Day 14 - 2/5

 

If you look closely you can see that we're getting close to the Equator

Today there were only walnuts, not almonds. I asked Liberty the dining room manager how that could happen, and he said they must have been reprovisioned. Err?

It was a slow morning (with walnuts) until Tai Chi, and then it was the usual thigs – Coffee with Dario (and 8 members of the housekeeping staff, plus supervisors) and Hula, where we mostly practiced the Tahitian song. I didn’t have an 11:00 thing, so I went up to the gym and did some dancing on YouTube with Christina Dorner. It was a good length and a good activity level. On my way to get changed for lunch I passed the Lido setup for National Grand Chocolate Day, which was very tempting

A quick change and a nice lunch with Dave in the dining room, and then I was off to the Chocolate Extravaganza (delicious!) and then the Aloha hour, which concluded with a bunch of us getting up and practicing the Tahitian dance again, and then it was time for ‘uke class already! We are sounding pretty good for a group of people who’ve only had 10 or so lessons, and everybody seems to be having a really good time.

Meanwhile Dave had not gotten to the Meet & Greet with classical pianist Elliott Finkel early enough to get a seat, so he made do with just the concert in a larger venue. The rest of his afternoon included a beer and some reading time. I did a nap. I need to go back to yesterday though and tell Dave’s beer story; he got a beer in the Ocean Bar and it tasted kind of stale; when he looked it had expired late last year. So he sent in some feedback using HAL’s Navigator app, and while we were getting ready for dinner he got a phone call from guest services checking that he was feeling no ill-effects from the bad beer. Old folks, old beer, apparently.

Louise has been setting up officers to dine with us, and tonight we were supposed to have Cruise Director Dario and Entertainment Director Cheryl, but Dario was unable to make it. We ate downstairs at a big circular table in the middle of the dining room and Cheryl was very nice. She is our age and started working at Holland in 2018. She had good stories and most importantly told us that all of the talks on the World Stage are recorded and available on the TVs in our rooms, which is super useful to know because tomorrow the 2^nd math lecture is taking place at the same time as Hula, and I have to do Hula because it’s our last practice before the big show on Friday.

We went back to our cabin for a little relaxing before the show, but apparently we relaxed a bit too long because when we got to the World Stage it was full. We decided we’d go do other things and come back for the 9:00 show. First off we went to the Ocean Bar where someone we’d never seen before was singing with the dance band; she was reading the lyrics from her phone but she was amazing. It turns out her name is Anita and she’ll be doing one of the big shows later in the cruise. We’re looking forward to it for sure. We headed back to our cabin, stopping to visit with Captain Lewie and look at the daily riddle, which we don’t know the answer to. You can leave your answers on facebook or on here.

We went back to our cabin and watched the recording of the first math talk which Dave hadn’t seen. It’s a very good talk, and the moment when he turns the triangle into horizontal stripes to explain limits made Dave’s head explode just like it did to me when I first watched the lecture. We’re set to have lunch with Frank and William (Bill) on Saturday and I’m looking forward to it.

Then it was time for the show, which was still crowded even for the late show. The comedian was funny, but in that mean-spirited sniggering way. He made a very clear statement about not being able to tell jokes because of political correctness, and his jokes were surprisingly agist for a crowd that skews as old as this one. None of his jokes were as funny as the joke about the pirate with a ship’s wheel stuck to his crotch.

After the show it was directly to bed for us. This is the 2/5 mark.