Saturday, April 2: At Sea
Bob: I was a bit under the weather after a restless night, so after a very light breakfast I stayed in the cabin and worked my crostic puzzles while Monika went to the arts and crafts session and made a very pretty flower out of origami petals, a straw and tissue paper. I also started to work on updating the journal, which I had sadly neglected since Antigua, and, of course, took the occasional short nap in betwixt and between some light meals. We continued to enjoy sitting out on the balcony and watching the deep blue ocean slide by, but surprisingly I found I now needed to wear long pants and a sweater. Although it was quite sunny, our balcony on this trip was shaded by an overhang and in the shade it was surprisingly cool. The ship's course was a bit North of due East, so this was the day that we crossed back over the Tropic of Cancer and thus officially exited the tropical regions on our way over to the Canary Islands. That afternoon I took my activities indoors while Monika attended the afternoon arts and crafts session that was on towel-folding. That, like necklaces, is just not something that floats my boat, so I just continued leisurely pursuing my leisurely pursuits. It was nice seeing the folks again at dinner, but I was sorry to hear that I had missed Sandy and Bill's 25th anniversary celebration the previous night, complete with real cake! Ah well, I probably didn't need the extra calories anyway. At the tail end of the evening, our newly-replaced safe jammed in the closed position yet again! I tried calling the front desk, but the line was continuously busy for well over an hour, which was more than a bit irritating. I finally gave up in disgust and turned in for the night, hoping to have better luck the next morning. |
Monika: Today's arts and crafts was supposed to be painting and assembling a mobile. In the daily "Today" schedule for the English speaking guests , however, they translated the word "mobile" into "cell phone", so it stated that we would be painting and assembling cell phones!--ah the problems with translations. But when we got together in the card room, Jimena told us that she was not allowed to have us paint in the card room, so she postponed the mobile and had us make an Origami flower instead. This was really a lot of fun, so I did not mind. The afternoon session was supposed to be napkin folding. When I came into the card room, Debbie and Sandy were sitting there playing Scrabble. They had just started, and when I joined them, they just scrapped their game and we started a new one. It was a hard fought game with all of us being within 10 points of each other at the end, so it was lots of fun. |
Bob: It was nice seeing the folks again at dinner, but I was sorry to hear that I had missed Sandy and Bill's 25th anniversary celebration the previous night, complete with real cake! Ah well, I probably didn't need the extra calories anyway. I was very irritated when our newly-replaced safe jammed in the closed position yet again. I tried calling the front desk, but the line was continuously busy so I finally gave up turned in for the night, hoping to have better luck the next morning. |
Monika: Our table turns out to be a lot of fun. We have 5 couples; a sixth couple appeared only once and then apparently decided this was not the table for them! We talk with each other and across the table to each. Ten people is rather a lot but it is a lot of fun when we are all chatting. We do have a lot of time to talk, since an Italian meal has about 6 courses: appetizer, soup, salad, pasta, entree, and dessert. Of course, Bob and I try to keep our eating down to manageable level, but we do have to wait for everyone else. But with good company this is not a hardship. During dinner, someone yelled "sunset" so Debbie and I went outside on the promenade deck to take sunset pictures. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Map of Drive in Ireland | Epilog |
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