Well, today we were given our passports back, permanently. The end is nigh!
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We went to church today, for the Palm Sunday service. Man, he was a crackerjack of a pastor. The previous pastor, a black lady, had a very structured service, Anglican, without any feeling or passion, I felt. That pastor had to get off in Durban as a result of a medical issue with her husband. The replacement was a passenger on board that we shared a gondola with in Cairns, Australia some two months ago. The only downside in the service was an elderly woman who volunteers to sing solo. She is absolutely terrible, and she still tries to hit the high notes!!!. Gad I had to shut my eyes. She might have been good thirty years ago, but her good days are long past. Fellette asked me to tell her if her voice ever goes. I will. I should have recorded it and put it on You-Tube!
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We are starting to consider how, what & when to pack. There are two formal nights left, one tonight and next Sunday, [Easter]. I may not wear my tux on the last formal night to allow Fellette to get one or two cases tucked away. The packing is somewhat complicated because we want to take as little as possible with us on the plane, [a few other cases will follow by land freight], but we need to have any purchases or gifts with us when we arrive in Vancouver to simplify customs involvement. We would rather stretch out the packing in an organized fashion than blitz it the last two days at sea.
The laundry on the ship will cease taking soiled clothes on April 24 apparently. As you might suspect many people send their clothes in for laundry so they arrive at home with freshly laundered clothes. We will do a bit of that but try to restrict it to clothes that Fellette would not normally clean at home. For example Tuxedo shirts and fine dress shirts. [I sure am going to miss those ironed pyjamas at home.]
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Pictures from daughter Jeanette indicate that spring has definitely arrived at home, I hope so. I also hope the soil will have warmed up enough to plant seeds and seedlings. We often plant too early and the seeds sometimes rot, or just sit there until the soil warms up. We will have to plan the garden well bearing in mind the harvest time as we have a short River Cruise in Europe planned in late September.
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Fellette woke up with a voice that sounded like a 120 year old woman. At least that is what I think a 120 year old woman would sound like. We have a table mate who seems to be voiceless every so often and I suspect Fellette may have picked a bit of what she had. Let's hope it is not the Kennel Cough that ravaged the ship three months ago.
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The weather has changed!!! And not for the better either. Is that possible, so quickly? We are now in the Northern Hemisphere where it is early spring. Directly north of us, a few thousand miles away, is Greenland, erroneously named such in the feint hope of luring people to come there and settle by a crafty Dane. It should have been named Kelvinatorland. And guess where the wind is coming from? You got it, the North, at 32 KPH. Maybe I should throw my shorts that I have been wearing on the ship for the past 99 days into the laundry bag. Many of the icebergs originate up by Greenland and remember, the Titanic hit one of those in April! I am not suggesting that we have an iceberg problem, rather that we have to face reality that our days of wearing sunscreen and sun hats is coming to an end.
Regarding the internet. I purchased a total of 1050* internet minutes and now have 273 minutes left. I monitor the minutes per day remaining and I have something like 19 minutes per day to spend until we disembark. The internet has improved greatly since we left and were in the vastness of the Pacific. As well, the ship did have serious problems so they gave all the minutes purchased prior to April 1 to us at 1/2 price in the form of a refund on our bill. Strangely, I have become so accustomed to rationing my minutes that I have difficulty using it for anything other than quickly sending and receiving emails. Browsing is so slow that it breaks my heart to see it loading so slowly. Perhaps on the last week I may go wild and spend all those spare minutes and check out some things that I have been longing to do.
* 1050 minutes is 17 and a half hours. It sounds a lot, but when you wait a few minutes to connect and then wait while it downloads and uploads, that doesn't leave much time for verifying facts on Google or the like.
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Cape Verde tomorrow [Praia] who know what to expect there? The ship has never been to this port, it was put on the schedule as a substitute for one of the West African ports missed because of the ebola thing.
Pics.
- The able foursome in the Crow's Nest for pre-dinner drinks.
- On the bed after dinner: tomorrow's programme, a good night chocolate, the exchange rate card for tomorrow, a map of Praia, and a gift from Holland America and a breakfast-in-the-room order form.
- Hopefully a happy granddad, a few doors down.
- Todays food for thought.
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