Thursday, April 2, 2009

April's Fools Day

April 1, 2009 – in the Gulf of Aden (in the Arabian Sea) sailing between Yemen (south coast of the Arabian peninsula) and Somalia (in the Horn of Africa)
We have “coalition” destroyers around the ship and helicopters flying overhead. We are not sure which country they belong to but they are there to protect us. I went out to walk on Deck 10 and heard the helicopter overhead and it certainly stopped me in my tracks. What a wake-up call. This life is certainly not whether you wear “elegant casual or semi-formal” to dinner at night.

We tried to do laundry and it was a test – in patience and timing. Due to the norovirus, they have the laundry closed for four hours in the middle of the day and close earlier than normal. There are approx. 300 people using the same machines on each floor. And everyone knows it takes longer to dry your clothes than it does to wash them. Need I write more???

I went down to the purser’s desk earlier than the requested 9:30 AM to sign up for the “Bridge Navigational course they will be offering for the first time so there was quite a line to sign-up. After signing up, we were handed a note, “Thank you for your interest in taking part in the Bridge Navigational Course on Queen Victoria. Your name has been registered today on April 1, 2009. (April Fool’s Day!) Thanks for being a good sport.”
GOOD ONE! Over 351 registered for this course….

Then we noticed an announcement in the daily programme that they will close Deck 3 so they can install a moving walkway.
April Fool’s! Or could it be the first escalator at-sea…??

On the Queen Mary 2, they are in Rome today. We heard that their Captain announced that Italy had just held a national election and, effective at midnight, had just changed their currency. All people going ashore should go to the purser’s desk to exchange their euros for the new currency, the “pizza”. And people lined up for the new currency!!!!!

Lunch with friends and worked on the next shore excursion. The Captain announced a change in itinerary for Cairo/Suez Canal, which involves some thought and decisions on our end. They are not tendering from Suez but will do Giza pyramid tours from Alexandria.

Met friends for a drink and chat before dinner. Wine tasting seminar. Dinner and then the best entertainer of the cruise – a comedian/mime --- Mr. Yacov Noy.
www.threelegs.com

Then it got even better!! We were on Deck 9 in the very back and all the lights had been turned off and the ship’s telescope was set up to see the moon!!! Astronomer Francisco Diego, from Mexico, was there to explain the heavens and galaxies and it was fabulous. We saw the craters on the Moon as if we could touch them and saw a “globular mass of stars” in the Sombrero Galaxy (cause it looks like a hat!).

Missed: RADA (drama) workshop; $1000 and under Champagne Art Auction; “Persian Empire” lecture by Phillip Harding; “T.E. Lawrence – once of Arabia, always of Britain” lecture by Col. Gerald McCormack; “Selling the Sea” lecture by Dr. Peter Quartermaine; classical concert by pianist Anthony Hewitt.

Clocks were set back an hour again. It is now 11:30 PM on the ship and it is 4:30 PM in Delaware, same day. Staff total 1000; there are 185 females and 815 males from 51 countries! Passengers: 1714 from 33 countries (398 from USA and 818 from UK).