World Cruise - Day 53 - Mar 5 - At Sea

The sunrise was somewhat hazy this morning:

The weather has been hot and humid, although this morning doesn’t seem quite as humid as yesterday.  When I open the balcony door on past days, it would steam up the mirror halfway into the room in front of the bed like I had just gotten out of the shower.  Today it’s not quite that humid, but still humid.

Sonia, the prizes for trivia have included:  lanyards, carabineers, passport wallets, LED pen light, pens, magnetic clips (which stick to the walls of the cabin, since the walls are apparently metal underneath the wallpaper) and other stuff like that.  I usually give away my prizes.  So playing trivia really isn’t about the prizes, it’s about stretching your brain to remember something that you once knew.  Some of the trivia questions I have no idea (i.e. I’ve never known the answer, so there is no way to recall it to memory), then you just hope that someone else on the team has heard of it and can remember it.  And if no one knows, you try to make an educated guess (which is why a lot of our wrong answers probably sound like an answer you may have come up with as well—“that sounds like a logical guess”).  Sometimes logical guesses work, but most of the time they don’t.  Our team usually loses on TV and movie trivia (we don’t have anyone on our team who is particularly good at these categories), although we have a category expert (Rosemary) on broadway shows and another category expert on music (Arnold).  Bill is our general knowledge guy and I am typically the theology and electronics/computers category expert, plus I try to help out on other general categories (as we all try to do).  Lenny got the question on UFC yesterday and Roz is good with a variety of books.  Rosemary was also a literature teacher in school, so very good in the books category.

We’ve been eating breakfast on our balcony most days.  It has been a bit hot for that (even at 7a) the past few days, but as we get further north, it will start to cool down.  A week from now we will be in Tokyo and it may be too cold to eat on the balcony (typical high this time of year in Tokyo is 48 degrees, so probably at least 10 degrees colder at 7a?).  The cold spots will last for a week, with Hiroshima, Busan and Shanghai all in the following week and all with an expected high in the high 40s.  But then we head straight south for Hong Kong and from that point forward it will be warm again (Hong Kong expected high in the upper 60s and Vietnam just a few days later with an expected high in the mid 80s).

We got 12 out of 20 in trivia this morning, 15 won.  Here are the ones we missed:  How many vertebrae in the human spine?  33 (we said 18).  Whose face was seen on a 10-year-old piece of toast that was sold on eBay for $28,000?  Virgin Mary (we said Jesus Christ).  Mount Kilimanjaro is in what country?  Tanzania (we said Kenya).  What do camels store in their humps?  Fat (we said water, although we knew they also stored fat there, we reasoned that water was the answer they wanted, we were wrong).  What kills enemies by exploding poison filled glands—ant, frog or lizard?  Ant (we said frog).  What organ does a hematologist specialize in?  Liver (we said kidney).  What creature in Greek mythology will kill you if you cannot answer its riddle?  Sphinx (we said Centaur).  What two countries mark the start and end of the Pacific Coast Trail?  Canada and Mexico (we said Canada and USA).  Other interesting questions:  In what country might you order poro, which is reindeer pate?  Finland.  Who originally wrote and recorded Red, red wine?  Neil Diamond.  What common track and field event is also in the Highland Games?  Hammer throw.  What two countries border Lake Titicaca?  Peru and Bolivia.  Which country leads the world in orange juice production?  Brazil.

We are currently just north of Papua New Guinea and will be crossing the equator at approximately 4a tomorrow morning:

Interesting that they’re not making a big deal about crossing the equator this time like they did when we went from north to south.  Probably because most people we picked up in Sydney have already crossed the equator before?

At lunch it was the Pacific Rim Luncheon.  The lunch also included sushi, which was quite good.

Here are a couple of pics around the ship:

The above photo is of the general store area where you can get resupplied on small stuff you might need on the ship.  Interesting, the blue, red and black lanyards are on sale for 3 for $12.  I have a bunch in my desk drawer from trivia, maybe I can trade them in for store credit? 

Also onboard is an art sales area near the stores on the 5^th deck.  I like the style of the artist with the four paintings in the left side of the photo, but we don’t typically buy art while on a cruise ship.

After winning at trivia yesterday, we’re not doing as well today, although the questions have been pretty tough.  We got 10 out of 20, winners got 14.  Questions we missed:  What is daguerreotype related to?  Photography (we put art).  What is a brolly to a Brit?  An umbrella (we put hat).  What American artist did Alfred Stiglits marry?  Georgia O’Keefe (we put Mary Cassatt).  What country does the comic book character Tin Tin hail from?  Denmark (we put Japan).  What land was home to Dedi?  Egypt (we put India).  Who wrote Good Night, Moon?  Margaret Nash (we put Ash, close).  Olea Europaea is more commonly known as?  Olives (we put butter).  Glamping is an upscale version of what activity?  Camping (we put dumpster diving).  What domestic animal is said to be preferred as a service animal to the blind because it lives longer than a dog?  Miniature horse (we put monkey).  What time Tim Berner Lee invent?  World Wide Web (we put Internet, my bad, should have gotten that one).  Other interesting questions:  What does FDIC stand for?  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  What compound makes Pop Rocks explode in your mouth?  Carbon dioxide.  What Academy Award Best Picture ends with a Bollywood style dance scene?  Slumdog Millionaire.  How far is the center of the earth from equator—is it approximately 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 miles?  4,000 miles (3,963 to be exact).  How many bones in a giraffe’s neck, is it 7, 14, 21 or 28?  7.  If you knit without pearling, what stitch do you create?  Garter.  In the game rock, paper, scissors, what is the selection least commonly used?  Scissors (so hint to all reading this, always do paper on the first take, since most people do rock—and then I will do scissors and beat you).

We went to The Bistro on 9^th deck tonight (Panorama Buffet converts into The Bistro in the evenings on sea days) with Chuck and Lorraine and Ken and Sara.  We are now Platinum after Sydney (having completed 50+ sea days), so we have access to the Platinum/Elite cocktails before dinner.  They had cosmopolitans tonight, but the drinks onboard aren’t Krissie’s favorites, so she typically just brings her own (and I brought my own NA beer).

Entertainment tonight was Martin Lass, who did a second show after doing one a few nights ago.  We hurried up at The Bistro to see him again:

He played MacArthur Park on the violin as his closing piece.  We (Lorraine, Chuck, Ken, Sara, me and Krissie) were singing it (loudly) after the show.  Everyone probably thought we were drunk, we were just being goofy.  It’s a fun group.

Tomorrow is sea day #4 of 5 on our way to Guam.