Day 49 - A successful day in Victoria

A fair sleep and we’d already berthed at Vancouver Island, one of our favourite stops, but this was a fairly short stop, unfortunately.

Ship berthed on the starboard side.

Paula’s el Cheapo, $30 Vodafone pre-pay phone worked.  Mine didn’t.

Just a walk off the ship.

A 25 minute walk to town or a $5 each way shuttle – charged to your on board account.

Cruise cards checked on returning to the ship.

Ship scanning of hand luggage on return.

A fruity breakfast for me and Paula stuck to dry toast and a banana.  We walked off somewhat tentatively, but Paula was OK.  Once in town, we strolled up Government Street where a bearded young guy was busking, playing 5 string banjo.  That means finger picking/bluegrass style.  We asked him if there was a music shop, as we wanted to buy a ukulele, as Paula’s birthday present.  He pointed us to ‘Guitars on Fort’ (828 Fort Street).  The owner has only had the business for a couple of months but obviously specialises in high end guitars.  He had just two types of ukulele, and a substantial price difference between them.  We chose the more expensive one, which sounded nice and seemed very well made and with a mahogany finish.  We also bought a small electronic tuner.

Pleased with the purchase, we headed back to Government St. and Murchies, where we had a memorable cherry Danish 4 years ago.  Paula wasn’t going to risk anything and made do with an apple juice.  They’d run out of cherry Danish… Sitting at the table alongside was Salomon and he was very keen to see Paula’s purchase.  So he took it out of its box and he tuned it, played about three chords  and pronounced it a nice instrument.

I also managed to buy a 1Tb external hard drive so that Garry could download his videos rather than burn them to a pile of DVDs or Blu Ray discs.

We headed back on the shuttle, not too long before the 2:30pm deadline.

We had a light lunch on the Terrace, then Paula opted for a sleep.  I left her sleeping.  We heard a call for a passenger to contact Passenger Services.  Word has it that he got left behind as the Captain couldn’t afford to delay his departure as we have that extended time in San Francisco for electrical maintenance.  We left promptly at 3pm.

Paula was still asleep at afternoon trivia time.  I was the only one of our two teams (morning and afternoon), to turn up, so I joined Maxilyn and Rob and their team.  We didn’t win.

Dinner only Mary didn’t make it, but Paula did and managed a half portion of pasta.

The theatre show was Ric Steel’s second.  Traditionally, the first show by any artist is their number one, but this time, we enjoyed it far more.  That was partially because he played the guitar on every number, partly because, what he sang, we liked and partly because they put the drummer behind the Perspex screen.  It made a huge difference.

On the way back through the atrium, Paula was so pleased to feel OK that we had  a quick waltz.  As Darren was at the very end of the number, he   asked if we wanted another waltz, so Paula said yes.  We were the only ones on the floor.  Oh how times have changed. (On both scores.)  At Paula’s request, we then had a cha cha.

Bed tired, but hopefully, Paula is over whatever was bugging her.

A day at sea tomorrow and a ukulele concert – again.