I've said that before. And I'm busier than most Sea Days because I'm working on a pitch for a movie I'm writing with a partner on whose book it is based. By a most serendipitous event I have an opportunity to meet with a film director tomorrow when we dock in L.A. He may find it mutually beneficial to co-operate on the production of our movie, so I am working on the log line and the synopsis to present to him. Running out of time, I may have to pitch him verbally. Anyway, the several (five) Sea Days it has taken us to sail to Los Angeles have been both busy, cruise-wise, and productive, film-wise. But I miss my ergonomic chair at home.

I have skipped several "enrichment" lectures but I have continued to play Trivial Pursuit. A lot of people I have known for 2 or 3 months now are getting off in LA. and I will miss them, including some of my team players. A huge number will be boarding for the transit of the Panama Canal, bringing the ship up to its full capacity for passengers (584, I think, double occupancy). I'm not sure if I can cram ay more names and faces into my mental Rolladex file. I may have to resort to "Hey you!" smiling all the while.

More foreign countries coming up, too: Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama Canal, Columbia, and then Florida. So it ain't over till it's over. I've run out of toothpaste and calcium pills, and my silver-haired shampoo and I'm sick to death of my clothes, so Ugess it's time I turned to thoughts of home.

But I'm still having a good time. We had another Premium Wine-Tasting yesterday and four people gave me their caviar (to go with the champagne sample) Num.

Again, trouble getting online. The vagaries of wifi at sea are daunting. I have solved the problem this morning by getting up early and sticking my foot in the metaphorical door. It's 4:25 a.m. out here - down here? - we are cruising once again, heading for Los Angeles now, a five-Sea-Day sail.

The ship was very quiet the afternoon and evening of the Missouri party I was told I missed a great bash with prawns as big as chicken legs and the waitresses dressed up in '40s styles. Not for me. I enjoyed being alone and did some more thinking about my screenplay. I've said before it takes longer not to write a script than to write one. I've been taking that lengthy time and I have five days to work on it before I meet with someone who may be influential in my future. We'll see.

In the meantime, life went on in this floating village. For the first time, I didn't take a scheduled excursion. We were in Lahaina, Hawaii, and I wandered with one "old" (some two months old) and some new friends in the touristy town with lots of stuff for sale, from kitsch to glamour with arts and crafts in between. We found a restaurant our friends knew and ate lunch overlooking a beach where surfers were learning and splashing. I have met so many people who have been here before, not once or twice but several times. "Been there, done that" is a familiar phrase except that they don't mind doing it again. I have discovered that what I thought was my bucket list is to many others merely a drop in the bucket.

I could get philosophical or critical about tourism but i's a benign industry and preferable to war. War is very damaging; tourism is not. Not in that way. Yesterday found us in Kauai, yet another tropical paradise, on another excursion, a musical river cruise to a fern grotto, in the company of another new/old friend (of two months) with whom I plan to travel again. I am remembering to take the odd picture with my iPad Mini and I will try to send some - soon. On the whole, I prefer to lock a sight into my memory. I want to write something more about that cruise but it will have to wait. I must get to my scene cards.

Anon, anon.