Wednesday, November 13, 2024
The forecast was for rain, so we did not set early alarms. The ship being pushed sideways into dock at 7am made alarms unnecessary. We resisted getting up (hahahaha lies. We just went back to sleep) until 9, then went to trivia. We joined Frank and Sterling (he was DELIGHTED that Alexander’s middle name is not only Sterling, but spelled correctly!) because the more the better. Keith arrived to join us, but Simon was off geocaching – in the rain. One of the questions was which insect is able to tell the temperature and I was completely shocked that none of my four teammates knew. I thought everyone did. (It’s crickets.) One for me! We got …. 18!! There were bonus points, so we beat our usual 16. We won and Frank and Sterling were delighted. They met onboard and have been playing all week. It is Sterling’s first cruise. He spent a month in Sicily before the cruise, will stay on for 20 days, then go to Malta for 2 months. He said he only does things once, but he does it up right. I was very interested in all of his plans. A LOT of the people on the ship are staying for many cruises – I believe I’ve said that, but it is extra apparent now – as we get ready to disembark and everyone else seems to be staying. British Keith was recruiting Sterling to play trivia with he and Simon next week, since they will be so lost without us. He told Sterling that Simon and I get all the answers while Keith and Keith look on and chime in now and then. I was shocked – I totally think Keith is the stronger player between the two of us. Huh. [She is wrong. It has been her all along. -keith]
After lunch, we prepared for a rainy time and went out to Salerno. It was a long walk off the ship and down the pier, then back up through the cruise port. We walked about a block. My heart was doing its thing and everything was hard. It was raining harder than we thought (we had raincoats, hats, and umbrellas so we could easily have managed if we had actually wanted to walk around) and we just turned around and came back. We watched the movie Book Club 2 in our room (boy, do I not like Diane Keaton) (stop wearing those hats, Diane Keaton) and it was very pleasant (although the movie was very average).
Signs like this are all around – especially by the gangways – and they just amuse me. Do they want me to look up or down?
We won afternoon trivia with 16! We absolutely could NOT think of where Yale University is located – but of course, we were glad we couldn’t because it gave us 4 wrong answers (that and three things we had no idea about). The cruise director lady even knew our team name and told everyone we always get 16. Ta-daaa. We spent a solid hour after chatting with Keith and Simon. We are now planning on moving to Melbourne. Simon will see to everything, because Simon seems to be the luckiest and most capable person I’ve ever met. Keith is very sad we are going and that just made me feel so good (you know what I mean. I’m happy to be miss-able)
We packed and put out our suitcase to be taken away tonight and headed to dinner. Walking past the indoor poor I said I should go swimming after dinner and Keith pointed out that I’d just put my swim stuff in the suitcase and left it in the hall. We turned around and went back to retrieve it. After Mongolian stir fry, I went swimming. The water was colder than I wanted, so I had to commit and just jump. I decided I was just going to hot tub (and it was delightfully hot) and not swim. Then I decided that since the hot tub was hot, I could jump in. People do polar plunges. I wouldn’t die. It was great.
What I love about this picture is that I just assumed when I jumped that I would be right out there centered over the middle of the pool when Keith took the picture. 🙂
I dried off and we headed to the comedian in our very nearby Explorer’s Lounge. He was Irish, so it didn’t really matter what he said, he was just a pleasure to listen to. We have to get up SO EARLY tomorrow. Ew.
Here’s the view from the window first thing this morning:
