Travels And Tribulations: November 2, 2023

November 2, 2023

Back to WordPerfect. The Lenovo doesn’t like Word any better. Oh well.

This is the first formal night of the cruise and there is about an hour until we change into our glad rags and go to dinner. Tonight’s offerings are iceberg wedge salad, escargot, seafood linguini, and warm apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream. At least those are my choices. Children, your mother will take my first and last selections, substitute French onion soup, and chicken cordon bleu.

At lunch today we had (this is starting out to be a culinary blog) we had cream of vegetable soup (leftovers whirled in the blender) and egg salad or chicken salad. Egg for me. Chicken for her. And we took two selections of potato chips, bought ashore. Pringles for me, and a local brand for Bonnie. One of the servers in the Wind Jammer, Janeta, stopped by our table and commented on the chips. She said that in her home in Indonesia, they eat potato chips with avocado. Typically they mix the avocado with milk and fruit. On her last contract, her room mate was from Peru and she ate avocado toast. Janeta discovered she like it and took the recipe home.

Today’s talk. Oh my goodness! The name of the venue is The Attic. It fits for the size. It could easily seat 150, maybe more, but not today. If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you have been assaulted by Park West Galleries, and their “art auctions” which are no auction at all. Well, today they had one at 12 o’clock. I was in there at 9:30, Ellie at 10:30, but when I arrived, fully one-third of the room was filled with “art.” At least 50 people stood 2 deep in the back in order to see the screen. We guesstimated that 75 people left because there were no places to sit – other than on the floor – or stand. Park West has no manners. On one cruise several years ago they had taken over the whole venue where I was to do a talk. I called the cruise director, woke him up, he said a bad word or two, called the PW manager and made him personally move all of the art work out so I could do my talk. But anyway, the crowd was understanding and appreciative. The Cruise Program Administrator was more upset than anyone who had been in the Attic and assured me it would not happen tomorrow. After tomorrow, my talks are all in the Royal Theater. Life on the high seas.

Captain Rick, the captain of the beautiful Symphony of the Seas, has set a course south towards Madeira to dodge a storm. Glad he did because as it is we are having swells of 4-5 meters or 12-15 feet. A lot of wibbiling and wobbiling. Makes for good sleeping – it’s like being rocked to sleep.

After supper, and it was very good – mom pronounced it the best meal she’s had on board – we went to the ice show, “1977" – set in London, and about a time-traveling jewel thief. With the motion of the ocean, we weren’t sure if the show would go on, but it did. With all of that there were only 2 falls, and they did some dramatic pieces on ice 1/4 the size of an Olympic rink. One of the performers we had seen on another ship. She skates and twirls hula hoops, as many as 20 at a time. I got some pictures, surprised that in the dark arena I could stop the motion.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.