Oct. 12, 2019 Postcard exchange and lost camera day

I was up early enough to get all my cards delivered before lunch. So much for all my worrying about not being able to do it! It was a bit too much walking with some backtracking because i mostly used the midship elevators doing half and then the other half of each deck. And then to a different deck and do it all over again. If i were smart i might have done the addresse's that were in the aft on every deck and then do the same with the forward addresses. But i was thinking how difficult that would be to sort them that way and maybe the solution could have been to do the odd numbered side and then the even numbers. Probably no way is easy. It was quite tiring and kind of stressful too because my back, knees and feet get tired and start burning like hell so i was sitting on the stairs of every deck more than a few times.

After a little break i was ready to carry on and i was miles away down the hallway when i realized i no longer had my camera in my back pocket. I knew if it had fallen out i would have heard it hit the floor so it must be on one of the stairwells. I beat it on back to the last place and nope, no camera was there. It wasn't that the camera was of much value except that it held all of my cruise pics so far so in that way it was very valuable to me. I knew it must have slipped out of my pocket when i sat on the stairs or maybe i had taken it out and set it on the stair when i was resting, got up without thinking of it and carried on with my deliveries. That's when i thought the worst and that somebody might have broken their neck if they had stepped on it or tripped over it. OMG. That's when i got really stressed about it but i carried on and finished delivering every last card before going to the front desk to see if it had been turned in. Nope, no camera had been turned in. I thought i better give it awhile and so i went to lunch.

I met my friend Vivian in the buffet just getting her food so once we were ready we got a table and had a little visit while we ate. A lady then asked if she could join us and we said sure she could. Her name was Won Moore, originally from Korea and now from Texas and she laughingly pointed out that her name was pronounced like One More. She was a retired nurse who now goes on lots of cruises. It was a nice distraction and i could relax a little during our visit.

After lunch i went to my cabin and there on the door was a note saying "if this is your cabin call Jackie in cabin number 1234; i think i might have something you lost"

OMG again, i was sooooo relieved as i knew it was my camera she was talking about but how on earth had she figured out who lost it?

I called her room and she asked me a few questions and then said, yes, i found your camera. I beat it on up to deck 7 and knocked on her door and Jackie invited me in. She told me that she had lost her camera on a cruise once and when she phoned front desk they said that yes, a camera had been found and turned in so she had gone immediately to claim it. Unfortunately while they had kept a record of it they now couldn't find the camera! They never did find it either! God only knows who took it.

So, it was for this reason that Jackie did her own sleuthing to find the owner of the camera she had found. She very cleverly went through all my pics looking for clues and in one picture that i took the day i boarded the ship she found the owner. Unbeknownst to me the pic i took as i entered my cabin for the first time gave up all my info. In the picture which i meant to be just my first look at my room was the case of water that i had ordered and it was sitting atop of the dresser.  Jackie enlarged the picture enough to be able to zoom in above it and read my name and cabin number that was on that little receipt on top of the water!  I didn't even know that my camera had the ability to do that!  She then came down to my room and i wasn't home so she talked to my cabin steward and showed him a pic she had found on it and he confirmed that was me in the one and only pic i've allowed to be taken of me in years and had unintentionally forgotten that was left on my camera.
That picture had been taken of me when i went to the Pixels store onboard because there had been numbers showing on my screen that i didn't recognise as i hadn't used that camera in a long time. I had been concerned that i may have accidently changed some setting when putting it in or taking it out of my pocket and i wanted to make sure it wasn't on some weird setting or something. The guy who looked at it reset it to whatever was needed and snapped my pic to show me that it was now on the correct setting. I had planned on deleting that pic as soon as i went on my way but then totally forgot all about it. It also turned out that today i was wearing the same top as i had worn and had my pic taken on that day! Another little bit of proof that it was indeed me.

I am so relieved and grateful for this honest couple who gave me my camera back. I offered to take them for dinner at a pay restaurant to show my gratitude or some other reward but they refused my offers. So i said i'd pay it forward then whenever i could and they seemed to like that idea. A huge YAYYYYYY and vote of confidence to these awesome people Jackie and her husband from Newfoundland, Canada!

After a much needed nap i went to the Lido for my dinner. I've definitely become a buffet person on this cruise but then maybe i've always been one. I've been disappointed and unhappy with the dining room food and living the elegant but s....l....o....w...experience. It's sometimes cold in the dining  rooms as well. I've found the buffet is always ready and it has my kind of food and my kind of people so going to stick with it whenever i can.

Tonight i ate alone, didn't see anyone i knew and it was a little lonely. But then all of a sudden one of the chefs approached and a started a conversation with me. He introduced himself and i didn't quite catch it all as it was a very long name. It was also on a badge on his apron but i didn't get the pronounciation of it because it was about 12 letters long and most of them were vowels. But mostly he was doing the talking and i was eating and i didn't think i needed to know exactly what it was anyhow. He was from India and on a 8 month contract with Carnival as are most ship employees. He showed me a picture of his beautiful wife and two year old son who was adorable. He spoke english fairly well sometimes but other times not so much because he talked so fast but it was fun trying to figure it out and respond appropriately.

At one point i asked him why there was no muesli for breakfast amd i told him it was my favourite breakfast food. Well, he said, they only serve it in the dining rooms. I was surprised as it doesn't seem to me to be a dining room type of food and i've only gone for breakfast in a dining room once that i can remember and that was years ago. I remember ordering waffles and the ONE i was served was about one inch in size in the middle of a huge plate served with a caramel sauce along with a pot of strawberry jam. Ewwww. That's probably when i began to dislike ship dining rooms. Not saying i wont ever try one again and when i do it'll probably be for dinner but yeah, buffet is more people friendly. Anyhow, to make a long story short he says see that guy over there and i says yeah, and he says i am going to tell him to get some muesli in here pronto; you're going to be enjoying the best bowl of muesli tomorrow morning. Needless to say i hope i don't go and sleep in or something cuz i want and need that muesli pronto, lol.

So i got a bowl of ice cream from the machine and went and sat on the outside deck and watched the  Alladin movie under the stars for awhile. It was already in progress and i couldn't really pick up on the gist of it so i wandered off into the casino where i can understand things. I don't have a fav machine on this ship like i've always found on other cruiseships so just wandered around looking for something i might like and i started off on a two bit poker machine and once my $20. turned into $40. i cashed out and walked around looking for another that i might like and a penny machine was calling out to me so i invested $20. which turned into $60.  i cashed that out but still sat there for awhile and then decided it deserved another $20. and lo and behold that turned in to $80. so i cashed out and left it there high and dry. I then spotted another interesting looking thing so i put $20. down and got a few wins on it and left with a tidy $200. in my casino account. I felt like a deserved another ice cream so i got a nice big bowl of vanilla and took it to my room.

Once back in my cabin i remembered that i had wanted to go to the front desk to see if they'd give me a little piece of scotch tape so i could tape my name and cabin number on my camera in case i lose it again. Maybe getting a little paranoid about it but wth, it's really weird how when you're on a cruise you're unable to get certain common items like tape, pencils, ordinary writing paper, ruler, eraser. There's none of that in the ships stores although i'm sure they used to have stuff like that; especially paper and pen in the drawer but nope, not on this ship anyhow. I havent felt the need for any of these things until now and it's mostly because i keep seeing ideas for stencils everywhere i look; in the carpet patterns, curtains, wallpaper, clothing etc. I know i have to draw these ideas because i'll never remember them if i don't. Even at the Ala Moana mall yesterday i came up empty handed as i also did on the main drag of Lahaina the previous day. I'm really wishing now that i'd gone to Walmart instead of the places i did. But then again maybe they were there and i just didn't find them!