Our typical day at sea always begins with a fun breakfast in the dining room. The best part of the meal has to be the numerous cups of coffee we manage to consume. Secretly, we think our waiters are counting how many cups we can drink in an hour and a half. And we get chastised if we accept coffee from the roaming waiters serving it. If we have too many grounds in the bottom of the cups, Gan swears it is our fault for "cheating" on him. Between Gan and Danu, they make sure our food is just right. Yes, sometimes the portions are double, but he blames the chefs on that. Just kidding, of course. Anyway, we always start the day with a smile. The greeter, Josephine, never fails to welcome us, and says have a good day when we leave. How good is that?
Even better, once we went out the door to the promenade deck, we noticed a change in the temperature and the humidity, or the lack of it. Traveling further south down the east coast of South America, we are entering a more tolerable zone. Perfect weather for the back pool, which was where we headed after our walk.
It is really nice not to feel the need to rush back there in order to get a space at the back of the deck. Practically no one was there today. Perhaps the lecture on Sir Francis Drake, delivered by Charles McClelland, had the folks entertained at 10am or the demo with guest chef Leticia enticed some to attend her lecture at 11am. The 2pm lecture took in the ports of Punta del Este, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo. Always good info there. But we can catch it on TV later. And HAL Chorale met today in the Piano Bar, much to the appreciation of the singers among us.
We kept lunch light, because we had an invitation to a special event, Tapas Wine 'n Talks Party held in the Explorer's Lounge from 6:30 to 7:30pm, exclusively for the President's Club members. The receiving line found Captain Jonathon, Henk, and Hamish welcoming every one of us. New inductees, Linda and Dave, made it into President's Club today, and they were welcomed into the party. We have a favorite gathering place, which happens to be a stand up table near the bar set-up. Barb was already there, saving our places. Then Susie, Sue, Don, and Karleen came. A bit later, Karen walked in and stopped with us, while Shiv strolled by, as did Henk and Bruce. Bruce works behind the scenes now, so we do not see him during the day. But it is great to chat with him at these small affairs. And he did inform us that we can find a copy of the crossword puzzle at the front desk every day. Eventually Captain Jonathon had to come and see what we were all talking about, which was a little bit of everything. The food was pretty nice with spoon-size servings of lobster with caviar, parma ham wrapped on a bread stick, a frittata canopy, an empanada filled with corn and artichoke hearts, and grilled shrimp. But the best had to be the grilled slices of chorizo sausage. Together with the drinks of our choice, we could have made this dinner.
But of course, there was fish and chips on the menu tonight, so we could not miss that. In fact five of us ordered the fish, while the fellows ordered the chicken pot pie. Turned out these were the top two entrees served this evening. Philip calls it comfort food, or something close to it, like good old fashioned cuisine. Worked for us.
Greg and Heo set off for the show, which featured Andrea Amat, a virtuoso de Valencia, or a touch of Spain with audio-visual effects. What that all means, we sure don't know, but the guys will tell us tomorrow.
Sure hope tomorrow is like today, as it was almost perfect.
Bill & Mary Ann
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Report # 76 Day at Sea January 21, 2020 Tuesday Partly sunny & 78 degrees
