Nothing exciting happened today, although we wished we had seen some signs of sealife as we head into the Andaman Sea on our way towards Sri Lanka. At the risk of repeating ourselves, while sailing in this same area back in 2001, we were treated to a grand display of dozens of large spinner dolphins. At the time, we were at the aft pool, no surprise there, and enjoying another hot, sunny day sunbathing. Out of the blue, we heard loud splashing, like something was falling off of the ship. What a surprise we had, when we looked over the railing to see these dolphins putting on a show for us. We swear they were launching themselves so high out of the water just to check out the ship. Did we have a camera with us? Of course not, but it remains a fond memory. Every time we sail in these waters, we watch all day for a repeat performance. It has not happened yet, but you never know........maybe tomorrow, or the day after.
One of the guest speakers has been very popular with the guests that enjoy intellegent and well delivered lectures. The other speaker, well, not so much so, as he seems to be flying by the seat of his pants with his talks. It has been a sore spot for our buddy Margaret, who saw fit to write a detailed comment to the guest relations manager regarding the disappointing lectures by this one speaker. Another noticable difference in this world cruise is the increased promotion of things to buy such as photos, DVD's of the segments, jewelry, both costume and highend, salon packages, and casino specials. Today there was an advertisement for an upcoming silent auction for an education center in Namibia. Now that's OK, but selling cupcakes for $1.00 at the sneak preview of the items to be auctioned was really strange we think, and the first we have ever heard of doing this.
During the afternoon, we watched a movie about Thomas Jefferson in Paris. The story, which was portrayed as being true, involved Jefferson and his relationship with his daughters and also with one of his slaves. Many things happened that we sure never read in the history books. One of the other movies, was The Grandmaster, all about the man who trained Bruce Lee, the marshal arts master. The bad thing was that it was subtitled, and we hate that, trying to read tiny printing on our smallish TV's. It is no fun standing a foot away from the screen to read the lines for 2 hours and 10 minutes. So we didn't.
Dinnertime came quickly, and it was debatable whether we wanted to dress formal this evening. It seems that in these hotter climates, the air-conditioning has been fluctuating up and down in the public areas. Why is it that the hottest evenings are formal? By 8pm, there are no other options for dinner, only the dining room, the Canaletto, if there is space, or room service. So the tux went on and the formal dress, and we went to dinner, where it remained warm all evening, of course. There were six of us, since Barb was at the Captain's dinner in the Pinnacle Grill Restaurant. Even though we did not have a ship's guest or officer, we did get the wine, which everyone seemed to enjoy.
The entrees of chicken kiev were good, served with a tasty side of a warm potato and beet salad. Minestrone soup and a crisp salad started our meal well. The only one that was disappointed was Margaret, who had the toughest red snapper she has ever eaten. She just was having a bad day to the bitter end. Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and it can only get better.
The clocks went back this evening, but only 1/2 hour. It is not the norm, but there are some places in the world that are on the half hour time difference. Sri Lanka is one of them. Checking with last year's list where we kept track of time changes, we had put the clocks back 1 1/2 hours. So that means we still have another hour to get back in the next two days. Works for us.
