At Sea

There was no way to avoid it, the laundry had to be done today. Usually the launderette is the hub of bad behavior and gossip, but again today it was the height of discretion and good behavior. Nothing exciting to report at all. Additionally, everyone is so pleasant and polite, it’s like being at a garden party. Most passengers arrive to remove their laundry from the machines the minute the machines stop, and when one lady did not appear to remove her clothes as the machine finished, those assembled who were awaiting washing machines had a discussion as to whether or not it would be acceptable to remove the wet clothes. The final decision was that it would be doing her the favor of her not having to do this herself. When she arrived a few minutes later, instead of going into a fury because someone had touched her undies, she apologized to everyone. She had been delayed by trying to send an email. The internet speed is abysmal at the moment, so we all empathized with her. She then thanked the lady who had removed her clothes from the machine. All very pleasant.

One thing I have noticed in the launderette however, is the high proportion of cognitively impaired people there. I have now had to find cabin stewards on 3 occasions to help people find their cabins again, people who can’t remember which machines they are using, or whether they are in the middle of washing or drying, and have ended up assisting several others who were totally overwhelmed by trying to work the machines. Along with all of the physically frail folks onboard, there are a significant number with major memory problems. Talking of memory problems, today’s science experiment is “does a camera battery still work after going through a washer and dryer?”. Brian left a camera battery in a pair of shorts I washed for him. He says she who does the laundry should remember to empty the pockets. I say he who puts valuable things in his pockets should remember to remove them prior to them going into the wash. Whether or not the battery still works is not known at the moment. Stay tuned.

At his noon announcement the Commodore told us that we were near the site of a “phantom island”. Sailors had seen the island in the 18^th century. They had given a very clear description of its location and size, but it has never been seen again. As recently as the 1950s the Chilean navy has been looking for it. Brian thinks the problem is that the sailors were way off course, and got the coordinates wrong, I think it was a group hallucination. Still, it is a spooky thought that an island could simply disappear without any trace.

I missed an excellent talk on Easter Island to go to a session on “Rejuvenate, Invigorate and Restore the Mind” Boy do I need that, especially the restore bit after the Pisco Sour yesterday. A fellow passenger, Bethany Orrick, gave the talk. The talk involved guided imagery, which I usually find very helpful for relaxation. She started with relaxation at the top of the head, but the last part of the body I remember was her telling us to love and heal our lungs, and then the next thing I heard was we were ascending stairs to go down to a beach. Clearly the vision of trying to go up stairs to get to a lower level was enough to wake me from my deep slumber. I nodded off again soon afterwards, but did feel very relaxed when I woke up at the end of the session. She will be doing several more sessions, and I am looking forward to them.

The sun was almost out, so after lunch we went to the pool. Although the ocean looks like glass there must be a sizable swell as the water was splashing out of the pool. I decided not to swim. There were 2 teenagers at the pool with their mother. She had a walkie talkie and it kept on going off, and she was talking loudly in to it. I know it is difficult to keep track of people on the ship, and that we ourselves did use walkie talkies on family cruises when the children were small, as did thousands of other parents, but it seems very incongruous and quite annoying on this ship.

I decided not to use any sunscreen, as I believed the sun was not that bright. This was not a good choice as when we returned to the cabin to get ready for dinner, I was a brighter shade of red, not an attractive look when paired with a formal gown. It was the Black and White Ball again, and apart from a few couples totally under dressed most people were dressed appropriately, and the majority were actually in black and white, it looked lovely.

Abba Night started at 10:15, so the dancing queens at our table managed to finish dinner early enough to drag our reluctant spouses up to Hemispheres for some serious dancing. Yay, Brian’s foot injury is healed enough that he is quite comfortable dancing again. Nothing can stop me now.