Despite another night interrupted by a head that refused to be quiet, therefore minimal sleep, by the time we got to Trivia, at 11am, although still an outcast, on DD David’s ‘True’ or ‘False’ 20 questions - Dave and Sandy putting in a too late appearance - we were outright winners. We are now the proud owners of Princess key fob torches. All say, ‘wow’.
Still feeling far less than 100%, we opted out of the ukulele meet.
Whilst Paula headed off to the salon for a hair colour, which was supposed to be ‘dark blonde’, I busied myself on the computer. When Paula returned, having reduced our on-board credits substantially, her hair was definitely not dark blonde! In fact, it wasn’t really blonde at all.
In another attempt to reduce our credits (they cannot be withdrawn; use ‘em or lose ‘em), our two tables were booked into the Sterling Steakhouse at 7:15pm – half an hour earlier than our regular dining time ($29 surcharge).
We waited patiently whilst the waiter read out the menu (one of those things I find unnecessary, as it assumes we can’t read…) and eventually we ordered. It was 75 minutes from entering the restaurant before we actually got any food. To be fair, they were fairly busy. The main, fillet steak was delicious, but after the king prawn entrée and a shrimp bisque soup, plus the inevitable bread roll and an off colour system, I couldn’t do it justice so for the first time ever, I think, I left part of a perfectly good piece of steak.
Our table enjoyed ourselves but poor Oana, the Assist Maître D had to deal with both adjacent tables who had hiccups of one sort or another. We later found out that one table (not our group) 'plays the system' and are serial complainers, in an effort to get various freebies, such as free champagne or other perks.
We’d missed the crossing the equator ceremony at 9pm, but we have seen it before anyway. Apparently they had a good turnout with about 50 Pollywogs.
Day 65 – Another birthday boy.
Up at 5:40 and headed for deck 5, a cuppa and a chocolate doughnut.
That 52 diet categorically doesn’t work. I ate normally for 50 days and fasted for 2. No weight loss at all. (OK, I know...)
Back to the cabin at 7:45 and Paula was awake, then up to the buffet for a banana and 1 toast.
We didn’t win the morning trivia but did manage equal first in the afternoon one and sad to say, I think I let the side down with the tie breaker answer. They should have gone with Birthday Boy Mal’s answer.
The early show was a hypnotists we’d never seen before – Michelle Van Ree. I was very impressed with her success rate, with I think, 10 out of 15 volunteers going under.
Probably the funniest parts were telling a totally bald guy that he had long blonde hair. He spent the next 15 minutes whilst the show went on, combing it and admiring it. Then she put a blonde wig on the guy sitting next to him and a pair of scissors…
Best of all, was establishing that none of the audience liked Rap music. Under her instruction, if they had the microphone passed to them, then they had to rap and do all the moves – but in Cantonese!
Dinner was a celebration of Mal’s birthday, with the usual fuss made of any birthday boy – or girl.
Afterwards, the plan was to go the ‘Share’ restaurant for cheese and biscuits and maybe a port, but as they are now busy (with people no doubt anxious to burn up their OBC), they suggested we leave it until 9:30pm, but I was fading, so we opted out.
We returned to the cabin, to find our disembarkation info. We arrive in Auckland 10:00am, so we assumed we’d be off the ship well before 11am. Apparently not. We put down for the earliest group – 11:30am. That rather blew our plans, so I had to resend out a few emails sent earlier in the day, delaying our pick up time, . Paula has a dance lesson at 3pm and we were meeting other cruisers at 12:00, so who knows? I think we may be out for the evening too, but that hasn't been confirmed.
Day 66 – Success breeds success
I’m not sure why, but the best sleep in ages – right through to 6:25. I still snuck out to deck 5 and Dave was already there. The sinusitis hasn’t improved at all. If anything, slightly worse, so now onto a regime of a 24 hour antihistamine, then a Panadol later. This time, it was a jam doughnut that made the early morning more pleasurable.
Still on a light breakfast of banana on toast, but I grabbed a few sachets of salt to take back to the cabin after Shed. Sniffing salt water may not cure anything, but it did give about ten minutes of relief.
Trivia, we won again, with a remarkable 20/20 – but with a playoff with 4 other teams, this time, we did win the tie-breaker comfortably. Our booty this time was Princess pens. All say… too late, you’ve probably said it...
At Ukulele meet, we are trying to put together a play list for yet another concert. My favourite is the Bobby Darin ‘Things’. Energetic and fun to play. We had been issued with ‘The Carnival is Over’, but in tiny writing. I downloaded it from the internet and rewrote it later.
Late lunch and yes, another curry, but also a chunk of BBQ salmon. Nice.
The early show was Michelle again with a new show (11/15 this time). Possibly not quite as funny as show 1, but much depends on the participants.
Just 6 of us for dinner and we headed for a hot chocolate in the atrium afterwards. Very pleasant.
Papeete tomorrow, a place we have been to several times before and nothing planned. We’ll just walk off, as the ship berths down town anyway.
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