October 2

Sept. 30

 

I am sitting in the Solarium watching people mill about. The sun is shining and the sea is brilliant blue, but it is cold on the outside pool deck, around 55 degrees so there are literally 100s of available deck chairs. It is said to be in the 50s in Wellington, our next port of call in New Zealand. Then, we are for quite a shock as the temperature in Sydney is said to have been in 100s for the last few weeks, with ultra dry conditions and even wildfires in NSW Territory. That’s not going to make the bridge climb any easier!

I manage to made it to the casino for low stakes blackjack ($3) and $2 Mimosasa from noon to 1 p.m. Come out $9 ahead. Nice.

I have been getting better and better day by day in the last couple of days. Lots and lots of fluids. Yesterday I was able to stay up all day without a nap, figuring that would set me up for a good night’s sleep. Wrong. I was not able to drift off until after 1:30 a.m., and then only with a little help from my friends. I think some of it had to do with my choice of the book I’m currently reading, “Bird by Bird: Some instructions on Writing and Life,” by Anne Lamott. It’s about writing fiction, which is not my game, but it’s nevertheless good read about developing good characters, having a good narrator … in short writing better. There’s a chapter about  writer’s block, about how aspiring writers can sometimes begin with writing about their own lives, something as simple as thinking about their school lunches in elementary and high school just to get the juices flowing and put words to paper (or two computer screen). And damned if I didn’t start thinking about my own school lunch experiences. Some funny, like the Norwegian kid who brought goat cheese (Gjetost) and honey sandwiches his mother had no doubt lovingly packed for him, and he could never trade with anyone, not even for lowly baloney or PB&J. Some horrible, like the time I was returning my tray of dirty dishes from “hot lunch” and got hit in on the side of the head with an orange with such force as to knock off my glasses and make me fall, and course drop my tray of dishes on the floor, causing a chorus of applause in the cafeteria. I never found out who did it, but I can only imagine him asking, “Who should I hit with the orange?,” and his buddy(ies) replying, “Aim for the fat kid with the glasses.” And then the rest of high school memories came flooding back (again, mostly horrible) and I just could not get to sleep.

Timothy Ferriss, one of the lifestyle “gurus” I’ve been following lately, once wrote that you should never read nonfiction before bedtime, and I think this is good advice! He recommends fiction instead, and preferably nothing too complex.

OK, tonight will be interesting because we cross the International dateline, and tomorrow will be October 2. We will completely skip October 1. We will not gain back that time until our airplane ride home. But, technically speaking, there will be no October 1 in 2017 for Julie and I. And will live October 17 twice … kind of like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day,” except we will be in an airplane at 30,000 feet instead of Punxatwaney (sp?), Pa!

One of the dinner entrée selections last night was broiled Orange Roughy, and both Julie and I selected it, and it was delicious. Served with a lemon burblanc sauce, potato cake, and asparagus. For appetizer, honey dew melon wrapped in Prosciutto ham … one of my favorite appetizers because of the contrast of the sweet melon against the saltiness of the cured (but not smoked) ham. Delicious. I also had two glasses of Chardonnay wine with dinner which, went mixed with the coffee for dessert, may been the source of some of sleep problems.

The show was very good last night, an Australian who won a TV talent contest as a young lad, and now sings aboard cruise ships. If you want to know the whereabouts of many a child prodigy, check the cruise ships! This is where they end up. Again, I cannot praise enough the talent of this 9-piece Royal Caribbean Orchestra. (Friend) Amy, you would be so impressed with the tenor sax player. He not only has a fine set of chops, he is also the musical director, and does many of the band’s arrangements. Many of the musical guests arrive with their own set of charts, and you would think the band had been playing them for years, instead of just one rehearsal before live performance. Simply amazing.

(Friend) Mario, I completed John Grisham’s “Camino Island” yesterday. I appreciated that the lead character’s name was Bruce and that he was a rare books dealer. And I thought the ending took an interesting twist, but I found the narrative kind of plodded along in the middle, and the dialogue a bit stilted. Could Mercer (the female lead) been any more obvious that she was a “plant?” I found the parts about the value of first editions rather interesting, and I trust Grisham did his homework on those and that they are accurate. All in all, a good read, but I’m not sure $15 dollars’ worth, especially for an electronic copy. I definitely feel that Grisham has lost the “punch” of some of his early work (“The Firm,” “The Pelican Brief”) and has started to “phone it in.” There is surely an abundance of good fiction out there, especially now with self-published stuff by indie authors. After more than 400 years of control by the large publishing houses, the playing field has finally been leveled for many talented writers. We live in amazing times, and the sad fact is that many people do not realize it. Like comedian Lewis C.K. puts it, “Everything is amazing and yet everyone is miserable.”

Not this boy!

OK, just when I thought I’d seen it all …

There is a crew member here, part of the activities team, named Kacy, like Casey. She has assisted with the muster drill, and helps set up microphones and what not for guest speakers. She is also the dance instructor for a group of passengers learning “Thriller” and I think they going to perform at one of the final shows on board. She and her little band of passengers are working very hard on this, and she is doing the instruction is five sessions, so this is more than just a little complicated. She is bright and bubbly and always has a smile on her face.

She is without right hand, with wrist ending midway, and most of right leg, wearing a prosthetic that joins a stump at approximately at shorts level. At the base of the prosthetic is an athletic sock and shoe to match to the other real leg and foot on her right side. She is amazing to watch. She never stops moving, and her movements are fluid and there is no hint of self-consciousness that would suggest she has any limitations. I have tears welling up in my eyes just thinking of her and writing about her because I think of what she must do every morning just to “suit up” for the day. I want to just go up to her and hug her, but I know she wants nothing more than just to be treated like anyone else. She is a complete inspiration to me, and maybe I can somehow make a comments in my feedback form, it will get back to her, and maybe that will be appropriate and enough. I any event, I will think of her now and again when I think I am having a bad day.

Dinner tonight is pork loin medallions served with mashed potatoes, carrots, and asparagus. Tomato slices with Bleu cheese crumbles and balsamic vinegar. For dessert, a warm chocolate/banana compote served in phyllo dough. All delicious.

The show tonight is Scott Williams, Australia’s Doctor of Comedy, and it is part talk and part comedy act. A very funny fellow, and we all got a good dose of laughter. Check him out on Youtube.

 

Monday October 2

“The sea was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man ordering soup at a deli.”

George Costanza, (Jason Alexander), Seinfeld

I am in the Crown and Anchor Lounge on Deck 12, and the ship is rocking and rolling. They have closed the Prominade Deck 5 due to the rough weather. The view outside the large windows on the public decks is a curtain of grey, where the line between horizon and ocean is barely discernable. But for a few goofballs in the 2 hot tubs, there is virtually no one on the pool deck because they have drained the pool.

 

After breakfast, Julie and I attend another enrichment seminar put on by Sonja, our resident technology expert. This was on sci-fi literature and movie predictions that have come true. The usual suspects appeared, from H.G. Wells and Jules Verne to Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov There is virtually no one writing about what will be coming 100 or even 50 years from now (other than EOTWAWI literature) because the future is coming at us so fast!

Went for early bird blackjack again and went down $11. Lots of fun through!

 

All for now,

Bruce