Tuesday, November 1 – A New Month

It may be a new month, but the sea-day routine remains the same.  We lost another hour at mid-day which meant, essentially, that we lost lunch again as 1 pm became 2 pm, Trivia time.  Soon we will be on GMT and then GMT+1 and will not have to worry about changing clocks until the return trip.  On the way west, the clocks will be set back during the night so we will get an extra hour of sleep.

As usual, we looked like Citizen and Mrs. Kane as we ate breakfast, each reading the morning paper on opposite sides of a table for two.  The comparison was even more apt at lunch yesterday when the two-top was extra-long and we looked like the Kanes at opposite ends of their dining room table.  If you have not seen Citizen Kane, this paragraph was a complete waste of time.

The cabin stewards are still not in synch with us.  Even though we have told them we will be sending laundry every day, they still can’t remember to leave both a laundry list and a laundry bag; it is one or the other.  Today, the steward insisted that he had left the bag tied to the hangers of returned clothes, but it was not there.  The dining room staff, by comparison, has been spot on.

Trivia continues to be disorganized with people changing teams and seating areas.  Traditionally, once teams have which table or area they are going to use [usually on the first day], they stay there for the duration.  Like formal and informal nights, which gave way to gala and smart casual, this is apparently out-of-date.  The general volume of talking at the tables makes it hard to hear the questions; it is especially ironic since the talkers are the same people who ask to have the questions repeated.  Once again, we had fun overthinking questions and answers, but, as a team of 2, we have no one to argue with when the game is over. [There was a little table slapping today, but nothing that would have made a material difference.]

The Lido buffet was closed when we got there so we opted for made-to-order salads rather than pizza and then repaired to the cabin to read and rest.  We gave fleeting thought to attending lectures but chose not to.  Maybe tomorrow.

There are 2 lecturers aboard at this point:  Stuart Sutherland, who gave the talks on dinosaurs and who is moving on to tsunami tomorrow; and George Sranko, whose presentation tomorrow is about “top predators.”  MA recognized him and his wife in a hallway yesterday and said “hello” today.  They ate at the table next to us on the GWV.  As they entered the MDR tonight, he called over that he wants to talk to us.  We can’t wait to see what that’s about.

Barbara and Roger invited us to their table for dinner tonight, but we demurred.  We like to give our waiters notice the day ahead when we will not be there.  Besides, we don’t want to lose our tempura vegetables.  And the tempura tonight was the crispiest yet.  We were grateful to have them since there were no really edible veggies served with our panko-breaded shrimp.  The rice was dry and the sweet and sour vegetables were slivers of carrot and pepper.  We would have been lost without the tempura.

We skipped the comedian tonight and read and wrote until light’s out.

TOMORROW – The Mariner Luncheon and a discussion of Cruise Critic