Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in baudekin's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, May 26th, 2012
9:41 am	Bermude Cruise - Day 6 Friday, May 11 I let Shelley sleep in until about 11:30 to help compensate for her near-sleepless experience the night before.   By the time she was awake and dressed, the sun had disappeared, and it was pouring rain - we would've been caught in it if we had got going any earlier.  So we decided to forgo our Bermuda plans for the day, which was just to go see the remainder of the Dockyard, including the Clocktower Mall.  No great loss, once we talked afterwards to people who had been there, complaining of the high prices.  But then again, everything in Bermuda is expensive, since virtually everything has to be imported from at least 1,000 km away, and the cost of living is high.  After lunch, we headed down to the Rendez-Vous lounge for music trivia.  Again, there were lots of participants, unlike the poorly attended events on the last cruise.  In this case, the bad weather probably had a lot to do with it.   The girl running the contest couldn't get the computer system to work, so she ended up playing songs off of her iPod.  Given that we were in a room of predominantly oldsters, we figured this would give us a great advantage - and it did!  We ended up with 18/26, but we were beaten out by someone with 21.  The girl did a pretty good job of getting some older songs in there - about 6 of the 15 songs were ABBA, which is close to 40 years old.  Those ones were easy layups for us.  Nevertheless, there were some disgruntled oldsters there. After walking around for a bit and spectating during the line dancing class (Shelley's knees weren't up to participating), Shelley went back to the hot pool/tub, and I stuck around for general trivia.  I ended up with 11/15, which was pretty good for a solo team.  The winners had 13. At 4:30 the ship left port, and we started the voyage home.  I was in the main theatre, watching a presentation on the Bermuda Triangle.  It was something different from the norm - a good way to pass an hour. We killed some time in Rendez-Vous watching the usual 2 musical groups, and headed up to Qsine for 8:30.  It bills itself as "uniquely unordinary", and that's a good description.  The first unusual thing is that the menu is presented electronically on an iPad.  Diners can browse the cocktails, wines, and 16 different entrees.  Some of them even had quirky little videos to accompany.  It's an all-you-can eat format for a fixed price of $40 - quite reasonable given the dining experience.  Food is ordered tapas-style in a series of small servings that are shared among the group.  There were 7 of us (me, Shelley, Shauna, Dave, Carolyn, Connie & Peter), which meant we got to see a good variety of the selections available.  Some of the more interesting were spring rolls (served individually on big metal springs) and disco shrimp (served in a glass container with pulsing blue lights).  There was another one where various foods and condiments were served in an upright container with cubbyholes - can't recall the name.  Another one featured 3 large meatballs of various types.  I remember lava crab, where the crab was covered in a thatch of angel hair noodles. The dessert menu is presented as a cube that unfolds into various positions such that you can read the items available. Shauna had taken advantage of a free Captain's Club cocktail reception just before dinner, so she was in fine form.  Connie remarked that she had never seen a woman speak as raunchily as Shauna did that night.  We just smiled.  After dinner, we went down to Rendez-Vous for another round of karaoke, which was already in progress.  I sang It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) by R.E.M.  Shelley got her Friends in Low Places in.  Shelley and I capped off the night with a spirited rendition of Love Shack by the B-52's.  This time, they let the session run until 1:00, and we went to bed shortly thereafter due to our early start to the tournament the next morning. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 25th, 2012
7:09 am	Bermude Cruise - Day 5 Thursday, May 10 This is our only day 100% spent at Bermuda.  I eventually rolled out of bed around 11:00, and Shelley was already long since up, having only managed a 4-hour napchunk.  We went out into the nearby Dockyards area to explore. We started off with lunch at the Bone Fish Restaurant right off the pier.  Of course, we both got  different varieties of the signature bone fish sandwiches (i.e. grouper), which we shared.  Very good - but pricy, as expected.  After a stroll through the craft show, we went to the National Museum of Bermuda .  The museum is on the site of an old military keep, built starting in 1809.  It's a mixture of indoor and outdoor exhibits.  As instructed by the museum map, we started with the outdoor exhibits.   We saw the Dainty, an 1897 yacht relocated to the keep which has a building built around it.   Shelley soon lost interest and stamina, and left me to my own devices.  I made my way to the Commissioner's House, which housed most of the formal exhibits.  Built in 1820, it was the world's first cast-iron building.  There is a heavy emphasis on military items - not surprising, given the locale.  There were 3 floors to the building, all chock full of exhibit rooms.  I probably spent about an hour in there.  My favourite exhibits were the banknotes of Bermuda and coins of Bermuda rooms.  Yay, money! Three of the buildings were closed to renovations, so there wasn't too much else to see.  I visited the High Cave magazine, an installation built into the rock by a pool of water.  It featured a hallway so narrow that I almost had to turn sideways to walk down it.  The boat loft was the last building I visited, featuring several dinghies, and exhibits about the history of electrical power on Bermuda.  Before leaving the keep, I made a visit to Dolphin Quest, where people can pay through the nose to swim with dolphins for a few minutes.  I took some pictures for Shelley, but it was hard to catch the dolphins doing anything interesting.  Overall, definitely worth the $10 price of admission. Today, we were forgoing the dinner seating for a beach BBQ and party excursion.  However, we got a message saying that it was cancelled due to high winds!  We went back out into the Dockyard for dinner.  All of the shops were closed, so we went straight to Cafe Amici, an Italian restaurant.  It's apparently a sister restaurant of the one we went to lunch at.  I had a sloppy Joe BBQ pizza (to make up for the cancelled BBQ) and Shelley had her standard pepperoni and mushroom.  By the end of the meal, Shelley was feeling crappy due to ear blockages, and we struggled our way back to the boat, alone in gale-force BBQ-cancelling winds. We were finally able to take advantage of a karaoke session!  On the last cruise, with a similar number of total passengers, there were usually between 1 and 2 dozen for each session.  This time, the lounge was packed - probably at least 100 people at the peak!  The session started out slowly, with the predicable oldsters singing Sinatra and other standards.  Then things got good.  There were a few hapless and tuneless people who didn't seem to know their songs at all (in which case, why pick them?)  One lady struggled through I Will Survive, and a man butchered some Stevie Wonder song.  Then there was a very creepy rendition of I Got You Babe by a young woman and old man, who didn't know each other.  At the end, he told her "2182", presumably his stateroom number.  From the peanut gallery, a couple of people (including Shelley) yelled "Yeah, she's 21, you're 82!" Then it was time for the annoying loud gap-toothed guy from California to "sing".  He did a hilarious rendition of Mack the Knife, which was well-suited to someone who can yell loudly, but not carry a tune. Then it was my turn.  Shelley and I tried something new, which we called "ambush karaoke".  Shelley went up and picked a song for me, and didn't tell me what it was - the only rule is that it has to at least be a song I know.   So I didn't find out until I got up to the mic that it was Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.  Once I got past the "ga ga, ooh la la" part at the beginning, I totally forgot the melody (the backing track wasn't helping out much), so it was largely a Shatneresque spoken word fiasco.  But apparently it was a hit - Shelley couldn't stop laughing the whole time.  And we forgot to bring the camera down! Roger Cullman was up right after me, and he sung the "la la la" song by Kylie Minogue.  It was equally hilarious, but I don't think the audience (aside from me and Shelley) truly appreciated it.  Roger alternated between a falsetto and deep baritone-type voice, the latter of which we didn't even realize Roger was capable of!  Shelley wasn't feeling well, so she deigned to sing.  She had me go up and sign her up for Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks, but she changed her mind at the last minute. One thing I liked about this session is that the time allotted was open-ended.  I think the sessions on our last cruise were limited to an hour, or maybe an hour and a half.  The session went from 10:00 until "late".  As it turned out, "late" meant about 12:30.  I think it could've gone on longer, but the MC was terrible, and didn't solicit additional participation when the flow of singers started to wane.  Before and after every singer, she encouraged us to give them "masseef applowse" in her broken English.  She couldn't even pronounce simple names in a way that was intelligible.  My favourite was how Katie became "Katty".  Off to bed, at a suitably late hour, for a change. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 24th, 2012
7:04 am	Bermuda Cruise - Day 4 Wednesday, May 9 We docked at Kings Wharf, Bermuda around 8:30 a.m.  It was the first time we'd seen land since leaving New Jersey.  I didn't realize that Bermuda is located in the middle of nowhere - 1,000 km from the nearest land!  From our stateroom, we have a good view of the Dockyard area.  It's a former military installation, turned into a tourist attraction in the 1990s.  The Clocktower building has 2 towers - one to tell time, and one to mark the tides. We started off at 10:00 with a bus tour of the island - a good way to get a quick overview of what's out there to see.  while waiting in line for the tour to start, there was a very loud roly-poly gap-toothed guy behind us talking to complete strangers and telling them his life story.  He was in the navy 30 years ago, but suffered from sea sickness on this cruise regardless.  He's from California, and has been in a long-distance relationship with a woman from New York since 1985.  They only see each other 2 or 3 times/year.  Quite remarkable endurance for a long-distance relationship, but also understandable if you could see what these people look like.  He also had the annoying habit of calling his girlfriend "babe" continuously. Bermudans drive on the left side of the rode, like they do in the Eurpose (Bermuda is part of the UK).  Bermuda is a rather small series of islands, about 30 km or so from tip to tip, connected by a few short bridges.  We started out in Kings Wharf, at the northwestern tip of Bermuda.  All of the roads in Bermuda are narrow and curvy - glad that we weren't driving!  The island-wide speed limit is 35 (kph, I assume), but many people far exceeded that.  Passing slower-moving drivers here is like a game of Frogger. The architecture in Bermuda is very distinctive.  Almost all of the homes are painted in bright pastel colours - blues, greens, pinks, oranges, etc.  However all of the roofs are whitewashed, apparently by law.  Bermudan roofs are ridged, somewhat like an Aztec step pyramid.  They are designed that way to funnel rainwater into water tanks, and reduce reliance on the expensive Bermudan water system. The first tourist attraction we came across was Somerset Bridge, billed as the world's smallest drawbridge, barely opening enough to allow the mast of a sailboat to pass through.  However, our bus driver (a Bermuda native) had never actually seen it in operation.  At the bridge there was a small beach.  Bermuda is famous for its pink sand beaches - basically all of them are like that.  I think it's from the crushed shells of little pink/red crustaceans of some sort.  They didn't look particularly pink to me, but whatever...  What is striking though, is the vibrant blue water colour.  Our camera didn't seem to do it justice. Our first main stop were the Crystal Caves.  Shelley passed on the 83-stair descent into the cave in favour of lunch and a bathroom break.  Not the most spectacular caves I've seen, but still pretty cool, and worth the trouble of a 20-minute tour.   Plenty of stalactites and stalagmites to be seen, including some underwater stalagmites, since the cave was not always filled with water.  One particularly large formation, known as the Iceberg, is about 1,000,000 years old.  The caves were discovered in 1905 by a couple of curious kids who chased a cricket ball down into a hole.  They never did find it. Our next stop was the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo.  Yes, 3 attractions in one!  We were only allotted 30 minutes for our visit, so Shelley and I decided to abandon the tour and bravely set forth on our own.  The highlight of the aquarium for me was the humourously-named fish, the slippery dick.  In the natural history museum, I learned that one of plays I made in the tournament (CAHOW 21) is a sea bird endemic to Bermuda!  I'll have to go back and enter it for the best Bermuda theme word.  Something that is exclusively found in Bermuda has to win the prize!  [edit:  it did] The best part of the trifecta was the zoo.   First, we watched the seals for a while.  There were 4 or 5 of them in a water exhibit by the entrance, and it was feeding time!  One of the seals (which we referred to as the Turvy seal) seemed as interested in others' food as his own, and repeatedly tried to join in on another seal's feeding.  We got ourselves some good pics of those glumpers.  Shelley and I concurred that we were certain that they would like the pat-pat-pat.  Moving further into the zoo, there were a variety of other exhibits, many of which were "open concept" exhibits where we entered a little biosphere and the animals and birds moved freely among us.  In one exhibit, an egret flew up and landed about a foot away from me.  Then, it seemed to follow me around.  One exhibit that was not open concept was the alligator exhibit.  This was one lazy gator.  How lazy was it?  Well, lazy enough that moss and other plants were literally growing on its back! I guess that's what happens when you have an alligator in a zoo enclosure with nowhere to swim! We emerged from the aquarium/museum/zoo into tiny Flatts Village.  There are only 2 villages in Bermuda (Flatts and Somerset), one town (St. George's), and one city (Hamilton, the capital).   However, the whole island is quite densely populated, so I suppose people who live outside those 4 municipalities just say that they live in a particular parish.  Bermuda is divided into 9 parishes, and during the tour we drove through all but one of them (St. George's). We took the public bus from Flatts into Hamilton.  We didn't get seats, so we had to stand for the full 20-minute ride.  We had to hang on to straps coming down from the ceiling of the bus, and gave ourselves a good upper body workout as the bus wound its way through a series of tight curves and sudden stops.  In Hamilton, the first thing that strikes a visitor is the prevalence of motorcycles and mopeds.  It wasn't unusual to see dozens of them lined up in their tiny parking spaces.   The city is very clean and modern, with no chain restaurants to be seen.  In fact, very few chain stores of any kind.  The only ones I saw on today's trip was an Esso gas station, HSBC Bank (they took over Bank of Bermuda recently), and Marks & Spencer.   We walked the streets a little, and made our way to the ferry terminal.  Along the way, we stopped for something to eat in a cafe (I hadn't eaten anything except a banana before leaving the ship in the morning).  We could have stayed for a few more hours and explored Hamilton, but Shelley was reaching the end of her endurance for the day. The ferry ride back was a speedy no-nonsense affair, and well worth the $4 price.  In Bermuda, the official currency is the Bermuda dollar, but U.S. dollars appear to be used interchangeably with the local currency.  Not sure if the 2 currencies are officially tied to one another? Back on the ship, we made use of the thalassotherapy pool and hot tub, and Shelley got a foot massage.  We were supposed to go on a glass-bottom boat cruise, but the time got shifted from 11:00 (after the late dinner seating) to 8:00, so we cancelled it. We took advantage of the dinner seating again.  Since we arrived a bit late, we got a table to ourselves, joined shortly thereafter by Shauna & Dave.  We made plans to try Qsine restaurant on Friday night in lieu of the 2nd formal dinner.  Qsine is an avant-garde gastronomic experience type of restaurant, where they bring out a series of wacky creative small dishes.  Although this is one of the specialty restaurants that costs extra ($40/person prix fixe), we think it will be worthwhile to try.  Carolyn and her sister tried it a few days ago, and they will likely want to go back. Shelley went on search and destroy mode for the hokey cruise ship embarkment/disembarkment pictures, which did not meet up to her standards.  Then it was off to bed.  Nice not having to worry about the alarm, as tomorrow will be unstructured until the evening. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
6:15 am	Bermude Cruise - Day 3 Tuesday, May 8 After a 1-hour time change, the 9:00 a.m. start time for the tournament effectively became 8:00 a.m.! Game 7 vs. Tony Leah (L 384-462) Bingos:    SOLACED / AVERSION, ADRENALS, ARGEnTAL My one bingo was big (SOLACED 100), but not big enough to overcome 3 bingos by Tony.  I had 161 after 3 turns, but then took until turn 11 to double that score.  Meanwhile, Tony was cooking with a bingo bango, and I had impotent comebacks on a volatile board, allowing him to pull away.  At one point, I noted that I could have extended HOBO G8 to (HOBO)GENEOUs.  Although it is a phony, and it wouldn't have fit on the board, I was proud of my superfluous board vision. Game 8 vs. Tony Leah (W 455-350) Bingos:    DACOITS, LINGEReD / SONATINE, SOOTIER Tony was forced into too many ploopy fishing plays, and I was able to win comfortably.  DACOITS is the type of word I often miss, so I was happy to find it - especially because Tony said he would have had a bingo the same spot. Game 9 vs. Shelley Ubeika (W 467-308) Bingos:    TENACITY, REGINAS / FIELDED Next up was the dreaded Shelley & Jason matchup - dreaded because one of us has to lose.  :-(  Lately, it's been me on the losing side, to the point where I have a losing record overall against her.  Shelley exchanged 4 times in this game, and I just plugged away with good tiles.  I sheepishly burned a blank for CAGEs 26 to block a dangerous triple lane spot, leaving myself UU.  Then I drew the other blank, and used it for the nonbingo EXTOl 57.  Game 10 vs. Shelley Ubeika (L 344-462) Bingos:    CORACLES / STEEPeNS, FINALIZe We were fairly even for the first half of the game, and I had the fun natural bingo CORACLES.  However, I was forced into an exchange, and found myself looking at a deficit.  For some time, there had been a scoring lane for a 5-letter word playing down into a Z (or a 6-letter word with the Z in 5th position), but the one turn I forgot to check that spot was the time I could have used it for BLIT(Z) 32 (or even GLIT(Z) 30), but instead I settled for the weak play T(E)G(G) 12.  Then Shelley bingoed through the Z with FINALI(Z)e 88, which would otherwise have been homeless.  That error probably cost me something approaching 100 spread points.   Not sure if could have caught up, but I would have at least given myself a fighting chance. Game 11 vs. Anita Rackham (W 396-360) Bingos:    ExPIATE, GLOaTER / DESIRES My first bingo allowed me to take a modest lead that I never relinquished, although the game remained close throughout.  The closed board allowed me to keep the game under control. Game 12 vs. Anita Rackham (L 314-369) Bingos:    none / SOZInES This game played out similarly, but oppositely.  Anita's 4-power tile bingo SOZInES 76 gave her a solid lead that she was able to maintain.  I ended up with just one measly power tile (a J), which was not nearly enough to mount a comeback.  Anita ended up with just the blank on her final rack, failing to pluralize WOT because she wasn't sure if it took the S.  Not being sure that FETTLE takes the mouse prevented SOZInES from netting her 97 points instead of 76.  Yet again, I split my 3 round robin pairings today to continue at a very mediocre 6-6 +283.  My rating is down a little, but it was already deflated to begin with.  I was hoping for 8-4, or at least 7-6, based on the strength of the field.  Based on rating, there is a clear distinction between the top 4 seeds in our division (Tony, Kristiina, Jeff Clark and me) and the bottom 4 seeds (Carolyn, Shelley, Anita and Cheryl).  I had hoped to be more definitively in the top half.  Now we have  a 3-day break from Scrabble as we visit Bermuda, picking up where we left off on Saturday during our last full day at sea.  It takes about 64 hours to get to Bermuda, but only about 40 to get back, thanks to the Gulf Stream. Shelley and I managed to get to dinner seating together for the first time tonight.  Beforehand, we hung out a bit in the Rendez-Vous lounge.  Rythmix was playing, and The standard menu looked to be basically the same as our first cruise, but of course there are the daily specials.  I had chicken Wellington, and Shelley had orzo with seafood medley.  The company & seating arrangements are much better than our first cruise, so we stayed for quite a while afterwards and chatted.  We eventually left, Shelley blew through $100 on the slots, and we went back to our stateroom for the night. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
7:03 am	Bermuda Monday, May 7 Shauna and Dave managed to scare up an impressive group of 36 Scrabblers for the at-sea Scrabble tourney.  I wouldn't be surprised if that's a record.  Eat your heart out, Larry & Barbara!  And including the 24 non-Scrabblers in our group, it's a grand total of 60 we've got here. Shelley and I are both in the 8-player Division A.  Since we're playing games, we'll play each of our 7 opponents twice in a double round robin, and then pair based on results for the last 4 rounds.  We're playing consecutive games against each of the opponents in the round robin. Game 1 vs. Carolyn Easter (W 409-393) Bingos:  NORITES, EVULSED / PAnCAKES, RETAINED Carolyn started off the tournament with the silly phony KOOF*, which I failed to challenge.  However, I had a bingo bongo combo with NORITES 76 (making KOOFS* - LOL!) and EVULSED 92, but barely held on to eke out the win.  Actually, Carolyn should have been able to pull it out in the endgame, but didn't leave herself enough time to figure it out. Game 2 vs. Carolyn Easter (L 386.-407) Bingos:  DIARIST / OATmEAL, TONSURE This game was really the reverse of our first game.  Carolyn bingo bangoed with OATmEAL 67 and TONSURE 73 on her 2nd and 3rd turns, and I clawed my way back into it.  Carolyn didn't have me tracked correctly at the end, and unwisely opened up a bingo lane (in the triple line, no less) starting with an A.  However, I failed to recognize my bingo with the rack DEIRRT? in time (ADRoITER 77) for the comfortable win.  Instead, I tried the desperation phony DIRT(WASH)* 45 Game 3 vs. Kristiina Overton (W 493-362) Bingos:  RELEASE, WILDING, DEXTRINS / BATTEREd, ASsOILS Kristiina (no typo - the Finnish/Estonian spelling of the name has the double I) is playing her first tournament since 2004.  Always nice to add a new opponent to my cross-tables history.  Kristiina used to live in Toronto, but now lives in the Ottawa area.  She seldom played live Scrabble in the intervening years, but has remained fairly sharp via playing online.  Her 1686 rating is probably fairly accurate. Despite being double blanked, I had the ammunition to win the game comfortably.  I had 2 early bingos, and she had 2 early exchanges.  My big bingo of DEXTRINS 101 put the game away. Game 4 vs. Kristiina Overton (L 422-458) Bingos:  FANWORT, AErIFIED, bULLIES / ANTIGENE, SHORTIA, CAUTIONS A high scoring affair after the lunch break.  Apparently FANWORT is a word, and I somehow know it.  It might be a foggy recollection of Jeremy Hildebrand's illustrated -WORT words.  My late game bingo bango to take the lead was nullified by Kristiina's final comeback bingo.  I don't feel bad about losing this one. Game 5 vs. Cheryl Melvin (W 479-297) Bingos:  ADJOinS, PATOOTIE / none MELVIN!!  After the 4 power tile bingo ADJOinS, there was no looking back, and I cruised to victory.  (Pun intentional.)   Game 6 vs. Cheryl Melvin (L 347-385) Bingos:  none / TAVeRNA We were neck and neck the whole game, and she just pulled ahead by enough in the end to win.  My Glenn Dunlop Game-Losing Play (TM) was passing up playing off my ES for 26 points in the pre-endgame in favour of a rack rebalancing play.  Those 26 points would have pulled me dead even with Cheryl, and prevented her from using the same spot on her next turn on a tight board with very limited scoring opportunities.  That S turned out to be useless after that point, and I finished the game with it left on my rack.  Sad to lose a game in which I challenge off the famous phony DONATER*.  For the 3rd series in a row, I failed to sweep a round robin matchup after having won the first game.  3-3 +234 at the end of Day 1.  Solid spread, but a disappointing record given my opponents.  I still have to get through Tony Leah and Jeff Clark in the round robin - both tough opponents.  Shelley sits at 2-4 against a tough field, including a win over Tony.  Midway through today's games, she got herself "acupunked" for seasickness, just like she did during our last cruise.  It seemed to work well, but she was a little late getting back for Game 5, and Tony had actually started her clock. and had it run a few minutes.  Tonight is the first formal dinner night of the cruise.  Since I didn't bring a jacket and tie, we opted for burgers at the grill.  We'll see how many of the ship dinners we actually make during the cruise!  Last year I actually brought 2 suits, and didn't wear either.  Now I don't bring one, and I'll probably have occasion to use one twice...  After eating, we aimlessly wandered around the ship for a bit, and then headed back to the room for TV and blogging.  Once again, the on-ship activities are pretty lame, and definitely geared towards the oldsters.  Like last time, the karaoke is practically the only activity worth doing, and it's been nowhere to be seen thus far.  They're finally having it tomorrow, but it's at 3:00 p.m. during our games! As I'm writing this, I note that it's 8:30, and the thalassotherapy pool (which we planned to visit) closes at 9:00.  Shelley is sound asleep.  Oops, so much for that idea...  After Shelley had a nap, we went for 2nd dinner at the Oceanview Cafe, and hung out in the Rendez-Vous Lounge for a couple of games of iPhone Scrabble before heading back to the room.  We iz boring hoomans. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 21st, 2012
9:03 am	Bermuda Cruise - Day 1 Sunday, May 6 Having been up all night, Shelley was ready for breakfast well before me. She brought me up a chalky unripe banana. While I appreciated the thought, I decided to go down myself. I had some oatmeal and brown sugar in a plastic cup, because I was not observant enough to locate the bowls. We were down in the lobby well in time for the 10:00 shuttle to the dock. We got to talking with our fellow travellers. The package rates for the 1-night stay, shuttle service to the dock before the trip, and shuttle from the dock to the airport after the trip came to about US$280, which seemed like way too much. Part of the problem was the fact that the shuttle cost was built into the room rate, so it was all subject to the 20% (!) state tax applicable to NJ hotel rooms. But at least the package deal kept us out of the hood, so that's a good thing. After a delay in the arrival of the shuttle vans, we were eventually under way. We had a very authentic Jersey bus driver, who gave us a impromptu tour during the trip, pointing out such gems as the fact that when ones drives over the Verrazano bridge in the summer, it sometimes smells like farts. At the docks, we were greeted by more authentic Jersey types, chain smoking as they unloaded our luggage. I scoured the horizon for Snooki and the Situation, but they were nowhere to be seen. One would think that Shelley, with copious amounts of free time and constantly being online, would have completed all of our pre-cruise registration well in advance. But she did not. So we had to take care of it at the dock. We were shocked to discover that my name didn't appear on the printed copy of the ship's manifest that they were working from! Shelley's name was there, but I was conspicuously absent. There were a few tense moments and a frantic call to Shauna before I was given the go-ahead to proceed. In the pre-boarding area, we looked into the ship's drink packages, and Shelley got herself a $44/day drink package allowing her to get unlimited water, pop and certain alcoholic beverages. Note to future self: $44/day is a LOT of alcohol. Soon we were aboard the Celebrity Summit. The Summit has virtually the exact same layout as the Infinity that we sailed on back on the 2010 South America cruise. Even the restaurants and lounges have the same names. So little time was required to orient ourselves with our new surroundings. We had to kill time until 1:00 when the staterooms would be made available to passengers, so we sat on lounge chairs on the pool deck, and played some iPhone Scrabble. Despite knowing the seats were wet, and proactively laying down towels, our butts still became saturated. We were able to get into our stateroom, but our luggage hadn't been delivered yet, so I resorted to using a hairdryer to attempt to dry myself, to humourous effect. We went for the Concierge Class room again on this cruise, with more space than a standard stateroom, and a little balcony. Our designated lackey for this cruise is Bartolome. He is very helpful and cheerful, but we have no idea what the hell he's saying. He also has a sub-lackey, Franz. Bartolome introduced Franz as a short little guy. Now, Bartolome is maybe 5' 2", so we were wondering just how short Franz would be. Turns out that, yep - Franz is even shorter. We went to the Rendez-Vous lounge for the Scrabble group orientation and got through a few games of over-the-board Scrabble. There are 2 musical acts on the ship: Up Till 2 - an a cappella quartet, and Rythmix - a dance quartet. Up Till 2 are pretty good, and they interact well with the audience. Rythmix is pretty cheesy - they're from (I think) the Philippines, and play old American standards. Other than their ethnic background, they are the stereotypical lounge act. In an attempt to ensure she gets her money's worth out of the $44/day drink package, Shelley had started the boozing early, soon after boarding the Summit. By around 6:30, Shelley had gained full appreciation for the amount of alcohol and other sundry drinks that constituted $44. Having not eaten since breakfast nor gotten any sleep the night before probably served to exacerbate her condition. I escorted drunkles back to our stateroom for a nap, and an opportunity to start this blog. I let Shelley sleep right through our 8:30 dinner seating, knowing that the Oceanview Cafe buffets would be open later. I popped up there just before the last servings stopped at 9:30, and grabbed some pizza, chicken stirfry, and ice cream. I also was overjoyed to find that my favourite nectar of the gods -- pass-o-guava, was available! They renamed it "orange passionfruit guava beverage", but it's still the same thing. While I was out, Shelley woke up, got dressed, and went to the dinner seating, thinking I'd be there. She actually checked the Oceanview cafe first, but didn't find me. Despite arriving an hour late, she didn't miss much, and had a full prime rib dinner. She also paid a visit to the evil casino afterwards, and lost all of her cash on hand. Fortunately, I was carrying most of it... Looks like we got turndown service twice tonight - double the normal allotment of 2 chocolate squares. Score! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 19th, 2012
11:23 pm	Bermuda Cruise - Day 0 For the next week or so, I'll be making a daily post of my travelogue of the Bermuda cruise that Shelley and I returned from recently.  Here goes! Saturday, May 5 This was the first time either Shelley or I had flown Porter from the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, and it probably won't be the last. My parents were nice enough to give us a lift to the airport. Well, I drove, but not having to take a cab was appreciated! After the world's shortest ferry ride, we got through security quickly, and made out way to the sumptuous Porter lounge, with free snacks, drinks and wifi available. Our flight was delayed about an hour from the original 4:00, but eventually we were on our way. We landed in beautiful scenic Newark, NJ around 6:30. We got to the hotel shuttle area just as we saw our van for the Country Inn & Suites pulling away, so we had to wait about 30 minutes for the next one. We quickly checked in at the hotel, and made our way over to the adjacent Ruby Tuesday, where we hoped to catch some Scrabblers still left over from the scheduled 6:30 dinner meetup. Our esteemed hosts, Shauna & Dave, were still there, along with several others from our cruise group (Greg, Marilyn, Nancy, Carol, Anne & Jeannine). Note: If you want to call your daughter "Juh-nin", you spell it Jeannine, not Jehanne... Shauna and Marilyn sent their husbands on a dangerous mission into the hood to get hard liquor and wine. Somehow, Dave managed to get Shelley 2 bottles of wine for US$15. After sort of getting through an episode of one of my coma-inducing faves, The Mentalist, sleep came to me easily (as usual). Shelley, on the other hand, couldn't get to sleep at all, possibly due to the huge-ass full moon. This would not bode well for the next day. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011
11:02 am	Something to Chew On Dare to compare (at 11:00 a.m. EST on 12/03/2011)... 6 entrants:  http://www.cross-tables.com/entrants.php?u=1646 0 entrants:  http://www.cross-tables.com/entrants.php?u=1645 Will NASPA cancel the OWL divisions if they don't get 40 entrants? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 18th, 2010
7:50 pm	Fun With x-t Top 10 Ranked Unplayed Players (Boring!) 1 - Nigel Richards (1a - Nigel's Beard) 2 - David Gibson 3 - Brian Cappelletto 5 - Conrad B-B 5 - Scott Appel 7 - Orry Swift 8 - Carl Johnson 9 - Rafi Stern 11 - Kenji Matsumoto 14 - Ron Tiekert Top 10 Ranked Played Players (Slightly Less Boring) 4 - Adam Logan 9 - Joel Sherman 12 - Dave Wiegand 13 - Nathan Benedict 17 - Winter 18 - Pakorn Nemitrmansuk 19 - Sam Rosin 25 - Will Anderson 27 - John Luebkemann 27 - Eric Tran Players Rated Over 1600 Against Whom I Am Undefeated (Mildly Interesting - includes inactive players) 1950 Jason Katz-Brown (1-0) 1948 Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (1-0) 1923 Will Anderson (1-0) 1908 Joey Mallick (1-0) 1866 Nigel Peltier (3-0) 1865 Joe Edley (1-0) 1861 Steve Glass (1-0) 1860 John O'Laughlin (1-0) 1843 Rob Robinsky (1-0) 1807 Mark Kenas (1-0) 1795 Steve Polatnick (1-0) 1766 Eric Goldstein (1-0) 1768 Travis Chaney (1-0) 1765 Ken Kasney (1-0) 1752 Edward Halper (1-0) 1734 Benjamin Bloom (1-0) 1732 Ryan Fischer (1-0) 1731 Robert Crowe (1-0) 1712 Richard Popper (3-0) 1702 Stan Miranda (1-0) 1701 Keith Smith (1-0) 1699 Steve Pellinen (2-0) 1685 Joey Krafchick (1-0) 1657 Rahn McKeown (1-0) 1648 Mike Ecsedy (2-0) 1638 Deen Hergott (0-0-1) 1632 David Hermanson (1-0) 1631 Wallace Schultz (1-0) 1631 John Terrell (1-0) 1628 Chris Schneider (1-0) 1626 Marilyn Wilkins (2-0) 1617 Alan Stern (1-0) 1615 Walker Willingham (1-0) 1607 Steve Krieger (1-0) 1605 Kurt Davies (1-0) 1586 Ira Cohen (3-0) (Honourable mention - played him back when he was rated over 1850 and I was barely 1500) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 26th, 2010
7:34 am	South America Blog: Day 18 Monday, February 1  (Arrival)   At about 6:00 a.m., we arrived home at good old YYZ.  At customs, Shelley was given the gears because her visitor permit and health card had both expired while we were away, and we were directed to the immigration desk.  Fortunately, the agent confirmed that Shelley's visitor permit extension had in fact been approved (and was waiting for us in the unopened mail at home), so she will have another year of visitor limbo, if she needs it.    Upon reaching the baggage claim, we found out why people pay for luggage protection.  One of our suitcases was severely ripped, and barely holding itself together.  Our other fabric-walled suitcases were also quite beat up, but intact.  They must have some really rough baggage handling procedures in South America...   My dad graciously had agreed to pick us up from the airport.  After the short drive, we arrived home at around 7:30 a.m.  Shelley enthusiastically greeted the kittehs, and took a nap.  I unpacked, and tried my best to enjoy my last day of vacation.  We soon realized that we were missing my beloved work satchel (a very recent birthday gift from Shelley), and Shelley's keys!  This is on top of one of Shelley's diamond earrings that went missing during the cruise, and likely got vacuumed up at some point.  [Edit:  The satchel was found, but the keys and earring have not been found to date.]   It was a great trip, and hopefully the first of many Scrabble cruises.  I'm also hoping that this will be our most expensive vacation ever, or else we may be living in a cardboard box before too long!   So that, in 15,000+ words, was our trip. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
7:21 am	South America Blog: Day 17 Sunday, January 31 (Disembarkation)   Today we began our trek back home. Although our flight was not until 1:00 p.m., Celebrity wanted us to disembark at 7:00 a.m.  We had gone to guest services to ask how much a cab ride from the pier to the airport would cost, and they estimated it at US$25 - US$35.  However, when we got to the taxi area, the standard fare was US$70 due to an airport transfer fee.  The cab driver apparently viewed lane divisions and stoplights as a suggestion, but we made it to the airport safe and sound.  The same couldn't be said of all the other travellers on the highway that day, as we passed three separate car accidents on the way there.     At the airport, we were accosted by someone trying to sell us baggage protection service.  We passed, but then when we saw a lot of people in line using it, so we went back and got some.  They basically take your luggage and wrap it in adhesive cellophane wrap for US$11.  Since we were unable to fit all of our stuff in our 4 piece quota of checked luggage, we had to check a fifth piece of luggage for...  US$107!    We finally departed Buenos Aires, and we arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil in the mid-afternoon.  We had a long layover there, but couldn't leave the terminal as we don't have Brazilian visas.   Having not eaten much at all, and having about 5 hours to kill, we were looking for something of the sit-down variety, but could find nothing better than a bar that served some appetizers.  4 appetizers, 2 beers and 1 guarana-flavoured pop later, we got the bill for US$75!  I guessed I deserved that for not checking the US$ to Brazilian real exchange rate before ordering! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
7:18 am	South America Blog: Day 16 Saturday, January 30 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)   We arrived at Buenos Aires, Argentina, our final port of call.  We actually circled back south from Uruguay to reach here, having passed by Buenos Aires earlier.  It's a thriving city of over 3 million people, and the capital of Argentina.  Including surrounding areas, the population is more like 12 million, a huge portion of Argentina's population of about 40 million.    It was another fairly early start to the day (9:00 a.m.) to join the city tour and tango show excursion.  We had originally booked the evening version of this excursion, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to likely around midnight.  When we found out that we had to disembark the ship at 7:00 a.m. the next day, and have our checked luggage outside our door at 11:00 p.m. the night before, we made arrangements to switch to the early excursion.  We were already past the cancellation deadline, but fortunately they accommodated us.   Our tour guide, Amalia, was excellent.  We packed in a huge number of tourist sites into the tour, and took oodles of pictures.  She spoke excellent English, and gave us a very honest tour of the city, showing us everything from the most upscale residential areas down to the shantytowns.  She also offered many of her own personal opinions about life in Buenos Aires from a sociopolitical standpoint.     The port area is huge, and it's necessary to take a shuttle bus to get out of the pier area.  The harbour waters are clearly quite polluted, and a dull brown colour.  Even out into the ocean, the same colour persists.   The most exclusive part of town consists of block after block of stately gated mansions.  Some are still private residences, but quite a few were bought by foreign governments for use as embassies.  The going rate for real estate in this area is US$5,000/square metre!  In the related commercial area, each store was a who's who of high fashion:  Louis Vuitton, Prada, etc.   There were numerous statues, edifices and monuments pointed out during the tour, many of which were apparently gifts from other countries.   Many of them were along Avenida 25 de Mayo, which is among the world's widest streets (140 metres across).  We were able to get off the bus in La Boca, the cultural centre of the city.  All the buildings are painted in bright colours, and artists and performers are selling their wares in the streets.   We passed by one of the city's major football (soccer) stadiums.  Coca-Cola billboards at the top of the stadium were in black and white rather than the traditional red and white, because the team's archrival uses the latter colours!   We finally arrived at the theatre for lunch and a tango show.  It was a very intimate venue, with the tables clustered close to the stage.  The performance was great.  There were 3 male dancers and 3 female dancers, plus a couple of singers.  The main dance routines were performed on the stage, but much of the rest of the performance was in the aisles among the tables and at the bar.  We were as close to the performers as we were to the penguins in Puerto Madryn!  A few audience members were even invited to dance.  Shelley was called up, but the song ended as soon as she got up.  She succeeded in filming the entire show, so we'll have to see how that turned out.     Most people were not thrilled with the lunch, but I guess I got lucky, because I ended up with a huge steak - pretty good quality meat.  There was also a huge bowl of ice cream flavoured with dulce de leche, which made us regret each buying a big cup of ice cream during the city tour.   Back on the ship, Shelley had an offer of a free mineral bath for being a good customer at the spa.  Shelley was so tired, she didn't even feel up for the bath, so I filled in for her.  I felt a little girly, but no one had to see it.   Shelley was feeling pooped and hermetic, so we took advantage of the free room service for the first time this trip.  Room service is ordered via the TV.  The interactive TV system is pretty impressive.  You can also book excursions, and view account activity.  Anything you purchase throughout the ship is automatically charged to your room via your SeaPass card, which doubles as your room key embarkation/disembarkation card.  When your SeaPass is scanned anywhere on the ship, your picture pops up on the terminal so your identity can be verified.   We then began the arduous and melancholic processing of packing.  Due to all the souvenirs we picked up during the trip and the confined quarters, it was a logistical challenge.  After about 4 hours of working at it on and off, we were finished, just in time to put our luggage outside the door for pickup and transport. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
7:39 am	South America Blog: Day 15 Friday, January 29 (Punta del Este, Uruguay)   We arrived in Punta del Este, Uruguay.  Despite its name (which translates to eastern point, unless I am mistaken), it is actually the southernmost point in Uruguay, located on a peninsula bordered by the Atlantic and a bay.  It is well-known as being perhaps the getaway for the rich and famous in South America.  In Montevideo, we heard that Brad Pitt was spotted in Punta del Este the other day.  The year-round population of Punta del Este is only about 10,000, but during the summer the population swells to about 150,000 with all of the tourists and seasonal residents that flock there.  Most of the visitors are from Uruguay and Argentina - people who have second homes here, or rent out time shares.   We slept in, and made our way to shore via the tender boat shortly after noon.  It was immediately clear that this was the most upscale port we had visited.  It very much resembled Palm Springs, or any other oceanside resort town in the southern U.S.  Beaches stretched as far as the eye can see.  It was a hot day, and there were tons of people sunning and swimming.   In Uruguay, all beaches are public property - it is not permitted to own them privately.    We figured we'd grab something to eat first, so we have some appetite when it came to dinner tonight.  There was a cafe right next to the pier, but we figured we'd walk a little bit first.  That turned out to be a huge mistake.    When I was still on the ship, I had run across David Whitley and his boyfriend David ("the Davids").  They had just come back from seeing the town, and gave me their tourist map.  They suggested that we go see the town's main tourist attraction - a sculpture on the beach representing the tips of giant fingers poking out of the sand, which makes it look like some sort of giant is buried underground.  They pointed out where they thought our pier was on the map.  Our ship was docked in the bay, and it looked like we simply needed to cross from the bay side of the peninsula to the ocean side at its narrowest point.    We set off on a main street running perpendicular to the shore, figuring we would reach the other shore soon.  Shelley was already labouring at this point due to a combination of:  (a) lack of food, (b) bad knees, (c) extreme heat, (d) hot sand getting in her unfortunate footwear choice of sandals, and (e) the lingering aftereffects of a bad sunburn on her back that she suffered in Puerto Madryn.  We were clearly not in the touristy part of town - it was a residential neighbourhood.  We hadn't seen a single restaurant since we left the port.    Finally, we reached the shore.  The sculpture was supposed to be at the end of a long beach, and we had no frame of reference to know how far away that was.  We seemed to walk on endlessly.  The parking attendants we asked for help didn't speak English, so we weren't sure how far away we were.  Shelley was on the verge of passing out.  Fortunately, we did have a few bottles of water to sustain her.  When we finally reached the sculpture (after what seemed like about an hour of walking) Shelley took a picture of the beachside restaurant next to it, unsure whether what she was seeing was real or a mirage!  While Shelley took shelter at the air conditioned bar and got a drink, I snapped a few shots of the fingers.   I don't really blame the Davids for our circuitous route.  I should have been more wary when none of the streets we were seeing matched up with our map! We went to another restaurant across the street for lunch.  Struggling through the all-Spanish menu, we gave up with fatigue and ordered dos hamburguesas.  The waiter looked at us with a bemused expression and said, "Really?".  He convinced us to order chivitos canadienses instead, a native Uruguayan dish.  It consists of a strip of steak (like Philly cheese steak), covered with a slab of back bacon (the canadienses part) and a fried egg, complete with yolk.  It's served on a bed of french fries, accompanied by some curiously cold food:  peas, diced carrots, and diced potatoes.  Mayonnaise was the provided condiment.  It sounds like something a teenager would make based on whatever leftovers they find in their fridge, but it was actually fairly good.    How upscale is Punta del Este?  Well, Shelley saw a stray dog walking down the street (a common sight in all the ports we have visited), and it walked up to the open window of the restaurant.  Shelley threw a few leftover fries to the dog.  It sniffed them, looked at Shelley, and walked away.  This place is so extravagant that even the stray dogs have standards, and snub food offerings that don't meet them!  Perhaps the dog was looking for some succulent garlic mash?    We set off to return to the tender pier, expecting a shorter journey back.  We walked down a street for a minute or two, turned the corner, and saw our ship a few blocks away down the shore.  Our journey was reduced to a mere 10 minutes or so!  Henceforth, Shelley is referring to this day as the day I tried to kill her.   Even though we had a late lunch, we made a point to getting out to the dinner seating because we heard they were serving lobster.  We found out that it was a half lobster tail, accompanied by two jumbo shrimp and a juicy scallop.  In fact, our waiter was kind enough to bring out a second entree plate for us.  It was also the celebratory final dinner (since some people depart as soon as tomorrow) where they parade out all the staff.  The featured dessert was baked Alaska, and they brought it out aflame while we all waved our napkins in the air.  I remember having the same experience on the Mediterranean cruise I went on as a kid.   After dinner, we revisited the hot tub and thalassotherapy pool.  Shelley was pooped, and barely made it back to the room to crash.  I continued on to the games room and played 3 games of Scrabble.  I split my games against Mark, and lost to David Whitley.  The highlight was watching Mark play his game against Jan and Aldo.  Down by a ton, he played AbJURES for a decent score.  Earlier, Jan and Aldo had slotted a B in the 2nd position in a triple-triple lane, at which point Jan jokingly said "OK, here's your chance to win.".  As you may have already figured out, Mark missed A(B)JURErS 203 to get himself right back into the otherwise hopeless game.  Mark is always quick to trumpet his own skills and achievements while insulting those of other people (in a semi-joking way), so it was very satisfying to point out his huge miss.  He said that he didn't know the word.  Well, neither did I, but I still saw the possibility, and certainly would have tried it given the game situation!  (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
7:16 am	South America Blog: Day 14 Thursday, January 28 (Montevideo, Uruguay)   We arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay this morning - the last of the three countries on our cruise itinerary.  Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay, and has a population of about 1.5 million.  Although we were in a major urban centre, we opted for the "day at the estancia" excursion.  An estancia is a ranch.  I didn't have particularly high expectations for this excursion, and Shelley and I both thought that nothing would come close to the experience of the penguins in Puerto Madryn, but we were both pleasantly surprised.   Before heading out to the estancia, we had time for an impromptu city tour.  Since the ship was delayed in clearing customs at the port, many of the excursions (but not ours) left significantly later than the anticipated start time, so they decided to extend the embarkation deadline by an hour.  We had an opportunity to stop at Plaza Independencia to see the new office of the national government, and the preserved gate of the original citadel of Montevideo, which dates back to 1746.  We also swung by the Uruguayan equivalent of the Parliament buildings.    From there, it was approximately a half-hour drive outside of town to arrive at La Rabida.  It is an actual family-run working ranch of nearly 3,500 acres, not a ranch artificially maintained for tourists.  It was founded by a couple many years ago, and now there are 4 generations of family members on the farm.  They have been running tourist tours for about 15 years.  The wife is still quite involved in the estancia, but it is mostly run by their 5 children and 16 grandchildren, many of whom live at the estancia.  There are even 2 great-grandchildren.   We were greeted by authentic gaucho farmhands on horseback, who ushered us to the main common area.  We loaded up into various carts and vehicles to get taken to the beach.  We rode in an open truck, seated on bales of hay.  A lucky couple even got to ride in a horse-drawn cart.  We walked down the cobblestone path to the picturesque beach, where we were treated to yummy homemade alfajores, which are cookie sandwiches with dulce de leche in between, a caramel-flavoured spread made from condensed milk.  On the way back, we stopped by a well for a drink.  Most of Uruguay lies above two huge aquifers, and the water quality is excellent.   Back at the main common area, our hosts had lunch ready for us.  The spread consisted of salad and various grilled meats (chicken, beef, pork, and lamb).  For me, there were 3 types of juice drinks:  orange, lemon and grapefruit.  They actually encouraged me to mix them, so I happily acquiesced.  Shelley tried a local red wine (tannat), which she really liked.    As we ate, there was a Uruguayan dance and drum show, with the performers in full ethnic costumes.  There was a cow milking demonstration that we could have participated in, but we were distracted by talking with another couple from Long Island about Scrabble.  We may have recruited another NASPA member!  There was supposed to be sheep shearing as well, but we might have missed it while gabbing.  Dairy production is actually the main activity of the farm, where 500 cows are milked twice daily.  There is also the wool production from the sheep, and various crops being grown, including maize.   We were all given the opportunity to ride one of the horses for a bit.  Shelley jumped at the chance.  She used to go horseback riding as a kid, but hadn't done it in well over 20 years.  She handled the reins like a pro!  I deigned to ride the horse, but instead I participated in a curious pastime where you sit on a hide "carpet", grab onto a rope and let the horse pull you around the field.  Those who went horseback riding needed to sign waivers, but curiously the few participants in the carpet ride didn't.  I think I slightly pulled an upper back muscle while doing it, because I was sore for the rest of the day.   They walked us to a circular enclosure where we could see Doral, their golden horse.  He's an Arabian horse whose hide is a striking golden brown colour, and they're breeding him as a stallion.  There was an authentic "horse whisperer" guy who could completely control the horse with a series of subtle sounds and motions.  He'd have the horse run in circles and abruptly change direction, at one point sending a huge spray of sand our way.  We bade a fond farewell to La Rabida, thoroughly happy with our excursion experience.    We got back to the port a few hours before departure so we had a little time to explore the city.  A lot of the inner city by the port is pretty run down and not touristy.  There are special tourist police stationed along the appropriate tourist routes to help keep people on track and offer assistance.  We went into a market building full of restaurants and vendors.  We found one store with a wealth of interesting items, including a large chunk of quartz for US$25.  We also bought a drawing of a local building from an artist for US$25.  I was tempted to get an old Uruguayan license plate as a souvenir, but I thought US$25 was kind of steep.   Back on the ship, I retrieved an Evian bottle full of pass-o-guava that I had stashed there a few days ago.  Earlier we noticed that it seemed to carbonate itself, which seemed odd.  This time when I opened it, it was accompanied by a loud pop as if we were uncorking a bottle of champagne.  We felt it wouldn't be prudent to risk drinking it, as it seemed to have somehow fermented.  (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
11:56 am	South America Blog: Day 13 Wednesday, January 27 (At Sea:  Games 18-22)   Today featured an even earlier start (8:30 a.m.) to the final 5 games of the tournament, particularly since we had to set our clocks an hour ahead the night before.    Game 18 vs. Steve Oliger (W 387-316)   Bingos:  STAFfED / none   I got my blank bingo relatively early, and was able to slowly increase the lead during the whole game, while Steve struggled with a long series of bingoless racks.  Nothing particularly noteworthy here.     Game 19 vs. Bob Linn (W 428-344)   Bingos:  MINTERS, SUAVEsT / AENeOUS   Bob had a lead until the 9th turn when I bingoed with SUAVEsT 75, and Bob exchanged 4.  That turned a 26-point deficit into a 49-point lead that I never relinquished.  I was able to widen the margin with the use of some timely heavy consonants.  He called me a stinker a few times in this game too.      Aldo had a 3-game lead at this point at 15-4, with me, Jan, and David Whitley at 12-7.  Jan and David had  much better spreads than mine.  Despite my 2 wins to start the day, I had not made up any ground at all.   But I was two games up on 5th place, so it looked like I was close to a lock to finish in the money.  I would just need one win against my next three opponents, who all were lower seeds with losing records thus far in the tournament.     Game 20 vs. Mark Berg (L 345-502)   Bingos:  BESPRE(N)T / sUITING, (L)OWErING, SLICERS   I thought I had the game going my way after the classy BESPRENT 74 put me up 159-107 after 4 turns.  But Mark came back with some solid scoring plays while I was reluctantly compelled to spend 4 turns grooming a series of near-bingo racks where I could neither bingo nor score well, and had nothing better to do but rebalance my rack and try again.  Down 218-252, I made the feeble error of playing off AR but transposing the letters as RA*.  It's been a long time since I made that type of error.  To punish me, after challenging off the play, Mark immediately bingo-bangoed with LOWERING 86 and SLICERS 74 and took the remainder of the decent letters out of the bag.  What looked like a close game quickly turned into a landslide.  Since my intended play of AR would have only scored a few points, not blocked LOWERING, and only taken an extra 2 points out of the bag, I don't think having made a proper fishing play would have really made much of a dent in his sudden onslaught.      Game 21 vs. David Engelhardt (L 372-430)   Bingos:  ARENITE, TARDIES(T) / GAUDIEs(T)   Yet another blown game.  My two bingos gave me a 314-257 lead after 11 turns.  David played TIC / C(HIN) 11 setting up a second bingo lane ending in a T in the triple lane.  Holding GINSSW?, rather than block the new lane with a small defensive play like GIS(T) 15, I tried my own bingo of SWINGSe(T)* in an attempt to take a stranglehold on the game.  David recognized that he was in big trouble if that stayed on the board, so he strategically had to challenge, and the play came off the board.  David came back immediately with GAUDIEs(T) 83.  Needing a big play to get back in the game, I tried emptying the bag and playing WIS 15, setting up Y(WIS) or I(WIS) in the triple lane.  Unfortunately, David had the Y on his rack and played YEW for 37 while I ended up with EGNNSV? with my only 2 bingo lanes available starting with a G or a W.  Epic fail.     Game 22 vs. Richard Popper (W 486-362)   Bingos:  UXORIAl, LINE(MA)tES*, PREE(D)ITS / RETAINS, FARINOS(E)   I realized before the game started that Richard was 11-10 with a positive cume, whereas I was 12-9 with a negative cume.  A win over me would move him up to 4th place and take me out of the money.  It was a $100 game!  Fortunately for me, the outcome was never in doubt.  I opened strongly with ZONAE 48, and followed it up with a bingo-bango of UXORIAL 78 and the 9-letter 2x2 LINEMATES* 90.  I was shocked to find out after the game that LINEMATE* is phony.  Having heard the term used in hockey (and football) for so many years, it never dawned on me that it might not be acceptable.  Had Richard challenged off LINEMATES and made his play instead, I would have been up only 161-124, and the complexion of the game would have been much different.  As it was, by the time I played PREEDITS 64 (which I was unsure of and Richard held), he was down too much to even bother with a desperation challenge, particularly when he had a bingo comeback with FARINOSE 65 to nullify it.      I finished the tournament in 4th place at 13-9 +69, the low spread indicative of the various spread-killing errors described earlier.  If you had told me at the beginning of the tournament that I'd finish with that record after coming in seeded 8th of 12 and drawing only 18 of 44 blanks, I would've been quite happy with that.  However, with 3 or 4 of those losses being potentially winnable given my ability level, I can't help but think that I could have done even better.  2 or 3 more wins would have put me right up there with Aldo and Jan, who finished 1-2 with 16 and 15 wins, respectively.  At any rate, I should get a decent-sized boost to my rating, and hopefully be somewhere around 1650.  Edit:  I hit 1659.  It looks like I've succeeded in finally getting my rating back to its "normal" range, after having lost over 200 points from my clearly inflated peak of 1768 achieved at the Albany tournament in July.   Shelley finished with the same record, but a much larger spread due to taking advantage of a number of low-rated players.  Shelley is very disappointed with her perfomance, but I maintain she is still a great human!  I got my US$100 for 4th place, and Shelley got $20 for her high win of 542.  Verna Richards Berg cleaned up with an audacious record of 20-2 +1993, which is not unexpected given her rating and ability relative to the field.     Since today's break in the tournament was from around 10:15 to 11:00, we had a weird late lunch at around 2:30 p.m.  So, yet again, we're skipping the formal dinner tonight!  The last chance we'll have to dress up is the dinner excursion in Buenos Aires on our last night here.  Shelley went for acupuncture, and I spent a long time getting caught up on this blog (3 days' worth!).   The day's events were capped off with the final karaoke session of the cruise.  Lots of Scrabblers were in attendance.  Shelley sung Head Over Feet by Alanis Morrissette as a solo, and joined Jan for The One That I Want from Grease, and Lola by the Kinks.  I reprised Yellow by Coldplay (because Shelley wanted to record it with the video camera), and I broke new ground with Don't Speak by No Doubt.  Shelley was disappointed that my rendition of Yellow was not as hilariously wretched as the original.  My favourite new talent of the night was a tie between the meek Argentinian dude who sang a couple of Spanish songs, and the German lady who sounded like a deaf person when she sang The Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston.  In the real talent department, there was a guy from Mexico with an authentic opera voice who sang that one famous song by Andrea Bocelli - whatever it's called.  Shelley, Jan and I all felt we had to go up to rescue Betty as she struggled through Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler.  Range - we haz it.  Shelley and I ended with a duet of The One I Love by R.E.M., although I kind of took over at the end as I channelled the raw power of Michael Stipe.    I chaperoned Shelley to the casino, and she remarkably left with more money than she came in with (at least while I was there).  Back in the room, Shelley dumped a ton of movies and pictures from our various cameras (we have 4 here!) onto her laptop, and we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching them.  Shelley was happy to discover that a lot of pictures and movies that she thought she had lost when her laptop crashed a few months ago were still recoverable from the movie camera. 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Saturday, February 20th, 2010
9:30 am	South America Blog: Day 12 Tuesday, January 26 (Puerto Madryn, Argentina)   We arrived at Puerto Madryn, Argentina at 8:00 a.m., and promptly headed down to the theatre to meet with our group for the excursion.  Shelley and Liz Linn (Bob's daughter) were shushed by a German guy, even though no announcements were being made at the time.  We had signed up for a bus excursion to the San Lorenzo penguin reserve.  We had picked this excursion over the other two penguin-related excursions at this port mainly because the excursion description  referred to a mere 18 km drive to the Peninsula Valdez, as opposed to a 2.5 hour drive each way to the Punta Tombo penguin reserve.  Shelley was disheartened to find that our drive was basically the same length as the other tours..  It was indeed an 18 km drive to the peninsula, but we then had to drive all the way to the far northeastern corner of it to see the wildlife.   The landscape in the area was typical of Patagonia - mostly flat sandy land with scrub vegetation.  The drive out was fairly uneventful, although we did come across a small group of guanacos.  Guanacos are deerlike mammals, and quite common in the region.  We quizzed each other on anagrams during the ride, and time mercifully passed quickly.   After a brief stop at the visitor center to see the exhibits on the local fauna and geology (including a huge baby whale skeleton), we continued onward to a sea lion sanctuary (don't play SEALION* - it's ANISOLE).  From on top of a bluff, we could see dozens of sea lions lounging be the shoreline, mostly just glumping* on top of or next to each other.  There was the occasional shoving match as they jockeyed for position.  It's mating season, and we even saw one exhibitionist couple "get it on", which is a surprisingly laid-back activity.  I had always thought sea lions were black like seals.  The babies are, but the adults are actually brown, and look more like mini-walruses without the tusks.  In the distance, we could see a few elephant seals away from the group, lying motionless.  They aren't very mobile on land, so they only move when they have to.  They were grey in colour, and looked like beached dolphins.  We got a lot of pictures, but unfortunately none were close up shots.  I accidentally left the battery for Shelley's new camera in the room, so we had to get by with the old camera and the iPhone, neither of which have a very good zoom feature.   Next up were the penguins.  We drove to a building which was later to be the site of our lunch.  From there, it was necessary to switch into smaller buses, as there is just a narrow dirt road leading to the rookery.  We got off the bus, and there were penguins everywhere!  We had assumed that we would be viewing the penguins from afar like when we went to see the sea lions, but we were driven right into the middle of the rookery, populated with thousands of adorable penguins.  They are every bit as cute as they are portrayed on TV and in the movies.   We were confined to a path delineated by twine tied between posts or coloured rocks, but the penguins were free to roam everywhere, and that they did.  There were many, many nests right at the side of the path, and even a few right on the path.  Penguins nest in indentations underneath thorny shrubbery, or in little caves underneath outcroppings in the earth.  It's hard to imagine how the awkward little penguins can create these nests themselves.  In most cases, they probably don't build them from scratch, as they can tidy up and reuse nests from previous years.    They have absolutely no fear of humans.  One could easily get a foot away from the penguins to take pictures and video.  It was very tempting to touch them, but that was strictly forbidden.  However, I think the penguins would be totally cool with being petted.  The penguins often waddled right along the path, and we were all instructed to give them the right of way.  Everyone needed to watch their step, as it would be easy to step on a penguin if you weren't careful!   The path meandered its way down to the shoreline.  We couldn't go down onto the beach, but at the top of the beach, there were a few benches.  The temperature was in the mid-eighties Fahrenheit, so the penguins were fond of lying under them to get out of the sun, and didn't seem to mind if people were sitting on them at the same time.  Another way the penguins kept cool was to soundlessly open their beaks often.  It reminded us of Topsy and Turvy's "silent meows" back at home.  We thought the penguins were hungry or thirsty, until the tour guide Filipe explained that this is how they kept cool, much like how dogs pant.  It was very strange seeing penguins in such warm weather, after being conditioned by the media for so many years to associate them with snow.   At the end of the penguin path by the buses, there were a few large trees, rare for the region.  Underneath them were a few dozen penguins taking advantage of the ample shade.  I sat down on a rock under the tree, and Shelley took a few pictures of me surrounded by penguins.   Sadly, we had to board the bus and leave our new aquatic avian friends.   The traditional BBQ lunch was not particularly impressive.  Everyone liked the empanadas, but the rest of the meal was mediocre at best.  The lamb was apparently quite tough, but I'm not a fan of that type of meat to begin with.   The best part (for those other than me) was that there was unlimited wine available.  Liz, who does not drink often, got quite a buzz.    At Bob's insistence, we brought a half-full bottle of wine back on the bus.  Shelley surreptitiously poured it into empty Evian bottles, which she and Liz finished off on the drive back.  Shelley and Liz (and to a lesser extent, Bob and I) got asked to quiet down by a guy in the row in front of us who said he wanted to get some sleep.  We all quieted down, but noticed that the guy seemingly never did go to sleep.   An owl was spotted on a bush at one point, and we saw a few scraggly-looking sheep, but that was about it.  Anagrams and iPhone Scramble helped pass the time again.  As we approached the city, we could see large plumes of black smoke in the distance.  Filipe said that fires are common in this area in the summer.  We arrived back at port just before the disembarkation deadline, so we had no opportunity to see the city.  Unlike other ports, the pier was quite a ways from the centre of town, so we probably would have had to take a shuttle or taxi there had we had time, which would have been annoying.   Shelley and Liz really bonded during the excursion, and the party continued on the pool deck.  The three of us sat in a hot tub for a while, and eventually migrated to the indoor thalassotherapy pool and hot tubs.  The former is basically a huge chlorinated saltwater hot tub.  After a while, Bob joined us, and we tried out the sauna.  Partly due to the oppressive heat, and partly due to guy who walked in and sat naked on the bench with his legs wide open, we didn't stay long.    Bob and I played a couple of rounds of anagrams, with each of us winning a round.  Bob took the majority of the words out of the pool, while I spent most of my time trying to devise devious steals, the longest of which was MALFORMATIONS.  Bob seemed fond of calling me a stinker with each steal.  He was also fond of calling me Scott.  I apparently resemble someone he knows named Scott, and he repeatedly addresses me by his name (probably a couple dozen times or so thus far on the cruise).  To get my name ingrained in his brain, he has requested me to call him Fred whenever he calls me Scott.  It's still not working.     Shelley and Liz eventually came by to join us, and Shelley mentioned that she and Liz were asked by one of the crew to quiet down, based on the complaints of a few unspecified mystery guests.  You may start to sense a theme here...  Shelley and Liz are both naturally talkative and loud, and when they are put together, it's a potent combination!  Bob then shushed Shelley and Liz, because we were still in the middle of the anagrams game.   This was easily our best day of the cruise thus far, between the excellent excursion, and the fun back on the ship. 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Friday, February 19th, 2010
7:31 am	South America Blog: Day 11 Monday, January 25 (At Sea - Games 12-17)   We were at sea, and had to struggle to get up for our 9:00 a.m. start time for the day's 6 games.      Game 12 vs. David Whitley (L 354-380)   Bingos:  FlAXIER / WETLAnD   David was an impressive 9-3 coming into this game, and I figured I would be in for a tough match.  I was right, as he opened the game with WETLAND 78.  I followed with FLAXIER 98 soon thereafter, and the score remained close all the way to the endgame.   The bag was empty, and I was holding ILORSTY to David's EEERL.  I was fairly low on time, and needed to find a decent-scoring out-in-2 sequence to pull out the win.  Seeing no other viable options, I tried TRY / R(USING)* 25, which threatened OILY 21 as an outplay on my next play.  David wisely challenged off the play, and cruised to the win.  I was reasonably confident that RUSED* and RUSING* were good, or I might have tried something else.     Game 13 vs. Aldo Cardia (W 400-394)   Bingos:  ME(D)ALIST / TEENERS, LIONEss   Aldo was also 8-3 after the first half of the tournament.  Despite having a 100-point lead during most of the second half of this game, I almost managed to blow it.   With 1 tile left in the bag, I was leading 382-297.  My rack was CEILNPT, and the unseen tile pool was EILONR??.  The only bingo lanes were through a T in 5th position, or hooking an S to QAT.  Instead of making a play like CLIP(T) 9 that would block both lanes, I went for a higher-scoring play of PI 18 that did not block the S hook, but just made it a bit more difficult.  With the unseen pool, I should have realized that Aldo could come back with something like LIONEss / (PI)E / (QAT)s 81, taking CELNRT off my rack and coming within 6 points of winning the game.  This is a perfect example why I'm having trouble reaching a positive cume!     Game 14 vs. Betty Schulman (W 439-312)   Bingos:  ANEURIN, HEiRESS / DICTION   ANEURIN 65 gave me a comfortable lead, and HEIRESS 100 put the game away.  Nothing particularly noteworthy here.  A rare double blank game for me, but the second blank came out too late to be a factor in the game.     Game 15 vs. Siri Tillekeratne (L 389-439)   Bingos:  BaR(E)FEET* / NOTIONs, FATTENS   I countered Siri's opening play of VENGE 26 with the 2x2 BaR(E)FEET* 98.  I got a classic hoooold from Siri, but he let it go, probably figuring there was something else in there.  (The only valid bingo was BEFRETs, which I didn't know).  His bingo bango of NOTIONS 70 and FATTENS 69 brought the game pretty much even.  Then I fell apart.  I made a critical error in challenging B(L)IMY 11, instead of playing TROW 35 in the triple lane (the only likely dangerous scoring spot on the board) to retake the lead.  I could have sworn that BLIMEY was the only valid spelling, so I simply misremembered it.  With his extra turn, Siri took advantage of the still-open triple lane and played KADI 57.  I was reasonably sure that KADI was good, but Siri's play put me down by 63, and my chances of coming back if it stayed on the board were slim, so I felt strategically that I had to challenge.  The challenge came back acceptable (it's QADI / CADI / KADI, but QAID / CAID / KAID*), so I dug myself even deeper into the hole.  A game that I would have had at least a 50/50 chance of winning before challenging BLIMY turned into a death spiral loss.  Definitely my most blatant blown game of the tournament. Since this tournament is a pure round-robin format, blown games directly affect your placement in the final standings, in the sense that future pairings are not dependent on the outcome of the previous games.   If you finish a win behind someone, that can be directly attributable to a blown game, whereas it is difficult to say that in a tournament with Swiss pairings where a loss now could mean an easier set of opponents down the road.   Game 16 vs. Jan Dixon (W 426-384)   Bingos:  ORATING, VI(T)iATOR / H(E)FtIEST   It was my turn to open with a bingo against Jan with ORATING.  However, her bingo of HEFTIEST gave her the lead.  On Turn 12, I picked the 2nd blank for AAORTV?  The only bingo lane at the time needed an S in the 2nd position, and I clearly needed a bingo to retake the lead.  With one tile left in the bag, I fished off an A by playing (DIT)A, creating a bingo lane for a 7 starting with a letter that could hook under the A.  My final rack was AIORTV?, and Jan's rack was BDENTUZ.  I quickly saw AVIaTOR or TRAVOIs in the new bingo lane.  I didn't realize it at the time, but Jan saw that any play involving the Z would fail to block that bingo lane (or open a new playable lane), but by failing to play the Z now, Jan would be stuck with it.  She decided it would be best to challenge me to find a playable bingo and played (P)UTZ, which blocked the easy bingo lane, but created new lanes with the T and Z both pretty much wide open for bingos.  I saw 2 candidates:  RO(T)ATIVe and VI(T)iATOR, and I was not particularly certain whether the words were acceptable.  Since I had basically the same level of confidence in both of the words, I chose VITIATOR 80 because it scored better.  It survived the outplay challenge for the win!  As it turns out, both words were acceptable, so my dilemma was entirely self-fabricated.  As it turned out, I gave Jan her only loss in the second half of the tournament during her improbable comeback charge.  I felt this was my best-played game, and one that I could easily have let slip away.     Game 17 vs Larry Rand (W 490-407)   Bingos:  ASHIEST, TEXTILe, OU(T)WILED / INARMED, ENtICED   After 8 turns, I was up slightly by a score of 274-260.  However, Larry's last turn of NAN parallel to TOTAL gave me a primo spot for my otherwise unplayable bingo (TEXTILe / (ON)E / (TA)X / (AN)T 102, with the X on a DWS).  Larry immediately bingoed back with ENTICED 71 to keep me to a modest lead, but there just happened to be another T available to turn my crappy post-bingo rack of DEILOUW into OU(T)WILED 64 and seal the win.        Despite some shaky play, I finally ended up back in positive cume territory at 10-7 +5, good for 4th place.    4-2 is a very solid record against the field I played, but still somewhat disappointing since I felt a had a legitimate chance of going 6-0 today, based on how the games unfolded.  My last 5 opponents all have losing records thus far, so there's a good opportunity for a strong finish on Tuesday.  Shelley had a tough day, losing her last 4 games to end up in 7th place with an 11-6 record.   Shelley had booked herself a hot stone massage appointment for the afternoon, and she went ahead and booked one for me immediately after hers.  It's definitely not something that I would ever book on my own.  Shelley feels that I don't pamper myself enough, and thought I would really enjoy it.  I had never had a "real" massage before from a professional masseuse, so I was curious to see what it would be like.  I did find it enjoyable and relaxing, but I wasn't blown away by it, and I probably wouldn't do it again unless I had a specific physical problem that I needed help with.  The massage worked wonders for Shelley and her achy joints, but being in generally good health (and naturally de-stressed from having been on vacation for over a week already), I didn't reap the same benefits.    Shelley has also been getting acupuncture treatments on the ship (she bought a package of 5), and those are helping a lot as well.  Without the treatments and extra rest, Shelley probably wouldn't have been able to take full advantage of the excursions.  She got cortisone shots in her knees just a few days before the trip, but the effects had pretty much worn off by the time the cruise started.  Cortisone shots are supposed to relieve pain for one to two months, so we are very disheartened by the lack of long-term relief.   Shelley was pooped after the Scrabble and massage, but I still had some energy.   I went to the games room for a little while to see what was happening.  Siri was playing an open rack game with Rosalie, and I offered my input.  Rosalie had never played in a club or tournament before the cruise, but signed up as an unrated player in this tournament.  She had not won a game to this point in the tournament, her only win in the standings coming via a bye.  It really puts a new perspective on the game when you are teaching the basics to a new player who is still learning concepts like the danger of putting vowels next to premium squares. 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Thursday, February 18th, 2010
7:21 am	South America Blog: Day 10 Sunday, January 24 (Cape Horn)   Today is the only day during the cruise where we were at sea but not playing any tournament games.  That's probably because we were passing by Cape Horn, the southernmost point in South America.  Myself, I prefer the Spanish name, Cabo Hornos.  Cape Horn is located on the aptly named Horn Island (Isla Hornos), and is actually located in Chilean territory.  Borders are tough to keep track of in this area.   We were rudely awakened by the cruise director around 6:30 a.m. (although we were kind of expecting that, based on the cruise itinerary).  He interrupted us 3 or 4 times and rattled on in 4 languages to explain what was going on.  I groggily got up a couple of times and snapped a few pictures from our veranda.  There was supposedly a monument with an albatross, but I never saw it.  Perhaps I could have found it using binoculars, but it wouldn't have been large enough to be captured by the cameras, even at maximum zoom.  We made a complete circuit around the island before heading off to sea.  At one point, I made my southernmost fart, but Shelley did not appreciate the significance of the moment.  At another point, we crossed from the Pacific to the Atlantic, marking the unofficial halfway point of our cruise.  There probably won't be anything of note to look at until we reach Puetro Madryn on Monday.   After all the commotion, we both thankfully managed to fall back asleep, at least until we were awakened by a call from Barbara asking if we wanted to participate in the tour of the ship's bridge.  We were told at the beginning of the cruise that we would have the privilege of doing this (not everyone gets the chance), but were warned that it could happen at any time with little advance notice.  It was 10:08 a.m., and the tour was at 10:30, so we politely declined.  Sadly, I was unable to fall back asleep (and am consequently writing this now).  If I remember correctly, I got a bridge tour when I went on a Mediterranean cruise as a kid.  I will take solace in that.   Shelley spent some time in the casino, and actually won a bit of money, putting a little dent in her previous losses.  I successfully Quackled my first game ever - the first game of the tournament vs. David Whitley.   We went to guest services to inquire about stateroom gratuities automatically charged to our bill.  They charge $12/day/person, or $308 over the course of a 14-day cruise!  That seemed awfully excessive for a "gratuity" When we inquired about changing the standard gratuity, we were told we couldn't - the only other option would be to remove the gratuities completely, and tip all of the staff in cash.  The problems with that are (a) determining the appropriate amount for each person (there are at least 3 or 4 who service our room to some extent), (b) tracking those particular people down, and (c) having them know that you are giving less than the "standard" gratuity.  So Celebrity more or less forces everyone to pay the standard gratuities.  If that's the approach they want to take, they should just build it into the cost of the cruise, tell people that stateroom staff are fully compensated by Celebrity, and point out that should you wish to provide additional gratuities for excellent service, please feel free to do so.  One reason our gratuities are as high as they are is we splurged for a Concierge Class room, which has extra services like daily hors d'oeuvres, perpetual fruit bowl, etc.  But again, I feel this should be built into the room cost, rather than be expressed as a gratuity.  To compensate for the high gratuities, we have decided to not be shy in using their services to their full extent, to try to get full value for our money!    Edit:  We found out a few days later that the stateroom gratuities cover the various staff who serve us at dinner, making the $12/day much more palatable.   Soon it was time for karaoke again.  This time I sung Yellow by Coldplay and More Than Words by Extreme, and then joined Shelley for a rendition of Love Shack by the B-52s (infinitely better than the version sung by another couple at the first karaoke session).  Shelley also sung I Will Survive and Me and Bobby McGee solo.  David Whitley even graciously allowed Shelley to force California Dreamin' upon him to close the session, after he had bravely sung his first ever karaoke song earlier in the session.   Today was the second formal dinner of the cruise, and we opted out yet again.  Shelley was full, and not in the mood to dress up.  Since I'm never hungry and never in the mood to dress up, she didn't get an argument from me!  Shelley relaxed and did some reading and DVD watching, while I Quackled the remaining 10 games of the first half of the tournament.  I made oodles of errors, as I expected, but was heartened to see that none seemed to fall into the overt game-losing category, largely because I've had no close losses.    Later, I grabbed some slices of za from the pizza bar in the 10th floor restaurant for Shelley, and went back to the pasta bar around 10 p.m. for my own dinner.  There is food available at one of the many restaurants and bars on the ship between 6:30 a.m. and midnight every day, which is definitely a nice feature.  I filled up a 1 L bottle of Evian with pass-o-guava juice, which I discovered early on in the cruise.  It is truly the nectar of the gods!  (Particularly when mixed with punch, lemonade, and iced tea, as any good drink should be.)  As long as I have unlimited pass-o-guava, I do not need any sort of beverage plan on the ship!  Another nice thing about the cruise is that you can take your food and drink anywhere on the ship.  Shelley and I do it all the time, but for some reason we are in the minority.  These people do not understand the benefits of nomadic nomming! 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Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
7:29 am	South America Blog: Day 9 Saturday, January 23 (Ushuaia, Argentina) We crossed the Chile-Argentina border and arrived in the wonderful phony vowel dump bingo of Ushuaia, Argentina around 10 a.m. Ushuaia is located on the southern side of the island of Tierra del Fuego, and it's the southernmost city in the world, with a population of close to 70,000. It isn't the southernmost permanent settlement. Port Williams, where our ship will stop briefly to clear customs, is at least one small town slightly south of Ushuaia. We opted for a bus tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park, and chose the afternoon offering so we could sleep in. Emergency procedure drills for the crew shortly after arrival at the port would have stymied our efforts to sleep in, were we not already up by happenstance. The park is located just west of town along Route 3, the only major road in this part of the country.   Once we passed outside the city and entered the park, the scrubby vegetation that we had become familiar with on this trip gave way to sub-Antarctic forest. Given the extreme latitude, there is not a wide variety of flora and fauna here. In fact, the guide mentioned that there are only 5 types of trees prevalent here.   Our first stop was by the banks of a lake. At the small dock was a tiny shack of a post office, which billed itself as the "post office at the end of the world". I thought it would be the perfect place to get a postcard for Craig, as Shelley had promised to send one to him. The shack was manned by an old dude with a bushy handlebar moustache. It was every bit what one would expect such a place to be like. He dutifully stamped each postcard twice, and sent them on their way. I snapped a few photos as evidence of the visit.  Our next stop was the visitor centre, which looked almost brand new. To save Shelley's knees, I worked my way to the top and took some panoramic shots of the forest and lake, with snow-capped mountains in the background. Shelley went exploring and found many bunnies, who obliged her for some pictures. When we returned to the bus, we discovered that it was having some mechanical difficulties. Our tour guide led us on an extra hike to Lago Roca for some more scenic vistas. The area is an active campground, popular with locals. Although a replacement bus was summoned, our bus was revived in time to resume the journey. Although we fell behind schedule due to the mechanical delays, we still had time for the last stop on our tour, Lapataia Bay. Nearly far enough west to be back in Chile, it represents the end of Route 3.   The particular significance of this spot is that marks the end of the Pan-American highway, which apparently runs all the way to Alaska. The sign there also proclaimed that we were 3,039 km from Buenos Aires, which indicates that we still have a long way to go on our cruise. Returning back to the city, we only had about 45 minutes before the embarkation deadline. Leaving Shelley behind, I took off for a quick peek at the city, camera in hand. Ushuaia is a very modern city, as the Argentinian government has only made efforts in the last 20 years or so to develop it as the capital of the Tierra del Fuego territory, and a tourist destination in its own right. I found it much more appealing than Punta Arenas. Ushuaia was a penal colony until 1947, not surprising considering the degree of isolation in the days before roads connected the city to the rest of the country. The buildings were mostly modern and well-kept. The climate in Ushuaia is surprisingly mild, considering it is only 750 miles from Antarctica. Although the temperature does not typically exceed 15 Celsius in summer, the average winter temperature is only around freezing, making the area very habitable year-round. After dinner, it was our 2nd karaoke night. Shelley had fallen asleep, and even the tickle alarm did not succeed in waking her! She did eventually wake up, but she passed on karaoke, so I decided to go by myself. For the first 30 minutes, hardly anyone was there and no one got up to sing. I had lost the card where I had written down some potential song choices the first time, so I was busily going through the book recreating it. I sung The Way by Fastball (since I figured Shelley probably didn't know that song anyway) but the highlight of the session was unquestionably Vladimir from Russia. He sang Losing My Religion by R.E.M. and Runaway Train by Soul Asylum in a thick Russian accent while seemingly constipated. His female companion stood up at the edge of the dance floor and gyrated while he sang. If he put out an album of cover songs, I would totally buy it. Back in the room, we watched some Supernatural, and drifted off into oblivion.   (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
7:25 am	South America Blog: Day 8 Friday, January 22 (Punta Arenas, Chile) After seemingly forever at sea, we arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile early this morning. It's the first sign of human civilization we've seen since leaving Puerto Montt. This isolated city bills itself as the southernmost city in the world (of its size). I've heard that the Chilean government is giving away land in between these 2 cities to anyone interested in having it, and it's easy to see why there are seemingly no takers. Most of the land is extremely steep, and not suitable for building. Today we booked a city and museum tour excursion, which required us to set the alarm at the ungodly hour of 6:30 a.m. We need to take a tender across to the mainland since this is a small and shallow port. Our bus first took us to the top of La Cruz Hill to get a panoramic view of the city. We then visited the Mayorino Borgatella Museum, which had a variety of local exhibits (petroleum exploration, fossils, aboriginal stuff, fauna, etc.). The most interesting part of the tour was the cemetery. Unlike typical North American cemeteries, this one is dominated by mausolea (5-vowel 8!). Throughout the grounds there are huge evergreen shrubs that look like finely-groomed topiary, but I think they naturally grow that way. We also visited the Patagonia Institute, which is an outdoor museum depicting early life in the city (which was founded in 1848). Our tour ended at the Plaza de Armas square in the centre of town. Shelley was drawn to the vendors in the square, so we took out another 20,000 pesos from an ATM. Among her booty was an alpaca wool scarf for 4,000 pesos. We walked back towards the port, looking for a place to eat lunch. We came across one quickly, but the long flight of stairs dissuaded Shelley's knees from going there. As we walked away from the centre of town, the restaurants became less and less touristy, and less and less open. Fortunately, we found a little cafe tucked away upstairs right next to the port entrance, so we happily ate there, and adventurously ordered items in Spanish that we could not fully identify. Fortunately, I remembered from Coco Loco that centolla is crab! We headed to the port building, only to find that all tender service was suspended due to rough seas. Punta Arenas is an extremely windy place, particularly in open areas where there is nothing to break the wind. In gusts, the wind was almost strong enough to literally blow someone off their feet, which resulted in several comical photographs. No definitive timetable was given for resumption of the tender runs, but we were told that it might not be until 5:00 p.m. (another 4 hours, at the time). The ship was scheduled to leave at 4:30 p.m., so speculation abounded about the ship leaving us behind, which would require us to take a bus and ferry trip to our next port. The only problem was, it was in Argentina, and all of our passports were on board the ship, as Celebrity was holding them while we travel. With lots of time to kill, I decided to take a solo walk and snap a few pictures of the big monument to our favourite Spanish/Irish libertador, Bernardo O'Higgins. I found particularly amusing the sign that abbreviated his name to Bdo. O'Higgins. A new BDO affiliate firm? The monument was at the foot of a broad boulevard that led upwards into the hills. And there were more topiarylike evergreens, although these were trees, rather than shrubs. Walking under them, I noted that they were mostly hollow, and one could readily climb inside them, Had Shelley been with me, I certainly would have done so for an interesting photo op. Rather than head straight back to the port, I continued along the strip of parkland running down the middle of the boulevard. The incline became steeper, and soon I found myself struggling step by step to reach the summit against fierce winds. I took advantage of the vantage point to snap a few shots of the city with the Strait of Magellan and our ship in the background. In the other direction, there was more of the city and some mountains in the background. I breezed back down the hill and returned to the port.  Conditions improved enough for the tender service to resume before 3:00 p.m., before Shelley had an opportunity to do too much damage in the port terminal gift shops. We knew the ride back to the ship was going to be rough when the boat staff made us wear lifejackets. We were surrounded by whitecaps on our journey. A tugboat was strategically moored perpendicular to the ship to give us a small patch of (relatively) calm water to allow us to dock with the ship. Despite the precautions taken, we crashed into the ship with a loud crunch. An attendant kindly greeted us with hot chocolate upon disembarking from the tender boat. Shelley held it together well during our voyage, but she was pretty shaken when we got back to our stateroom. I have to confess to being a little nervous as well! When the ship left port, it was announced that the winds were Level 1 hurricane force! After dinner, we dangerously checked out the emporium shops, and fortunately escaped without financial damage. After one game of mutoid Scrabble in the games room (where you can flip over any tile to create a blank as long as you're playing a bingo), we retired early for the night. (2 Comments |Comment on this)