really rough seas

Another hour back

We did that two nights ago and again this evening we will gain an hour of sleep. We are so spoiled. At the point we wake up around 6 something no matter the time.

Hong Kong lecture

I remembered some of it and some not so much. There’s hope the ship will berth in a central location so we can walk off the ship to most things we’d want to see. Lots of walking in our future there. I presume lots of Chinese food since that is Ed’s destination.

Engineer’s lecture

This included a lot of technical information about the propellers, engines, thrusters, stabilizers, etc. I find it all very fascinating. I am constantly amazed at how self-sustaining this ship is. There is a lot of redundancy. They can make (out of sea water) an excess of water over our demand. The sewage system works off of bacteria and produces carbon dioxide and water in the end part. The water is equivalent to the seawater condensation on board.

Trivia

Played with Aussie and Brits today. Fun group. Lots of good vibes. They named our group UUA (US, UK, Aus)

Chinese extravaganza brunch.

The crew goes all out for this. Decorations, costumes, etc. Ed kind’ve frowned as he was looking forward to lots of Chinese food and there was none of that.so he says why call it Chinese? Because we are going to Taiwan tomorrow and Hong Kong shortly after! And they had the costumes and the decorations! The food is always very good though.

The Patter

This is a daily newspaper which tells us what to expect. It hasn’t been the best source of details lately. Perhaps the editor is having a bad week. In addition to the schedule and special announcements or notes, it gives us the times of various dining options and entertainment details. Temperature and weather expectations. Whether or not it is smart casual dress or formal. Survival info.

Connectivity related

Since my apps haven’t downloaded updates except slowly and only a few, it is creating some challenges for me. As an example, so many of them are in the process of downloading updates and thus don’t work well. Facebook show that I have IMs but I can’t access them. Perhaps this can be corrected in Hong Kong. We have become so accustomed to unlimited access at a high speed. Sigh.

Small world dept

At brunch today a man walked up to Ed and introduced himself. It seems that he worked as an investigator for Ed when he was in Worker’s comp in the DA office. They are getting off at Hong Kong so not much time to catch up.

Choir

They did another remarkable 45 minute concert and the lounge was packed. It is quite amazing what David get out of a group of strangers in a few weeks of rehearsal of 45 min on weekdays.

Trivia

Just Ed and I and a man we usually play with in the afternoon. He wife was at the gym as she missed it this morning and the other woman who usually plays in our group got into a snit with the man yesterday when we did  We saw her finding another group on the other side of the room. I’m not crying tears for her as she can be annoying in many ways. Long ago I asked Ed to sit between us so I didn’t have to deal with her. We thought we had done terrible until we saw that the full group of 6 that won had only 2 points more than we did.

Limelight

This was the name of tonight’s dance show. The two main singers are very strong voices and the dancers are simply amazing. Two of the females must wear dresses a size below zero. They are so tiny and thin.

As I write the wind is absolutely howling around the ship. The seas are equally rough and it is hard to walk around. You have to be careful you don’t head somewhere and be pitched forward as the ship rolls. The doors to the outside are closed with yellow tape to keep the fools from trying to go outside.

Photo contest

Passengers can submit photos taken while on this leg of this journey. They pay $3 for them to be processed and then they are posted and passengers vote (once only) on their pick for the best. I’ve forgotten the theme for this set.

Since the days of Photoshop, this isn’t nearly as much fun to see. I”ll be watching it closely to see how it goes as in the past we’ve seen some pretty tacky behavior on the part of some who really want to win. I don't know what the prize is for this leg but usually at the end, the staff choose their favorite from the winners and that person wins a point and shoot camera or something