At Sea - Gulf of Aden

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Woke up this morning in the Gulf of Aden just off the coast of Yemen, at the northern part of the Indian Ocean. A bit warmer and breezy today with a little more swell to the ocean than what we’ve had.

Today was a lazy day. I enjoyed room service coffee on our verandah and watched Talladega Nights on our in-room TV on the movie channel. I ventured up to the Nautica Lounge at 11:15 for a glass of champagne and a lecture about the art masters such as Rembrandt, Picasso, Dali and Moulet. It was quiote interesting and he showed some nice works. He related stories about Picasso and his huge ego. My favorite was how he hosted a luncheon at an expensive Paris restaurant, in exchange for a drawing. As he was leaving, the restaurant owner approached him to thank him for the drawing, but told Picasso he forgot to sign it. Picasso simply replied: “My dear man…I only wanted to buy lunch. Not purchase the restaurant!”. We received another print supposedly valued at $100.00 USD by Picot of a pastel colored hillside scene, overlooking a beach.

I attended the 4th and final Adobe Photoshop class where we learned to re-work portrait photographs through cropping, removing blemishes, red eyes, whiten teeth, etc., along with feathered vignettes.

One more attempt at Team Trivia still left our team called The Winners in the loser’s position.

I spent more time working on my journal and my attempt to upload photos to my blog site was unsuccessful due to the slow internet connection.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner in the Grand Dining Room which featured the delicious seared tuna loin dish the executive chef demonstrated at the cooking class a few days earlier. I also savored a tasty lobster and porcini mushroom tortellini appetizer, cold pumpkin and butternut squash soup, with a creamy cheesecake to finish off the meal.

The headline show entertainment was by Ralph Heid and his magic power of the xylophone. He was a child prodigy, able to play overtures on the xylophone at age 4. He had a great stage presence, good sense of humor and really wailed away the xylophone playing over 1000 strokes per minute. It was quite impressive.

We passed on “Name That Tune” in Martinis lounge and opted instead for the in-cabin movie Me, You and Dupree.

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Photos

Boutiques on Upper Level of the Grand Lobby
Oceania Nautica Ship