Marlyse is Leaving!

In such a short time, Marlyse has become the best known personality on board! However, tomorrow, we will be in Buenos Aires, and she will be leaving. After that, I hope to fill you in on all our activities in the past week or so. For now, there are many people I would like to hear from at my regular email address.

Pushed for time!

Sorry, friends; everything is fine. It has just been a VERY busy schedule. More, another time. Picture is from the market in Fortaleza.

I'm having difficulties!

The previous picture is from our evening dining group: Ruth, Jane, Marlyse, and Dick, but my commentary got lost. This picture is Victor, who first taught Marlyse to mplay paddle tennis.

Our Dining Partners

Pre Sushi Party

Blog Jan. 19th

It’s more and more difficult to know what day of the week it is! And sadly, there is only a week left for Marlyse to be with me. It has been a fantastic time for her, and as she said to me, she has been having her cake, and eating it, too!

I have been trying to get 15 minutes of sunshine every day, which I never managed to do last year. My usual schedule on sea days is Yoga at 08:00, sometimes free at 09:00 (otherwise Rap with the Rabbi); intermediate bridge lessons at 10, and advanced at 11. Then, R&R up at the pool, before meeting Marlyse for lunch, and my next class is Spanish at 15:00. Today, I sat out on our balcony, until Marlyse returned from her date from Paddle Tennis, followed by her art class, and then we both went up to the pool, where she swam laps and I went into the Jacusi. When we returned to the room there was a platter of crudities with a cream dip awaiting us, and now she is reading on her bed, and I am seated here at the computer.

Tonight, after dinner we promised to go to the piano recital at 10:30 given by a young man that had dinner with us last night, and then treated us to a private concert in one of the lounges, on stage, behind the curtain. It was very special. In fact, the whole evening, yesterday was quite special: all the people from our dining table had decided to go to The Silk Road, a Nobu Japanese restaurant, here on the Serenity, and so I had suggested that everyone come here beforehand for some champagne and hors-d’oeuvres, which proved to be quite agreeable. Then, the pianist, having been invited by our male dinner companion, joined our table, and we had an absolute banquet of Japanese specialties for the six of us.

On entering the restaurant, the officer in charge of Food and Beverages, who had previously noticed Marlyse, invited her for a game of paddle tennis, for this afternoon.

Now, it’s time to dress for dinner, so I will attempt to upload some of the pictures from our party, yesterday, and sign off for another day.

Sushi Party night

Blog Jan 17,2010

It’s difficult to believe that a whole week has gone by since we had the Gala dinner dance at the Four Season’s Hotel, and now there is little more than another week before Marlyse will be leaving! Each of us has had a full schedule, and often only meet at mealtime. We like our table mates, and are usually the last table to leave the dining room at night, because we are so busy chatting. It is a table for 6, and one of the ladies is a repeat from our table of last year ( and we had already decided last year to try to be at the same table again, this year) and the other is someone new, who has travelled a great deal, and is quite lively. She looks to be about 60, and in actual fact, she’s 71 and has a daughter who is 50!
One of the men is an Ambassador Host (those are the fellows who are here to dance with the ladies) and the other fellow is retired from the airline industry, and has been everywhere and knows everybody. Every evening is good for laughs and conversation. Tomorrow night, all of us are going to the Silk Room (Japanese) for dinner, preceded by a cocktail ½ hour of champagne and hors-d’oeuvres, here in our stateroom, and served by our butler!

Marlyse starts the day at 07:30 with a strenuous 20 minute walk on deck, followed by 45 minutes of Yoga (which we both do, at 08:00) Thereafter, we each go our own way, usually, Today, we both went to “Rap with the Rabbi”, and then I went for bridge lessons at 10 and 11. Marly went to beginners bridge, and then to paddle ball or some other sport, and then looked in on “Trivial Pursuits”. After lunch, I took time to relax in the sunshine, before going to Spanish class and Marlyse played more paddle ball or some such, and then lopped off 15 minutes from each of her next classes, since they were all scheduled such that she would not have had time for them, otherwise. Therefore, she left her golf lesson early in order to go to her art lesson, and then left that for something in the gym, finally going back to the art class when only the teacher was still around, essentially getting a private lesson. Now, she flew in and out of the stateroom, because she has an appointment for a massage, and in less than two hours, we are invited for pre-dinner cocktails and dancing to honor other members of the Crystal Society, and it is a formal affair, so we have to dress up and have our picture taken for the souvenir booklet.

On Friday, Marlyse went on a rain forest cycling expedition in St. Lucia, and I remained here, trying to get caught up with laundry, and the computer (which has continued to be a problem ever since we got on the ship. Seems that the Outlook program I have has suddenly become defective, and so sometimes the send and receive doesn’t work: The only remedy would be to install a new program, or to turn the computer off each time and reboot it when I want to use Outlook. Today, Philippe tried to Skype me, but that wasn’t very successful, either. Apparently, we are limited in the time of day, that we can use Skype.

On Saturday, I took an Island jeep safari adventure in Barbados, and Marlyse joined the Rabbi and a few others for a private visit to the oldest synagogue still in existence in the “new world”. Apparently, it precedes the Spanish/Portuguese in New York and also the one in Newport, all of which are from the 16th century.

Tomorrow, we stop at Devil’s Island (French Guiana) for a few hours, but the landscape is such that I won’t attempt the hike up through the jungle. Marlyse will go without me.

Frustration!

I wrote a long message for my blog yesterday on Word, and now I cannot get it to transfer to the Blog! The lion is carved from one piece of wood, and is quite famous on Barbados. Oops! This is a so-called Christmas tree, but it is not the one I meant to publish here.

What I meant to send was the picture of the monkey on top of the tree. I don't seem to be able to add more pictures, so I'll let it go for now, and hope I can find out how to transfer what I wrote, yesterday.

Today the ship is landed at Devil's Island.

Everything is very "finiky"! Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Anyway, this is a picture of Marlyse, me, Gayle and Phil taken in Miami. The other picture is of Susan Scrimshaw, President of Russell Sage College, and her husband Alan Stern who were in Miami, and kindly invited Marlyse (Class of '76) and me ('50) to lunch .

pictures from Miami

I see that I made a mistake; we are going to St. Lucia (and not San).

Catching up on the way to San Lucia

Dear Readers,

It is now Tuesday evening, January 12^th, and we are en route to San Lucia, having left Miami yesterday. So very much has happened since we left Zürich on the 7^th, that I doubt I will be able to recall a fraction of what you might like to know.

First off, let me say that Marlyse and I were both thrilled to spend time with Phil and Gayle, and so pleased to see that Phil is happy and relaxed. In true interfering mother style, I chided him until he went for a haircut and beard trim, which immediately improved his appearance, and took away his Santa Claus look, as well as making him look years younger (which at the same time, meant that I could claim to be younger!)

We went shopping on the first day, having been told that it was possible to take a shuttle train that would connect to the Metro-rail and would be very easy for me (that meant little walking would be necessary), and in the stores they offer self propelled go-carts for those with walking problems. All was well until it was time to return to the hotel, and the shuttle was no longer working! We ended up taking a bus, and having to walk some six blocks!

People began to check in, and although I couldn’t remember names, there were many people that I recognized from either 2008 or 2009, so it was like “old home week”. On Friday night, we were eating in the dining room, and all of a sudden, a couple came to our table because they had overheard us mention Russell Sage College, and also something about motorcycles; it was the President of Sage and her husband, who had invited Marlyse and me for lunch on Saturday, and thus met us the night before.

A couple from last year’s cruise came by just to see who they knew, although they are not on this year’s cruise. He’s an M.D., and encouraged me to get myself a cane; in fact, he even insisted on driving me to a pharmacy, to get one, so I am now tapping my way whenever I walk.

Yesterday, there was a long delay before we could board the ship, because some people never got their passports back with the various visas that were necessary. The end of the story was that a special courier had to hand carry the missing items from Washington, and finally, the ship was cleared by security, and we could be transported from the hotel.

We had a really good dinner last night, but I was too tired to finish all my unpacking.

This morning, Marlyse started at 07:30 with Nordic Walking out on deck, and both of us went to Yoga at 08:00. For the rest of the day, we have been running from one activity to another. We cannot do everything we would like to do, because of the time conflicts, but this year I have promised myself I would take time for relaxing, and so I was quite pleased to have a nap in the sunshine up at the poolside, while Marlyse went to some other activity. She has already done something in art class that will be on display, and I went to Spanish class, as well as to a bridge lesson. We like our table mates at dinner.

Tonight is “formal” night, and so it is time to get ready; more some other time. I will upload picture some other time.

Starting in Miami

Today is already the 9th January, and we (my daughter Marlyse and myself) left Zürich on the morning of the 7th. However, the driver came a little bit early, and I wasn't quite ready! The upshot is that I still had to pack my computer, and in the end, somehow, I came away without my "mouse", but fortunately, Phil (my son) was with us yesterday when we went shopping, and he was able not only to recommend what to buy as a replacement, but he even managed to install it properly, so it works. The other thing I forgot was the paper I have with a listing of all the various passwords I use for different programs. As time goes by, I am sure I will become aware of many other items that I probably forgot.

Jet lag wasn't bad, except for the first night, when I could hardly get any sleep, and so I was quite tired all day yesterday. However, we went shopping at a famous Target outlet, and managed to find everything we were looking for in one place. The beauty of being in Florida is that they are geared to the elderly (that's me) and I was able to use a mechanical shopping cart that I could actually drive all over the store, saving me from having to be on my feet all afternoon. We (Marlyse, Philippe, and Gayle) had a wonderful Asian luncheon, but the public transportation broke down, and the connection from the Dade County Metro rail

on the shuttle to the hotel was no longer working, and we had to go, first by bus, and then by foot for 6 whole blocks before we finally reached the hotel, at which point, I was ready to collapse!

At breakfast today, I already saw a few familiar faces from previous World Cruises, and Marlyse and I had been invited to lunch with Susan Scrimshaw (the President of Russell Sage College) and her husband, Allan Stern, which was very pleasant. The weather here, today, is more like a New England day than a Florida one: very blustery, wet, and cold, such that the others are taking a nap, and I am trying to get my blog started.

Tonight, we will probably take a cab to some restaurant, and otherwise, just stay put. Yesterday at this tme, we were able to sit outside around the pool, and although it was cool, it was quite nice.

I shall try once more to upload some pictures. Regards to all my readers. Ann