Chicken dinner….

Day 50/138 2022/2023 Viking World Cruise. Last sea day before before Australia!

Last night we had the entire crew of the FINCANTIERI Italian ship building company, (which built the Viking Neptune in 2022), in our cabin trying to figure out why we have no heat in our cabin, and why we have no air flow either. This crew from FINCANTIERI boarded in Auckland and will leave in Sydney and are onboard for warranty work on the Neptune. Because they are not Viking employees, a Viking employee had to be with them while they were in our cabin. We left to go to dinner and after we came back from playing Bruce’s Brain Busters at 8pm, Guest Services called us to see if our heat was fixed. No! We told said, so tomorrow when we are in Tasmania, apparently the crew will again be in our cabin trying to figure out the mystery of why we have no heat or airflow.

We hang a lot of our laundry to dry in the cabin, so lucky us, we had a whole crew of guys looking at it!

Last night’s lecture by Russell Lee at 9pm, or ‘Prime Time’ as he called it, was amazing! He gave us the behind the scenes making of ’The Godfather’ movie. Richard is obsessed with that movie, so it was an excellent way to spend 45 minutes, listening in our PJ’s in bed, to Russell’s lecture. Russell is so entertaining that we think he could do the lecture every night at 9pm instead of the guest entertainers!

Whew! Today was a very busy sea day!!! And we’ve still got the evening’s entertainment to watch at 9pm on our Stateroom TV. We choose not to go to the Star Theatre, so I can work on the blog at night, and to avoid big germ exposures from lots of people in one place, since both of us have been sick with this head cold!

I had booked my root touch up and hair cut as soon as I got on board the Neptune last December. Since I had my hair done 2 days before we sailed from Ft. Lauderdale, I figured that 8 weeks would put me at about the time when I would need my roots done and my hair trimmed. At home I usually go every 6 weeks, but hey, why not wait a few more weeks on board before getting it done? My appointment I thought was for 9:50am, but when I got down to the Nordic Spa, the stylist said I was late by 20 minutes. Very Strange! Viking TV which has our appointments on our daily calendars, said I was to be at the Nordic Spa from 9:50-11:50 for the colour and cut, which is typically how long it takes back home. While I was having the colour rinsed off my hair I heard this noise and since my eyes were closed, I couldn’t figure out what the noise was. My stylist was laughing her head off, so I finally opened my eyes to see Richard making kissing noises right in front of my face! We had a good laugh over it, as he had just finished up at the gym and the Nordic spa is right next to the gym.

Getting the colour our of my hair. OXSANA did a great job today. I’m happy with my hair and I’ve booked for another session in 6 weeks (her suggestion).

I rushed up to Team Trivia after my hair appointment this morning and once again, we didn’t win. Oh well….

We had a very brief lunch today because we had 15 minutes to get to a 1pm ‘Oh Canada’ meeting in the Wintergarden. We weren’t sure what the ‘Oh Canada’ meet up was all about but we were quickly split up into teams of 4, without our spouses to participate in ‘Team Trivia‘. The trivia today was on Canada! We were asked 15 questions, similar to the Team Trivia held at 12:15pm, and guess what? My team and Richard’s team tied for the Win! I had to leave for Art Class before finding out that my team had won, but Richard ended up winning a baseball cap with a maple leaf on it! Nice one! At least we know Canadian Trivia!

Art Class today was dot art. We had the chance to do something that art teacher Deb brought with her as a sample, or do our own. I drew my own abstract dot art project and then we were given acrylic paints to do the project with. There was no way to finish this project in one hour, so I brought the remainder of the acrylic paint palette back to the cabin to work on the project until the paint got too dry to use. We have one more day to try and finish the project before our Art Exhibition.

Part of the dot art project I’m working on. I am not sure I can finish it in another hour of class. We’ll see. I’m also going to water colour over the acrylic dots because I don’t want a white background.

I used this photo as an inspiration, but not a replica of what I’m trying to do.

When I was working on the art project in our cabin this afternoon we caught up on some lectures we had missed by Russell Lee. It is great that Viking records all of the enrichment lectures because sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to be able to attend all of the lectures! Before dinner, we also watched an interesting live lecture by Guest Lecturer Dr. Paul Desmond Scully-Power who was the first Australian born person to journey into space in 1984 as a Payload Specialist on the Challenger. Another job he had in space was to photograph ocean spiral eddies, which he actually discovered. He also has the unique distinction of being the first astronaut to go to space with a beard! What an interesting lecture and what an impressive resume Dr. Scully-Power has if you google him! We really do feel like we are learning a lot on this cruise, besides, just going to some really cool places to explore and photograph! And that is why we chose Viking, over any another cruise line! No casinos, no kids, and tons of enrichment. The thinking person’s cruise! I was corresponding with one of my fellow colleagues back in Canada today and she said that her and her husband just booked a Disney Cruise in Europe, in May with their two young daughters. She wants them to experience Europe, and not just read about it in a textbook while they are young. I couldn’t agree with her more and I rhymed off a few things I learned while we were in New Zealand and she said she learned a lot from my text. Its amazing how much we are learning, that just becomes a part of our every day, top of the head information. And that’s why travelling in my opinion, is the best education! It is easier to retain it if we’ve experienced it, than read about it in a book and tried to picture it.

Since it is Friday night here, I said to Richard while we were getting ready to go to the World Cafe for dinner, “I just wish we could order thai food takeout!” Back home on Friday nights I typically don’t cook because we either go to our golf club for “Friday Fish Fry” or we get a pizza, or thai food takeout. Well I guess it was my lucky day, because instead of being able to order thai food takeout, when we got to the World Cafe, there was Red Thai Curry Chicken and steamed rice on the menu tonight! Perfect! A fun meal!

Last night at ‘Bruce’s Brain Buster’s’ me and Richard did quite well and got 19 points by ourselves. I think the winning score was 23, so not so bad, for just two of us. We had mentioned this to Gene and Margaret at Team Trivia today, so tonight they came and joined us for ’Bruce’s Brain Busters’.

And the winners are…Gene, Margaret, Richard and Ruth! WOOHOO! Twice in one day we won at Team Trivia! It has only taken us 50 days to finally win a Trivia! Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! And for winning, we get ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, as Bruce likes to remind us each day!

Tomorrow we are arriving in Hobart, Tasmania at 7am and we have to meet with Australian Border Force for an in person Immigration Inspection tomorrow at 9:15am in the Star Theatre. Because we do not have a booked excursion, all of the Viking booked excursion people will be completed before our time to meet with the Immigration Officers. The ship must disembark all guests through this Australian Border Force Inspection to get to a ZERO count, before anyone will be allowed to get back on the ship. We also must not bring any food off the ship either because Australia has very strict Biosecurity Checks. We are happy to be getting to terra firma tomorrow after the rainy weather today, and rough seas we’ve had on the Tasman Sea. And being in Tasmania on a busy Saturday, will be a fun place to be to walk around and enjoy the sights and sounds.

We had a lovely sunset tonight which I took a photo of through the window at the Explorer’s Lounge. It looks like we are heading into another storm overnight, but it should be 22C and sunny tomorrow!

One more sleep and we’ll be in Australia!