Tuesday July 16 – At Sea

How many people have you heard complain about all sorts of things, some important, some trivial.  Well, I don’t think anyone would complain again if they met Peter and May.  Peter was born deaf and dumb and has now lost his eyesight as well.  He lives in Auckland and May is his carer.  She is a bubbly, Vietnamese lady who works for a government firm in New Zealand where the government pays for her to look after Peter for four hours a day.  When Peter was 17 years old before he was blind he went on a cruise and enjoyed it, so now he saves his money and goes on a cruise every couple of years.  He pays the firm the extra money to have someone accompany him 24 hours a day.  It must be the smell of the sea that gives him enjoyment.  The only way that May can communicate with him is to take his hand and spell out the word on the palm of his hand.  We met them at breakfast and we thought she was most attentive to this placid man who is deprived of three of his senses.

When we came back from breakfast our room had not been made up.  This is most unusual, so I went to the Nook with my book so as to give our cabin steward free reign.  I had only read a chapter when many men started to arrive and then the ship’s barber started to give a talk on how often one should trim one’s beard, the art of looking after a moustache and how to look after one’s skin.  He told the men to stop using their wife’s cosmetics as their skin is not so soft and so needs different creams.  There are talks on everything on this ship and if you took note of everything that is proposed you could spend a thousand dollars on their upselling every day.  There are talks on pain management, Detox for health and weight loss, Improving your posture, Healthy feet, Acupuncture, Lips and All you need to know about buying diamonds.

We are still in the North Atlantic, we are still passing Greenland and it is still foggy, the fog horn is still moaning and the sky is still cloudy but I am not complaining. I am not sure what will happen tomorrow, but we have to put our clocks back half an hour tonight.  I hope Hutch gets it right this time, although he does not have a lecture tomorrow.  Tonight, Bill and I danced to a new band called the Walker and Black Duo.