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| Bob loves Kingfisher Beer |
position at 7:00am: N20 10.28 latitude E68 54.27 longitude
(about 1120 miles E of Dubai, our next port)
temperature: 77F, 73% humidity, cloudy, windy
distance since FLL: 27,472 miles
We were slow starting this morning. Clay did walk this morning. We did not head out for breakfast until after 8am. Debbie wanted to go to Low Impact Aerobics at 9am, so we went up to LaVeranda. Chocolate croissants!!! Debbie was double-lucky this morning and also scored a nice bowl of raspberries to go along. Clay had cold cereal and a banana. Debbie has the rebounded virus from hell now settling down in her chest. She has a smoker's voice and she sucked wind to get through the 45-minutes of aerobics. She stretched and cooled off during the halfhour between classes and stayed for Abs/Backs and Butts on the Fitball. She was back to the room just after 10:45am. Clay went to Roger's tour talk on Dubai. He also went to the Tour Desk to pick up our tickets for the next World Cruisers' Special Event in Dubai. It is a reception at the Burj al Arab Hotel on our second evening there.
There was a surprise gift in our cabin this morning. A small fancy, zippered bag was just lying at the foot of the bed when we came back to the cabin. Bob, for some reason, was staring up at the ceiling instead of over the room and claimed to know nothing. Debbie opened the bag. It contained a small, very colorful statue of Ganesh. It had a card: "LORD GANESH The God of good beginnings and the remover of obstacles. Compliments from Micato India." What a nice touch. But, what is Bob's problem? We also had a letter informing us that Taj Mahal dinner has been extended to 3/27/2006. Next up is Crazy Kitchen Cabaret. We will not do the Taj dinner again, but will make a reservation for the new concept that will be running from 3/29 to 4/10. There was not any information about what Crazy Kitchen Cabaret would involve so as not to spoil the surprises in store for us, but it did say that "we are flying over a very special artiste to perform exclusively in Latitudes and create an evening that will live in your memories." OK, that should be some special dinner!
Debbie handwashed her salwar kameez outfit. Tonight is Informal. She said it might be a long time before she gets another chance to wear it. (We have not had any theme nights for wearing local clothes since we left French Polynesia. Too bad. People wore their Asian silks to dinner on dressier nights anyway.) She had it hanging up from the airvents between the bed and desk/sofa area.
There was a lobster BBQ on the Pool Deck. We went down to Compass Rose. We were making a reservation for the new restaurant coming up in Latitudes before being seated. Suddenly, someone was standing very close behind Debbie with their hands on her shoulders. She stood very still and so did they. She swiveled just her head around and read Laurens Hazelbach on the name tag at her eye level. She exclaimed, Laurens, we have a bone to pick with you! He stepped back about 3 steps. You know he wished he had just slipped past her! She was smiling and laughing though. He asked what was wrong. She told him that we could not believe that we had spent 4 days in 3 ports in Indian and he had not loaded any Kingfisher Beer onboard. He puffed up with indignity and claimed, that is not true! Who told you this? She told him that Clay had asked several times and been told none was loaded. Who?, he asked again. Debbie ticked off names. Laurens, smiled with some relief, and told her that it was only being served in Latitudes. We had not asked there since we had arrived in India. Clay had asked in Compass Rose and in LaVeranda. Debbie smiled and was ready to tell Laurens that we were not likely to return to Latitudes just for Kingfisher Beer, when he held up a finger and pulled out his cell phone and told her, not to worry, I'll take care of it as he walked away. Clay ordered a Kingfisher Beer to have with his chicken salad sandwich. Debbie told him where Laurens had said to find it. He came back to say it was on ice and should be cold by the time his sandwich arrived. Good. We skipped dessert because there was nothing appetizing sounding. Debbie had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich for lunch with a Coke and tortilla chips and pickles. Clay started with a salad and Debbie started with chilled peach soup. (She already had dessert!) We went and picked out a DVD and then made our way up to the Pool Deck to check out the ice creams. It was Spumoni and Vanilla. Debbie got a peanut butter cookie and Clay got Spumoni. Only it wasn't Spumoni, it was pistachio. Lucky Clay.
We came back to the room and Clay stretched out on the bed. After brushing her teeth, Debbie pushed past the hanging outfit and was surprised again. There was a big ice bucket on a stand by the balcony doors. It was filled with crushed ice and a 6-pack of Kingfisher Beer! Clay had plannedto spend part of the afternoon on the balcony drinking 2 local beers that he still had left over from Hong Kong and Singapore. New plan! Debbie asked Bob what was going on in this room today and he was staring at the beers, not the ceiling, this time. Clay came back in from the balcony some hours later and said that he thought he had given himself aversion therapy to Kingfisher now. He took the remaining beers out and put them in the bar cabinet and emptied and dried the ice bucket and stand.
Debbie went to 2 hours of exercise classes in the afternoon. She plans to do laundry after dinner this evening. We wound up going back to LaVeranda for Pasta y Basta since nothing sounded appealing on the CR menu. It was a quick dinner and then back for laundry. While we were there Ricardo came over to tell Clay that his beer was now available in all outlets on the ship. We hope that no one got upset over this. Debbie and Laurens were clearly smiling and laughing about it, but it did let Laurens know that there was a breakdown in communications with the bar staff not knowing what stock was available on the ship. When we returned to the cabin, Debbie saw that the clocks move back another hour tonight. Clay said good, so you can do laundry and still get to bed early! We are having some extra long days as we try to recover from the big overnight excursion. Debbie had the laundry room on deck 7 all to herself. When she returned, Clay pointed out that the ice bucket was still in the room and he was going to have to call Laurens to come and get his bucket. Very funny! Thanks Laurens!
