St. Patrick's Day at sea...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 – St. Patrick’s (Sea) Day leaving the Gulf of Thailand
Time change – this time we turned the clocks FORWARD an hour

Computer classes, letters, deliveries, arranging name tags and phone calls took most of the day. It was cloudy and misty most of the day with humid temperatures. Ate in the Golden Lion pub for lunch, did two loads of laundry, worked on my photos and downloading them from the camera (I am very much a novice at that) and went to the fitness center before our group cocktail party.

The cocktail parties are really a lot of fun. This time I assigned seating with name tags for the islands/destinations on this segment of the trip so they could meet new people. And we were fortunate that the Hotel Manager and Chief Engineer, two future cruise consultants and the hotel manager’s assistant showed up to mingle. It is a beautiful oval-shaped room with floor to ceiling windows and a very large multi-colored tear-drop chandelier, which faces the open deck and pool area. It has great atmosphere and people linger long after our designated hour to sit and chat. We missed our dinner hour (and it was lobster and chateaubriand tonight!!) but we went to the buffet and had freshly grilled sea bass and minute steaks and really enjoyed them. AND carrot cake with green marzipan on the top!! I love carrot cake and the marzipan just made it even better for me!!

It was the St. Patrick’s Day Ball so it is a formal night. People were in goofy green hats with blinkers and lights and boas…you can imagine there are quite a few Irish onboard! The show, “Hit Me with a Hot Note”, was a big production number with the new singers and dancers who just boarded in Hong Kong. They claimed they had been working until 4-5 AM some days since boarding to coordinate the lights and sound. It was a very good show with music from the ‘50s and ‘60s with great costumes. Had a late snack with friends in the buffet and worked and went to bed very late after delivering notes to the eight in our group who leave in Singapore.

St. Patrick was born around AD 385-7. When he was young, he was captured by sea raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped in his early 20s, made his way to the coast and found sailors who returned him to Britain. He became a priest and later a bishop. He returned to Ireland as one of the first Christian missionaries and began a life of extraordinary energy and leadership. He created monasteries and convents all over Ireland, preached and taught constantly and converting whole areas. Ireland was pagan at the time so this was no easy task. Perhaps the most famous example of his teaching is in the three-leafed clover known as a shamrock. Patrick used it to show how a trinity – father, son and holy spirit – could also be one, just as the three leaves were on one shamrock.