FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ATLANTIC

There is not much happening during the day - or the evening for that matter, on the at sea days on Costa….and we have 6 in a row.  We have made it through 2 and still have 4 more to go.  I usually go to the quiz in the morning – my efforts at answering the questions are abysmal (don’t think I have ever used that word before in a written piece).  When I look in the thesaurus, it says terrible, awful, dreadful, appalling, bad – very bad – and even extremely bad.  I would say that it is a more than adequate word to describe how poorly I do on the quiz.  I usually get the 2 or 3 easy ones (what was the name of the cartoon written by Charles Schultz or who was the King of Rock and Roll who got his start in 1950).  They throw those in so that every player can get 1 right.  Each day, however, back I go again to see just how poor my general trivia knowledge is.  I have given up writing my answers down on any sheet I just nod knowingly, trying to look intelligent as each question is asked and then pretend to be so engrossed in my e-reader to participate….oops tomorrow I better turn my e-reader on.

I have gone to the arts and crafts only to get up and leave before doing the craft that is offered.  I don’t think these people have heard of pinterest.  Surely they could come up with something that is interesting for adults to do.  The Christmas card offering the other day consisted of a piece of folded coloured paper, with glitter glue and some ancient stickers.  Give me a break!  Then came the bookmark – same paper, cut into strips with felts and cut outs.  Arghhhhh.  I did make a beaded bracelet that would do for hopscotch (for all you 50+ you know what I’m talking about) and tomorrow, the craft is called – Make your Carnival Costume – yah you won’t see me making that one either.  I will however, go take a peek and report back on just what it was.

I have become quite a fan of the art in the stairwells.  I am attempting to go up and down the stairs a couple of times each day.  They are very fanciful and a joy to look at.  There is no accredited artist for any of the pieces, but I sure enjoy them.  I went around today and took some pictures – there is nothing outside but water for days and days so may as well use my camera for something. 

The sea has calmed down a lot – we were under “heavy seas” for 2½ days.  It was really tossing us around.  The temperatures haven’t been the best either….for a trip that looked promising, it has held a few surprises for us that are due to the time of our travel.  I see that the temperature in Antigua is 26 C so we will certainly warm up in the next 4 days – it has to!  We haven’t had days to sit outside since Marseille.  Tonight I see that the temperature is 18 degrees, and that is as high as we have seen it yet.  The days we had the heavy seas, the promenade deck was closed.  You could still go outside on the deck with the walking track, but the winds were fierce.  They registered 60 – 80 km on the ship’s channel. 

So, tomorrow is another day.  This will be the third night in a row that we have gone back 1 hour.  As we cross the Atlantic and move closer to Eastern Standard Time.  It seems so funny to have an extra hour of sleep every night.  There are lots of times I think any of us would enjoy that other than at daylight savings, but this is a treat for sure…but wait a minute, doesn’t that make our 6 days crossing actually longer?  Crap – you bet it does!