What Can I Say Wednesday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

What can I say?

I'm supposed to be on a bus heading to a game reserve.

Instead, I'm at sea.

The winds were too great at Port Elizabeth and it wasn't safe to bring the ship into the small space the port had set aside for us. Dh was up on deck taking photos of the port and came down to report that we seemed to be cruising out to see, perhaps to take another run at the dock.

Oh well. I've returned the packaged food I nicked from the breakfast buffet, changed out of safari clothes and am trying to send the travelogs I wrote yesterday. No luck. I can't send them from the computer lab either. It isn't signal strength, it is something about the size of the email but the system will let us send the emails if we are connected to our google gmail accounts. That just means I have to rewrite them all while online and upload each picture to Google in order to attach it to the email. Sigh....

Thankfully we have lots of internet time left (this will take at least 1, perhaps 2 hours.)

Nothing much to report. Yesterday was a sea day, today is a sea day and if we have favourable winds we'll be arriving at Cape Town tomorrow morning instead of evening. Thankfully, they won't toss us off the ship early so I'm writing my guide to see if there's anything I should see while things are open (they will be closed on Good Friday.) In the meantime, I'll try to focus on the extra $600 in my pocket and not on the fact that I won't be seeing elephants.

What can I say? Shift happens!

[lucylee]

Awww... (((Kathryn))) I'm so sorry about the change in plans and all the computer problems.
Maybe Cape Town will be better.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Travelogues are now sent. Thank heavens. One had to be split into 7 parts in order to get it out but that is done. I'll post pictures here after I return home.

In the meantime, there's nothing to bring you up to date on since I don't have much to say about the ports.

I realized I needed tea (I never have tea before a morning tour because it stimulates my kidneys too much) so went to the Bistro. It wasn't serving tea which seemed strange but that's because 1) it was 8:45 and they are only open for late breakfast and 2) the tours were all to leave by 8 so there's no reason for them to be open, breakfast was on the Lido deck. I went back up to the Lido deck and am now having a tea and muffin. Hopefully that will wake me up a bit.

There was an announcement (they are rare, we get 1 at noon each day and 2 more at the beginning and end of tour days) with the updated schedule. In the last 90 minutes they were able to wake/confirm with all the lecturers and tomorrow's sea day activities have all been moved to today. The tour desk is busy working on coming up with more tours for us in Cape Town. And the galley and dining staff are scrambling to get meals ready for us and reset the dining hours. Everything had been set for a port day so they were expecting only about 1/4 of the passengers for meals. Now 3/4 of us are here. One quarter remain off-ship. They were on overnight safaris and rejoining the ship today.

Of our table mates, one couple is now stuck off-ship, one couple are stuck on-ship (they were leaving on a safari today) and the final couple is missing an informal speaking engagement at the university (they have friends that were to show them around the city and take them to the university for a Q&A on US wine making methods.)

[Harriet]

Good morning lucylee, Kathryn and all. Gee, sorry to hear of so many rearranged plans.

Everybody be ready to sidestep the occasional April Fool's joke today. There is impishness all about! I know - fun to have teased instead of warned, but I'm sure ya'll are all too smart for me anyway! If you hear of someone pulling something really funny, let us know.

Lynlee, do you also encounter April Fool's Day foolishness, or are Australians too wise for that?

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[BookSaver]

Good morning, villagers ~
Thanks for opening the thread today, Kathryn. I'm sorry you have to miss your safari.

CI:
Monday night at work went well. We had fewer patrons than normal, which gave me the opportunity to do some lower priority tasks.
Yesterday was a nice day at home.

Today my main tasks are
* finish month-end report for library group (had to wait until today for the online bank statement to be updated)
* finish the first draft of the multi-page tax report for the library group
* other meeting prep for the library group
The group meets this evening and I want to be able to give a good report.

[Twins' Mom]

I am heading out to see dsis today and need to get moving. Hoping for 10 a.m. departure but need to do some things here first.

-breakfast, meds, vitamins
-clear kitchen counters
-clear breakfast bar and kitchen table
-s2s
-weigh (this after two cups of coffee) and record

[DeeClutter]

I skimmed the posts for today but need to get going. Just finished the dishes (only a few but I knew they would grow immensely while we're away.) DD and I are going to Bradenton today/tomorrow to visit a close friend from our campground. She recently was widowed and we were supposed to go down to spend a couple of days with her and her dh. He was several years her senior and she's really moving right along at this point. In fact dh told me last night what she's asking for her park model up home (it also has a completely closed in deck and a shed). DD so wishes she had the money to put out for it. She's only asking $17,000 and it's a really nice unit. She just wants to get all these things taken care of and plans after this year (or possibly next) to simply stay in their house down here. She also has a house up north.

DD made a gorgeous vase with etching on it for our widowed friend. She has quite a few supplies now for her Silhouette -she's so enjoying that! She has discovered that some supplies she can buy a less expensive 'alikes' at $Tree. So she's quite excited -about 4 miles up the road is a new store going in and we've been trying to figure out what it is. Aha! Looked $Tree up online and got an image of a 'stand alone store'. That's what it is. She has been avoiding the other one she normally goes to as gd16 frequents that area and she really doesn't want to run into her.

Bummer! (((Kathryn)))!! I would not like to be the one trying to chase down a cruise ship I'm thinking.

We're off -will try to peek in from my K indle later on.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Well it has been an unproductive day here. I'm at tea now.

Spent the morning sending the travelogues and then I gave myself a mani-pedi and watched two of the lectures on the tv. Played trivia and our team tied for second place (they were last of 18 for the first two days and then we worked our way to middle of the pack most days.)

After a quick lunch I went to a promising sounding lecture but it was a bust. That's why I prefer to watch on tv, if the lecture isn't as I expected I can turn it off but I had talked with the lecturer before he took the stage and was in the second row so couldn't leave.

Came back to the room and wasted time until tea-time.

I also figured out a new, easy, hair style for myself at some point today and it seems to hold up well inside. Outside it is very windy so I got fuzzy at one point but it is an easy fix as long as I have a comb.

Dee: The ones I know chasing down the ship are on ship's Tours so they will be flown to Cape Town and put up in a very nice hotel. This happens quite often on this itinerary and is another reason why one should book a ship's tour. Should things change, they will get you back on the ship. Unlike if you booked privately.

It is also why I book ship's tours. Ports are often missed and I just get my money back. I will do things on my own but I never book things in advance, I wait until I'm in port and if I go off on my own, I'm back to the ship at least 3 hours before leaving because I don't want to be left behind!

Dh sings tonight with the guest choir. We've special-ordered schnitzel for our dinner and will go to the show tonight because the pianist is wonderful. Tomorrow we are to berth in Cape Town, but only 6 hours early, possibly later. So we really won't be able to make up for the lost day today.

I have lots of internet time left so have downloaded the movie lists for our flights. We are also looking into the Astor, a small ship that was in Perth and showed up in Durban yesterday. The cabins are 50% bigger than this ship's cabins but the price is 1/2 what we usually pay and it is a small ship with more middle class people. Twice a year they do long ocean voyages - 38 days from Perth to London via Cape Town in the spring and London to Perth (via Panama & Sydney) in the fall. Summer in Germany the ship spends in Europe with a German clientele, Summer in Australia, she cruises around Australia.

Not sure when or where we'll cruise again. Our travel budget for next year will be used up with dh and ds's trip to Africa in October, so if I want to go anywhere, it will be more economical than we usually do, perhaps Vegas or Key West next January. Or a road trip and visit all the southern SHEs!

[Nancy]

Good morning! Got the net going yesterday but was out & about town. So I did not use it much. I need laundry soap so a store run is in order.
Sipping coffee today all I have done is fed chickens I need to get up and take my meds & get in gear.

It is cloudy forgot to turn on the geat last night so it was cold here this morning.

[Elizabeth]

Good morning everyone! I did not get much last night, just checked home email and bought this month's train pass. My plumbing repair seems to have worked, so I need to do the cold water side soon. My car sounds awful, but runs. And still needs the alignment. We are getting a half day off as I had hoped, but we can take it anytime between now and next Wednesday. I volunteered to stay on Friday afternoon, because I have a doctors appointment near work and would not be able to get home early anyway.

On the train, I got my lists together and scheduled my remaining week. Here is what needs to get done today:
DPC which will determine if I do estate sale fundraiser work tonight
File for an FSA reimbusement
Call library to see if book is still there, if so, pick up
Collect papers for lawyer appointment tomorrow
Groceries
Pet care for DD13's dog and the other woman's mouse*
Write/send letter
Check todos from last animal org meeting and schedule
Pet care for my own beasties
Trash out
Me care

Off to do my DPCs!

ETA: Left message with library, still don't know about book. The other call resulted in NO ESTATE WORK tonight, leaving me with more time to do stuff I need to get done.