Time Marches On

Thursday, September 25, 2008

We won again in trivia today. We now have 4 coffee mugs and 4 mouse pads. We are grateful that we didn’t win key chains or luggage tags. We do have our standards.

The seas finally got a little chop to them tonight, just enough to remind us that we were on board a ship. Dinner was a bit quiet tonight as it was just the 4 of us; Ceta and John have switched to the early seating. We asked them if their decision was final before asking Patti and Russ if we could invite Ed and Roxanne to join us. They were fine with the idea, so we told our dining room captain; they told theirs; and it was done. They even got a card delivered to their cabin the next day confirming the change.

After dinner [veggie for her, red meat and shrimp for him], MA went to the room to read. She is determined to finish her book soon so D can have it. If he finishes it before Cambodia, we will gift it to Briton along with some others which we schlepped with us. The more stuff we can palm off, the more space we have when we pack all of the HAL goodies for the long trip home. D visited the casino for too long before coming to the room for the night.

The Grand Voyages on HAL have a feel all their own. Because the trips are longer, the passengers tend to be more well-travelled and, as mentioned earlier older. As a thank you for spending 30-plus days with them, HAL showers travelers with “stuff.” In the first week alone, we have found a travel diary, travel purse and tote bag, slippers and sweat shirts on the bed at night. All except the slippers are personalized with the HAL logo and the name of this trip, making them one-of-a-kind items.

Friday, September 26, 2008

It was a dark and stormy night. The promised turbulence made itself know all night as the ship rocked and rolled. We kept hearing the hanging clothing sliding back and forth in closet. As if the ocean’s motion was not enough, we seemed to hit an occasional pothole in the water; the whole ship seemed to stop amidst a tremendous racket followed by dead silence. Then we would start all over again. At breakfast this morning, someone commented that the eggs were coming out of their shells already scrambled.
It is another quiet day. We read; D checked the e-mail for responses from Vietnam and China about adding the Waynes to some tours; and we got killed in trivia. Still, we are 4 for 7 so far. One of our opponents commented that he was glad to see a different team win each day; we did not talk about his powers of observation, at least not to his face. MA finally finished Ken Follett’s The Way of the World and started a new book after lunch while D caught things up.
Roxanne and Ed will join us for dinner tonight even though Ceta told us this morning that she and John were having second thoughts. If they want to return to late dinner, they can always go to Roxanne and Ed’s old table. The addition of the Pettuses is especially appropriate since we will be taking all of our tours with them. Both of our TA’s had tried to get us together without luck, but now it is a fait accompli.

We have been warned of the possibility of a bumpy ride and Force 7 winds for the remainder of our sail to Hakodate, Japan, where we dock Monday. We’ll just have to wait to see.