Whew - a hell of a few days!

26 Jan 08

En Route to Antartica


Yesterday we were in the Faulkland Islands. Port Stanley is this cute little British town, a million miles from the ‘homeland’. The weather was quite ify so we were happy we could drop anchor and launch the tenders. It seems that many a time cruise ships have had to turnaround because the wind and waves are too rough to drop anchor. So the pax were in a tizzy the night before hoping we would have ok weather. The wind was still strong and the waves rough, but they deemed it ok enough to go forward with tendering in the pax. For those of you who don’t know (I didn’t know till now) the Faulkland Islands are a very important part of British history. They were owned by the Brit’s and then the Argentinians invaded and there was a bitter war over the land. Many pax (I would say about 75% are Brit’s as well as about 50% of crew) lost loved ones, or have some sort of a tie to the islands, so it was very important to get there. It was very cute there, we walked around and found a real Fish N Chips shop; we were excited till we found out that they were out of fish! So we had pizza and chips LOL. Found a grocery store and got some oatmeal. Couldn’t find many of the things I had asked Mum to get, so I am glad she is still sending them. (Knee-Hi’s, Foot Powder, Baking Soda, etc)

Today we are at sea; quite a sea day too. Internet finally came back up around lunchtime and has been good ever since, thank goodness!! The seas are pretty rough though. Just talked to Captain when he was in the café and he said they are about 20’ swells. He said we are handling them really well and she is taking them on at a good clip. Hopefully the seas will calm a bit. I don’t want to get sea sick – though I don’t very easily, it is still possible for anyone to get it in these conditions. Probably won’t be too many at dinner tonight. I will go down for some breads and what not.

Speaking of dinner ~ I have been eating heavy carbs today. I was a little “off” earlier. Cat told me (when I told her I had a headache) that a headache, neckache and then shoulders is the beginning of Sea Sickness. Accckkkk!! Nooooooo! So I popped a Dramamine pill and then went to eat; had some rice, mashed potatoes and a roll. LOL I know, it’s a lot of carbs, but not being sea sick is much more important. That was a few hours ago now, and between the events after lunch (will fill you in on the next paragraph) and the Dramamine ~ the headache is gone and I am feeling good. Whew! Crisis avoided J:)

Ok, the after lunch events: I was finishing lunch w/Cat and some of the girls from Photography, when Mr Night Officer walked in. Now, we aren’t supposed to be in groups of more than 4 or else it is looking “clique like” or something so he couldn’t sit with us. When we made eye contact and I put on a sad face and he just said “that’s ok I will go over here” and went and sat about 5 tables away. So I turned to Cat once he was gone and said “are you thinking what I am thinking?” and she said “yep, grab a drink, dessert or whatever and go talk to him!!” So I did – grabbed another glass of ice water and went and over and asked if he was waiting for anyone and he invited me to sit with him. So we got right down to talking .. lots of it! It was really great, getting to chat with him one-on-one finally ~ he asked about where I lived, I asked about where he lived, we talked about contracts and ship life; I was exstatic! When he had finished lunch he asked me if I wanted to get a drink with him (now) I couldn’t though, I already felt bad that I was late to go back to the café (but holy hell I have been working my arse off so I could skim a little time!) The Brit’s are big for having a beer or two at (or with) lunch, so no he isnt an alcholic or anything . Then he asked if I wanted to get coffee, dessert or anything else. I thought it was sweet and when I said I had to get back to the café he said he just wanted to keep talking to me .. awwww!!! So we finished up and walked out of the café together and he got in the ‘lift’ (elevator) with me. Rode down to Deck 3 (though he lives on Deck 1 like me) and walked me to the café. I think he was going to come in to chat, but saw I was busy and just touched my arm and said that he saw I was going to be busy and he would see me tonight (there is an Indian Dinner in the crew mess at 11pm that everyone is going to) and would pop over to chat then. So YAY! I was going to call him and tell him I wanted to take a raincheck on his offer of a drink/coffee, etc but then decided it was getting too late and he might have gone to sleep already. So I will save that for tonight when I see him (BTW, this all was from another nice, flirty-esque, kept great eye contact with me breakfast I had had with him this morning) I am stoked!

Ok, so in all this talk about food – guess what?? I have lost over 14 pounds since I got weighed last (at the nutty Dr’s!) Now I know there is a chance the skills are off a little being that it is 2 different scales I used, but they wouldn’t be off that much!!! YAY!!! If I could just stop working so much – I could get to the gym more! Though, I do walk all over this ship all day long, as well as eat better than I ever have (meat, veggie, carb on the plate) and use the stairs as well – I guess it does count for something! Wooo hoooo!

Oh and did I mention it is as hot as the equator in my café now? Since the a/c is off and the heat is on (it is only about 39 degrees out) my café is like the Amazon! Sweating it out helps to lose more weight right? LOL