Random Updates

1) We went through the North Sea. It was rough, although not as rough as the Tasmanian Sea. However, you know that the ship thinks it is rough because they put “vomit bags” on the disposal cans by the elevator. I think a lot of the nearbees had some seasickness problems.

2) I had asked a bar waitress a couple of nights ago to dance. They must have a policy that the bar staff are not to do this. This makes sense if it interferes with them doing their job…like when lots of people want to order a drink. However, when the place is almost empty, the other principle is to make every effort to have passengers be happy. I could tell she was stressed on this issue, but used my animal magnetism to convince her to dance anyway. She and I did well.

So tonight we had a Captain’s reception for the guest (ie for the new guests). Since I have seen the Captain (he is new, the original Captain got off in Singapore), I gave him a note as follows”

“This grants Victoria (her name), or any alternate holder of this note, the right to dance with passenger Mr. Roberts, or any other passenger equally charming.” The Captain immediately realized that this was more of a good idea than a bad idea, so he signed and gave it to me. I presented the note to Victoria later in the dance area, and she did not know what to make of this. I suspect that she will keep the note as an example of having made contact with a passenger and had something strange happen.

3) So this was formal night. I think it is formal night number 13 for us. It is my last one! They have a new one scheduled for Friday. I’ll skip this one. Kathleen took 2 hours to eat! I left after 1-1/4 hours to go to the dance room. I did find one other passenger to dance once with, but the band played some really great dance songs that we missed because Kathleen chose to eat slowly….or talk afterward about stuff.

4) A clerk that we know at the ship’s boutique said that she saw one of the passengers put a $69 Russian lacquer box in her pocket. The clerk told her manager. Later the passenger asked the manager to put two items aside that she might choose to purchase later. The manager said okay, then reached in the passenger’s pocket, pulled out the stolen box and said, “and we’ll charge this to your card now.” What an idiot (the passenger, not the manager.).

5) Denmark uses the Danish Krone for currency. What a pain. We have had two weeks of using the Euro. What a wonderful idea the euro was. You do not have to worry about changing more money than you will use in a given country, because the next one uses the same currency. Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Gibraltar (accepts the Euro even though it is not their currency), Portugal, Ireland, and Holland all used the euro.