2 days are now one

Sunday, February 8, 2009 – LOST DAY due to the international date line
When proceeding east from Greenwich, England, one hour is lost every 15 degrees of longitude. When proceeding west, one hour is gained every 15 degrees of longitude. Consequently, 360 degrees divided by 15 degrees equals 24 hours, which causes one day to be lost when circumnavigating the globe eastwards and one day to be gained when circumnavigating westwards. To compensate for the difference, one day is added when crossing the International Date Line when going east and one day is subtracted when crossing the line when going west.
Consequently, Sunday, February 8, 2009, did not exist.

Saturday, February 7, 2009 – at sea on the way to Tonga
Lovely, lovely day. Swam at 7 and the sun was already up and shining brightly. Breakfast in the room to get ready for my drama class. We worked on Shakespeare today and our group read a sonnet with the correct cadence and emphasis on words. Lecture on Tongan society and sightseeing and lunch in the Todd English restaurant with friends. It is the specialty restaurant onboard and it was presented beautifully. Felt like we were in one of the finer restaurants in the world and the presentation and tastes were wonderful. Had crab cakes, flat bread lobster (like a pizza lobster), lobster sandwich on a croissant with homemade potato chips and vanilla crème brulee. Many other hot options so you would not even need to have dinner! $20 cover charge per person.

There was a Chef’s Salon Culinary Cooking Competition! What creative chefs we have onboard. Some of my favorites were: 1) a female shape labeled “Surf and Turf”. The body was from crab meat and the arms and legs were frogs legs! 2) a cheese carving of fish 3) a chocolate piano with keys 4) fruit in the shapes of many animals of the sea, including penguins, dolphins approx. 8” high! We voted on which display we liked best in several categories and the chefs were honored with certificates.
Each day onboard Queen Victoria, the following are consumed:
120 pizzas
800 scones
10,000 meals
5,000 cups of tea
1,000 bottles/cans of beer
850 soft drinks
700 bottles of water
600 bottles of wine!

Worked on the next excursion we have in Auckland later this week, worked on the computer (I am pulling my hair out trying to get connected with certain websites!) and read about Tonga. Dinnertime found another tablemate getting sick with a cold (everyone seems to have had one or getting one) and then enjoyed the Cunard singers in a nice concert and UK comedian, John Evans.

For this segment from LA to Sydney Australia, we have the following citizens onboard:
Angola, Australia (195), Austria, Belgium, Canada (98), Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany (192), Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad & Tobago, UK (776), US (406), Venezuela and Zimbabwe. I love the international mix!

We LOSE tomorrow due to the international dateline. We go to bed tonight, Saturday, and wake up on Monday morning -- same time but a day later. This is easier to understand when you fly since you gain the day on the way home. This time we are really losing the day…