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Go With Me on My 2014 Grand World Voyage

Esri

By Esri,
in Holland America Line

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Esri

Esri

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Thanks you for the updates of your cruise.

 

Are you able to get treatment for your knee?

 

I haven't tried. I don't really think I've damaged anything. I had surgery to repair the meniscus in October. I think it's just a matter of being not quite ready for this amount of walking. If I have injured it they wouldn't be able to tell what was wrong without an MRI... so why bother? It certainly isn't bad enough to make me want to go home!

 

Have you considered having some acupuncture treatments on the ship?

 

I have thought about it. I'm not a big believer in non-traditional treatments, but I am considering acupuncture... ;)

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Esri

Esri

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Read it on Go With Me!

 

Ahoy, maties! This morning we are cruising around Pitcairn Island. Several islanders will be coming on-board shortly to sell souvenirs and tell us about life on an isolated Pacific Island. The people living on Pitcairn are the descendants of some of the sailors and officers who mutinied against the infamous Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. They settled here with some Polynesians they had kidnapped, so the islanders are of mixed blood.

 

I was awake early this morning – 6:45 instead of 7:45. I guess three days straight of setting the clocks back has caught up with me. I showered, still very hot water, and dressed then tried to get on the wireless, but no joy. Wasted a minute because the connection said “Connected” instead of the giveaway “Limited”, but after logging on I was getting the “Resolving Host” error that means the connection to the Internet is simply not there.

 

So I finished yesterday’s blog entry and started this one. I’m going to head up to Lido for a continental breakfast and then see what I can see of Pitcairn Island. The souvenir sales will be set up in about an hour.

 

Well, I made it as far as the Lido. I had some fruit, cheese, salami, and ham as well as a doughnut and a cheese Danish. I saw some of the Pitcairn Islanders heading to the forward Lido deck to set up their souvenir sales, but never made it up that way myself. I think the Islanders probably did pretty well in their sales because I was told that all the tables were 10 deep in passengers trying to buy things.

 

My knee is so stiff today that I just couldn’t imagine trying to get through those crowds with my cane. I did sit in the Explorer Lounge as we cruised about three-quarters of the way around the island. I didn’t take any pictures. There was just anything unique or even picturesque about the island. The Bounty mutineers wanted to stay in paradise, but I don’t really think Pitcairn Island was what they had in mind.

 

After the Captain turned the ship around so those on the port side could see the island, I headed up to the Ocean Bar. I started a new book about writing called Bird by Bird. It is actually quite funny. I laughed out loud a couple of times.

 

I joined my neighboring team again today for Trivia. We got Dam Dollars for tying for second place with 13 points. I’m up to about 25 Dam Dollars. Maybe by the end of the world cruise I’ll have enough to buy a prize!

 

After Trivia I went to lunch. I sat with four people I hadn’t met yet and we had a good time. I had fried haddock and French fries for lunch. The menu said it was served with a Remoulade sauce, but if that wasn’t tartar sauce I’m a monkey’s uncle. In any case, the fish was very good and the fries were okay. They were shoestring fries and weren’t as good as the regular fries they serve in the cute little fryer baskets.

 

After lunch I managed to get, and keep, an Internet connection long enough to catch up with blog posts for the last three days. I also messaged my sister on Facebook to try to arrange a good time to call her from Papeete. I miss her and want to talk to her for at least a few minutes. I’m also going to try to call my son.

 

Tonight is a formal night and the theme is “Captain Bligh’s Dinner”. The ladies I ate lunch with both said they would have rather had that theme on a non-formal night so they could have some fun dressing up like wenches. I wouldn’t dress up like a wench anyway, so I don’t mind. I saw the uniforms the Dining Stewards will be wearing yesterday and they looked awfully hot.

 

Dinner was very nice. We had David, from the Shore Excursions Office, hosting our table. He is a very nice young man from Belgium. He told all about his travels. He also provided red and white wine, although I think that everyone had white wine.

 

Despite having had filet mignon yesterday, I had it again tonight in the form of Surf & Turf. The lobster tail was excellent and, yes, the filet was better than the Pinnacle Grill’s. I had a shrimp & lobster spinach dip as my appetizer – it was quite tasty although they only gave me 2 tortilla chips so I had to eat most of it with a fork. Then I had my Caesar Salad and finished with plain old vanilla ice cream.

 

I asked Dedan if he liked his uniform and he hesitated and then said “Uh, no.” and laughed. They all had ribbons and/or feathers on their tri-corner hats and were constantly pushing out of their faces. By the time dinner was over we’d seen those hats in every position imaginable. The dressing up is fun to see, but I am sure it is a pain to those poor guys. They work so hard. They shouldn’t have to dress up like circus performers… my two cents.

 

After dinner I just went back to my cabin and put ice on my knee for about thirty minutes. I finished reading The Double Comfort Safari Club and then I went to bed. We set the clocks back an extra hour last night so the clock read 8:30 PM when I went to bed. My knee was killing me and three straight nights of putting the clocks back finally took a toll.

 

Weather Report: It is getting warmer day by day. Today at noon it was 79-degrees Fahrenheit and the water temperature was 82-degrees. The Captain said we would probably be running into rain later today, but the seas and winds should stay calm.

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RuthC

RuthC

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I have thought about it. I'm not a big believer in non-traditional treatments, but I am considering acupuncture... ;)

I wasn't, either, until I practically came skipping out of my first treatment.

Try it. It can't hurt, and might help.

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Esri

Esri

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Read it on Go With Me!

 

Despite having gone to be a couple of hours early last night, I slept until 8:30 AM. I did wake up at 6:30, but took my Voltaren and a couple of Tylenol and went back to bed. Wonder of wonders, when I woke up at 8:30 my knee didn’t hurt. It still felt a little stiff, but better than yesterday.

 

I showered and washed my hair and then went up to the Lido. I had a glass of orange juice and a pastry. Then I went to the Front Office to fuss about not getting my 100 minutes of Internet time for pre-purchasing the 1000 minute package. The officer I talked to didn’t know anything about an extra 100 minutes, but I told him to look at the statement they sent me which clearly said 1100 minutes. He wrote it down and said he’d send it to the right department. We’ll see. It was supposed to have been automatic.

 

Then I stepped over to the Shore Excursions desk and spoke to David, our host at dinner last night, about canceling an excursion in Noumea. I had booked a morning and afternoon tour, but they changed the time of the morning tour by 30 minutes and I’m not confident I’d still get back in time for the second tour. He handled my request quickly and cheerfully.

 

From there I went up to the Ocean Bar for a couple of hours of reading time before Trivia. I read the last two chapters in The Lord of the Rings and started another No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency book, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party. Everybody showed up at the neighboring table this morning so I thought I’d be playing by myself, but at the last-minute Henri-Jean asked me to fill in for her as she wasn’t feeling well.

 

We tied for second place again. If we hadn’t convinced our leader that NJ Mortensen was Marilyn Monroe (the only answer I knew and no one else did) we would have had to settle for third place. There was a great outcry when Gene said “Marilyn Monroe” – “She was Norma Jean BAKER!” I shouted that Baker was her married name.

 

After Trivia Terri and Bill (our former dinner tablemates) asked me to have lunch with them. I had half a chicken sandwich, a fruit ceviche, and a piece of banana cream pie. All were very good. We had a nice long lunch and they gave me lots of advice on things to see both on this cruise and on the Grand South America/Antarctica next year.

 

Back in the cabin after lunch I took a couple of Tylenol as my knee was beginning to be a bit painful. I checked Facebook and my email and posted yesterday’s blog entry. I thought about attending the last digital photography lecture/Q&A, but decided I didn’t want to walk all the way forward and back.

 

I spent the afternoon reading and working on photos. I finished The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party and started the last of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books I have on my Kindle, The Limpopo Private Detection Academy. I’ll be sad to finish up with Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi-Radiphuti. The cases they solve seldom involve any great mysteries, but their attitudes towards life are so uplifting.

 

Everyone at the dinner table tonight agreed that we were on our best behavior for David last night. Well, tonight we weren’t. We laughed much too loudly and too long several times! As Vangie said, we’ve become family in just a few weeks. We will all miss Vangie when she leaves us in Sydney, but as she has pointed out, she’s the one who isn’t retired.

 

My dinner was simple tonight. I had my shrimp cocktail, Caesar Salad, and Linguine with Clams. The linguine was excellent. If only I’d had some parmesan cheese and just a bit more garlic, it would have been perfect. First time I’ve cleaned my plate when I had pasta. For dessert I had a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a scoop of orange sorbet – I made myself a Dreamsicle!

 

Everyone at the table wanted me to go to the show tonight. Well, to the 7:30 part of the show – a female magician named Romney. Everyone I’ve talked to who saw The Unexpected Boys the other night agreed they weren’t worth seeing again. Kay said she heard them rehearsing their Broadway tunes this afternoon and they were very, very bad. Once again, I begged off because it was too far to walk.

 

I’ve been getting very anxious about the upcoming shore excursions. French Polynesia is one of my bucket list destinations. I’m not definitely not skipping anything unless I absolutely can’t walk, but I’m definitely worried about making the pain in my knee worse. I asked Vangie (she’s a doctor) tonight what she thought about acupuncture. She said she believes it works and we agreed that it couldn’t hurt. There’s a lecture tomorrow at noon about acupuncture (a sales talk I’m sure) and I’m think I’m going to attend.

 

After dinner I went back to my hobbit hole and vegged. I read. I watched the second half of a video I started a couple of days ago, Laws of Attraction. As much I like both Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore I can’t recommend it. Then I turned the TV on and caught the last five minutes of something with Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon.

 

It was interesting so I watched the entire thing when it came back on after some promos for HAL products. It was a pretty decent movie – I Googled it this morning because I missed the title credits. It was called Shall We Dance and wasn’t great, but kept my interest.

 

Weather Report: Much of the same. At noon it was 82-degrees Fahrenheit and partly cloudy. The Captain said there was a good chance of tropical showers later in the day. That proved true as it was raining all through dinner tonight.

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Esri

Esri

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Read it on Go With Me!

 

I guess I caught up on my sleep. I woke up around 4:30 AM this morning and try as I may, I could not really go back to sleep. I laid in bed until about 6:00 though. Then I got up and showered, etc…

 

I got on the Internet long enough to check Facebook and Gmail. I noticed that I have not been credited with my extra 100 minutes yet. If they haven’t done it by Tuesday morning, I’ll go back to the Front Desk and complain more strongly. Tomorrow morning I’ll be on a lagoon tour in Papeete.

 

I had breakfast in the Dining Room this morning. I had almost all new tablemates. I’d eaten with one gentleman, Richard, a couple of times. There was a nice older couple from Las Vegas and an older gay couple to round it out. The Las Vegas couple are on their 15th world cruise! Richard asked them about next year’s itinerary and the wife said she didn’t care where the ship was going, she just wanted to be on it.

 

I had a couple of pancakes and some bacon. I had a fruit plate, but it was one little piece of pineapple and the rest was honeydew and cantaloupe, which I don’t like. The skies were very cloudy and the ocean looked gray instead of the lovely blue we’ve been seeing since leaving Lima. Just before I got up to leave the table we entered a fog.

 

After breakfast I came back to the cabin and posted yesterday’s blog entry. I bantered with my sister on Facebook for a bit and then logged off the Internet. Today’s plan is reading, an acupuncture presentation, lunch at the Australia Day Barbie at the Lido Pool, then photo editing and more reading!

 

I went to the Acupuncture presentation at 10:00 and made up my mind to give the acupuncture a chance. My knee was really hurting after about 9:30 AM yesterday morning. Worse than it’s been the entire trip. To add insult to injury, I had a sore throat and the sinking feeling I was catching a cold.

 

I had lunch on the Lido – the Australia Day Barbie. I had grilled shrimp, a nice steak, and a bit of salad. Then I grabbed some cookies to take back to the cabin. I went back and read for a while and worked on some photo editing. Then I headed up to the Spa for my 3:00 PM appointment with Dr. Dimitri, the acupuncturist.

 

I had filled out a medical history form and he looked it over and we agreed that I wanted to concentrate, to start with at least, on my knee pain. I agreed to a course of ten treatments. They were expensive, but only about half what I expected to pay. I’d heard they were $250.00 each and they were $150.00 or $115.00 each if you pre-paid for ten.

 

So Dimitri treated my left knee by looking for sore spots on my right elbow. I sat there for about twenty minutes with a dozen pins in my arm. He came in and out and adjusted them a few times. One woman on Cruise Critic had told me she had practically skipped out of her first appointment, but I didn’t. My knee still felt exactly the same after the treatment.

 

I went back to the cabin and laid down for an hour or so until dinner. I was feeling worse and worse from the oncoming cold. I did go to dinner though. I knew that I wasn’t going to be going on any tours in Papeete though. Between the knee and the cold I just wasn’t going to make it.

 

I just kept feeling worse and worse as dinner wore on. I did eat dinner though – Wiener schnitzel and fried potatoes, shrimp cocktail, and Caesar Salad. I had a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. Then I practically crawled back to my cabin.

 

I called the woman who had put together the tour in Papeete and told her I couldn’t make it because I was sick and my knee hurt. I told her I was going to bring the money down to her cabin, but she said she’d come get it. I told her I’d love her forever if she did that. She came and got the money and thanked me profusely for it. I agreed to go and I certainly couldn’t leave her in the lurch the night before.

 

After she’d left I took some Alka-Seltzer Plus and an Airborn! Then I went to bed. I slept fitfully, but did sleep. My knee continued to be very painful through the night until about 7:00 AM and then it seemed to loosen up a lot and hurt a lot less.

 

Weather Report: It was a dingy gray day all day today. We went through many tropical showers. The temperature was around 82-degrees Fahrenheit at lunch time.

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Esri

Esri

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Read it on Go With Me!

 

Well, I missed a port completely today. I was just so sick with this cold I stayed either in bed sleeping or on my couch with my knee raised almost all day. By the time I went to bed last night I knew I wasn’t going to try to go ashore. My knee was very painful most of the night and I just kept feeling sicker and sicker. So I put out the Privacy sign so I could sleep late, but I didn’t really.

 

I was awake by 8:30. I took a long hot shower and then took an Alka-Selter/Airborn! Combo. I ordered bacon, toast, and two glasses of orange juice for breakfast with a jar of mayo. I made myself a bacon sandwich. I put another Airborn! in one of the glasses of orange juice and drank the other one straight.

 

Then I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I took the privacy sign out of the door and when Rifjki came in I asked him to please just empty the trash and get me some ice. He did so and asked if I wanted him to come back at dinner time. I told him I’d appreciate it.

 

I tried to post a blog entry several times yesterday, but the Internet connection just wouldn’t get the job done. I started a new book series, Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, which was recommended to me by Joanne, my tablemate. It is a kind of combination of sci-fi/fantasy, historical fiction, and romance. So far, so good.

 

About 2:30 PM I went in search of a phone signal and got my first look at Papeete. It was not impressive – at least not what you could see from the ship. A city with a little marina. The water wasn’t as pretty as on Easter Island and the weather was cloudy. There were mountains with clouds around them which were a pleasant enough view. I’m sure it was prettier if you went to the lagoons or the waterfalls.

 

I talked to my sister for about fifteen minutes and then to my son for about five. All is well at home. Molly (the Great Dane/Lab mix), has decided she wants to be a lap dog. Roberta said every night when they watch TV her little love seat is pretty crowded. Mab on one end, Roberta on the other, Molly in the middle with half her body on Roberta’s lap, Tut (my 15-year old Siamese) on the arm of the love seat next to Roberta, Thor (one of our 1-1/2-year old Siamese brothers) above her head playing with her hair, and Killer wherever he can squeeze in. I guess Lessa and Loki are out in the cold. I told her they just know she was not feeling well and lonely so they want to be close to her to make her feel better. She laughed and said she knew, but Molly is heavy!

 

Ric said that all is going well at the restaurant he works at on St. Simon’s Island. They gave him a raise, but since they are no longer paying him under the table he is now having taxes taken out! Their business is starting to pick up – they’ve only been open about three months. He said the owners were looking at advertising. I told him to tell them not to pay for a web page anywhere. When I get back I’ll give them my “first year is free” deal I do for friends.

 

After I talked to them I went back up to my cabin and read until dinner time. I decided to go to dinner even though I wasn’t feeling well – I didn’t feel I should hide out in my cabin all day. When I got down to the table only Kay and Father Bob were there. I sat on the far side of the table to avoid spreading my germs.

 

Estelle, Aloha, and Vangie, were spending the night in a hotel on Moorea and Joanne had not returned from her appointment with an orthopedist in Papeete. Mary and John had a late shore excursion. They did arrive about 6:00 PM. John told us that he’d heard that Joanne was on her way back to the ship. Yay!

 

Nothing on the menu really appealed to me so I had shrimp cocktail, Caesar Salad, and the NY Strip with a baked potato. I only ate about half the steak, but it was fine I just didn’t feel well. After dinner, Dedan brought a birthday cake for Father Bob and several of the dining stewards sang happy birthday and an Indonesian song to him. They really have nice voices, especially Dedan.

 

My knee had been better most of the day. I had it raised and walked very little, so I don’t know how much credit to give to acupuncture. But when I stood up after 2 hours at the dinner table, it was really, really stiff and painful. It loosened up a bit by the time I made it to the foyer of the dining room, but when I got back to my cabin I put two Lidoderm patches on it.

 

Through the day, I mostly read and kept my knee raised. I did drink three liters of water and two Diet Cokes. I wanted the fluids for the cold and because Dr. Dimitri told me to drink more than normal to accentuate the detoxifying effects of the acupuncture.

 

I checked the TV, but there wasn’t anything on I wanted to watch. I took another Alka-Seltzer/Airborn! combo, a Flexeril, and a couple of Advil PM and went to bed. I slept fitfully and had very strange dreams, but as the night went on my knee began to feel better. It was hurting when I work up at 5:30, so I took my Voltaren and when I woke up at 7:00 AM it felt much better.

 

Weather Report: The temperature jumped way up today. It was 96-degrees Fahernheit in Papeete with showers throughout the day. I didn’t notice because I was in my cabin!

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Esri

Esri

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Read it on Go With Me!

 

This morning my knee was not nearly as painful, but my cold was worse. I thought about trying to make my dolphin watching excursion this afternoon, but decided against it. I only slept until 7:00 so I went to the Dining Room for breakfast. I had a fruit plate, half of a Denver Omelet, and some bacon.

 

After breakfast I went back to the cabin and posted the two blog entries I had ready. Then I read until about 11:00 AM. I went to the Front Office and told them once more that I had not received my 100 bonus Internet minutes for pre-purchasing. They promised they’d remind the Internet people.

 

I needed to cancel a shore excursion in Cairns, Australia, but the office wasn’t open. They don’t open until after all-aboard on port days. I had booked the Great Barrier Reef Experience, but HAL sent out a two-page letter the other day basically saying that the tour was harder than it was previously described. Kay and Joanne also said they did it last year and that if you aren’t snorkeling or diving there really isn’t much to see.

 

I stopped by the Lido and snagged some cookies and then went back to my cabin and called room service for a burger. After lunch I took a nap for a couple of hours. I got up at 3:30 and read some more and then headed for the Shore Excursions office to cancel my tour and book another one. I decided on Crocs & Fort Douglas. It’s a visit to a wildlife park and Fort Douglas.

 

That done, I headed up for my 5:00 PM acupuncture appointment. I ran into Vangie, Mary, and Aloha, all separately. I told them I was going to be late for dinner. Unfortunately, I didn’t make dinner at all. After my acupuncture treatment I made it back to my cabin and realized I was totally out of energy.

 

I ordered dinner from the Dining Room through room service. Shrimp cocktail, Caesar Salad, and prime rib. It was all okay, but my taste buds are off. I only ate about half the prime rib and none of the baked potato that came with it. After dinner, I put my leg up and read for a while.

 

Kay called to check on me after they finished dinner and I talked to her for about fifteen minutes. She’s on the Bora Bora tour tomorrow and wanted to know if I was going. I told her I was going to try. After I talked to Kay I went to be even though it wasn’t even 8:00 PM yet.

 

Weather Report: I did not go outside, but I heard it was very, very hot! 98-degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. I had a nice view of the sail-away while having my acupuncture treatment and it started raining pretty hard as soon as we left the island.

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Watson's aunt

Watson's aunt

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hi

 

lost my first post..

 

I hope you are well. I know you have a cold I hope that has disappeared as the pain in your knee. Its so much fun reading your posts. You are making me put this on my bucket list.

 

Have you meet many people on the cruise. If I ever do it I will also go sole. are the rest of passengers friendly or do they stay with their own clic? Do you find the time long. I know you talk to your sister a lot. Are you ever homesick?

being a single do you feel you are odd one since most people are couples.

 

I can't wait for your next post. hope you are better

 

Mary

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Esri

Esri

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hi

 

lost my first post..

 

I hope you are well. I know you have a cold I hope that has disappeared as the pain in your knee. Its so much fun reading your posts. You are making me put this on my bucket list.

 

Have you meet many people on the cruise. If I ever do it I will also go sole. are the rest of passengers friendly or do they stay with their own clic? Do you find the time long. I know you talk to your sister a lot. Are you ever homesick?

being a single do you feel you are odd one since most people are couples.

 

I can't wait for your next post. hope you are better

 

Mary

 

I have met many, many friendly people on this cruise. Our table of eight consists of 3 women traveling solo, 3 cousins traveling together, and a woman traveling with her elderly father. All of the women are in the 50s - 60s. We have been like a family since the first of the cruise. We were NOT thrown together by circumstance though (except for Mary and her father). I posted on our roll call several months out looking for prospective tablemates.

 

I suppose there are probably people on the ship staying in their little groups, but every where I go I see people who stop to say hello and ask if my knee is better. When I eat breakfast or lunch in the Dining Room, I always share a table and I've met many, many great people that way. (I did eat usually eat alone while I felt I was contagious. Once I get bronchitis, I'm usually past that stage.)

 

I've had a couple of nights where I really missed my sister, my dogs, and my cats. A few where I cried about losing my Dad and a couple where I just missed my husband so much I thought I'd never stop crying. For the most part, even while I've been sick I've been quite happy on the ship. I just want to get well enough to get off the darn thing for a little while!

 

Don't let fear of traveling solo stop you from cruising!

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jbhcw

jbhcw

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Just wanted to say thanks again! Am fowolling you on line and here! Hope the knee continues to improve...and the cold and cough get better...interested about the acupuncture as I also have some arthritic issues.

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Esri

Esri

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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.

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Esri

Esri

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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.

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