Day 4

Ok Here is what happens to the human body when faced with extreme conditions: sleep. I slept through everything. When I woke there were two different notes from Thomas re his going down to first and second b fast. He came and went several times, could not wake chico or me.
When I went to sleep, the wind was howling, really impressive. But apparently the heavy rocking only brought me back to infanthood. Thomas, who has, remember, only eaten a few beans lately, was almost thrown out of bed. He went to the bathroom and nearly fell over.
I am so sorry bloggers! I will make it up to you with other people's stories, which I will get today.




My alert husband has pointed out some things I did not put in the last day. here are some:
Met a guy in the hot tub who will be on this trip with wife and 10 year old son for 25 days. Then home to florida, for three days only, then another cruise for 35 days. All together in one room! yeah. he says the dollar is so bad he fears getting off the ship and prefers to wave from the boat.
Thomas' golf competition (chipping) got heated when people (men) complained that the boat had lurched violently mid swing and they needed another try. A Scot won of course, Thomas got third. That means there are good golfers aboard. He is presently playing in a golf driving contest. I am on tenterhooks.
Thomas is also afraid to order now because he thinks it will become the subject of ridicule in my blog. "The real men don't order that problem".
Kathy harper used to use a favorite expression of Charlie Brighams: short hitter. And if we were dining and someone asked for fettucine alfredo with the sauce on the side, or chicken with cashews without the chicken, .she would announce: short hitter...a I have assured him that this is in fact true. I will ridicule his choices. But with love. In light of this, he went for duck after vegetable broth. I know, i know....but I think it is a fairly macho order in France.
We are so busy. Lots of the day we are separated: F in the kid zone on a scavenger hunt round the boat, Thomas golfing, me writing or in the gym or chatting up people by the soft ice cream dispenser. The two best things are still curling up with a book in the bar at the bow. But it is a bow high up..(11th floor) also good is by the window lower down..say on only the 2nd floor with the rushing, crazy water just outside, or the Planetarium,,or hot tubbing outside in the stern, unfortunately the weather has been too bad for much of that.

Have seen some celebrities...some Asian actor that was in everything in the 70s...cant remember what , and the woman who was head of Hewlett Packard (not Carla Fiorini..she is busy of course) but Patricia Dunn....Tommy is friends with her brother Paul. But no more than that...

We took frederick's picture with the commodore last night...he was rather nice...A woman asked our names like in My Fair Lady and introduced F as Master Frederick wehlen. It was a cocktail reception at 6 30 and we didnt want to be in our best clothes so early...these elderly...they are in a panic..ready in black tie at 5 pm...so I put on pants and thomas had no tie and they told him he could not come in. He is getting a bad reputation around here I think. Picture is below.

Today the wind is strong..but the sea is smaller...we are still rocking a bit and I have not been outside because of the rain.

Ok T is back from the trenches with first place in the driving competition. Apparently it was him (with a 3 wood no less...no driver for him) and a couple of Scots, and someone from Australia. They were grumbling: : But 'es so thin!!! Ow does 'e do it?! we want nothing less than world domination on this cruise. F must come home (for the second year in a row) with the coveted: always happy award or he sleeps in the hall.

That of course is the joy of being on something this slow. The smallest things become important..and they take all energy from other things to worry about..fabulous. It is like an island of ignorance...no news..., so ping pong is elevated. I was thinking about how this thing is so popular...every single room even ones with no windows, is booked months in advance. And it proposed to take you to England in 6 days rather than 8 hours. The only thing that is more popular the slower it is. Next it will be clipper ship.

Have not seen my butler in forever..(butler seems to be latin for man who cleans your room) i think he is hiding from us, because we have a creaky ceiling...but every evening little canapés with pate or caviar or something that Thomas wont eat..or even chocolate covered strawberries is left like a little elf.

F is the absolute unchallenged expert on the ship. He knows where everything is..which is not easy...if you make a mistake and take off in the direction you think is correct, and then are wrong...you do a lot of walking...Commodore club: bow; plantarium, bow; restaurant, stern, gym, I dont know..hard to find just like the bridge where the poor worshiped captain is, they are the only poorly marked places; He also knows which rooms have doorbells, how long it is ( 400 meters..or app. 1200 feet, how wide, how old, how fast, and on sight knows which pictures are of the titanic, and the QE2.

OK am off to work for you people...will find a bloody nose story if it kills me.