Oct. 19, 2019

I fell asleep playing my game last night and that was a first for me, another dam sign of growing old!I must not have been out for long, in fact it must have been brief because my IPad was still lit up  and it goes black after just a minute or two of non action. So i turned off the lights and went to sleep and don't even know what time that was but it must have been early because i was wide awake at 5a.m. People at home know i'm a night person and usually my bedtime is about 3a.m. and then i sleep until noon. Crusiing has a way of changing ones habits but i know i'll go back to my old ways once i get home.
I had put my camera on the charger for the night but this morning it had the sign on it "battery exhausted" Maybe it hadn't been plugged in securely enough so i reset it and all of a sudden the lens shot out with a strange grinding sound and it kept it up until i thought to remove the battery. So while the battery was out anyway i decided to swap it for my back up battery as i knew that battery was dead for sure and would need alot of time to charge. So i tried it after i showered and was ready to go but it still wasn't charged enough yet so i left it there charging. After breakfast i went to do my crocheting with the ladies and spent about an hour there, came back to get it and i could tell something was wrong; it still wasn't charged. So i took that battery out and replaced it with my regular one and the lens shot out again making that awful sound. I had no clue of what to do about it except to take it to the Pixels photography studio which really isn't a camera store but the closest thing there is to one on this ship and i figured that anyone there surely would be able to figure it out.

However, the lady there said she couldn't help, that they are not allowed to handle a passengers camera! First off i decided not to tell her that a guy from there had adjusted it for me a few days ago so wth. I didn't want him to get into trouble because of it and so i said nothing and as i walked away i tried turning it on again and it did. I decided that it had just been some weird random thing that had happened but it was now back to normal so end of story. Except unbeknownst to me when i tried it again it again said "battery exhausted"

So i went for lunch and it turned out to be a three hour lunch because i met a very interesting woman from Chicago and we talked cruises for awhile and then an older couple asked to sit at our table and we said yes. They were Australians and had cruised lots and had stories to share so we lingered and it was a very interesting and informative lunch and now i really want to visit down under asap.

Afterwards i went to the showroom for an info talk on Guam as we'll be docking there tomorrow. It too was very interesting and informative and i learned all sorts of stuff about the Marianas Islands and Guam that i hadn't known. The speaker was excellent and almost brought me to tears telling of some of the history of the Marianas during the war years. One in particular was quite a poignant story of how one Japanese man remained there hiding out in the jungle and he didn't find out that the war was over until 1971. One reason for this was that he had taken to stealing chickens for food and some of the owners had started shooting at him to scare him off. No wonder he thought the war was still going on!

I also like hearing about how deep the ocean is in the area of the Marianas. I forget the actual stats already but the water there is way deeper than the tallest mountains on earth are tall. Why that info affected me so much i don't know but i was trying to picture it in my mind and it just seemed to be a very important thing that i wish i would have learned a long time ago. Meanwhile we are sailing in those very waters  tonight and all through the night. I think theres 14 populated islands that make up the Marianas and i won't see any of them until we get to Guam.

Now i'm back in my room and have the camera charging and i hope it does otherwise i'll be screwed for taking any more pictures unless i buy a new camera.  I also know there'll probably not be a pocketable camera for me to buy which means i'd have to buy one that i don't even like, just to have one. My excursion in Guam tomorrow is going to dedicated places and then when i get off the bus back at the ship i can get on a different free one that takes passengers to to Walmart. I presume they'd have some sort of camera for me, hopefully. I also hope to buy some yarn or string to carry on with my crocheted stencils. They do have GoPro cameras onboard but i really don't need some of the things it can do so going to have to play it by ear.

I went for dinner in the buffet and met my friend Annie who was my cruisemate a year ago.Annie feels that this ship has the best food while i feel it's merely mediocre and Regal Princess had the very best.Well everyone is different and eats totally differently than others so maybe we havent happened upon the same dishes. I saw Mala the chef  for just a moment at lunchtime and and he said he'd look for me tonight  at dinner but he either wasn't there or saw that i was with a friend. I'll likely see him again because as i told Annie i will probably only eat in there from now on because the routine in the dining rooms just isn't cutting it for me.
Afterwards i went to the show and got a nice seat just in time for the show to begin. Afterwards i played in the casino for awhile and walked out in a huff because the machines i play are still too tight. to waste my money on and anyway i want to go to bed early because my excursion in the morning starts at 7a.m.

I had few pics from today but lots from my excursion in Guam so i'll add some of them here and the remainder tomorrow.