressed it was a magician of sorts and I did not like his stuff at all.

Well, it is my time to shower. So in just a little while we will be off to breakfast and a short trip to St. Maarten so I can get our Pastor his bottle of hot sauce.

Monday, February 1, 2016

THE FIRST BLOG OF FEBRUARY

February 1, 2016

Oh, the pressure of staring at a blank piece of paper, even if it is an electronic piece of paper, and knowing that you are expected to put words on it – scintillating words, informative words, humorous words, argumentative words (has anyone picked up the Broadway Musical those four word pairs brought to mind?).  And knowing that it is the first blog of a brand new, 29 day long month – brought to you by Pope Gregory XIII.  Pressure!

We woke this morning to another junk yard dock yard.  Well, maybe that is unkind, but it is a dock yard surrounded not by ships, but by shipping containers.  The good thing is we are downtown, close to the Church of the Immaculate Conception that we wanted to see in December and was closed.  Fifteen minutes, and we were there.  It was an hour from the Anthem of the Seas and it was closed.

An incredibly beautiful building.  The vaulted ceiling is covered in wood panels, painted in Bible scenes.  They are faded now – the church was built in 1899 – but restoration is underway.  Even as they are, they speak beauty of a House of Worship. 

When St. Lucia suffered a devastating fire in 1948, which consumed 80% of the structures downtown, left 800 families homeless, and did $90 million dollars damage (2016 dollars) the fire stopped, miraculously, just before it consumed the church.

We strolled slowly back to the ship, shopping in and out of four pharmacies and two grocery stores.  It was almost like being in 1993 Russia.  Mountain Dew over here.  Room deodorizer over there.  Yes, room deodorizer.  One of our closets has developed a smell from unwashed clothes – or so She Who Must Be Obeyed tells me.  I didn’t notice it, but I helped search for a deodorizer.  Keep her happy!

My talk this afternoon was scheduled and announced to begin at 4 p.m.  It started at 4:30 because Chef Dino Jactiani, who was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. and was supposed to be over before 4 p.m., didn’t and wasn’t.  But I smiled and carried on.  As a possible award, we may be given complimentary “Authentic Eats Tours” on St. Maarten, regular cost $140 per person.  The chef, who owns a restaurant on St. Maarten, will meet high paying guests in the French capital (St. Maarten is shared by the Dutch and the French, each with their own capitals) to go shopping in the market, where he will pick out fresh items, carry them, and us, back to his restaurant where he will make a gourmet lunch.  Then a visit to a museum and a famous artist, followed by steel drum lessons.  Hopefully, Katie can work it out.  I’ll let you know.

We decided to go to the PG rated comedy show tonight, but by the time we got there the house was full.  I’m not going back and check, but the times I’ve gone into the lounge to get ice and there has been an F-rated show on, there have been many empty seats.  Maybe they’d fill the house more with comedians who could be funny without being dirty.  I’m just saying.

Tomorrow a trip to the St. Kitts Museum.  Until then.

TTFN

Oh. The Broadway Musical was “My Fair Lady.”  Eliza singing to Freddy Eynsford Hill, “Words! Words! Words!  I’m so sick of words! I get words all day through, first from him, now from you!  Is that all you blighters can do?”