day 11 at sea

9:00 a.m.
I am up in the internet cafe area and its nine in the morning. It is super duper foggy out and being up so high on the ship, the ship’s horn is incredibly loud, every three minutes. The internet is, as usual, slow to not working, mostly not working. Occasionally someone gets on, but most cannot. I know that the fog can possibly play a part, as the techie says, but I have been in way worse fog than this and the internet on other boats have worked. People are seriously pissed!! Oh well. It looks to me that a lot of strangers that originally do not know each other, are bonding over a common enemy. Bill is in the stateroom, sneezing, coughing, harrumphing, farting, other disgusting things, clipping, ointmenting, showering, picking, scratching…..I had to get out of there. We are going to some lecture at ten on Lord Horatio Nelson and what the hell happened to him. Do I care? I think not…but oh well……Back later and I promise not to tell you all about the lecture!

4:30 pm

I just came up to the cafe to check on my emails, to the news that Jack Layton has died. Sad sad news. I liked and respected him. It is shocking how many women we are seeing on the ship here with “chemo hair”. I know that there will be a higher ratio due to the age group, but it is still hard to see. So many many sad and difficult stories here.

6:00 p.m.

Dinner was delicious…steak and lobster. It is formal night so lots of us eat here in the lido instead of the dining room. We don’t have to dress up. But the food is formal food.

The average age on this ship is probably about 75..and not a healthy 75. I have been watching all the old people and they drive me crazy. I think I have complained about this before but I am going to complain again. The old men walk like robots. They shuffle along with their arms bent at the elbows, glued to their sides and don’t move their heads from side to side. If they need to turn around they plant their heels on one spot and wiggle their toes around, pivoting on the heel really really slowly, all the while keeping their heads pointed in the direction of their toes. When they reach the direction they want, they shuffle off again. If someone talks to them, they stop, look up startled and make two or three quick huffing noises of surprise and then go “HEY??” really loud. What the hell!!?? I don’t understand how they ALL end up walking this way. Women on the other had waddle sideways, back and forth. Whats with that? Its amazing. They don’t even have to be fat…they just waddle. I have been watching and I have not seen one man waddle or one woman shuffling. When I get home I am going to google it and see if I can figure out the difference between them and why.

The other thing I noticed about the men, they fall asleep, anywhere, anytime. No matter where you go on the boat you will find a fair number of old men asleep. Not the women, just the men.
I see one now. His wife is off in the line up for dessert and he is still at the table, head slumped down sound asleep. Do men need more sleep? I think not! I think this boils down to self discipline and we know about old men and self discipline! Well, gotta go. Another lecture to go to. This time about the Vikings….yay!!!!!!And right now, over the top of my laptop I see Bill, asleep. I need to go smack him. TTYL….