Esri

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Many moons ago, when I started collecting postage stamps around the age of twelve, I found a stamp from Yap Island in a random collection of (inexpensive) stamps from around the world. This stamp showed a native of Yap standing next to a wheel of stone about twice his height. This was the famous “stone money” of Yap. My singular goal for my visit to Yap Island today was to see the stone money.

I had joined a private tour booked by another member of Cruise Critic. We were to meet at the end of the gangway as soon as we could leave the ship, or at 8:00 AM, whichever came first. 8:00 AM came and went and we were still waiting for the all clear to disembark.

It finally came about 8:30. I was waiting on Deck 2 – Forward. There are a couple of nice couches there. When the all clear came I headed for the elevators. Unfortunately, somebody had forgotten to activate the elevator’s ability to stop on Deck A – where the gangplank had been set up.

There were two or three other people who couldn’t use the stairs and we were a little perturbed. An officer came along though and saw the problem. She called the control center and said they’d have the elevator working in about five minutes. They did, but when I got off the ship my tour group was nowhere in sight. I figured they’d left me and took my time getting to the port gate.

I was taking a picture of the “Welcome to Yap” sign at the gate and a Yapese fellow asked me if I was with the Darcy tour group. I said I was and he gestured for me to come along – they were waiting for me at the bus. The tour organizer came to the gate as I joined him and said she was so glad she found me. I thanked her for waiting.

We had a nice air-conditioned bus and Mary Ann had saved the front seat for me. I thanked her again for that and apologized to everyone for the delay. Since I’d thought they had left me I had not hurried to get to the gate. We left for the tour around 9:00 AM.

It had already been raining on and off during the early morning and we had rain at just about every stop on the tour as well. I did not actually get off the bus during the tour because the ground was uneven (always) and slippery when wet and muddy. I did take pictures of almost everything we saw from the doorway of the bus, however.

Our first stop was the crash site of a Japanese Zero from World War II. Then we visited the old airstrip the Japanese built on the island in 1943. This airfield had become Yap’s commercial airport in 1963 and was in use until 1992. There was a path through the jungle leading to the wreckage of a Japanese “belly bomber” and a 727 that crashed on Yap in 1987. Those ventured into the jungle got very wet.

It started pouring rain and Richard, our driver, gathered up half a dozen umbrellas and ran into the jungle to pass them out. That was very nice of him as all of those who stayed on the bus agreed. We also agreed that we were glad we’d stayed on the bus.

From the abandoned air strip we went to the south of the island to see a “stone money bank”. This is a place used to store the stone money that belongs to the community. Each community, or village, has their own bank. Our tour guide, Helen, explained that these are the only banks where you can make a deposit, but never a withdrawal. Ownership of the stone money is recorded via oral history.

As we were driving through rural Yap (rural is relative – the main town is very small and our tour guide told us the total population of the state of Yap was about 11,000 people in 2004), I noticed some trees with dark green, waxy leaves that looked very much like Magnolias. I asked Helen, the guide, if she knew what they were called, but couldn’t see any when I asked her. She told me to ask again when I saw one.

We stopped to visit a Men’s House in a village and there was one of the trees. When Helen came back to the bus I pointed it out and she got out of the bus and cut a fruit from the tree. When she came back she told us the tree is called “Voi” and they use the fruit both for medicine for chest colds and to add scent to leis. The fruit she had was not ripe so it had no scent.

After the Men’s House we visited a scenic lookout point – the highest point on the island – where you can see both the Pacific Ocean on one side of the island and the Philippine Sea on the other side. From there we visited another village and then returned to “town” – called Colonia – to pay for our tour at the Manta Ray Hotel. Then they gave those of us who were ready to return to the ship a ride back to the port in the bus. About half our number decided to walk back and see what there was to see in town.

After I returned to the ship I took a nap for a couple of hours. Then I read until it was time to take a shower and get ready for dinner. My dinner tonight was in the Pinnacle Grill for Le Cirque. I’m glad I went, but I probably wouldn’t go again. I started with the Caesar Salad, which was a mistake.

This was the oddest Caesar Salad I’ve ever seen. The romaine was cut in squares and stacked like lasagna. It was served with a poached egg on a circular piece of garlic toast. I don’t eat boiled, poached, or fried eggs. I have an aversion to egg whites (except in meringue or angel food cake).

Next I had the Butternut Squash Soup with Huckleberry Compote. It was every bit as good as I’ve heard. My entrée was the Three Cheese Ravioli and it was delicious. It was served with a nice marinara sauce and covered with shaved Parmesan-Reggiano. Delicious.

My dessert was the Crème Brulee and, again, it was wonderful. The custard was not set hard, but was still quite loose. The flavor was wonderful, you could taste the vanilla, and it was almost the best Crème Brulee I’ve ever had. My sister’s was better, but she used Le Cirque’s recipe so I’m sure they were very close.

When I got back to my cabin after dinner I found a small box of chocolate truffles to “complete my Le Cirque experience”. I was too full to eat any, but I’ll try them today sometime.

I read for a few hours and then went to bed around 10:00 PM. I slept well, but did wake up every two or three hours. The ship was really rocking last night and I had to hold on to something every time I walked through the cabin.

Weather Report: The high was about 80-degrees Fahrenheit today. It was really humid and it rained on and off which did not serve to cool anything off, but just made everything “steamy”.

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After finally getting to sleep after midnight last night I slept very well. Until 5:00 AM that is. I finally gave up and got out of bed just before 6:00. Took a shower and then finished yesterday’s blog post on Madang. I published it and checked email and Facebook. If my hair weren’t wet I’d be tempted to go back to bed. Guess I’ll read until breakfast time instead.

I had breakfast in the Dining Room. I shared a table with familiar faces – all people I’ve eaten breakfast or lunch with before. I had buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup, a glass of orange juice, and Earl Grey tea. A very good breakfast.

After breakfast I came back to the room and read for about an hour. Then I went up to the Ocean Bar for Trivia. Nothing of note happened during Trivia. We didn’t get any Dam dollars and finished with a mediocre score.

I came back to the cabin to drop off my bag and then went up to the Lido for lunch. I ate cheese and crackers and grabbed some peanut butter cookies for later. Then I went back to the room. I read until about 2:15 PM and then went up for acupuncture.

Acupuncture was also uneventful. I have two more appointments following this one and Dimitri wants me to start back with the exercises the physical therapist gave me after my surgery. I’ve been doing a few of them when my knee has been stiff, but not painful. I guess I’ll start in earnest tomorrow morning. Dimitri suggested fifteen minutes a day to start, broken up into two or three sessions if I want.

I considered taking a nap after acupuncture. I was very tired, but I decided to read instead. The Outlander series I am reading are books I just can’t seem to put down. I think I have one or two more books in the series.

Tonight was formal with a theme of Medieval Dinner. Nothing medieval about the menu, but the Dining Room was decorated with banners like you see at a Renaissance Faire. The Dining Stewards, Assistants, and even the Managers were wearing either suits of armor or clothing such as a squire would wear. I complimented Dedan on his and he laughed and said it was hot. I told him that at least he didn’t have to wear the hat. Everyone at our table has agreed to include a comment on their end-of-cruise survey that we don’t think the Dining Room employees should have to wear costumes on formal nights. They look quite nice in a vest, bow tie and black pants like the ones they wore on Vegas night. That’s enough as far as we are concerned.

After dinner I read for about an hour and went to be around 8:30 PM. I went to sleep too. I woke up twice. I took some acetaminophen at around 1:00 AM and some ibuprofen at 7:30 AM. Then I went back to bed and slept until almost 10:00. Like I said, I was tired.

Weather Report: It was hot and humid. The high was around 88-degrees Fahrenheit. It was overcast or raining most of the day with patches of heavy fog. During the afternoon and evening the seas were a little choppy.

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I slept better last night. I did wake up and take a Voltaren around 2:30 AM, but managed to go back to sleep quickly. I woke up as Gene, the Cruise Director, was announcing that we can now go ashore in Madang, Papua New Guinea.

I spent an hour or so working on the blog and a few other computer chores. I’ll be going ashore as soon as I finish backing up my pictures and documents to my external hard drives. We are supposedly parked right downtown so I’m going to take some pictures.

Well, going ashore didn’t take long. It was hot, humid and the gate to the pier was almost blocked with a not too friendly looking crowd of locals. I walked down to the end of the pier to gauge how far I’d have to walk and saw this crowd milling at the gate and chickened out.

I went back to the ship and up to the Crow’s Nest to see what I could see. There was a pretty good view from the starboard side so I took some pictures and went back to my cabin. I spent the day processing pictures and reading. I processed everything from Madang and got them posted to a gallery page on the blog.

Other than reading and post-processing using Lightroom I did nothing all day except Trivia at 3:30 PM. We didn’t do badly, but not well enough to get any Dam Dollars. After Trivia I returned to my cabin and read until dinner time.

I had a Shrimp Cocktail, a mixed green salad, and a steak salad for dinner. I clearly shocked Dedan’s sensibilities as he asked me several times if I was sure I wanted “salad and salad”. One of the stewards on the Lido jokingly told Jo Anne his salary was determined by how much she ate – they certainly act like it is sometimes!

I did soothe his hurt feelings by having two desserts though. I had a piece of a very nice spiced chocolate cake and a “Latte Cotta” – a lemon panacotta. Both were very good.

Everyone wanted me to go to the show, a ventriloquist, but I got back to the cabin at 7:15 and started reading. Next thing I knew it was 9:00. I tried to go to bed at around 10:00, but couldn’t sleep. I got up and worked on photos from Sydney until almost midnight.

Weather Report: Although the ship’s weather report said the high today in Madang was 84-degrees Fahrenheit it seemed much hotter than that. This morning it was clouding up like it would rain, but it didn’t while we were there. It was very gray and dismal as we pulled out to sea on our way to Yap, however.

Posted a photo grallery for Madang, Papua New Guinea. See it on Go With Me!

The photos will also be added to the blog post for Madang when it is published -- probably tomorrow.:D

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I had a troublesome night last night. I woke up every two hours or so with pain in my knee. It didn’t hurt when I got up to go to the bathroom – when I walked on it, but for some reason I could not find a comfortable position for sleep. At 4:00 I woke up and could not go back to sleep.

I got up and took a Voltaren and did a little work on the computer. Then I went back to bed at about 4:30. I did go back to sleep and woke up around 7:45. I set my alarm for 9:30 and tried to get a couple more hours, but gave up at 8:00. I brushed my teeth and got dressed (I’d showered and washed my hair last night to get rid of the cut hairs that were making me itch).

I went up and had breakfast in the Dining Room. Pleasant conversations with two couples I’ve eaten with before and a nice omelet made me feel better. After breakfast it was back to the cabin to process pictures.

I’m having a problem with some pictures Aloha had asked me to copy for her from her friends’ cameras before Sydney. The other day when I was trying to copy them I kept getting an error saying the files were corrupted. I could see them and open them though so they weren’t corrupted. I rebooted my computer and finally got them copied to the flash drive. I opened several files from the flash drive to make sure.

Last night at dinner Aloha told me the photos weren’t on the flash drive. Just the ones from her friends’ cameras, the rest were there. I told I had seen them on the flash drive, but I would check again. That is one of the things I did this morning between 4:00 and 4:30. They weren’t there!

I copied them over again. No error messages. Then I rebooted the computer and double-checked and they were still there on the flash drive. I came back from breakfast and checked again and they were gone. I have no idea what is going on. I’m copying them again, to a different folder on the flash drive, as I write this.

No joy. If it was my flash drive I’d format it and be done with it. I’ll have to take it back to Aloha and see what she wants to do with it.

Our team finished first in Trivia today. It was one of those days where I would have had a really good score by myself. I think there was one I didn’t know and one I would have had right that we had wrong. Still I prefer playing with a team – it is more fun.

After Trivia I told Aloha what was going on with her flash drive. I told her that if it was mine I would format it and start over. Of course, she asked me to do that so that’s my evening project.

After Trivia I took a nap until about 3:00 PM. Then I worked on photos from Sydney, leaving those from the first segment for later. I may have some I want to enter in the photo competition for this segment so I need to get them done. I took a shower at 4:30 and read until dinner time.

Tonight I had nothing from my stand-by menu. I had an appetizer of Serrano ham and grilled asparagus – very, very nice. Then a tossed salad with romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots with Bleu cheese dressing. For my entrée I had a nice Fettuccine Primavera with a Parmesan cream sauce. I had cheese instead of dessert again tonight. Same cheese menu as last night so it doesn’t change daily. I don’t know if it ever changes at all. I’ll have to ask Dedan.

After dinner I read and worked on Aloha’s flash drive. Formatting appears to have worked. I’ve removed it several times and I can see still the files in the folders that were showing empty before. Cross your fingers.

I spent about eight minutes chatting with my friend Kim on Facebook. We’ve done so a couple of times before. It’s really nice to talk to her and we try to watch the time… Hi, Kim!

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I woke up just before 8:00 AM this morning. I was still sitting on the side of the bed making sure I was awake before I stood up when the announcement came that we could now leave the ship at today’s port of Alatau, Papua New Guinea. I took a shower and had a Milky Way bar for breakfast… (220 calories, no nutritional value *shrug*). Then I checked my camera and put an envelope with my remaining Australian money and $60.00US in my blue bag.

I left the ship at about 9:15 and was back in my cabin at 10:05. It was hot and so humid that I had to wipe my camera lens before every photo I took because it kept steaming up. I didn’t actually leave the pier.

There was a shuttle bus into town, but several people told me not to bother as I walked to the end of the pier to take a few pictures of the harbor and the mountains in the distance. Then I walked back to the little stand the PNG Post Office had set up to sell stamps.

I spent almost $200.00 on five sheets of different current stamp designs, three collections of all the stamps from different years, and a photo album containing all the stamps issued in 2006. I actually only purchased the photo album because I wanted someplace to store my stamp purchases and keep them from sticking together or getting wrinkled. I was glad I bought it after I looked at it though. There were a lot of very pretty stamps issued in Papua New Guinea in 2006.

When I got back to the cabin I took my diuretic pill and drank a Diet Coke and two liters of water while reading. I read until 11:30 and then I went up to the Lido for lunch. I had a bowl of spaghetti with Bolognese sauce with extra garlic and shaved Parmesan. John, Mary’s father, joined me at my table and we talked while we ate.

After lunch John headed out by the pool to try to sweat out his cold and I came back to the cabin. I checked Facebook and e-mail and I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon working on photo processing. I have an appointment at 3:00 PM to get my hair cut in the salon. I told Kay last night that I probably would not make the Trivia game this afternoon (it doesn’t count for our cumulative score).

I worked on my photos from Alatau until time for my appointment. Danielle did an excellent job with my hair cut. After the hair cut I read until dinner time.

The menu tonight was one of those where nothing really looked good. Jo Anne even went so far as to mention this to Endrian. Since nothing looked good I ordered my stand-by of Shrimp Cocktail, Caesar Salad, and the NY Strip with mashed potatoes. They were serving zucchini chips with one of the entrees and we asked for a plate of those to share. They were excellent. My steak was delicious too.

When Dedan brought the dessert menus I said, “I hear you have a cheese menu?” They did and I ordered four very good cheeses with fruit and crackers. Much better than vanilla ice cream.

Weather Report: Hot! Hot! Hot! It was about 98-degrees Fahrenheit and 90% humidity. Those who took the shuttle and walked around downtown all came back soaked in their own sweat. I did not suffer from my early, and short, trip ashore. Nor did I have that feeling that I was trying to breathe water that I get when walking outside a cool building into the summer heat in Georgia. It was hot though.

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Last night when I went to bed I felt exhausted. I went right to sleep, but woke up every couple of hours or so. I didn’t cough much, but my knee was throbbing a bit. This wasn’t unexpected as it always seems to do so the day after I have acupuncture and I had a long shore excursion on top of that.

About 3:00 AM I finally decided I needed to take a Voltaren. After that I slept through until almost 8:00 AM. I performed my morning ablutions and then checked email and Facebook. I paid a bill that I thought was being paid automatically and double-checked my bank to make sure there weren’t any others falling through the cracks. My property taxes went out a couple of days ago in plenty of time.

I went up to the Queen’s Lounge to hear Barbara’s talk on Papua New Guinea at 10:00. She convinced me that I do need to get off the ship tomorrow in Alatau. Seems to be a lot to photograph in this little visited port. Our visit will be the first by a Holland America Line ship. I should at least record that fact with a few photographs.

After the lecture I headed to the Ocean Bar for Trivia. We got twelve points, but no Dam Dollars. We did get a little kangaroo on a key chain from Gene. Apparently yesterday afternoon they got Koalas. I hung my kangaroo on the lei I’ve had hanging from the light on my vanity since Papeete.

I’ve spent the afternoon copying pictures for Mary. She has so many pictures on her phone that the phone is unusable. It took me over two hours to copy all the pictures from her camera, a spare SD card, and her Samsung phone. She also has an iPhone that is full, but it needed to be charged first so she took it back to her room to do that. I may finish copying the files all back to her flash drive before dinner. Then again, I may not.

I did finish copying the pictures from today to Mary’s flash drive, but not the photo swap pictures. I’m copying those now. We finished dinner quite speedily today – we were done by quarter after seven.

I had my usual appetizer and salad. I ordered the roast loin of beef as my entrée. It came with gravy, Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes and root vegetables. I ate the two huge slices of roast beef, which were just excellent, and the potatoes. I was full when I finished that, but if I’d been at home I would have had another slice or two of roast beef. It was heavenly. I finished with a slice of no sugar-added Hazelnut Mouse Cake. It was also very, very good.

I am now finishing up with Mary’s flash drive. After that I’ll import my photos from yesterday into Lightroom and, perhaps, work on post-processing my pictures from the second day in Lima for a bit. Otherwise, I’ll just read for the rest of the evening.

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Today I took a six-hour shore excursion requiring getting on and off buses, trains, and gondolas. I enjoyed most of it and survived all of it. The knee is a little stiff this evening, but nothing terrible. No shortness of breath or choking fits from my bronchitis – just a little cough now and then.

I had the alarm set for 6:30 AM this morning, but woke on my own around 6:20. I took a shower and read for a bit while waiting for my breakfast to arrive between 7:15 and 7:30. Breakfast was right on time – the makings of a bacon and tomato sandwich and a glass of orange juice.

After breakfast I headed for the Queen’s Lounge – meeting time for our shore excursion wasn’t until 8:45, but I’d been warned it would be a “high volume” morning. It was. There were very few seats left in the auditorium. As I came in a member of the Shore Excursions staff gave me a “color” card which would be used to call the tour instead of the usual tour number. My color was white.

I was in the Queen’s Lounge for about an hour and many tours left before ours – The Kuranda Experience. Finally, they did call white and I headed out to the bus. It was a short walk compared to Sydney and Brisbane. Getting on the bus was not difficult, but once again the “honor system” seats for the mobility impaired were taken by folks whose impairments seemed to be in common courtesy. That’s not a huge problem for me – right now walking on a bus is not terribly difficult, but there were several others with canes who had to go to the back of the bus as well.

We had a short drive through Cairns up to the Freshwater Station to catch the train up to Kuranda. The steps up to the train car were steep, narrow, and shallow. I had no trouble getting up but dreaded having to come back down!

We sat on wooden benches in sets of two – one facing forward and one facing back. These benches ostensibly held four people each. Not comfortably, let me tell you. There also wasn’t room between the facing benches to stretch out your legs in any manner. My knee did NOT like that. The windows were open, but there were iron bars every six inches. This was not conducive to taking great photos. Being in the middle of the seat made it even more difficult to take pictures even though the couple in the window seats did their best to lean back when someone else was taking a picture.

There was one photo opportunity stop before we reached Kuranda. I took advantage of that to stay on the train and stretch my knee out. Walking helps sometimes, but stretching it out in front of me and doing leg lifts helps more. The last ten minutes up to Kuranda was much more pleasant.

Once we got to Kuranda Station we boarded our coach and headed down to the village. Bill, the driver, helped me by taking my cane and bag while I boarded. He kindly took my cane and kept it up front for me. He also told me to take the first seat I could find up front.

There were a couple of empty seats that people had left their bags on and I skipped those. I looked down the right-hand side of the bus, where I had sat earlier, and every seat was taken clear to the last three seats on the bus. So I sat down in the first seat on the left that wasn’t marked with someone’s belongings.

A few minutes after I got on the bus a woman stopped and said “You couldn’t make it back to your old seat?” I said “My old seat was taken.” She then said “Well, you are sitting in ours.” I just looked at her, shrugged, and pointed to the back then turned my head. When she walked away I did say something rude under my breath. When I told this story at the table I was congratulated for only saying it under my breath. Aloha did ask what I had said and I said I wouldn’t repeat it in the Dining Room.

We had an hour in Kuranda and the tour guide had repeatedly mentioned the Butterfly Sanctuary and not being late in the same breath, so I didn’t go to the Butterfly Sanctuary. It was hot. It was almost Georgia in the summer hot and humid. Not quite, but almost.

So I sat on a bench and waited for the lines at Annabel’s Pies to thin out and then bought myself an Australian meat pie (Steak and gravy only) and a Strawberry Slushy. I didn’t need the sugar in the Slushy, but it was very cold! Cooled me off quite well.

I have to say I was not impressed by either the train ride or the village of Kuranda. The train ride was uncomfortable and not nearly as scenic as I had hoped. Once you’ve seen the Great Smokies, the Appalachians, and the Rockies these little mountains were just not impressive. That said, the building of the railroad was great feat of engineering, but I could have admired it from afar quite happily.

The gondola ride down the mountain, on the other hand, was awesome. Taking pictures was much easier. You had a bird’s eye view of everything around you. It was quite beautiful. It was also cool. Not quite air-conditioning cool, but much cooler than the train had been in the morning.

I did enjoy the gondola ride very much. If I were to come back to Cairns and want to go to Kuranda again, I’d take the gondola up and back down. If I was taking a shore excursion I’d take the one where you take the gondola up and the bus back down.

I got back to my cabin a little after 3:30 PM. I took off all my clothes except my underpants and wiped myself down with a cold wash cloth. Then I put my sweats on and read until dinner time.

We were short Mary & John for dinner and Estelle was quite late due to her snorkeling expedition. Once again the menu was short on things I wanted to eat, but I finally settled on a trio of Crostini with various toppings, a Caesar Salad, and the Spruce Hen.

The main reason I chose the Spruce Hen was that it was served with roasted Brussels Sprouts – I had exactly 1-1/2 (they were cut in half) on my plate. They were very good, but I would have loved to have more. I do love Brussels Sprouts and they don’t serve them often.

For dessert I had a slice of Jo Anne’s leftover birthday cake and some Vanilla Ice Cream. Then I went back to the cabin and read until about 9:00 when I went to bed.

Weather Report: It was in the mid-nineties and about 70% humidity. Definitely getting close to Georgia in the summer and it will continue to get hotter as we move along in our itinerary.

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I slept fairly well last night. I did wake up around 4:00 AM with my knee throbbing, but since I took neither Ibuprofen nor Acetaminophen before going to bed and hadn’t taken any Voltaren for over 30 hours I won’t complain. I took a Voltaren and went back to bed. When I woke up at 6:30 my knee didn’t hurt anymore. So I’m not done with painkillers, but at least I’m not taking them as often.

I skipped breakfast again this morning. I had an acupuncture appointment at 10:00 and wanted to stop by the Shore Excursions Office before that. I wanted to see if they still had openings on the trip up to Kuranda on the railway tomorrow from Cairns. They did and I decided to take a chance on a six-hour trip. Cross your fingers for me!

I made an appointment to get a haircut on the day we are in Alatau, Papua New Guinea. The appointment is at 3:00 PM so if I decide to go ashore and see what’s there I’ll be able to do so. There is very little tourism activity on the island, so I have no idea what is there.

I spent a pleasant hour at acupuncture watching the islands of the Great Barrier Reef (some of them anyway) go by. The Captain and the Reef Pilot went off our planned route to allow us to see them. They looked like islands.

After acupuncture I went down to the Ocean Bar for Trivia. We tied for third place and got a Dam Dollar today even with a score of eleven. As Sue said, it wasn’t us, it was the questions!

I had lunch in the Lido today. I started with a cheese plate. No Old Amsterdam to be had, but they had a nice Gouda and Edam. I had one piece of Bleu Cheese as well. Then I had two pieces of pepperoni pizza. That’s the first pizza I’ve had since leaving home.

I had heard that the pizza was terrible, but I thought it was pretty good. The sauce was much more flavorful than the average pasta sauce on board and both the cheese and the pepperoni were very good, in my opinion. The crust was so-so, but it was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle so no complaints. The pizza was very hot too. I’ll have it again.

I was going to work on photos when I got back to my cabin. Instead I set up an account on Postcardly.com and sent a few postcards. I’d previously tried to use a different service and had little luck with it and someone suggested Postcardly. Your photo is printed on the entire front of the postcard where the other service only had a little square picture. You send the photos via email too so that makes it easy to send more the same postcard to more than one recipient.

I also posted yesterday’s blog post. Right now I’m going to read and put my knee up for a while. I may have an hour or so to work on photos before dinner. If not, I’ll do it after dinner.

I did spend a little over an hour working on photos from the second day in Lima this afternoon. I managed to get through the lot – culling the bad photos and duplicates. 256 photos were pared down to thirty-three. I spent another hour after dinner starting the post-processing on those photos.

All seven of us were at dinner tonight. Aloha was a bit late because she went to see the doctor about HER bronchitis and ear infection. She got the good cough medicine and antibiotics. I hope she feels better soon. Being sick on the trip of a lifetime sucks.

One day the menu has three things you really want to eat and the next you can barely find one thing. I decided on Tomatoes & Fresh Mozzarella for my appetizer, a mixed green salad, and Baked Manicotti. When the Manicotti was served I was a little unsure of my decision – it was covered with corn and spinach mixed together.

I ate it though and it was not bad. I would prefer not to have my vegetables served on top of my pasta, but they were tasty and the tomato sauce was also good. For dessert we all had Strawberry Pavlova which Jo Anne had special ordered for her birthday.

We sang Happy Birthday and then Endrian brought her a cake and the wait staff sang their Indonesian birthday song. We did not eat the cake though. Jo Anne asked if it could be saved for tomorrow.

Kay and Jo Anne are going on the same shore excursion as I am tomorrow. We made plans to meet in the Queen’s Lounge between 8:15 and 8:30 in the morning. The meeting time for the excursion is 8:45 and departure is scheduled for 9:00 AM.

Weather Report: It was rather gray and dismal today. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain with thunderstorms in the afternoon. The Captain said we are entering the monsoon area of the Coral Sea.

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I woke up at almost exactly 8:00 AM. I took a shower and got dressed. Then I checked my email and Facebook. I tried to post a blog post, but the connection conked out. So I went up to the Front Office and turned in an immigration questionnaire for Papua New Guinea and then cancelled a shore excursion in Hong Kong. It was the cooking class – unfortunately it includes a market excursion and it was the market that did so much damage to my knee in Lima. Standing is bad!

From there I went up to the Ocean Bar and met Jo Anne who had purchased a flash drive in Brisbane to get her photos for the photo swap. She also purchased one for Mary, but Mary wants me to copy her photos off her phone so she can delete them and make room for more. Jo Anne wants me to do the same thing, but she didn’t bring her phone with her today.

I read until about 11:00 and then I needed to use the restroom. The restrooms on Deck 4 Forward were closed for cleaning so I went back to my cabin. Then I went back to the Ocean Bar for Trivia.

One of the questions was what musical instrument’s name means “Wood Sound” and is played with wooden mallets. The answer is “xylophone”, but one of my team mates insisted it was “marimba”. So, they went with that. They did accept my answer of 1977 as the year Elvis died when I told it was the same year my older son was born. To her credit, the woman who fought for “marimba” did graciously say she should have listed to me after the answers were given. In any event, we wouldn’t have won even if they’d taken “xylophone”. It is more fun to play with other people.

After Trivia I went to lunch in the Dining Room. I think I’ve eaten with all my tablemates there at different times. We ended up being there chatting until almost two o’clock. I had a nice lunch of Almond Chicken Fingers, Lamb Sliders with French Fries, and a no sugar-added Chocolate Éclair. One of my table companions said that she had been told that the desserts were almost all frozen and come from Sara Lee… *sigh*

After lunch I got my blog entry posted. Wrote up the entry for yesterday and started this one. I also copied Jo Anne’s pictures to her thumb drive. Then I spent some time working on my own photos.

I spent a couple of hours working on photos until my knee stiffened up. Then I put my leg up on the couch and read until dinner time. Dinner was a quick affair tonight since there were only five of us. Kay and Jo Anne went to the Pinnacle with friends to celebrate Jo Anne’s birthday. We’ll be having our little celebration tomorrow night.

Dinner was good. I had pasta again – Ziti with Andouille in Marinara Sauce. It was very tasty and the Andouille was pleasantly spicy. I had my usual Shrimp Cocktail and Caesar Salad. For dessert I had the Cherry Pavlova even though Jo Anne has ordered Strawberry Pavlova for tomorrow. It was very nice, but about twice as big as the last they time they served it.

I thought about going to the show last night. It was a Beatles tribute band, but I started getting a tension headache midway through dinner. By the time dinner was over my shoulders and neck were really tight. So I went back to my hobbit hole and read until ten. No TV, just silence and a good book (on a Kindle).

Weather Report: More of the same. Hot, humid, and overcast.

Read it on Go With Me! (With photo)

Cuddly Koalas and Valentine’s Day go together well, don’t you think? My husband gave me a stuffed Koala on more than one Valentine’s Day. He almost always gave me a stuffed animal as I was an avid collector of cute plushies and Beanie Babies for many years. Until he died, I guess. Just like football, my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

This Valentine’s Day though I was going to find out just how cuddly Koalas really are. Other than the game drive out of Durban, I think my visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is the excursion I’ve anticipated most during the planning of my world voyage. What little girl doesn’t want to hold a Koala?

It took my trusty alarm clock to get me out of bed at 6:30 AM following a really good night’s sleep. The cough syrup is definitely helping and my knee is definitely better. I can’t swear it is the acupuncture since I’ve been taking it fairly easy on the knee, but I walked four miles our first day in Sydney, much of it on fairly steep hills, and had no worse pain the day after than the day before. Can I get a “Hallelujah”?

I took a shower and read while I waited for my breakfast to be delivered. I went light on breakfast. A pot of tea with honey and cinnamon and a toasted English Muffin. My tour didn’t meet in the Queen’s Lounge until 9:30, so I wrote up a quick blog post saying I was going to hold a Koala and posted it online.

At 9:15 AM, I went up to the Queen’s Lounge and they called our excursion right on time at 9:30. The walk through the terminal and to the waiting bus was probably a little over a quarter-mile over flat terrain. The bus was parked next to the curb and the first step was probably only two or three inches above ground. Piece of cake.

Mary and her father were already on board. There were four seats reserved by name for handicapped people and one reserved on the “honor system” for the mobility challenged. There was a woman sitting in that seat and I asked if I could join her. (Just for the record, she was NOT mobility challenged in any way.) She said I could, but then immediately leaned over and said I could sit in the front seat. I told her it was reserved for the tour guide and she frowned. Again, for the record, I wouldn’t have moved anyway as there was no knee in the front seat and I don’t like my jam my knee against anything. I gave her the benefit of the doubt though that she was looking out for my comfort.

As we were driving through Brisbane, the tour guide (whose Dutch name I cannot begin to spell) and the driver, Alan, kept up a running commentary on what we were seeing. I took a bunch of photos, which seemed to annoy my seatmate who was in the window seat to no end. I didn’t care. I’m not sure how many of the photos will be usable as most were taken while the bus was moving.

The bus was comfortable and air-conditioned. It was a very nice ride out to Lone Pine. The first animal we saw was a Bearded Dragon lounging under the welcome sign. He was a very good model, turning his head this way and that and even looking straight up at me. Then I took a picture of him with Mary and when she stood up she kind of startled him and he scooted behind the sign. Not when she got down there with him, but when she stood up.

We walked straight through the park to the Kangaroo Encounter and beyond for a tree planting ceremony. Part of our tour price was a donation for the purchase of a Eucalyptus tree for the Koalas’ diet. I chose to take a break in the roofed gazebo in the Kangaroo Encounter during thetree planting. Walking isn’t bad, but standing can be torture.

While I was sitting there I took some pictures of the Emus wandering about. Then I saw a couple of Grey Kangaroos next to a replica of a house. People were walking right up to them and petting them and taking pictures. The big male seemed to be particularly friendly, but then a little boy about six came running up to him and he hopped behind the building.

When the kangaroos were alone again I walked over and took some pictures of the female, who was lying down next to the house. The male poked his head around the corner and I politely asked if I could take his picture. He also posed nicely – turning his head to different angles and giving me the opportunity for some head-on shots. I did not try to pet him since he had been a bit frazzled earlier.

Then it was time for our Koala Encounter. The line wasn’t bad – about ten minutes which didn’t seem to bother my knee at all. My Koala was a male named “Fingle”. He had really nice white spots on the lower part of his body.

To hold them, you make a seat for them by placing one hand on top of the other. Then the keeper places the Koala and he holds on however he chooses. Fingle put one arm around my neck and the other on my opposite arm. He reached up and touched his nose to my face which was very nice. He was warm and very cuddly.

The photographer took a picture with her camera and then took a couple with mine. Then the keeper took Fingle back and let me pet him softly on his back. I’d been told they had wiry hair, but it was still very soft. Like a Schnauzer or Airedale rather than the steel wool that had been described to me. It was an awesome experience.

After I picked up my Koala picture I walked back to the Gift Shop and picked up some souvenirs. I got a stuffed Koala, an Echidna made of stone, and a Coozie (cold drink cooler) for me, some postcards and magnets for my sister, and a boomerang and some Australian Animal cards for my grandson, Eli. Then I sat down in the shade and waited a few minutes until it was time to board the bus.

Our next stop was a scenic overlook atop Mount Kootha. Unfortunately it was very hazy and I didn’t think pictures would come out very well. So I elected to stay on the bus. My seatmate got off so I took the window seat so I could take better pictures on the way back to the ship (evil aren’t I?). This had the effect of pissing off my seatmate and she went and found someplace else to sit. No skin off my nose.

I got some more pictures on the way back into Brisbane. We got back to the ship about 2:30. I went to my cabin and found that we had received flowers (a single red rose) and chocolates (a nice box of mixed chocolates from the Seattle Chocolate Company). We also got another letter of apology about the Internet – this one from two HAL Vice Presidents in Seattle.

How about instead of an apology they refund us some minutes without making us jump through hoops? They had forms available a week or so ago in the Library for requesting minute refunds. It seemed they were refunding minutes on a whim though – some people asked for 200 minutes and got 200 and others asked for 90 and got 10. I didn’t bother at all. I was sick and couldn’t walk and didn’t need to be further annoyed on top of it all.

I had a great time on my shore excursion. It was the first one since Manta that was JUST fun – no pain or suffering of any kind. Holding a Koala was everything I thought it would be when I was six. I wish I could do that again at every port.

There was one shadow over the day though. Paul and I had our marriage blessed by the Catholic Church on Valentine’s Day thirty-two years ago. Father Sullivan told Paul that he had no excuse for forgetting our anniversary. He never did – either the 2nd of September when we were married by a Unitarian minister or Valentine’s Day. He even went out and got me flowers and a stuffed bear with a red Valentine’s Heart while he was undergoing chemo and getting sicker every day. So I was a little sad at times during the day.

Trivia was at 3:00 PM in the Ocean Bar and went down and played with my new team for the first time. We didn’t do that well. We would have tied for third place if it was Gene, but it was Kevin and he uses a tie-breaker which we did not win. They are all nice though and I’m looking forward to playing with them every day.

One funny thing about Trivia was that one of the questions was about a corollary to Murphy’s Law – who proposed the law that states “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong and at the worst possible moment.” The answer was “Fingle”. I doubt it was the Koala though.

After Trivia I went back to the cabin and took a shower and got all gussied in what I pass off as formal wear. Then I read for about half an hour until it was time for dinner. Aloha didn’t join us for dinner. She still wasn’t feeling well – she has a cold.

I had a Shrimp Cocktail, the Garden of Eden Salad (mixed salad with a crouton spread with herbed goat cheese), then I had the NY Strip with a lobster tail. It was all really good. I had vanilla ice cream for dessert. Dedan always looks so sad when I order vanilla ice cream even though I keep telling him that I LIKE vanilla ice cream.

The piano player, Debbie Bacon, was playing love songs in the Dining Room tonight and right after we sat down she played “Could I Have This Dance?” I said “They’re playing our song!” and Jo Anne said “This is your song?” I said that it was the song Paul asked the band to play the night we got engaged. Later, while we were waiting for our desserts, I asked if I could make a toast. I told them that it was the 32nd anniversary of Paul and I having our marriage blessed and toasted “the nicest guy I ever met”. I managed to do it without crying too!

After dinner we went to the movies to watch America’s Sweethearts. Nothing says Valentine’s Day like a good romantic comedy. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this particular one before, but it was very funny. I like Julia Roberts and her character was likeable in this movie. I think it was one of the last she made before she made a string of movies with spoiled rotten, conniving heroines.

After the movie I just went straight to bed. I slept like a baby – two nights in a row!

Weather Report: It was not nearly as hot in Brisbane as forecast by Google (95-degrees Fahrenheit), but it was hotter than the Captain’s forecasted 75-degrees. I think it was actually about 85 and the humidity was around 50%. It was overcast most of the day and it was raining as we sailed out of Brisbane at dinner time.

Read it on Go With Me!

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I spent an almost sleepless night seemingly coughing up my guts last night. I gave up at around 6:45 AM and got up and went to breakfast in the Dining Room. I sat by myself so I could get in and out quickly.

I ordered some hot tea and honey, orange juice, a fruit plate, and a Southwest Omelet (green and red bell peppers, onions, Monterey Jack, salsa, guacamole). Unfortunately, the omelet guy came to work late and it took about thirty minutes to get my omelet. It was almost worth the wait though. It was yummy. The toast was slightly burned and slightly cold, however. I didn’t say anything because I really only wanted a bite or two anyway.

After breakfast I took myself down to the Medical Center. They offered me cough syrup, but I said I needed to see the doctor. They said he’d be in at 10:00. So I went and read for an hour and came back. It took about twenty minutes to get in to see the doctor.

Good news – my blood pressure was fine. Bad news – slight fever. He agreed with my diagnosis of bronchitis. He asked if I was allergic to codeine and I said I wasn’t. Then he said he was giving me the good stuff out of the locked cabinet. He prescribed the cough syrup with codeine and continuing to drink hot liquids with honey and/or lemon.

Since I have no green phlegm he didn’t think I needed another round of antibiotics and he’s not ready to give me steroids either. He thinks calming the cough will allow the bronchitis to heal. I agree about the antibiotics, but I’m not sure about the steroids. We’ll see, but I’ll take what relief I can get.

I’d already called Kay and told her I wouldn’t be at Trivia this morning. I had hoped to go back to bed, but when I tried I couldn’t sleep. I ready for an hour and then went up to the Lido for a light lunch. I had tea with honey and a plate of cheese and crackers. The Old Amsterdam cheese came highly recommended and it was delicious. I also had a couple of slices of Pepper Jack and about a tablespoon of Bleu.

After lunch I tried again to take a nap, but no joy once again. I got up and backed up my pictures and blog posts to my external hard drives. Then I checked Facebook and my email. I finished and posted yesterday’s blog post and started this one.

I have to say that I haven’t coughed much since I took the cough syrup at 10:30 this morning. I’m to take it every six hours and I’m at five-and-a-half now. I’m going to take a shower and wash my hair and then take another dose of cough syrup and my evening meds. Maybe I’ll get a decent night’s sleep tonight.

I took a peek at the dinner menu this morning and I’m trying to make up my mind between Spaghetti Putanesca and Carne Asada. They are also having those Chile Rellenos again, but I think I’ll pass on those. I have to make up my mind whether I want pasta or Mexican. Probably pasta.

Dinner was very nice. Jo Anne was back at the table sporting a nice shiner, but no further damage to her broken wrist or any new sprains or breaks. Again we were a little quieter sans Vangie.

I decided on the Spaghetti Putanesca and I’m glad I did. It was delicious. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the sauce was tasty. They were a little stingy with the sauce, but it was enough to flavor the entire bowl of pasta. I ate every bite.

I started with a nice seafood spring roll with Thai noodles and a slightly spicy sweet chili sauce. Yes, Birdie, you now have permission to try some rice noodles on me. I had a Caesar Salad with extra anchovies, thanks to Jo Anne. As I said the spaghetti was yummy. For dessert I had something so unmemorable I don’t remember what it was!

After dinner I came back to the cabin. I read for about an hour and then went to bed and promptly fell asleep. I coughed a little during the night, but just a cough or two at a time and not that prolonged choking I’ve been getting.

Weather Report: High in the mid-eighties and overcast most of the day. Tomorrow in Brisbane it is supposed to be in the mid-nineties.

I get the impression processing and uploading pictures is a problem for Pat, especially with the Amsterdam's internet challenges. If you look at the top banner her blog, there's a Galleries tab. I think that's where the pictures will be posted to the extent that the internet permits.

 

Pat, did you get a survey about the 2016 world cruise.

 

No cabin assignment for me yet. See you in Cape Town.

 

Roy

Yes. I got the survey. I hope to get the possible itineraries posted after we leave Australia.

I am enjoying you blog. Do you post pictures? I'm glad you're feeling better.

I post pictures as I get them processed. That was going very slowly when I was sick, but hope to pick up the pace on sea days now that I feel better. You can see the pictures I've already posted under the Galleries menu on Gowithme.net.

Read it on Go With Me!

I have two days left to get myself ready for Australia. I am not staying on the ship in Australia! I woke up early to get myself to acupuncture at 8:30 AM. I had put in my breakfast order from In Room Dining for 7:30 and it arrived right on time. I had a bagel with cream cheese and lox, orange slices, and two glasses of orange juice. I actually only ate half a bagel. It was good, but I was full.

This morning Dimitri expanded his placement of his little pins to my fingers, toes, and right knee as well as both elbows. Let me tell you, having those little pins stuck in your fingers and toes is painful. As he was sticking the pins in, I let out a loud “Ouch” or two. Dimitri said I should feel free to curse if I felt like it. He told me his instructors in school called those the “mother-in-law points”.

After acupuncture, I went down to the Ocean Bar to read and collect photos for our Photo Swap. Vangie came down about 11:00 AM and stayed with me for Trivia. She kindly pointed out that Mr. Munster’s first name was “Herman” and not “Fred” (Fred Gwynne was the actor who played him). As a result, I tied for second place with a score of sixteen!

This is the first time I’ve been in the money when playing solo (well, almost solo). Even better, when the cumulative scores were announced I was not in last place! There were three or four teams below me. I came away with 12 Dam Dollars for second place (Vangie did not want her share) and 121 for the segment. As I told Kay at dinner, I’m bringing value to the table when I join her team. She kindly said that she already knew I was.

After Trivia, I went back to my cabin to process the Photo Swap pictures. I imported them into Lightroom and then exported them – changing the file names to include the photographer’s name and adding a watermark as well. That way we know whose photos we are looking at in a slideshow or whatever.

It took me most of the afternoon to process the pictures, but I did put my knee up at about four to help get rid of the stiffness that comes from sitting too long. Then it was dinner time. I decided to take a chance on my entrée tonight – I ordered the Braised Ox-Tail. I also had my standard Shrimp Cocktail and Caesar Salad.

The Ox-Tail was very good. It was like a nice, fatty, pot roast. Very yummy. I would have preferred mashed potatoes to the risotto that came with it, but it was okay. For dessert I had a scoop of pistachio ice cream and a scoop of vanilla.

After dinner tonight I worked on post-processing some of my own photos and then read for an hour or so. Then I went to bed. I set the alarm for 6:30 so I could go to breakfast in the Dining Room.

Weather: It was in the high eighties again today. No rain that I know of, but it was overcast for much of the day.

Read it on Go With Me! (With Photo)

As I said yesterday, New Caledonia wasn’t even on my radar as far as places I wanted to visit on this cruise so I spent today on the ship again. I slept late (almost 10:00 AM!). Then I had a really nice omelet in the Lido. I took my little camera with me in case the view was worth photographing. Surprisingly, it was.

I was sitting near a window taking pictures of a very pretty little lagoon when Vangie called out “Hey, you!” She sat down with me and took a few pictures of the Carnival Spirit (I think it is following us!). She looked over at the island and said “Look! An island – with pine trees.” I sort of rolled my eyes and said “Hence the Ile des Pines, I suppose?” She simply rolled her eyes back at me.

I told her I was debating whether to go all the way back to my cabin to get my good camera and a tripod and try to take a panoramic shot of the island from the deck by the pool. I decided I was too lazy. Vangie said she could identify with that. We are going to have a great time on the Grand South America.

Vangie was working on a watercolor for her watercolor class – a tiger. We talked about the 2016 World Cruise Itinerary Surveys we received last night. I told the itinerary that most appealed to me was the one that went to Antarctica and Europe. It also goes to Oman and Egypt and goes through the Suez Canal. Of course, I doubt I’ll take another world cruise unless I win the lottery. My world cruise fund will be depleted after the Grand South America & Antarctica next year.

My knee started hurting a bit after about an hour so I excused myself to walk around for a while before it stiffened up. I took the elevator down to Deck Five and checked out the view from the Port side of the ship (not as good as from Starboard). Then I went back to the cabin to drop off my bag before heading up to the Dining Room for lunch.

I had a full lunch today. A repeat of the Vegetable Spring Roll with Thai Chili Sauce, Ziti with Italian Sausage in a Cream Sauce, and Cherry Burgundy Ice Cream. All very yummy. The Italian Sausage in the ziti was spicy and gave the cream sauce a nice kick for a change.

After lunch I came back to the cabin and logged on to the Internet to check my email and Facebook. My niece and her husband were driving from Louisiana to Georgia today to spend a couple of days with my sister (her mother).

Angie posted that they’d gotten stuck behind the longest train she’d ever seen and that Jimmie had gotten a ticket for reckless driving after cutting around the guard rail when the train finally got past. I just posted “Waycross?” and a smiley face. Angie posted right back that it was indeed Waycross. She also wanted the password for my Wi-Fi, so they have safely arrived at Camp Swampy.

I spent most of the afternoon reading with my leg propped up. Then I went up to dinner in the Dining Room. The menu was so-so, but they did have Porterhouse Steak on there. Now, I can’t eat a 20-ounce steak at any time, but I do love a good steak. So I ordered the Porterhouse and my stand-by Shrimp Cocktail and Caesar Salad.

Oh, man, that steak was good. It was cooked just right. I ate the filet and the outside of the sirloin part – probably half the total. I told Vangie that if I was at home I could put the rest in the refrigerator and have it for breakfast. She told me I should ask them to wrap it up then bring it back in the morning… No way.

During dinner we finalized plans for our photo swap. I’m going to be in the Ocean Bar tomorrow morning from 10:00 – 11:45. They can bring their cameras, phones, and what-have-yous and I’ll copy their photos to my computer. Then I’ll copy the combined photos back to whatever storage devices they have on Monday. I told Vangie that if we continue the photo swap for the remaining segments I’ll make sure she gets copies when I get home.

During dinner we were sailing through a channel leaving New Caledonia. The islands on either side were hilly, rocky, and green. We all said that the view told us why they call it New Caledonia. It looks like Scotland.

Estelle wanted everyone to come up to the Crow’s Nest and 9:30 for a special celebration, but I don’t do night life. I turned on the TV when I got back to my room and watched part of Promised Land, but went to bed early. I have an appointment for acupuncture at 8:30 AM tomorrow.

Weather Report: It was only in the mid-eighties today. Everyone said it was very nice weather when they went ashore on Ile des Pines.

Read it on Go With Me! (Photo included - of two of my cats!)

We are in Noumea, New Caledonia, today, but since I decided to cancel my shore excursion because it involved too much standing (not walking, standing…. I walk better than I stand) I am staying on-board the Amsterdam today. New Caledonia is one of those places I really wasn’t too excited about visiting anyway. I slept late. Had breakfast in my room and then went to the Library to see if there what Noumea looked like. It looked like a city, complete with electronic billboards. So, deciding to take it easy today was not difficult.

I read in the Library for a couple of hours. Then I went back to my cabin and found a note from Endrien apologizing again for my missed dinner along with a half-dozen chocolate covered strawberries. Guess what I had for lunch?

I finished a couple of blog entries and got them posted on the Internet. My knee was getting a little stiff so I put it up on the couch and read. After an hour or so, I worked on another blog entry and got that posted. By that time it was time for dinner. So I changed clothes and went up to the Dining Room.

Estelle and Aloha were MIA for dinner. Vangie said they had gone in search of free Internet. The rest of us had a good time. I once again had Shrimp Cocktail and Caesar Salad, but I had the pasta offering for my entrée – Cheese Tortellini with a Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto sauce. The pasta was not bad. The pasta itself was a little thick, but it was tasty and well-cooked. Still missing any noticeable garlic or basil (in pesto?), but the tomatoes were flavorful. I had vanilla ice cream again. Dedan said “That’s all? You’re sure, Madame Pat?” and I assured him that I like vanilla ice cream.

Everyone at our table has agreed to take part in a photo swap before Sydney. Vangie is leaving the ship there so we need to do it before we get there. I volunteered to be the techie. I told everyone I would be in the Ocean Bar by 10:00 AM tomorrow (the first of two sea days) and again the next day.

I told them to bring their cameras or SSD cards tomorrow and I’d copy the pictures to my computer. Then the next day they need to bring a flash drive or external hard drive for me to copy the compiled collection for them. Mary said she doesn’t have anything to copy back to, but she’s going to come see me when we get home and get it then. Works for me.

After dinner, I went to the movies. The Family (Robert de Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Michelle Pfeiffer) was playing at the Wajang. It was a very dark comedy, but I enjoyed it very much. Not the kind of movie my sister likes, but right up my alley. My favorite part was when de Niro was expounding on the reality of Good Fellas for a French film club.

After the movie I took a couple of Acetaminophen and read for about an hour. Then I went to bed. Another day gone.

Weather Report: I really don’t know how hot it was today. Somewhere in the high 80s, I believe. It was raining at dinner time.

Read it on Go With Me!

I had a restless night – my legs both hurt off and on. I woke up at 7:30 AM, however, able to walk without my cane. I did take it with me as I was out and about on the ship, just in case.

I had a 10:00 AM appointment for acupuncture. We concentrated mostly on the knee with a few pins for my lungs. I can’t tell that the acupuncture is helping my bronchitis, but although I’m coughing I am not wheezing. That’s a good sign.

After acupuncture I went to Trivia. I got my lowest score yet, but it was only one point less than the team I sometimes join. I believe the highest score was fifteen. There were grumbles about Gene’s answers to several questions.

After Trivia I went back to the cabin – mainly to rest my leg. I ordered a hamburger and a cheese plate from In Room Dining. Both were good. Then I tried the Internet, but it was not cooperating. I worked on blog entries for about an hour and then put my leg up and read.

Tonight was a formal night with the theme “Dinner with the Gnomes”. The Dining Room was not decorated though, other than the linens, chair covers, and party hats for the guests. The poor stewards though had to wear gnome hats with fake beards.

We had teased Endrien, the supervisor, about never having to wear the ridiculous get-ups his “boys” did. So tonight he did don a gnome hat and a beard – at least when he was at our table. It seems they really will go to great lengths to please the guests. Several of us commented, among ourselves, that we planned to mention on the end-of-cruise survey that we would not feel slighted if the Dining Stewards didn’t have to wear stupid hats and costumes.

I was told that I was missed at dinner last night. Someone asked what I’d eaten and I said I hadn’t. I said I’d ordered dinner, but it never came. Dedan was helping me with my napkin at the time and he said “You didn’t get dinner last night, Madame Pat? That is terrible!” I laughed and said it was perfectly all right. I was watching a movie and by the time I realized that dinner hadn’t come, I was ready for bed.

There were a good many guests who had apparently decided to skip formal night in the Dining Room. As a result, dinner went much more quickly than usual. I decided that I was going to have Surf & Turf (again) and we ordered a couple of bowls of crab legs for the table to share. I had my usual Shrimp Cocktail and Caesar Salad.

For dessert I had Key Lime Cheesecake. Aloha had the same and she said she didn’t taste the Key Lime. Estelle told a story about having Key Lime Pie in Key West and finding that it was a lot sourer than Key Lime Pie you get most places. Aloha asked if I tasted the Key Lime and I said it was in the jelly like layer at the bottom of the cheesecake – I said it was “real” Key Lime, like in Key West. Aloha asked Estelle to taste and she confirmed my opinion. The cheesecake was really very good.

After dinner I went to back to my cabin. I found a card with my Three Star Mariner pin in it saying that I would receive all the benefits of being a Three Star Mariner for the rest of the cruise.

I ran through the movie channels on television and found Star Trek: Into Darkness. So, I settled down on the couch with my knee raised and watched the movie and read. At one point the phone rang and it was Endrien, our Dining Room Supervisor. He said that he had been told that I had not gotten my In Room Dining order the night before.

I told him that was right, but asked how he knew. He laughed and said he had his sources. He also asked why I hadn’t called to complain. I told him that by the time I realized it wasn’t coming, I just wanted to go to bed. He apologized and said that he would make sure it did not happen again. After the movie, I went to bed.

Weather Report: I did not go outside today, but it was already hot on the Lido deck when I went to acupuncture this morning. I’d bet on high nineties for the day.

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Well, since I didn’t write this “live” yesterday, let me start by saying “I got off the ship!” I had a good time too, although there were times when I thought I was a damn fool. I came back from my excursion exhausted, my leg hurt so bad I wasn’t sure I could really drag myself to the cabin (several friends offered to help me, but we all know what comes before a fall, right?).

I did drag myself to the cabin though and took a second dose of Voltaren and some Acetaminophen, put my leg up, and in about an hour I could actually walk without pain or stiffness again. I survived, in other words. So, let me tell you about my day in Fiji.

We took a private excursion which had been arranged by a fellow Cruise Critic member. There were a few people I knew from previous excursions, or around the ship, Cruise Critic, of course, and Kay and Mary, my tablemates. We met in the Atrium on Deck 3 at 8:15.

Our tour organizer, Gary, checked us all in quite professionally. Then after Gene announced that we could now leave the ship we went down the gangway and up the dock to meet our tour guide. This is the first place that the tour description differed from what actually happened. We were told we only had to walk to get on the boat we’d be using to take a scenic tour. Instead we got on a bus.

We had just wonderful Fijian tour guides and staff throughout the day. I want to say that right up front. They were friendly and very, very helpful. I’ve met some friendly people in every country so far, but in Fiji, they are really friendly and are either really happy or great actors, every one.

On the walk up to the bus, which really wasn’t very far, I heard many people already proclaiming “Oh, my God, it’s hot.” It was hot, but I’m from Georgia. I was sweating, but I didn’t feel the same oppressive heat and humidity I feel at home in the middle of the summer. Sometimes you walk outside and you feel like you just can’t breathe – it feels like the air is made out of water. It wasn’t like that.

My first obstacle of the day was the first step to get in the bus. It was at least fifteen inches high and there was only one hand rail. The bus driver kindly gave me his hand from the top step and I made the first step all right. I thanked him and told I had it from there as there was a top rail I could reach once I made that first step.

Once we got everybody on the bus, our tour guide, Fili, told us we had about a thirty minute drive to the port where the boat was docked. It was a lovely drive. The area we were in, near Lautoka, was lush and green.

There were large fields of sugar cane. Fili told us that Lautoka was known as “The Sugar City”. Palm trees, as well as normal deciduous trees, grew everywhere. There were not a lot of sights to see on the drive. Apparently there is a huge orchid garden on the top of the mountain, but it wasn’t on our tour.

As we rode along, Fili taught us a few words in Fijian. Unfortunately I only remember “Pula”, which means “Hello”. I remember it because “pula” means “rain” in Setswana, the native language of the people of Botswana (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, remember?).

She also taught us the concept of “Fiji Time” – the thirty minute drive was really about forty-five minutes, with little traffic. We got to the resort area where we were to meet the boat. If getting on the bus was a little daunting, stepping down that fifteen inches hurt a lot.

Then we had to walk a couple of hundred yards to the building where we signed in to get our boarding passes for the boat and stand in line to do that. My knee was screaming. After everyone had signed in, we were still waiting for something. Mary pointed to a little café and I went in and sat down until they called us.

By the time they called us, my knee was fine again. We walked over to where the boat was, Mary did give me her arm to steady me. The boat was the second thing that didn’t meet expectations. It was like a ferry-boat. We’d been told it was a luxury cruise and that Princess Diana had rented the boat for three days once.

So we got on the boat and headed out on our scenic cruise. It was pretty enough, but it wasn’t what I’d call a “scenic cruise”. I think we just went straight to the Bounty Island resort. There was no commentary on what we were seeing or anything like that. The trip over took about an hour and a half (remember that).

When we got to the island they took everybody over in a little boat. I decided to stay on the ferry because I wasn’t sure how well I’d do walking on the beach. It was really cool on the boat, but it was a lot hotter outside. Kay decided to stay on the boat too since she was still suffering the effects of her sunburn from Bora Bora.

After a couple of hours, folks started coming back from the island and lunch was served. Lunch was okay, but nothing to write home about. Mary came back from the island and told us that there were a bunch of people from the Carnival Spirit who were refusing to come back to the boat because they had been told they’d be on the island “all day”.

We were supposed to back to the ship at 3:30 (all aboard was 4:30). It was getting close to 2:00 already. We had an hour and a half cruise back to the port and at least forty-five minutes back to Lautoka. There started to be a bit of grumbling among the HAL passengers. The staff told us not to worry – we were on “Fiji time”. I said that the Captain wasn’t on Fiji time – he was on Amsterdam time.

It was 2:45 before they finally got all the Carnival folks back on the ferry and we headed back to Denauru port. We got there at about 3:45. When we got on the bus the tour guide finally admitted we were on a tight schedule to get us back by 4:30.

Traffic was terrible and they were doing road construction at one point. I think the tour guide and driver finally figured out that their passengers were no longer on Fiji time and were getting very anxious. When we came to the top of the little mountain and could see the Amsterdam in the harbor below, the tour guide said “See – the boat’s still there!”

I don’t think any of us really breathed easily until the bus pulled up, right in front of the Amsterdam’s gangway. One woman smiled at me on the way out and said “Well, they didn’t leave us, anyway.” I laughed and wondered aloud whether we’d all be called to the principal’s office for being tardy. (It was 4:45.)

When I stepped down off that 15-inch step I gave my knee a real bad jar. I knew from experience that coming down on the good leg and leaving the bad one up was even worse though. So I had to take Mary’s arm until I got to the gangway. I got up the gangway and through Security and Mary helped me to the elevator. She asked if I needed help getting to my room and I told her I was going to rest on the couch for a few minutes and I’d be fine.

A couple of other people who passed me sitting on the couch also asked if I needed help getting back to the cabin and I said no thanks. When I stood up to actually go to the cabin though I was a little worried. It took about three times as long to from the forward end of the ship to my cabin near the aft end as it usually does and it hurt like hell. But I made it.

My plan had been to take a shower and go to dinner. I was so tired and my leg hurt so bad though that I took my clothes off and washed off in the sink. Then I put on a t-shirt and sweat pants and ordered dinner from In Room Dining. I took a Voltaren and two Acetaminophen and propped my leg up on the couch.

Kay had told me that Water for Elephants was on one of the movie channels. I found it and it had just started. I got so caught up in the movie that I didn’t notice my dinner hadn’t arrived until the movie was over! By that time it was after 8:00 PM. I was so tired I just went to bed.

Weather Report: It was in the high nineties. It was hot and pretty humid. Southeast Georgia in the summer is hotter though.

Read it on Go With Me!

Today was an uneventful day at sea. I was resting up to venture off the ship tomorrow in Fiji. I went to Trivia at 11:45. Did horribly. Then I had lunch in the Lido and came back to the cabin. I read all afternoon. I thought about taking a nap, but decided against it.

Everyone at our table agreed to move the party to Canaletto tonight. Italian food sounded mighty good to me. I’d heard the food was just so-so, but since we don’t even have a so-so Italian restaurant in my hometown that was okay with me. We had reservations at 5:30.

I was the first to arrive and the manager apologized because they didn’t have a table for eight. They offered me a choice between a table for six with eight chairs and two tables for four. I chose to squeeze a little closer together at the table for six.

Canaletto has adopted a family style menu. It starts with small plates (appetizers), then pasta, and then the entrée. They suggest two small plates, one pasta, and one entrée per two people. Family style works for us, because we do a lot of family style in the Dining Room. We decided that we’d just start by ordering one of everything.

I can’t remember everything on the menu, but my favorites were the antipasto with slices of prosciutto and capacola, the veal meatballs (they would be a great addition to the spaghetti), the spaghetti Bolognese, and the ziti with spicy Italian sausage. The pasta was especially delicious – cooked al dente with flavorful sauces. Why can’t they serve pasta like that in the Dining Room? The pasta in the Dining Room always seems to be very bland – no taste of garlic, basil, or oregano.

We had a great time at dinner. We lingered past eight o’clock. We did lose a few of our number as time went on. Joanne excused herself because her broken wrist was bothering her. Mary and John left before dessert. The desserts were very nice – they were very small. I gelato with a combination of flavors reminiscent of Spumoni.

After dinner I went back to my cabin and read for about an hour. Then I went to bed early so I could drag myself out of bed early in the morning for my excursion in Fiji.

Weather Report: I didn’t go outside and I missed the noon message from the Captain, but I know it was hot and humid.

I hope the lack of mention of your cold is a sign of progress.

 

Roy

Yes, the head cold is gone. I no longer feel "sick". I just have the cough from hell. ;)

Read it on Go With Me!

I slept better last night than I have in a while. I coughed some and my knee hurt some, but neither was as bad as previous nights. I did wake up at 6:30 in a bit of pain, but I took my Voltaren and went back to bed. I don’t know how long it took me to go back to sleep, but I didn’t wake up until after 9:00.

I went to bed on Saturday night and woke up on Monday morning. Not to worry, though, I didn’t sleep for twenty-four hours. We crossed the International Date Line around 2:00 AM and Sunday went “Poof!” So today we have Superbowl Monday.

No breakfast this morning. Trivia was at 10:00 instead of 11:45 so I had to scramble to get dressed and haul myself to the front of the ship. I did well all by myself today – fifteen points. This is the first time I beat the team I sometimes play with. Yay!

After Trivia I came back and put my knee up for an hour while I read. Then I went to lunch in the Lido. I had BBQ Chicken and French Fries. I came back and read with my knee up for another hour. Then I got out my computer and checked the Internet.

I got my email and Facebook checked, but the connection conked out when I tried to post yesterday’s blog entry. I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon reading. I was thinking about working on photos, but I’m feeling a bit tired and I want to keep my knee raised.

My sister posted on Facebook last night that our dogs are killers. Sweet Mab and Molly? They killed a possum in the yard. She took it away from them, but she was very upset. I posted that they were dogs. Then a few minutes later I saw her post from this morning – the possum escaped from the trash bag she’d put it in. She went to throw it way this morning and it was gone. That’s why they call it “playing possum”…

There is a Superbowl Party going on in the Queen’s Lounge as I type this. I’m not going. I’ve only watched one football game through since my husband passed away. My love of football and baseball seems to have died along with him.

Love of football or no, I was disappointed by the trouncing the Seahawks gave Denver and my hometown boy, Peyton Manning. I do love those Mannings. I’m sorry Peyton alone couldn’t make it an interesting game, at least.

There was some discussion of the Superbowl at dinner. I did tell the story of Mab and Molly and the Disappearing Possum. That one got a good reception and a nice long laugh. Tonight’s menu was again good. I had a Shrimp Cocktail, Caesar Salad, and Chateaubriand. As I finished cleaning my plate I noted that Dedan could not chastise me tonight. Food tastes good again. I finished up with Tiramisu. It was good, but I’ve had better.

After dinner I went back to my cabin and read for about an hour. I checked what was on TV, but there was nothing that interested me. I went to bed about 9:15.

Weather Report: Hot. Humid.

Read it on Go With Me!

I woke up determined to leave the ship today. My leg didn’t hurt. (Although I did take my Voltaren at 5 AM and some Acetaminophen at 7:30.) I coughed very little last night and when I did cough it was just a little hacking and not the choking I was doing before.

I had a light breakfast of juice, pastry, and fruit in my room and got everything ready for my tour. I double-checked the tour description to make sure it was a “Light Activity” and there were no “mobility” warnings. All looked good.

I made my way fairly easily to the Queen’s Lounge all the way forward. No problems with my knee. I had my cane, just in case it tightened up later. I sat in the Queen’s Lounged to wait and started sweating like a horse even though it was cool in there. Then I started coughing – the prolonged, choking coughs I was suffering yesterday.

People around me were talking about the “island buses” we’d be using. Apparently they have thin wooden benches instead of seats. By the time they called the tour and about 300 people got in line, I’d changed my mind. I sat there until they’d all left and then stood up.

The shore excursion fellow asked me if I was going on the tour and I told him I’d changed my mind. He asked me why and I told him I’d been nursing a sore knee and didn’t want to chance the buses. He asked me if I had travel insurance and I said I did. He said he’d take my ticket and write me a letter for the insurance company. No guarantee I’d get any money back, but it was worth a try. I thought that was very nice of him.

I went down to try to get on the walk around deck to at least take some pictures, but it was locked. So I headed back to my cabin to see if I could catch my sister on Facebook. I did and we chatted for a few minutes.

She was removing the heads from crawfish. She was stuffing the heads and using the meat to make a bisque to freeze. I told her the bisque sounded good, but I was already tired of rich food (like stuffed crawfish heads). She said she was saving the bisque for when I get home. I told her she might have to feed me tacos, hot dogs, and hamburgers for a month or so.

I managed to get all my pending blog entries posted and then went to lunch on the Lido. I had a grilled Reuben sandwich which might have been good if it had been made with corned beef, but for some unknown reason it was made with roast beef instead. The sauerkraut was good anyway. While I was sitting there eating my tasteless sandwich they opened the hot entrée area right next to me. I saw they had fried chicken…

Yep, I did. I had a chicken thigh and some very tasty French fries. Then I went back to my cabin – still walking very well and using the cane mainly as a prop. I read for a while with my knee elevated and then took out my computer.

I finished post-processing my photos from my first day in Lima. Then I managed to get them all uploaded in a fairly speedy manner. This was the first time since I got the cold that I’ve felt like working on them.

Through the afternoon I coughed off and on. My knee did start hurting a little at one point, but I took some Acetaminophen and it felt better within an hour. I think the knee is actually improving. Now if I can get rid of the cough.

After I finished posting my photos I read some more. I’m now reading the second in the Outlander series I talked about a few days ago. I may have to read the entire series straight through as the story is one of those you can’t put down.

Dinner tonight was quite lively. Several of our number had gone ashore in search of cheap Internet – and found it. Others had gone souvenir shopping or just walked around downtown for a while. No one went on any tours.

The menu was one of those with many choices you wanted to eat. It featured recipes from celebrity chef Elizabeth Faulkner. I settled on Almond Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Sauce, a Radicchio Salad with an Anchovy Butter Dressing, and Roast Chicken with Cornbread Stuffing.

The chicken fingers were awesome. Just what I’ve been wanting – simple food. The salad, however, was pretty awful. The dressing was good, but I had a bowl full of radicchio and very little of anything else, and radicchio is terribly bitter. The roast chicken was tasty and moist. The stuffing was a little sweet for my taste, but still good.

We also asked Dedan to bring us a plate of onion rings (being served as a garnish with a steak dish). They were just delicious and we asked for another plate. Everyone had at least one or two onion rings.

For dessert I had a slice of chocolate cake. Most everyone else had either the apple strudel with vanilla sauce or the strawberries in balsamic vinegar. I liked the cake, but it was not nearly as good as the little chocolate cupcake I had the other day at lunch time.

I've added a new photo gallery - Lima, Peru (Day 1)

Lets hope he and your knee pain are soon a memory.

 

Roy

He is due to leave the ship at Sydney and I'd say that is probably what is going to happen, meeting with the Captain or no. Could be wrong though. ;)