Wednesday, September 9th, 2011: At Sea off Newfoundland, Canada
Bob: I had come down with a mild head cold, complete with sore throat, coughing, and sniffles, so I interspersed the day's activities with a series of naps to try to have enough energy to occasionally get up and DO something. I find it both comforting and frustrating to be ill on a cruise ship. It is comforting in that all meals are provided effortlessly and the room steward can assist you with whatever you may need. But it is frustrating to be on a big, beautiful ship cruising to exotic locations with a day jam-packed with interesting activities, and then just to lie there in bed and ignore it all. Thus, although I was happy to take the nap before our Pop Choir session, I was very happy to get up and go down to the Fusion Lounge on Deck 7 to sing with the group. Anne, the lady next to me in the back row, was also coping with a cold and Chris, one of our guys, felt bad enough that he just sat over to the side, so the cold was clearly making the rounds. I wasn't sure how well the sore throat would hold up to singing, so I tried to sing pianissimo so as to not make things worse. We both thought the performance was coming together and had a nice time. Afterwards I opted for having an early lunch and then another nap before the afternoon dance class, which featured the waltz. Since it was a beginner's class, we didn't learn anything new, but it was good practice. Even better was a subsequent practice session with the ship's orchestra playing the exact kind of dance music we needed, and at a slow enough tempo that even the beginners could easily participate. The slower tempo was both pleasant (Am I slowing down as I get older? Am I actually getting older?) and enabled us to successfully practice the step patterns. |
Monika: Bob did not feel too well, so while he napped, I first walked a few laps on the sun deck, walking in figure eights to make it more interesting. The day was again grey and cloudy. But it was fun trying to see an iceberg or a whale. The Pop Choir rehearsal was fun as usual and I was really starting to feel more confident about the whole thing. After lunch Bob had another nap while I read and then we went to dance lessons. Today it was the slow waltz. It was a good review but somewhat basic, but again we were left with a nice choreography. A little later the ships band came to the Fusion lounge and played dance music. They made it easy, by first announcing what type of dance they were playing. This really gave us a lot of practice and was great fun. |
Bob: But after dancing for two hours, I was really exhausted and more than ready for yet another, yes count 'em three, nap. That took me up to dinner time, where I once again roused myself for a pleasant evening chatting with Liz, Peter, Laurie, and Janet. I think the topic of conversation that night was "how we met our spouse". Liz and Peter had actually experienced the honest-to-goodness "love at first sight" phenomenon and gotten married about two years later as I recall. Liz described the feeling as a literal jolt or kind of electric shock to the system. I have heard about such things but never met a couple who had experienced it, so I was quite interested. From both sides of Gender Gap, it appears to have been rather sudden and overwhelming experience. At least now I know it isn't just a myth you find in romance novels! We, of course, contributed our own, rather boring, courtship that started when I nearly ran Monika over with my old Royal Enfield 750-Indian motorcycle. But I made up for it by carrying her two 20-kilogram bags from there to her boarding house about three blocks away, so that made up for the rudeness in my mind. I'm not sure if it was love at first sight, but Monika surely was an exotic little thing with her Marlene Dietrich voice, long blond hair, and all that, so I was definitely interested enough to offer to help her sign up for classes the next day, and the rest, as they say, was history. We headed to the Princess Theater right after dinner for the evening performance by the ship's song and dance ensemble, and it was a very nice, well-performed production feature Cole Porter tunes and music of the 20s and 30s more generally. |
Monika: Dinner again was a fun discussion with Liz, Peter, Laurie, and Janet. Bob and I both had some problems understanding Laurie and Janet at first, but by now we were getting used to their particular dialect. Peter, being used to public speaking since he is mayor of his city, was easy to understand and Liz also spoke very well. After dinner, we went to the Princess Theater for another production show, this one was loosely based around a weekend party at a country house set in the 20s with a lot of nice tunes from that area. It really was a lot of fun, and since they just prohibited flash photography, I had a lot of fun trying to get some pictures without flash. |
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