March 19,2015

Today was a very busy day.  I had to go see the doctor at 9am because they said the safari we are going on is high for malaria and I did not get pills so we went there at 9am.  I worked out with Leanne at 9:45 and went straight to Olympic backgammon at 11.  Do to the scheduling I did miss playing my free cell.  Oh well.   There were 15 people playing for three medals.  They took our room keys and shuffled and called out 2 people for the 1^st game.  I played a lovely lady named Lisa.  I won that game.  Next I had to play one of the other winners and it just so happened to be BILL.  I told Julia (Entertainer ) and Stacy (WC hostess) that were running the games that it might just be the end of a 42 + year marriage!

Well I am happy to say I beat him also!  Now I am onto my third game and I know this guy he is extremely smart and I figure he is going to kill me.  The first couple of rolls he doesn’t knock me off or make a point and I think okay I might have a shot at this.  Let’s just say he didn’t get any off when I took my last one off!  My final game I was playing for either the silver or gold medal.  We were throwing with our hands but the guy I was playing with insisted we use the cups.  It didn’t matter to me as this is just a game.  Apparently he was watching me and I had thrown quite a few doubles.  Well I did not throw any doubles and lost the game and gold medal to him.  Bill said I should have refused to use the cup.  It’s a Damn game if he needed to win the gold that badly let him have it!!!!!!  But I did get a silver medal and will have to go to the Olympic Medal ceremony later in the week and be given the medal by  Mark. 
We had dinner with Helen and Allen last night at their table in the DR and we always have a nice evening with them.  We met them back in 08 and sailed with them again on WC 12.  We headed to the show after dinner as it was Ian Cooper’s last show he is getting off in Mariutius.  He is really something with his violin  He played classical, Rock and in between with the help of Raphael and the Orchestra and Eric Strong singing The Devil’s down in GA. 

Great show once again!  Went to the casino but I gave them back the $130 I won the other night,

We have been putting our clocks back for lots

of nights and everyone is complaining they are tired!  We are now only 8 hours ahead of the East Coast and we have 2 more hours to go back before we hit Cape Town.  We will be putting our clocks back all the way till we are on the east coast time!  All these hours we are gaining and I am still exhausted!!!!!!!

Tomorrow we will be in Port Dennis Maurituis

should be a great day.

The Leprechaun photo bombed our picture on St. Patrick's Day!

Day Whatever I have lost count  March 18th

@ sea in Indian Ocean

Today was a quiet sea day for us.  We had our computer class but Bill is sick with a terrible migraine so he did not go.  Stan will work with him whenever he is better.

None of my World Cruise Games are meeting today and  since Bill is sick in bed he did not participate in the basketball.

We had scheduled to have dinner with Janice and Doris in Silk Road.  Bill was still not up and moving by dinner time so I went by myself.  The three of us had a lot of laughs.  They had hot saki and I had the cold.  Yummy…..  The food was also yummy.  We were having such great discussions that we left the restaurant 2 ½ hours after we got there.

Since I had an hour to wait for the show I went into the casino and I hit 4 3s.  So with my money I went back to check on Bill.  I had some homework to do and I was exhausted so I blew off the show and settled down with my book and relaxed.

Happy Birthday Lori hope your day was as special as you are.

Another great day and feeling blessed!

Day whatever  St. Patrick's Day


We had the best day onboard today.  It started at 8am when we were having breakfast in the dining room and the Irish Fiddler (Ian Cooper) came running through the DR dressed as a lepruchan   

The cove was magically decorated with green and white balloons as we slept as well as a rainbow and pot of gold at the end of it.

I made it to knitting class today and we also had our 2 hour computer class where both of us were frustrated!  

This evening the entertainment was moved to 7:00pm for late dinners and it was “Lord of the Dance”

Now I have seen Michael Flattley’s Riverdance and Lord of the Dance and this was fabulous.  The line captain has danced with Michael Flattley and toured with him and he taught it to the other dancers.  It was just as good as the original.  The other entertainers also performed with Jonathan doing a great rendition of Danny Boy as well as Sarah, Eric and Julia also singing wonderful Irish songs.  Unfortunately it was over way to soon!

We headed to dinner and there were a lot of Irish food.  We both had the corned beef and cabbage dinner.  We even had the Irish dessert which was a sticky pudding with triple carmel ice cream with caramel sauce.  Becky you would have loved it.  I could not finish mine but the little I had was wonderful.

After dinner we headed to the Avenue Saloon where they had an old fashioned sing along.  They were giving you an Irish drink. Crème de Menthe and Baileys as you walked in but you could order whatever you wanted. Before long The Leprechan and the dancers came in to a standing ovation.  Ian Cooper played his fiddle with the piano player and we all sang along.  We did not leave there until after midnight!

Another great day.  It brought back memories of my St. Patrick’s day party when Marrianne and I with our brilliant minds decided to add green food coloring to the champagne!!!!!!
Hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day

Day whatever @ sea

Today we both had our shuffleboard competition.  Bill tied and had to go to a second round where he was eliminated.  

I was the only one who scored in the second game unfortunately it was a -10 so  I too was eleminated,

We were very busy with lecture and computer classes.  I must say I am learning a lot but extremely frustrated!!!!!!

I decided to go into the casino and this is the 3rd day in a row that I have won!  Yeah.  I usually do go in that many days but since I won I am playing with their money.

Last night I hit the 2x 2x red 7 for $600 and I had already won $100 so I flew out of there.  Tonight I hit 4 2s on a poker machine for $200.  Nice I ran out again.

Bill and I had dinner in Prego the Italian Speciality restaurant on board and it was wonderful.  They did listen to me when I said a baby salad and entree!

We were so exhausted we didn't make the show and I was in bed by 11pm.  We are getting our day we lost (international dateline) back hour by hour and believe it or not when you go back 3 days in a row it throws off your whole system.

Happy Birthday to Shannon  May your year be a great one!

I did not take any picrures around the ship today.  They were decorating for tomorrow which in this region of the world is St. Patrick's Day.  They have green and white balloons they are putting up.  I will get pictures tomorrow when they are done!

So once again a fabulous day in this wonderful adventure.

Sunset from our  baalcony!

Day 59 ( think) @ sea

Today is day 2 at sea and lots doing.  This am was the chance to sign up for World Cruise games.  This is Crystal’s answer to the Olympics.  Mark  Schultz Olympic Gold Medal winner in Wrestling is the guest Olympian this year.  He gave the first of his talks this morning.

I signed up for shuffleboard, backgammon, free cell.  I also signed up for the relay until my personal trainer Leanne told me that it was power walking really fast so I crossed my name off of that in a hurry.

Bill signed up for shuffleboard single and doubles, backgammon, basketball, golf putting.

We were back in class this afternoon and I knew most of it so I was allowed to go get myself some tea!  I did find out how to make groups for emails so that was great.  Adding contacts and creating events I knew!  We are now working with Pages and Numbers and I do use them just not well!  We have 14 hours of classes this segment!  Today they held a Midway Midday Mixer in the Cove where the band played and they served cocktails.  We went down for a little while to see what was going on. It is incredible that mileage wise we are halfway around the world!

We had dinner this evening in Prego and had a marvelous meal.  Bill had the fish special which was a red snapper and I had the veal marsala.  We were so full we didn’t even look at the dessert menu.   While I was waiting for Bill to get dressed for dinner I decided to go down to the casino for a little while.  I changed the machine from $.25 to $1.00 and I hit for $100.  Pushed the button 2 more times and I got a 2x 2x red 7  $600.  It was a hand pay so I took my $700 and flew out of the casino.  I was only gone 15 minutes Bill thought I had lost my $20 quickly he was happy to see all those Ben Franklins!!!!!!  After dinner we attended the opening ceremony for the WC games and it was very nice.  Other years though they had the guests marching in with their country but this year they only had crew and didn’t have all the flags! But the dancing was incredible!  As they ended the show  "Let the Games begin!"

Hard to believe we are halfway around the world!

Let the Games Begin

Day 58  @ sea

Today was one of 6 consecutive sea days in the Indian Ocean as we make our way to Africa.
There was so much to do today. We did go to the lecture by Tom Faranda we met Tom and his wife Cheryl back in 2009 and they are lovely people and he is a great lecturer.   We had our computer class and we not only learned a lot we had fun doing it!  This is the 2nd day of a new segment and it is going really really fast! Last segment we traveled 5,029.5 nautical miles or the equivalent of 5,783 miles. I really wish I was getting airline mileage for this trip it would be enough for a couple of free flights! HA HA.
This segment we will go from Perth/Fremantle Australia to Cape Town South Africa with stops in Reunion, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Madagascar  Richard's Bay, Durban and Port Elizabeth before we get to Cape Town.

We have a 3 day Safari and will be departing the ship in Durban South Africa and catching up in Cape Town.  We will miss touring Durban and the diamond mines in Port Elizabeth but excited about the Safari.

We get an extra hour sleep tonight so I headed to the casino.  I have not been doing great tonight I made a few hundred so that was great!  I am just about even now.
Tomorrow should be a fun day there is a midway midday mixer.
So until tomorrow.  Good night all!

Photographer's photos of us at Hobbiton

Some of the most beautiful beaches we saw in Australia!

 Sorry did not take any photos around the ship today!!!!!

Day 57 Perth/Freemantle

It is cloudy and overcast today and suppose to rain later this afternoon.  In fact a Cyclone is coming so we decided it would not be a great day for the beach.  Instead we took the train into Perth.  We walked around a little and headed to the Apple store.  I have been trying to update my IMOVIE app since Peru and it gets almost done and stops so time to get an expert to look.

The genius (hey that’s what they are called at the apple store) tells me he has to delete the app and reinstall.  I will loose the movies I have already made but there is no other way.  If this does not work he will have to reset my IPAD and I will loose everything.  Well I don’t have a choice so I tell him to try the first one.  After quite awhile IMovie did download so I am happy that I didn’t have to loose everything on my IPAD.  The Apple store was full of the people from the ship!  Everyone trying to update all their apps as it is next to impossible on the ship. And we will have 6 sea days crossing the Indian Ocean.  I am sure also that there are no Apple stores in Mauritus, Mozambique, or Madagascar either!

Perth is a large city with all kinds of shopping but I didn’t buy anything. I only looked  in one store! After a few hours we walked back to the train station and took the train back to Freemantle and the Port.  It takes 26 minutes and when you get off you can practically touch the ship but have to walk so far to get to it.  Up and down a footbridge and all through a parking lot!  We then head to our room and get all the information we need for the Tax Scheme.  If you spent $300 in one store you get a refund of the tax you paid.  Since Bill got an oilcloth jacket, a crocodile belt and I got a leather belt we qualified so we got a copy of our passport, receipt and the items we purchased and went to wait on line to get the money refunded.  We will get a refund of $46.47.  USA does not give you back tax you spend.  I like this.  After this we headed to the Bistro for our afternoon snack coffee, tea and cheese and crackers or fruit!

We leave here at 6pm tonight and we will be crossing the Indian Ocean for 6 days.   We are starting another segment and I can’t believe how fast the time is going.  This coming segment will be the World Games.  I am not setting an alarm tomorrow and I am sleeping when I get up I get up.  If I miss knitting oh well!!!!!  We have so much coming up with parties and opening ceremony for the Olympics etc  I need to rest tomorrow.  We also have 14 hours of class this segment!  Yikes!!!!!!!

Once again another great day!!!!

Perth

Nelda and I waving to Neil in the helicopter in Mildford Sound Neil took the picture