TOTALED TINA

November 21, 2017

Tonight’s entertainer was a Tina Turner tribute act called “Totally Tina” (not the way I spelled it).  Bonnie didn’t care for it because the artist did all of the shimmeys and shakes and facial expressions Ms. Turner does, and she just wanted the music.  I liked her rendition of “Proud Mary” and “Golden Eye.”  There was another one, but I’ve forgotten it already.  Tomorrow’s show features the Veendam Singers and Dancers.  We are looking forward to their show.  They are always our favorites.

This morning my beloved wife woke me at 6:30 and said, “Get up!  It’s 7:30!”  She does not set her watch on ship’s time, but keeps it on Augusta time and then adds the correct number of hours.  Today she was one short.  Oh well.  We went to breakfast and then went out into Malta again.  Up the elevator again and this time out into town. 

A couple beside us at breakfast told us about two places not to miss and told us they were easily found.  Maybe by them, but not by us.  We saw two churches, neither of them the ones we were to see – the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  One of the two we saw was sponsored by Queen Victoria.  I have no idea how far we walked to see it, but we were at the top of a very steep hill and the church was on the other side.  A long way down.  And a long way back up.  We made it, but went back a different way, on more level ground.

If you like ancient weapons, you would like the armory in the Grand Master’s Palace.  Holy cow!  I lost count of the number of pieces of armor, number of spears, number of cannons, number of rifles, and the number of other instruments of war and mayhem.  There were big ones and little ones.  Long ones and short ones.  Speaking of long ones, there was a flint lock rifle that was probably twice as long as the one Davy Crockett used, but it was to launch a missile, not a rifle ball.  The fanciest suit of armor beloved to one of the Grand Master’s (they were the leaders of the Knights of St. John who eventually began to think they were kings).  That armor was covered in ornaments of silver and gold.  He probably didn’t wear it into battle.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (the Grand Master’s Palace and this cathedral were the ones we were to find, and find them we did) is one of the most ornate churches I have ever been in.  Gold leaf covered almost every square inch of the walls.  There were eight small chapels, plus the main altar.  And they still have church in that building.

At noon we went back to the spot we found yesterday where they fire a noon cannon signal, but we got there too late to get a spot to actually see the cannon.  It is a ceremony that dates back to the time when the explosion was used to set time pieces to the correct hour. Today it is totally ceremonial and no cannon ball is launched, just a boom and smoke, but impressive.

We went to dinner on the Lido Deck again tonight.  I had chicken corn soup – very good – and chicken pot pie – very dry.  Bonnie had spaghetti again.  Tonight they had the smaller noodles that she likes.  And we split a raspberry dessert and a chocolate dessert that my beloved said was chocolate cheese cake.  It was chocolate something, but not my favorite.

Well, she’s tired, so that’s it for tonight.

TTFN