"I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from." Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've been thinking about this line from Emerson a lot lately. Here I am, 21 days into a 109-day trip and beginning to wonder who I'll be when I return. Me, of course, because as Emerson points out, you take you with you wherever you go. But I hope I don't develop bad habits. It's said that it takes 28 days to make a habit (and 28 days to break one?). I'll have lots of time, then, to change for the worse - or better? And also lots of time to analyze my current habits and decide whether to lose them, or not.

I'm going to see Shanghai at night tonight. (I hope it's not a lesson in the hookers of Shanghai.) At any rate, I'll have time to think about who I am. Remember that question put to a retired person: Who did you used to be? Tune in tomorrow and find out....

SO: it's tomorrow now, Saturday, April 11, 5 a.m. Oceania is calling this Day 1, Shanghai, because it marks a new segment of the cruise. When the World Cruise was truncated, and fewer people were signed on to the remaining 109 days, from Singapore to Miami, portions of the trip were sold off. I have made friends with people who are leaving today, ad with others who are going as far as Sydney, plus a few destined for Miami. It's hard because I have to work at names. Bags dotard my corridor last night, luggage set to go out with its owners; a lot of new people will be coming on boarrd today. To get us long-termers out of the way, the organizers have recommended room service; we have ordered a continental breakfast for 6:30. So I don't have to leave here (the library) quite so soon. I don't need to, anyway, because the outside air temperature is in the 50s F., not comfortable for early morning swimmers.

I haven't forgotten my subject for today - and always - the person you take with you on your travels, in life. Where to begin? I have a favourite question: Would you be married to you? Or, to be more exact: Would you live with you? My cabin-mate and I are exploring this on a daily basis as we get to know each other. I think it must be hard for her to live with a writer and I am more aware of my quirks and foibles as I tiptoe out of the cabin at 4 in the morning. She agreed to "mate' with me because I am an early riser, but she didn't know how early.

I can't deal with this in a blog, of course. The line between the the private and the public persona that everyone presents is very fine, almost transparent in some cases. That takes more analysis.

I don't think I should publish this blog.

Well, not so slow and yesterday was a rough, cold day. Barf bags lay ready at strategic points in the ship for queasy stomachs. The stabilizers on this ship are marvellous, barely a ripple as far as I'm concerned. The motion is like a cradle and rocks me to sleep. But I am cold. No morning swim till we head south again, After Shanghai we still have Beijing and Seoul, etc. before we head south and Australia will not be very warm. I had checked Hobart, Australia for the average temperature when we get there the beginning of winter or later, but I forgot how far north we would go. I can't swim for a while, not when the outdoor temperature is around 50 F. I have started to pedal on a bicycle I can read on, but I should start walking the track, if my foot permits it. Also I need to get a warm sweatshirt - too much to hope for a fleecy.

Yesterday I was going to write something about All At Sea, and actually wrote the title but lost it. I was checking the lyrics bf that song by Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers's lyricist partner before Oscar Hammerstein, and I found a thorough review of a biography of Hart. So I read that instead of writing the blog. By thorough I mean it was more like a condensation or a profile.

Yesterday afternoon a huge Teatime Gala in the insignia Lounge, the big, all-purpose theatre, brought more people together than I had yet seen - lots of new faces. Normally, I guess, people are out on excursions or scattered . The food was lovely and quite obscene. The sandwiches were small and delicious. I ate the mortadella out of a small bagel, and the Camembert cheese off a rye square, and the curlicue of roast beef and the slice of hard boiled egg with their baguette base, and two fresh strawberries, with a cup of Earl Grey. The sweet table(s) presented an enormous variety of cakes, pastries and cookies, as well as bananas flambés, Belgian waffles with chocolate sauce or syrup and whipped cream, and scones, of course, with their attendant trimmings. I didn't eat any nor did I take pictures. Too much richesse!

I can see why retired people go on cruises that offer such a wealth of experience - and great food. I m hearing increasingly of permanent travellers, people who retire onto ships, taking back-to-back cruises. Some say it's cheaper than a retirement home and more comfortable. It beats freighters.