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.