Sayonara Baby #2

I am now an expert (better informed actually) on numerous diseases I had never heard of prior to half an hour ago. The CB and I are having our morning coffee and three single women of a certain age sitting next to us have been loudly trying to outdo each other in describing their various ailments like the four Yorkshiremen of Monty Python fame. The strident alpha amongst them is starting to give me the shits so it’s time to relocate. That’s easier said than done at the moment because like the first day of our last cruise, we’re at sea all day and it’s pretty rough. A 6 to 9 foot swell doesn’t sound much for a cruise ship to contend with but it’s enough to roll you out of bed if you haven’t got something to hang onto. Fortunately I do. So we put the wobbly boots on and pinballed back to our cabin, sorry, state room. The captain just advised that at 1.00pm we hit a storm and the swell’s going to 12 to 15 feet (or more) and it’s 1C outside. I should have paid more attention to the safety briefing yesterday. Lifeboat 1 I think. Time to get lunch in (and try to keep it down) before the shit hits the fan.

Last night was a chance to reacquaint ourselves with our favourite bar – what used to be called the Looking Glass because it’s high and at the front with a panoramic view of bugger all for the next day or so and is now rather boringly called the Living Room. The band is the ubiquitous (similar bands are playing all over Asia) bunch of talented Phillipinos and one Phillipina and like all of their clones, they can play anything. They did requests and were asked for a Santana song by one dude, which they performed remarkably well and when they looked at me they got Hotel California which they also did very well including the guitar solo at the end. The guitarist came and had a chat with us when they finished and I offered to drum for them (their drummer’s sick apparently). I’d had a few red wines and never sat at a drum kit before but I think I got the gig. We’ll see tonight.

We are now in the midst of our first cruising storm after four previou ocean cruises and three river cruises (which don’t really count). The boat’s rocking and rolling in a veritable sea (funnily enough) of white caps. The outside decks are closed but I don’t think the pool and adjacent hot-tub would be getting much action today, storm or no storm. So the options are to sit in the room and write this or sit in the lunch restaurant with a glass of wine and write this. Decisions decisions. We just smashed through another big wave and were momentarily in a foam cloud. I think we’ll stay in the restaurant.

I’ve commented previously (see Africa Through the Bottom of a Glass) about how the CB and I are generally amongst the youngest and most mobile and therefore most stable on our pins, of this cruise line’s clientele. There’re a lot of people here in the restaurant now and if they try to relocate we could lose a few if they get anywhere near the ship’s rail. Paying extra for a veranda room is looking like a crap investment at this point.

Speaking of investments, a few things had to be attended to when we boarded the ship yesterday. When packing for these excursions, I’m most efficient when I do it an hour before leaving for the airport. I learnt this after numerous work trips over many years. Apart from the times when I’ve had to buy ties, belts, socks, pants (that was only once) etc I usually get it right. The longer I have to consider the necessities the greater the chance I’ll forget something. This time I forgot one of my medications so had to make arrangements for this with the onboard medical centre. Most expensive pills i’ve ever bought. Also I’d left it too late to book our shore excursions so had to do that after boarding. And get the internet sorted. These were all jobs for today but I had them all sorted within two hours of getting on the boat yesterday. Luckily I’m not a Labor politician otherwise those jobs would have taken a month and I’d be staring down the barrel of another stroke.