World Cruise - Day 84 - Apr 5 - At Sea

Up early again for sunrise.  We went to bed last night at about 9p or so, since Krissie was tired (I would have stayed up for another round of trivia, but Krissie was tired and wanted to get some extra sleep).  So up at 5:30a, sunrise was at 6:11a.  However, the sunrise was cloud covered right at the horizon, so the sun didn’t peek out until it cleared the clouds:

Krissie and I really like doing Zumba in the morning.  It’s a great way to start your day.  Collette (Assistant Cruise Director and also our Zumba Instructor) said that she hasn’t been to the gym in over a year, she just does Zumba.  We’re going to buy a Zumba DVD when we get home and keep on doing our daily Zumba routine.

We got 9 out of 20 in trivia and tied for first with three other teams (trivia was really tough today), then lost the tiebeaker (again) on this question:  How long does it take to hard boil an ostrich egg?  40 minutes (we said 30, another team said 34½).  Other questions we missed:  What is the best-selling musical instrument in the world?  Harmonica (we said drums).  What is the name of the scale that measures hardness of minerals?  Moh scale (we said densometer).  The greyhound comes from which country?  Egypt (we said England).  What did Juice Newton’s husband do for a living?  Polo player (we said mathematician).  What river has an element named after it?  Rhine (we said Amazon).  What animal was being trained by Allies to drop bombs in WWII?  Bats (we said carrier pigeons).  What band was once called Feedback?  U2 (we said Rolling Stones).  What is the last note on a keyboard?  C (we said A).  How many dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic?  2 (we said 1).  What band was once called The Golden Gate Rhythm Section?  Journey (we said Beach Boys).  How many times are dogs mentioned in the Bible?  14 (we said 2).

Today at lunch they had several unusual fruits available on the back deck of the Panorama Buffet.  This photo shows jackfruit, papaya and dragon fruit:

Notice also the two birds top left, made entirely out of cut vegetables and fruits.  Next photo shows dragon fruit (red), mango steen (not marked, but above and left of dragon fruit), pomelo (yellow, looks like large lemon), durian (spikey brown), papaya and pineapple:

We tried the mango steen (very interesting and tasty), jackfruit (it was OK), pomelo (nothing special) and the durian (most of us didn’t like it at all, but someone at the next table ate several of them).  Next photo shows longan (look like large brown grapes), mango steen and cut open durian on the right and cut open jackfruit on the left, as well as dragon fruit (white with black dots) at the bottom:

This is what a jackfruit looks like as it is being cut open:

Pic below has cactus pear and longan:

We like trying different foods from different parts of the world during the cruise.  And Pete, those were durians, not jackfruits, that we saw when we were in Laem Chabang, Thailand.  You were right.

Krissie and I observed Passover this evening together, just the two of us.  This was the first time we had done the service with just two of us.  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  (Mat 18:20)  We did the footwashing, bread and wine in our cabin, as well as doing the scripture readings given in the “Passover in Your Home” instructions provided by UCG.  In case those back home were wondering, we deleavened our home before we left in January and will keep our cabin leaven free for the Days of Unleavened Bread.  There is also a Jewish Seder taking place, led by the rabbi onboard.

I don’t have a sunset photo for tonight, but I do have a sunset photo courtesy of Bing, which provides my rotating desktop images on my notebook:

I aspire to take photos as pretty as these that I see rotating on my notebook background each day.  Thanks, Bing.

Tomorrow is sea day #3 of 3 on our way to Mumbai, India.