KATIA AND ZHENYA

December 1, 2017

First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAYLEIGH GRACE!!  We hope you had a great day and a super party!

Tonight’s entertainers were dancers from Belarus.  With the way the ship is moving (10 foot seas) and most of us having trouble walking a straight line, they did ball room dancing all over the stage, and not a slow piece of music in their repertoire.  I don’t think Katia has a bone in her body, so fluid and seemingly effortless, but I know they started when they were children and have rehearsed endlessly.  We were privileged to see some of those extraordinary kids when we were in Russia.  What talent.  What dedication.

The bad thing about the show was we got there late and every tall person and every fat person on board had filled up all of the seats in front of us.  And when we did find seats with a view between bodies, some klunk came in and set in front of us filling up the hole.  Oh well.  The show was great and we enjoyed it.

Tomorrow the schedule is different than it has been.  The afternoon talk – mine – is at 3 p.m. instead of 2 because of a program from BBC Earth.  We’ve seen several of them and they are quite good.  And it will give me an extra hour to rehearse Henry Morgan.

The seas have been rough today.  Our cabin is in the forward part of the ship and someone described a room in this part as an E-Ticket at the amusement park.  Not enough movement to keep us from napping, and it will rock us to sleep tonight.  The Captain has steered us around a storm, and we appreciate it.

We set the clocks back an hour tonight, so we are now only 3 hours ahead of Georgia time.  And this time next week, we will be back at 233.  It takes so long for an adventure like this to get here, and then it is over before we know it.  It has been a great cruise.

Oh, and our laundry was delivered this morning while we were out to breakfast.  It’s a good thing because I was going to have to do the Russian laundry.  I was down to my last pair of underwear and I was going to have to turn them around and wear them backwards if the clean ones didn’t come in.  Saved at the last moment.  I am not sure what kind of laundry powder they are using because my white socks and Mom’s white unmentionables are now grey.  Oh well.  It was free.

Time to turn the keyboard over to my traveling companion.

TTFN

Today we woke up to a ship that was really rocking. I decided to go ahead and take my bath because I didn’t know if I would be able to walk. But after breakfast I decided to try it. I made it around the deck 3 times before giving up. The one side of the ship was very sunny and windy and rocking, with rainbows appearing in the spray that almost reached up to deck 6. The other side was in the shade and windy and much cooler. But I wobbled and swayed and got around.  After the walk I went up to the theater to wait for Dad’s talk. They had their coffee hour with the cruise director and today they had on the entertainment staff. The one young lady who was new to the ship and head of the culinary demonstrations is from Augusta Ga and lives on Wheeler Road. Small world.  It was pretty bumpy for your Dad’s talk but he did okay. They had put a stool on the stage and he stayed kind of close to it. I guess they thought he might sit down. That would have been funny because he would have definitely fell off of it.

After his talk we headed to the Lido for lunch. No soup so I ate part of a sandwich. It was okay. We sat beside the couple whose act is called “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere”. They sing and play a lot of instruments. They are good we have seen them before and they are going to do a second show later on. They said the had been at sea 300 days this year. Wow. They are saving to buy a house. He is from Ireland and she is from Denmark. Nice people.

After lunch back to the theater for the other David’s talk. I was not feeling the best and should have gone to the cabin but I stayed for the talk. After the talk I wobbled, almost fell down the steps as we headed to the cabin. I made it inside the door, pulled back the covers got into bed and went to sleep almost immediately.  Woke about 4 or so when your Dad got up but rolled over and went right back to sleep till he woke me to dress for supper, at 6.

Felt some better. We were eating with the other speaker and his wife. They are a nice couple from England.  We had a good dinner. The show was great except for having to try and look around large and very tall people.

Well, we are back in the cabin and not long out of bed. The captain has promised smoother seas tomorrow. We will see how that goes. The rolling and yawing has been pretty bad. Very difficult to walk up and down the steps. I just hang onto a rail and hope he doesn’t pitch me forward as I go down the steps.

Love you all. Mom, Granny and Bonnie