Oct. 15, 2019 Theres no Oct. 14th for me

I woke up at 6:30a.m. and the ship was very quiet. Well, it's always quiet on the cabin decks but still, this is unusual for me to see this early hour. It's sunny and bright out there and the ocean, sky and fluffy clouds look so calm and peaceful. We are zooming along quite fast and i love the gentle rocking of the ship.

We actually did have a little of Oct. 14; it was one hour long when we sailed over the international dateline. I still don't really understand this thing especially since we've been moving our clocks back an hour every day or two. Then suddenly we're told to jump ahead 23 hours. I just do it and don't need to understand it i guess as long as everything and everyone are all on the same schedule. Whatever and however, when i get home i'll simply believe whatever time our clock says it is and adapt to it accordingly.

I know theres people out and about already and breakfast is in progress but i'm going to chill for awhile playing my game and enjoy the calm, peace and quiet.
Just before i went out there was an emergency call over the P.A. for a medic alert. I've never heard such a call on a cruise before and i just hoped it was a drill or something and that nobody was in any sort of distress.  Unfortunately i found out at lunch that a woman had passed away in her sleep on deck 8. So sad out here in the middle of the ocean for her husband or whoever she was travelling with to have to remain onboard until we get to Guam in a few days. From there i guess they'll send the body and survivor home. My friend Vivian lives on deck 8 so praying that it isn't her.

I went for my muesli breakfast along with yogurt and fruits. It's weird that i drink a couple cups of espresso at home every day but here on the ship i havent even tried their coffee. I brought some of those tiny plastic bags full of my fav, Nescafe instant espresso to add to my ice cream to make like a frappe or milkshake with ice cream and today is the first day i thought of it. So after lunch i got a drinking glass and filled it with what the sign said was vanilla but out came a chocolate/vanilla twist and once mixed with my instant espresso it made a delicious frappe and for free! It was better than the one i bought yesterday for ....not sure but i think about $8!

After breakfast i returned to my room to get my crochet project and made my way down to the Robusto bar without getting lost and found the crafty ladies all in a a big circle doing their thing and i joined in on their lively conversation. I did a few rows on my "dishrag"  which you know is going to actually be a stencil. I decided not to bother telling the ladies this because they've probably never heard of the Gelli mono printing addiction. Maybe you havent either and if so go to youtube and you'll see millions of videos of it being done in a million variations.
I seem to be an odd one out because i like to try to be neat unlike the majority of artists who work in a sloppy sort of manner that i just can't. They also never wash their Gelli plate nor do they wash their brayers....i can't do that! Truth be told i do not like the way this art has gone but have to do my thing with it and it doesn't matter if it's different cuz everyone is different. I think with so many and maybe the majority of videos on Youtube being done in the slaphappy easy going way any and possibly all new artists who watch them will attempt to follow suit and get in the groove of not caring that they missed a spot, or ten. They'll leave a corner or two bare along with other spots of bare white paper showing through all over the place because it seems that speed and a mutitude of colour is of the essence and as well, the way they use stencils is also very messy. I know they like the way they're doing it and of course differences are the spice of life but i'm not spicy, just neat or at least a little neat-er, lol.

Later i dropped my crochet project off in my room so i wouldn't have to carry it around with me all day. My next destination was the art seminar in the Red Carpet room and i forgot if it was before or after the big empty block so rather than getting lost i decided to take the route to the casino and then have a little extra walk back the same way that i'd come from so i wouldn't miss the beginning of it. I made it in time but then noticed how very cold it was in the room and i was thinking oh no, i'm going to have to leave.

But then somebody asked does anyone want a blanket? and 4 or 5 other people besides me put up their hands. The blanket was warm and fresh from an oven somewhere and so i was cozy and comfy after that. So the seminar began and omygosh; it was absolutely brilliant and the best one i've ever attended. The speaker was a woman who was sooooo good she was literally amazing and i learned alot and enjoyed hearing about the life and times of Pablo Picasso.  She didn't read it to us and maybe she's done this seminar many times before on a million cruises and had memorized every detail but whatever, she did a bang up job of it. She didn't make him out to be an angel in any way but told the truth of what he was like and how and why he became that way. I have much respect for the guy and how he changed the face of art in the world forever.  When she got to the part about how and why his "blue period" happened i think everyone in the room was in tears because it was so unexpected and sad. And i learned that's how blue became the word for depression. The guy left behind a legacy of more than 80 thousand awesome paintings!

From there i went to the Lido for my lunch and seeing nobody i knew i had to sit by myself but not for long before a guy named Frank from Chicago joined me and then two Australian ladies and we ended up lunching and visiting for a couple hours. I filled my platter with many different salads, carmelized onions, and something else which turned out to be real good but i don't even know what it was. It looked like cubes of beef but the lable said it was a vegetable that i didn't know and now i've forgotten the name of it. In any case it was an excellent lunch.

After an hour or so it started raining out and it happened to be the first day that the retractable roof had been opened. It was kind of comical watching all the sun worshippers all beat it in to the Lido. Just when they're generally putting things away the staff had to scurry around to tend to all the people lining up to eat leaving the pizza and burger stand by the pool without any customers.
I returned to my cabin thinking id have a little nap but started playing my game instead and i'm glad that i did because i won 8 million dollars (play money of course, lol) But that was the most i'd ever won since i started playing the game of Pharaohs Way, the Treasure collection about 7 or 8 years ago.

After awhile i decided to finish off my dishrag stencil as i just had a few rows to go. Without a ruler i wasn't sure if it fit my requirement of 8" square but i thought it was close enough and when i get home i'll darn well stretch and staple it all around the outside of an 8" piece of cardboard until it fits and hope it'll work like i want it to. I'm sure it'll be ok but now i'm thinking it would have been better made of a coarser type of yarn or even string. Well, no shopping here so it's going to have to work! Otherwise remove the staples and use it as a dishrag, lol!

All day i've been thinking of calling the spa to see if they'd do a one thumb nail job for me. Feeling a little silly but it's quite long and it's developed a little notch on the edge which i've tried to file out with no luck and it keeps coming back and is getting worse.It's just a matter of time before i snag it on something and rip it off. I hate to cut or file it anymore because it's already getting a little slanted. Maybe the nail technician can fix it for me somehow but don't even know if they'd do such a thing as a one nail job. Maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile it's almost time to eat again, good grief, i guess i'll go see whats for dinner. Well, it was a real nice dinner and always is because there's so many things to chose from. I love ship buffets and tonight there was creme brule for dessert as well as a pistachio pudding that appealed to me so i ate both and they were awesome. Sat with yet another Australian couple, there's many on this ship along with lots of Americans and Japanese but not many Canucks that i know of.

Then i was in a rush to get to the Spectacular showroom for the magician show. I sat in the upper level and and the casino is next door so needless to say i dropped in there afterwards and wasted some $ fairly quickly. At home i go to my fav casino once a week and spend anywhere from 4 hours up playing pretty much steady and quite often come home with more or close to the same amount that i went with. On cruises i divide my weekly amount by 7 so i can have my little playtime daily. It seems it's just not enough! But i really don't want to get into it for more than that so if i'm not a winner right off the bat too bad, i get up and leave.  There is a program where you can actually get money from the cruiseline to play with but ironically you have to be a big time spender first before they'll invite you to play for them. They even give you a free cruise! There's something wrong with that scenerio isn't there!?!?
I made an apt to get my nail fixed in the morning. I'm going to start on a new dishrag/stencil pattern tonight if i can understand the instructions other wise get help from the crochet group in the morning either before or after i get my nail dealt with.