Oct. 7, 2019 Misinterpretations

Got up early and went for breakfast, no muesli again today. I had been hoping  it might be there but when i asked an employee he directed me to a stand that had a selection of dry cereals in dispensers. I don’t usually eat eggs so i just got some bacon, potato’s and other veggies. I don’t usually eat bread so topped it off with a lot of fruits. 

I returned to my cabin to get my yarn, pattern and hook and went off looking for the crocheting group. I was so surprised when i got there to see quite a large crowd of people, both men and women waiting for a class to begin on how to knit. I never would have thought it would interest so many people. It was a very large room and over in a corner i spotted the group of people who already knew the basics of both knitting and crocheting and they were busy doing their thing so i joined them with a question right off the bat re something in my pattern instructions that i didn’t understand. 

It’s been a long time since i crocheted and now there’s new and different abbreviations that i  didn't understand until the leader told me and then i realized that it should have been easy to clue in and figure it out. So i started my project only to find another thing i didn’t understand in the second row. The instructor showed me, and it was a new-to-me thing involving a stitch that was done from the back instead of the front and i just couldn’t get the hang of it, because my hand doesn’t want to twist that way. It felt like working upside down inside out and i was way too awkward and slow trying to do it.

So, that pattern and that yarn went back into the bag and i pulled out my project number 2, a different yarn and a bigger hook. The pattern said “easy” and technically it was but .......yeah, there’s always a but..... there were way too many distractions, questions asked and people wanting to chat while you hooked or knitted, people going by, or coming over to see what we were doing, announcements over the PA etc. Well, i have to count my stitches as i work and kept getting mixed up and side tracked and couldn’t concentrate on what i was doing. The lady beside me asked what other hobbies i do and when i said gelatin mono printing she had to know more and while i’m happy to tell people about it and how it’s done it pretty much ended my crocheting. The lady took notes of what i was explaining on Gelli printing so she could teach a class about it when she got home. I hung around for awhile and then took off. Maybe tomorrow the room will be quieter but then maybe not because most if not all the others there were willing and able to chat while they knit, stitched or sewed. The lady beside me didn’t even have to look at hers as she knitted. Thin tiny yarn too and she crocheted a mile a minute. Gotta admire these talented women!

I walked awhile and then sat down near the pool in the sun and when another woman asked to join me i said yes, of course. She was from Florida and this is her second cruise with the first being many years ago. She was surprised to see the pool was quite small and i’ve observed that too on different ships for awhile now. I imagine it’s because while the pool deck is always popular and alive with a multitude of people not many of them actually go into the pool; they’re more like sun worshippers. Also maybe the ship designers have decided to use the space saved for other attractions like more food stands, barbecues, tables with items to sell, entertainment etc.

Eventually it was lunchtime so i made my way into the Lido and loaded up my plate with a variety of salads, bacon that looked good but i couldn’t eat because it was way too crispy, potato’s and eventually cake and cookies and then my fix of ice cream too

A lady named Shirley from Las Vegas asked to sit with me and soon her friend Dee arrived too. They were very, very interesting women. Neither of them were going home after this cruise arrives in Singapore. They were staying a few days in Singapore and one was going to board a different ship and sail to Barcelona and beyond and the other was going to be doing the same thing but on a different ship eventually hitting the Canadian ports on the east coast and then disembarking in NY. 

We said goodbye but not before Dee taught me the secret of how to remember peoples names. She said to have the person say their name at least 7 times and then you’ll remember it. So we did that and sure enough they now remember my name and i remember theirs.

Now, the women from the Lido deck and the others from the knitting/crocheting group i do not remember any of their names so i’ll test out this 7 thing the first chance i get.

I was cold but i got more ice cream and went to my cabin which was all warm and cozy cuz cruising alone means i can crank the thermostat up as high as i want. I meant to have a nap but instead decided to address my 41 cards for the postcard exchange. Once that was done i thought i better put them in some sort of order because the participants are spread out all over the ship. We have a full day to deliver them but still, i’d rather have them organized according to their deck numbers which are 1 through 11.  That done i also tried to put them in order of number of location so i wouldn’t have to do any back tracking. Even with it organized i think it’s going to be a long day delivering them all as walking has become difficult for me and this big ship could do me in.

While i was addressing the postcards i discovered the tv has a music video channel and this was a first for me and guess what!?!! It’s my kind of music, Passenger, Ed Sheeran, James Blunt, Bruno Mars, Adele, James Bay, Harry Stiles, Ariana Grande, Calum Scott, Sam Smith etc. I am so happy that i turned it on and found this, something like YouTube but with no Gelli printing videos, just music videos. 

So, tonight is our first of 4 formal dinners and i don’t do formal so i will eat in the Lido, with my blue jeans on. Frankly, i like their food better than the little portions of delicacies that you get on formal nights, sitting there waiting in between each dish is just so not me, nor is getting all gussied up for portraits so i’ll just do my thing and the gowns and tux people can do theirs.

So i went out for dinner in the Lido and it was practically empty. Only half of it was in operation. I was amazed thinking that there must be thousands of people at the formal dinners tonight and there i was with just a few other rebels.  After dinner i made my way to go to the evening show and as i progressed i found pockets of people, lots of people not in formal wear in the various sitting and shopping spots and then into the casino because you have to walk through it to get to the showroom and there were tons of people playing there too. Into the showroom i went and though the show wasn’t to begin for 15 mins it was packed to the rafters and i was lucky to spot a single seat in a prime location. So, they all must have eaten earlier and i had interpreted it all wrong.  So, now i feel better; there's lots of people like me who arn't formal.

The show was all right, nothing to write home about, just ok. I meant to play in the casino on my way back out but the stink of smoke was just too gross to handle and i didn’t want the headache so i just kept on walking to the elevator. I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go but home to my beautiful warm, comfy fresh air cabin. 

Sooo, 3 days in now and i’m already feeling a little lonely. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea to cruise alone. i dunno. i like it in some ways, nobody here to complain about my snoring, i like being able to keep the heat on as high as i like, coming and going whenever and doing whatever  feel like doing without having to explain it to someone or saying what time that i’ll be somewhere else. However i could use another brain to help out with things like directions so i can quit getting lost and walking way too far on places like decks 3 and 4 with its dead ends, and then going to a different deck and doing the stairs which is the remedy but then walking the wrong direction, being lost a lot even to get back to places i’ve been to half a dozen times and there’s tons of places onboard that i haven’t even seen yet. I’m just not learning this ships idiocyncrisities at all and now why can’t i spell? Why do i keep going to deck 3 instead of any other deck? I know this answer! It’s because there’s some cool things to do on deck 3. You just have to learn how to get there by going to other decks first and then walking to the next raft of elevators before hitting the dam 3 button again!  Do i really think it’s suddenly going to become like a normal deck? Or is the secret on the opposite side of the ship. I get all mixed up real easy now a days. 
The funny thing about this is that i’ve had lots of help from passengers who i asked and they very confidently told me how to get to where i want to go and i believed them because they seemed so genuine. Then they’re gone in the elevator and i’m at another dead end and have to backtrack again. Once i did this and at the same spot that i arrived back at another person told me the exact same way to do it that i had just done and it was the wrong way. I think some people think they have the ship down pat and haven’t experienced these dead ends like i have because they’re going to totally different decks and places and maybe the next raft of elevators is ok for them. I really don’t think they’re deliberately tricking me. Or possibly their room is on the other side of the big empty block or on another deck and so they assumed that it goes straight through like it does on normal ships so they’re confident. Whatever, i’m starting to sort it out and i know the best answer for me would be to walk on my own deck to the next raft of elevators so that i’d be past the big empty block instead of getting on the elevators that are close to my room and then I’ll get to where i want to be. However, walking the long hallways on the cabin decks is really boring.