I started this note on day 24. Mary still is not back from bingo and I’m starting to wonder where she is. She probably stopped to talk to someone. We got up this morning around 8 o’clock. I slept okay but had some weird dreams. I actually got a real shower today which was nice. We went up to 14 for breakfast. I decided to eat something other than just hashbrowns. I tried the Italian sausage – not that good. I tried the corned beef hash – pretty good. I had an egg and salmon omelette – pretty good. It was way more food than I needed, but that’s become a habit. We met a couple from Washington state. We were out of there in about 45 minutes or so.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Still on Day 24 after breakfast, Mary at Bingo, I begin updating this log back in the room. I recently past 40,000 words. It seems the thing is turned into a book. I am posting this on the Internet as I go. Just before starting this dictation I posted the three previous days entries. I believe there are a couple people out there reading it. I actually write this for myself. I want to be able to pick it up and say a year or two or 10 and read it to remind myself of the good time we had. I don’t think I’ve ever written anything this long which discusses one topic. I know that what I have posted needs a lot of editing, but we’ll see if I ever actually do that. I said to Mary today that with this log, her pictures, my videos and pictures and the pictures we had taken with the Princess we should have this trip pretty well documented. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I could say the same thing for our South America trip. I have these little documents all over the place which discuss in detail various trips. Someday I will put them all in one spot. Again, mostly for my recollection. I started logging or journaling several years ago because I have a terrible memory. Very often Mary will say do you remember XYZ and I’ll say I don’t have a clue. So with that discussion laid down, I will pick up the day 24. It was a day at sea between Helsinki and Gdynia, Poland. Mary came back from bingo around 1230. In the interim she picked up pictures from the picture place. She ended up talking to one of the photographers for a while. She also stopped at the excursions office to see if she could figure out what they were charging us. I didn’t ask for details but it appears that she’s got that figured out. Most importantly, she did not win at bingo. There will be more opportunities I guess. She brought back tea for herself. We decided that we were going to go to the art auction at 1 o’clock. We were convinced that we were not going to buy anything. We already made a purchase. I did have some ideas on how we might change or add to it, but that would come later. We got our bid card. Mary had her eye on a Coleman. I don’t know his first name. As things turned out, there were three Coleman’s in the mystery auction. We bid on the opportunity to buy one at a super reduced price, It was a strange auction because the director had to deal with a few rowdy women (we learned later) and support people goofs. We bid on an eagle print, but decided later not to pursue it. Very few things actually sold. I drank the champagne and watched the happenings. It was over in about 90 minutes. Our next stop was wine tasting. We were seated at a table with two guys. Chuck from Canada and Colin from Australia. (Erin, his wife joined us later.) There were five wines – one sparkling, two whites and two reds. Sparkling was good. The two whites (Albarino from Spain and Torrontes from Argentina) were good. The reds were so-so. One was Pinot Noir. The second was a merlot which we’ve have before – St. Michelle Indian Wells, I believe. We stayed 30 minutes long talking to our table mates. We learn a lot about other countries at these table discussions. For example, Australians rarely tip. They will if service is way above and beyond. In Japan, tipping is usually an insult. Every discussion we have like this uncovers little facts. After we were talked out, we went our way. Mary picked up tea and we went back to the room. We both napped for half an hour before getting dressed for dinner. We half watched the movie Poms. We had an appointment with the art director. We wanted to make a change on the Peter Max we bought. I was looking at a Godard sketch. Mary was interested in one of the Coleman’s. I wasn’t thrilled with which one she chose so we agreed on a different one. This meeting took maybe an hour. We laughed with the art director. At first he came off as stuffy, but he’s actually kind of funny. We went the 150’ to the dining room. We were seated right away in Meow’s section. I ordered a Spanish red wine. It was $37 but they tack a 18% gratuity on to it. It can get pricy. I had seafood antipasto for appetizer. I had beef pot roast for the entree. We both had a small serving of penne pasta in red sauce. Mary had big salad (sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella) and breaded veal. All the food was good. We were both stuffed so we skipped dessert – a first. Next stop, you guessed it, picture taking. There were three stops. Next was the casino for a slots tournament. Neither of us got on the board. Oh well. It was after 10 so we headed back to 12. We gained an hour over night so we were able to get extra sleep. Because the ship left Helsinki several hours late due to some ship test, the captain needed to make up time to get to Gdynia on time. He had to go faster than normal, plus there was a pretty nasty storm raging. This caused some serious rocking of the ship – probably the worst rocking of the trip. It made sleeping difficult. It got better by 5:00. Day 24 in the books.