Today was the first of 3 sea days as we head almost due north toward Bali, our next port of call.
Coffee Chat
Hamish’s guest for Coffee Chat this morning was Andy Bunger, who performed last evening in the Queen’s Lounge. He was born into an European artist family with a long tradition of performing. He first appeared at the age of 5 when he played the bagpipes and juggled in his parent’s musical show. In addition to performing he is also an arranger, transcriber, musical director, freelance orchestra musician, studio musician and producer.
Hamish and Andy at Coffee Chat
Andy Bunger
Excursion Talk
I stopped by the Queen’s Lounge at 10 AM to hear Barbara and Nyron’s talk about the excursions available during the upcoming ports. Nyron opened his talk with a plea for all guests to carefully consider their own limitations when scheduling ship tours and pay close attention to the activity level required as shown by the icons on each tour’s descriptions that depict from 1 to 3 walking people which indicate and activity level from easy to strenuous. One of the major complaints he receives is from passengers who stated that their tour was negatively impacted because the group had to wait for some folks who were on an excursion that exceeded their abilities.
Nyron talking about excursions
Barbara and Nyron before their presentation
Afternoon on the ship
I played 3 Texas Hold’em tournaments today, winning one, finishing second in the other and losing the other.
Judy attended Ben’s drawing class where they have started to concentrate on tones. Today’s lesson was creating value studies with anywhere from 4 to 9 steps of gray scale tones.
Ben’s drawing class
During crafts Judy learned wireworking and made a Trendy Chain Mail Bracelet. Both a Men’s and Women’s version was available. The difference was the Men’s bracelet had some dark rubber links while the Women’s was all silver tone.
Judy’s craft project
Evening
Tonight’s dinner featured a Greek theme with Greek Moussaka and the Greek Soup with Chicken, Orzo and Lemon being offered. We are big fans of Avgolemono soup which has Chicken, orzo and lemons as major ingredients, but the presentation of this soup varies widely from restaurant to restaurant across the USA. This soup wasn’t advertised as Avgolemono, but we had hopes that it might be something we would enjoy. It was just OK and we will probably give it a pass in the future.
Patrick Murray with Jamaica’s Number 1 comedienne, Matilida, was the headliner in the Queen’s lounge this evening. Patrick is an amazing ventriloquist and he brings Matilda to life with incredible skill and wit. His show would be fabulous as a straight comedian, but his ability to play straight man to Matilda is hilarious and he was easily the best comedian we have seen on this cruise so far. Patrick is an amazing talent and his show is worth seeing again and again. Don’t miss it!
