Day 7 cross the equator

CROSSING THE EQUATOR

It is a tradition to hold a ceremony on the deck beside the pool when a ship crosses the equator for the first time on a voyage. People who have never crossed the equator before are called pollywogs; those who have been through the ceremony are called Shellbacks. It is great fun with staff and passengers having a ball watching people have ice putdown their pants, Whipped cream (with fish and garlic supposedly) smeared all over your face and body, … you get the picture. At the end is the “kiss the fish” routine. We’ve never done this part before, but I did today. The fish was long and pretty ugly with it’s mouth agape. I expected it to be slimy, but it was dry. The photographers were there to memorialize the experience. It takes a long while to set up the pool area for this and a long time to clean it up. The cruise director, captain, and another officer were dunked in the pool. There is a long script with outrageous remarks and silliness. One of the characters on this ship was Nurse Listerine. There was a “surgeon” who pulled out dead chickens, spaghetti, fruits, vegetables, you name it, out of the surgical site. All of them were past date and so it was not a waste of good food.

We had lunch again with Willie (who also kissed the fish) and his parents and couple from Victoria BC.

COUGHING JAGS

I’m still at a stage where I cannot drink iced drinks or eat breads as they trigger awful coughing attacks. I am still taking my CherryTussin (sounds like the name of a stripper) from November to modulate the coughing fits. I didn’t tell you that the package for the lozenges I received in the medical clinic the other  day also has the name (I presume) in Braille. My chest muscles are really sore.

We are both still moving stuff around in the cabin to try to organize things so we can find things as we wish. It’ll get there. Ed got a copy of the 2 page newspaper just now to catch up on US news.

BOOK OF INTEREST: I just finished listening to: The Professor and the Madman. It is a true story of the development of the Oxford English Dictionary. The madman is a prolific contributor to the OED who was criminally insane. He was American and was eventually returned to his family in New England. At the end is an interview with the current editor of the OED and I found both intertwined stories to hold my interest.

I started on The More of Less but found it agitated me so perhaps I’ll come back to it. Earlier I finished the Bill Bryson Collection. He is one of my favorites. I also listened to the summary of Hillbilly Elegy which I will read later in the voyage. So now I think I’ll move on to Stuff Matters.

Flowers: I put Ed’s Boutonnière and my wristlet in water the other night and they are still looking good though the boutonnière looks far better.

Moods: the anxiety and nerves about getting the house in order packing properly have gone away but our energy levels are still lagging. My URI issues explains some of that but if I am puny, I’d rather it be at this point where we have all these sea days than later.

Entertainment: last night was a marvelous harmonica player. Yes you read that right. He plays with symphonies and makes that little instrument sound mighty. The Young lady the night before was too intense and has a singing style that is very annoying so we’ll see what happens when they bring her back.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR OF THE ROOSTER!

We gain another hour tonight so we are 2 hrs difference than LA.  Bora Bora is our next stop and the day after that, Papeete, Tahiti. After that 6 days to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. Along that route we cross theinternational date line at which point we begin the day before yosudo.