A Relaxing Day at Sea

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The tap-dancing stenographer is back. Allow me an explanation. At a certain speed of the engines, there appears, on some part of the ceiling in our stateroom a sound - a rapid fire staccato reminiscent of a typist tap-dancing. So, I have referred to this sound as our tap-dancing stenographer.

Nothing about this sound is annoying or unnerving. In fact, I find it rather interesting. It is not consistent, it is not repetitive, with every vibration, movement or other form of stimulation it reveals itself anew. Hence a symphony of tap-dancing stenographers! Typically it starts out fast just a rapid fire tappity-tap, then it may slow down just a bit then builds ever faster and faster AND FASTER..then…nothing. No crescendo. Rather disappointing, I must say to leave one hanging thus. Then, out of nowhere after a rest of some period of time (it varies) nothing and BAM…it starts again. Here we go – yet another tease? Will it build to a crescendo? NO!!! It is like this every so often. Again; Inconsistent- sometimes quite frustrating at other times rather satisfying.

I may need a drink. Is it warm in here?

Woke to a view of an Oil Derrick way off in the distance. Today has begun with an overcast grey sky directly above us, and a partly cloudy sunlit sky off in the distance. No clue what Mother Nature has in store for us today. Either way, we shall make the most of it. Warm or cool -we shall enjoy. Today is the last day of this leg of the cruise. Tomorrow we move to another stateroom (Starboard) Our Butler will arrange the move. They bring a rolling rack, we put all folded items in our suitcase and we’re settled in. We can enjoy our new room after 10am tomorrow. Already received the new card and get it “juiced” after we take “possession”.

Christopher is finishing his morning ablutions, so we should be off to breakfast because – well we should. We try VERY HARD to eat properly. Difficult to do when there is SO MUCH food around and the portions are so huge. We split items, (the staff balk) we don’t finish things and it all seems so wasteful, but if we didn’t none of our clothes would fit at the end of this holiday. I will NOT grow as big as a house (getting close).

OK…let’s get this Day at Sea started!

We tried to have breakfast at The Terrace Cafe. PACKED. Sea Day. So, we took the stairs down to 6 and crossed our fingers – we were in shorts (no problem) – The Grand Dining Room was serving breakfast. YES! We placed our order…learned the hard way. We should have done an order of poached eggs and one order of pancakes….I only wanted one egg (brought 2), we each received a pancake – thought they’d be small….NOPE! Christopher had scrambled eggs - neither one of us finished everything. No sausages jumped plate!

We went up to the deck to check out the weather and ran into Jim & Linda. We ended up chatting with them for 2 hours! (oops…still haven’t changed the card on our state room door….UH OH. We had to go. Plus…I was having a VERY Hard time breathing-so I needed my inhaler. Down we go to the stateroom. Christopher had a conversation with Daya and & Sonu re: tomorrow logistics – moving us across the ship, we’re in 11036 and moving to 11033. Put on a sweater and headed upstairs for the pool deck.

The deck was fairly empty. Almost no one. The skies grew darker and darker- we paid NO attention to the hints, until it started to rain. We were protected from the rain, but once the rain started it got COLD. We chose to dine – because we can…and it was cold.

Grand Dining room for a Salad Niçoise…which was SO DARNED GOOD. Lightly dressed, perfectly cooked tuna (meaning lightly seared…other options Cod or Salmon), lovely array of lettuces egg-would have liked more olives. My only suggestion…WAIT….one more… no green peppers.

OK….now what? Cold outside. Where to park? So...we ended up in Martini’s in the far corner and played rummykub for HOURS. We had no watch on, phones in the stateroom, no clocks anywhere….then they came around for Happy Hour. OK…now we’re talking. Two Double martini’s (one each).

Clearly now under the influence of alcohol we decided to go back to the room and dress (ha) for dinner. When this trip is over I may BURN everything….I’m so SICK of the same two pairs of pants!!! (Not including the jeans because, jeans are rarely worn on ship…or SO I THOUGHT!

DINNER…because why not eat? Grand Dining Room again…threepeat! Sit down, order our meal and it starts. Sommelier can’t find our wine. Gone FOREVER!. Comes back…so sorry it was in the red room by mistake….UM that’s NOT OK. I was about to lose my S%$T. I may have said the wine better not have gone bad…or something to that effect. (Clearly, I did). I MAY have said if the wine is bad I want a replacement 2017 Cuvee Blanc from Lambert Bridge (which is sold out)…I DID. I may have said there will be HELL TO PAY…Oh, I most CERTAINLY DID….calm down Jim, remember what you wrote the other day about complaining and perfection….BUT…THIS…IS…WINE…WE’RE…TALKING…ABOUT. All bets are OFF!

Our appetizer arrives…as does the wine…not chilled. UNHAPPY. Meal arrives…no sommelier…he’s probably keeping his distance at this point. Head Waiter comes to the table – after Christopher announces we’re ready for the wine. He pours for us….not chilled enough….WHATEVER. It tasted great (lucky them) – I got all worked up over NOTHING…..I own it. BUT….if the wine had been a problem, I. WAS. READY! And I would have been VERY nice…but VERY. FIRM!

Oh. MY. GOODNESS. I almost forgot….we saw dolphins! Dolphins were jumping next to the ship while at dinner. I think they were headed for France.

Isabelle, our server was wonderful. The meal was spectacular – we had pork dumplings for our appetizer, and for the main we each had a chicken breast stuffed with spinach and goat cheese SO DAMNED GOOD! Dessert was a chocolate hazelnut pudding – also good. We never saw the sommelier at the table, but made certain to say thank you as we left the dining room.

OK…I completely failed to mention the table next to us. They were from Kentucky – a foursome. Seemed lovely, if a tad bit loud…which made for WONDERFUL entertainment for us. And I DO mean wonderful. Nothing political – just the topics of conversation. There wasn’t a MOMENT silence from one of the women. She only stopped talking to eat, which was sublime. The topics!!! OMG….THE topics!!! Magnolia trees, her daughter, shopping, the FORDS. Didn’t you just LOVE the FORDS…wasn’t that the best part pf the trip? HUH? Well…the “J” is silent, so it’s FORDS, RIGHT (said in your best Kentucky accent). Well….good thing neither of us had food in front of us (or in our mouths). WE. WERE. HYSTERICAL. Nothing like suppressed laughter. We could neither look at their table nor look up at one another for fear of more laughter. We maintained our composure; award winning performances…but inside we were HYSTERICAL…actually I’m quite sure we chuckled a bit. She is 61. I was in shock. Looks 70…I’m thinking humidity is tough on some people. “she kept saying 61 and ready for fun”. Again….THICK Kentucky accent. I just wanted to hug her and thank her for the evening. Bless her heart.

After dinner our regular spot. Horizons. This time…we ordered a MacAllan 12 year-old Scotch! YES. WE. DID! Had our eyes on the horizon the whole time watching the other ships off in the distance and the multiples of oil derricks we passed. Then we saw the hundreds and hundreds of windmills in the water. So nice to see alternative forms of power being generated.

Back to the room, a somewhat decent hour. The sun has left the sky (finally – not broken anymore) and we have to organize things for our move tomorrow. Ah, to heck with it. Fiddle-de-de tomorrow is another day!

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