February 17, 2013 Sea Day
On this day several members of the Amsterdam Orchestra were guests at the Good Morning Amsterdam show. The music director and pianist Irving, the drummer Chris and the trumpet player, who is also named Chris, were guests. They are all excellent musicians who are required to be able to sight read and perform any piece of music on very short notice. They accompany almost every guest performer who performs onboard, they perform at every sail away party, and they perform at every dance ball and for miscellaneous events onboard. They often have never seen the music until the rehearsal a few hours before a performer gives two shows that evening. In one case, Chris the drummer accompanied a pianist who performed a 45-minute concert without a break.
There is a celebrity guest chef onboard by the name of Denise Vivaldo. She has catered more than 10,000 parties, been a professor at UCLA’s Culinary Program, owned a catering business, authored numerous books on catering and food related topics and more. She is quite a character and gave a class on “Do It For Less! Parties” today where she made Spinach Sausage Beggar’s Purses—sure to be on our next dinner party menu upon return to San Diego. These appetizers consist of the spinach, sausage and feta cheese wrapped in phyllo dough. Salty and nice!
We attended a lecture on Tasmania as a Penal Colony where we learned about the history of British sending convicts to Port Arthur. Tomorrow we will visit the penal colony to get a better understanding of how it looked and operated. It was in operation for about fifty years in the early nineteenth century and housed over 150,000 convicts. Some of the convicts were as young as nine years old.
We had a luncheon date with Blair and Marie, French Canadians from Ottawa, on their second world cruise. Marie is very fashionable and makes many of he own clothes. (I mentioned her above—2/14 ). Mark had a “spell” and returned to the cabin to rest while Kent kept the luncheon date. Blair and Marie were fun and share an interest in meeting new people, seeing new places and learning new things with us. Mark will join another time!
The entertainment on this night was a group of three young Australian men who call themselves The Aussie Boys. There is also a fourth who is an understudy. They performed Iconic Australian songs. Kent, already a fan from the sail away, had a front row seat!
43 Days on Board—We are in our 43rd day on the cruise. Dryness is becoming a problem. The air on the ship is comfortable but dry. Nose, throat and skin are always dry. The local advice is to spend as much time on the deck as possible and use lots of skin lotion. Great lanolin oils and lotions are available in New Zealand and Australia, so there is hope!