Time goes so fast…

Day 30/138 2022/2023 Viking Neptune World Cruise. Day 4 of 5 sea days.

We started our morning listening to a lecture in our cabin by guest lecturer and anthropologist Lisa Matisoo-Smith about “DNA Ancestry Tests, Fact or Fiction”. Lisa did warn us at the beginning of the lecture that it would be technical and it definitely was! I felt like I was back in my Grade 13 Biology class with my girlfriend Marilyn trying to understand gene pairings! It was a bit too much for Richard who said he never learned that in school! Anyway, it was an interesting lecture and a good use of 45 minutes at the beginning of the morning.

I did not sleep well last night, so rather than get going this morning, I said I would have a morning nap and try and catch up on my sleep. Richard went off to the back pool deck for some sunshine and to read his book, but it was a bit too windy, so he quietly crept back into the cabin to read while I continued napping.I had asked to be woken up at 11:20am so I could still shower and get to Team Trivia by 12:15, but when I heard the Captain on the P.A. System at his usual noon briefing on sea days, I knew I was in trouble! I had 15 minutes to get showered, dressed and up to trivia! Where had the time gone? I had barely gone to sleep at 10:15 and it was already noon! I sent Richard on ahead and I made it with not a minute to spare. Unfortunately we again came up 3 questions short of tying for first. I mean who knows Julie Christies’ middle name anyway? Or how many stomachs does a cow have? Yeesh!

We had arranged to have lunch today at 1pm in the World Cafe with a very nice couple we had met when we were in Colon and we had seen the scuba divers examining the Viking Neptune’s hull. Mary Kate had provided me with some photos of the scuba divers for use in the blog. We got to the World Cafe before Charles and Mary Kate and saved them a table. Today the very special feature at lunch was this amazing looking dessert!

A huge cherry pie made in what looks to be a gigantic paella pan! OH MY! Cherry pie is one of my favourites!

To compensate for having a very small morsel of pie, I had some potato and watercress soup as my main course. The pie was tasty, but it was missing a hint of almond extract that I would usually add when making a cherry pie or tart. The food has definitely been stepped up a notch since Chef Willy Moon boarded in Honolulu, Hawaii and when Richard saw Chef Willy today, he told him so!

I had to run again to art class today since its so popular. I think the sign up sheet was overflowing with walk ins today, which art teacher Deb always tries to accommodate.

Our project today was making a colourful dot Mandela using acrylic paints. Acrylic paints do not come off, so Deb had warned us not to wear white, not to go and wash our hands in the washroom using the white cotton facecloths which Viking has in all of the restrooms, because the acrylic paint would stain everything. I managed to get the paint all over my hands, which then of course got onto the side of my project.

The project on white paper was our practise piece. I had to get the hang of how much paint to put on the ends of the round sticks, and then of course not to have one set of dots touch another set. The box lid on the right is still a work in progress and tomorrow I will spiff it up since we had to let the dots dry before we could double dot them, which is what I intend to do tomorrow before class. Some people loved today’s art project and others were ok with it. I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure I would do this type of project very often. It was fun to be creative though with a new medium.

After art class when I carefully brought my wet art project back to our cabin to dry on the top of the desk, I notice that there was a small card on our bed.

Wow! This definitely looks interesting!!

I didn’t know that Viking had a ‘Captain’s Table’ dinner but we will graciously accept the invitation for dinner the evening we depart Bora, Bora. Its funny because I had seen a notation in my Viking Voyageur App last evening showing ’Dining’ Location ‘Pending’ party of 8 for January 22nd, but we had not made any party of 8 dining reservations. I guess this invitation explains the calendar notation now. I am glad Richard brought a dinner jacket and that I have a nicer dress to wear for dinner at the ‘Captain’s Table’. We have not heard of anyone who has been invited to the ’Captain’s Table’ so this will be interesting I’m sure!

The port talk on Moorea was held today at 4:30pm since we are in ports, back to back to back, so Viking has backed up the port talks for Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti to our last 3 sea days so we know what we are in for in terms of our excursions in each of these ports. In Moorea I am doing a special ‘Moorea through a lens’ with a professional photographer while Richard is taking the included tour which happens to be a boat cruise through turquoise waters. I hope we both get some great photos to be able to compare what we both saw at the end our time in Moorea. We searched last evening for Richard’s water shoes which I know I bought him before we left Florida in December, and we cannot find them anywhere. I am hoping we can pick him up a pair in Bora Bora.

We missed Russell Lee’s lecture on the history of the musical ‘South Pacific‘ this morning, and since we love his lectures, we watched the recorded lecture on our stateroom tv after the Moorea port talk. I never knew that James Michener’s book ‘Tales from the South Pacific’ which was a fictional account of his time in the U.S. Military in the South Pacific, was actually the basis for the musical ‘South Pacific’ by Rogers and Hammerstein. Russell definitely knows how to tell a good, entertaining and educational story!

Richard ventured out for dinner after we listened to Russell Lee’s talk, since I really wasn’t that hungry. Since it was Friday, the Viking Neptune Chefs had prepared English Fish & Chips on the pool deck. We have only had lunch on the pool deck before, so this was a first to have dinner served outside by the pool.

What a presentation of fish, chips, and a deconstructed caesar salad with all the fixin’s!

Well we are 30 days into the World Cruise and time is going so fast. In fact I thought we had 6 sea days before we got to Bora Bora, and now I just checked and we only have 5 sea days from Hawaii to Bora Bora, so tomorrow is our last sea day for this leg before we reach French Polynesia! Yeah! After we leave French Polynesia we will have 6 straight sea days before New Zealand and we will cross the International Date line, so we should lose a day of cruising in that stretch too.

Hopefully tomorrow I will feel more like myself and I can get back to the gym. Today was definitely a lazy day, but with the 3 days in French Polynesia looking to be pretty busy, I’m sure we will be happy for the sea days before we reach New Zealand! Sometime in that stretch of next sea days we will be having our art exposition, so that is definitely something to look forward to experiencing.

I have to keep reminding myself to live in the moment and enjoy each day with whatever comes along, since this cruise will be over before we know it. At lunch today when Charles found out this was my first cruise he said “What’s next? Space-Ex?” I did have the same question of Richard before we left on this cruise. What does come next? There is so much more world to explore, but after seeing it on a cruise ship, which is like having an ‘amuse Bouche’ or ‘speed dating’ (Sharon’s term) the world, I think we will need to go a bit ‘meatier’ into some of the places we do visit on this cruise. Spend more time, more living with the locals, and getting to know the food, culture, sights and experiencing a place a bit longer to really get to know it. Of course we already have 3 more Viking Cruses booked, which will be at the longest, 15 days, and I also have my sights on Antarctica one day too on a Viking Expedition ship, so I can see the penguins! There are so many places to see so after this cruise we’ve got to figure out ‘What is next?’

And on that note, I will leave you with two travel quotes I saw today that I loved…..