I HATE WINDOWS 10!!

April 24, 2018

Let me remind you why I make that statement. 

You may remember a couple of cruises ago when my Sony Vaio would not talk to the ship’s projectors and it was determined that an update to Windows 10 just before we sailed destroyed that ability.

Then the difficulty the Guest Relations agent had setting up my Internet account on zuiderdam-crew a couple of days ago (in spite of disparaging words from a reader of this blog).

And then this morning.  I went on line before breakfast to check for any emails from home, but before I could do that, the computer was going through updates to Windows 10.  I didn’t understand it because posting last night’s blog and checking your emails, I wasn’t on longer than about 3 minutes.  But when the updates were finished and I signed on, imagine my surprise when my available remaining subscription after signing out had shrunk from 587 mb last night to 240 mb this morning!  This frazzling operating system automatically updates itself, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.  I had previously told the operating system that I had a limited account and it cannot do “major updates” (whatever that is). After searching this morning I learned a step where I can delay it – this computer now cannot update itself for 45 days.

So in all probability I will have to renew my subscription when the original should have been sufficient.  Shame on you, Bill Gates!

Tomorrow is Bermuda and in addition to going to Hamilton to our favorite sandwich shop on the island, and playing a round at Fun Time Miniature Golf, we will go the drugstore at King’s Wharf to pick up dental floss, pretzels, snapping clothes pins, and duct tape.  The latter is to secure the two extension cords which run from the desk, down the wall and across in front of the windows to activate Bonnie’s C-Pap machine.  As it lays, they are just tucked up to the wall and I am afraid that in the night, a sleeper coming from the left side of the bed (as you face it – or the right side as you lay in it) might trip. 

Ah, you who traveled to Russia with me, do you remember we always packed a roll of duct tape?  It is now being added to the cruise list!

And now I will turn the keyboard over to your mother, Granny, sister-in-law, and friend.

TTFN

Land HO!!

Well up at 6 am our time, 5am your time this morning to walk. They were washing down the promenade again this morning so I walked inside. I walked till 7. Then, returned to the cabin. He was still in bed so I quietly got my stuff and took my shower and by the time I had finished he was up. He got ready and dressed and we went to breakfast. Sat with the couple from Ontario that we had supper with last night. I had an egg, muffin, sausage patty and chocolate milk.

After breakfast we since it was after nine we headed to the theater for the port talk followed by the other guest lecture talk. Port talk gave us some ideas for the ports to come and we bought another tour for the Belgium, Zeebrugge port. A bus ride, canal boat tour and some walking. This is a great stop for the famous Belgium chocolate of which I am sure I will get some. Then, the lecture. This guy is a retired professor who has more titles than would almost fit on the slide. His talk was way over my head. The slides were black screens with lots of words in yellow. Sometimes he read what was on the screen and sometimes he didn’t. At those times he didn’t leave it up long enough for you to even begin to read. Lots of dates and names of people you never heard of. His topic was whether the Atlantic Ocean had always been there or not. His conclusion was it had not. I was most unimpressed.

After the talk we headed up to Lido for lunch. I really wanted a bowl of soup but the only soup was cream of pumpkin, I passed. So it was a salad again. Then up to the Crows Nest for cards, Score David 2 , me 0.

Then, we headed back to the theater for a talk on touring Bermuda.  If the guy was right it has gotten more expensive to use the buses and the ferries.  Then, off for a nap.

Just after we finished our nap and before we were going to get dressed, the ships alarms sounded. One short, one long repeated 3 times and a response team was called to the galley lounge where there was smoke. Then, the Captain came on to tell us there was smoke and the crew was responding. After an evacuation of the area around the lounge and the Captain speaking a couple of times, he finally said all was okay. A dishwasher in the lounge had an electrical fire but all had been taken care of.   No danger. Well, that was a new one.

We dressed for supper and made our way to Deck 2 dining. We sat at a table for four with a couple from Canada. Very nice. Tonight was Gala night and a supposedly fancy supper. I had a shrimp cocktail, it was good, a creamed soup that was not good and stuffed shells with a small amount of marinara sauce. It needed more sauce. I ordered a lemon meringue cheese cake. He ordered Romanoff strawberries. He thought it was a mousse. It wasn’t. It was just a small cup of warm strawberries and he doesn’t care for strawberries. So I gave him my cheese cake and ate the strawberries. Oh well!

Then, off to the theater. There was a champaign  toast to the captain at 7:30. The Captain came into the theater and we did a toast. Let me tell you about this Captain. He is Dutch and from all appearances quite young. I wish I could have taken a picture of his hair do. It was a little strange. It was swooshed up on the sides, kind of looked like wings. Strange!!

Tonight’s entertainment were Voxx, the four urban tenors. Great voices and they sang some opera, a song from Les Miserables, a medley of James Bond songs, and other stuff.  They were very good.

Well, we are back in our cabin looking forward to our port tomorrow, we arrive at about 8 am. The high is to be 71 and the chance of rain!! So the ponchos and umbrellas go out with us. Hopefully we won’t get wet. 

Well, time for bed. Love you all, Mom, Granny and Bonnie