Holly Doyne

I went out today. Doesn’t seem like much does it?

Prior to the pandemic, I went somewhere, did something every day. Whether it was to San Francisco to class, to Cal more of the same, visiting kids, running errands.

Then with the pandemic, going almost nowhere. And, for me, since I was not exactly living alone it wasn’t as much of a burden as it was for many other people.  When 2021 rolled around and vaccines became available, I started “working” in Alameda County’s clinics 1-3 days a week.

But perhaps all those days on deployment where I never went outside the wire, or all those sea days on ships left me well able to cope with “going nowhere” since I certainly wasn’t “doing nothing.”

So after arriving here in Labrador, I didn’t go outside the ship/oops building for a couple of days. But today it was a trip to New South Wales (less than an hour south) so that Jill could drop off three stitched pieces for framing, and Spotlight (kind of a combination of Bed/Bath&Beyond & JoAnns in the US) and Aldi (yes, Aldi is here too) where I bought chocolate.

And then it was back to the fine views looking east at the Pacific Ocean.

Remember in the “old” days – let us say about five years ago – when you had a bank/credit card problem and you were unable to call you could send them a message? And a real, live human being would get back to you?

Those days are long gone. There is now the basic assumption that EVERYONE has a smartphone, easy access to the internet AND that they can send/receive text messages. And phone, let us not forget about the phone. My bank even used to have a number that those overseas could call collect.

No more. The AI chat is worthless. You can’t send a message from either the app or the webpage.

Why am I complaining? I am in Australia. For whatever reason, after being away from home for about a month, my travel notification (note – no actual travel locations were requested or could be provided)) fell out of the system. The obvious follow up is that my credit card is dead. The only way I can get it re-established is to call the bank. Remember what I said about having a phone? And using VOIP doesn’t work because they want to TEXT you a code before letting you out of the automated system.

Ugly, ugly do-loop. I have my phone on airplane mode because obviously I can call home over the internet and get messages over iMessage (as long as the other person has iOS of some kind) or WhatsApp. So now I get to turn on my phone and pay the piper…

Stitching, even clowns, is better.

(snake, queue, Stau etc)

It was an adventure getting off the ship this morning. I can’t even start to imagine what it would be like if the ship was full. We came into Brisbane right on time.

that is our pier – all those blue ramp looking things are the enclosed walkways which will get us from the ship to the arrivals hall. If you click on the picture (on the blog) you will get a larger version which just might be easier to see.

After breakfast in the dining room, we hung out till just after 0800. From the ship to the arrivals hall was apparently about 400 meters according to one of the guides. I have no reason to doubt the information. That portion of the trip – as part of a long, long, long line of people took about 40 minutes. It seemed that about half the ship was attempting “self-assist” walk off for whatever reason. Among those passengers obviously were those too old, too infirm, too much luggage to safely handle; or pick D) more than one of the above ….

the upshot was that once we entered the arrivals hall and had to clear immigration – there were those having a really tough time.  Instead of a straight shot, we wove through eight (count ’em – 8) lengths of the hall between those wonderful post/band things that are beloved of airport security everywhere. Remember I mentioned that there were those with luggage issues? I counted three serious crashes during my 15 minutes of being herded back and forth. 

Immigration itself was a breeze. Hand over your passport, show your face, wait for the computer to verify that YES, you have completed the electronic visa and paid your fee. Move on to the baggage hall, collect luggage and then take a rest break before the next bit of adventure. 

Rarely seen during the cruise – the ship’s Captain was actually in the outside area. Why? Well, as it turns out, this is the first time that the Quantum of the Seas has docked in Brisbane. For that matter, it may well be the first time the ship has been in Australia. 

The port presents a plaque to the ship on its initial visit to the port. The Captain in return provides a plaque to the port in recognition of the day. I am thinking this may not be an infrequent occurrence for the first few cruises. 

From there it was maneuver through the crowds to get to the ride share location. Jill had pre-booked an Uber which turned out to be an excellent idea. The taxi line was still several hundred people long at the point where we loaded and left. 

it is early in the evening but I am really tired and going to sleep early I think…. 

It is Halloween. (Local Time is 2000) There are a few dressed up, some decorated doors, and a party planned for late tonight.  As you can probably guess, I am not going to stay up for it.  There is also the slight matter of packing since we disembark tomorrow.

I ran into the Witch & Wizard (Warlock? – he wasn’t sure and deferred to his wife) at dinner.  They had picked up costumes in Hawaii just to be able to do something for Halloween. I have shared several of the decorated doors before.

But the best was the slightly older than 2 young man running around in a black pajamas featuring a glow in the dark skeleton. He was excited to be out with his mum handing OUT candy. She was dressed like a scarecrow complete with turnip head and toted a rather large plastic pumpkin full of lollypops.

I am off to toss my last couple of things in a duffle and head to bed.

Oh – I finished the Funky Peacock….

through your headphones please!

What is it with people anyway? WHY do they obliviously noise pollute public areas? Tomorrow is the last sea day prior to the end of the cruise. The only thing I can think of is that everyone is trying desperately to get in their last bit of “FUN” prior to departing the ship. 

We gave up sitting in our lovely cozy spot on Deck 14. I headed back to the cabin for an afternoon of some stitching and attempting to not snooze so that perhaps I can sleep tonight? 

But the Haunted Library is complete –

 with a closer look at Mary Shelley writing a monster who creates a monster.

Which means that something really simple was in order. Meet Funky Peacock by MarroomyDesigns (who I found on Gumroad). This one loads in PK as does the crab. Neither the Hen nor the Camel work, so when I get there… stitched on a bit of opal 16 count from Fortnight Fabrics

Packing – ugh….

(and my “real time” is late evening on the 30th….)

(Just for clarity –  I am at GMT + 11 and my server, located in California is GMT – 7)

It was lovely this morning as we sailed into Noumea, New Caledonia. Earlier we passed a number of smaller islands including a number sporting various industrial facilities. The actual pier where we docked is large and located in an obvious commercial shipping port. From my balcony I could have easily spent the morning watching cranes, forklifts, container lifts, and trucks going about their business.

My attempt to join my monthly Zoom “Fancy Folk” cross stitch group lasted through about the first five minutes. Once there were more than five on the call, apparently the bandwidth went beyond what the system here was willing to support and I was bumped off and not able to reconnect.

I seriously thought about taking the free shuttle bus to town or walking to town but decided to wait till after lunch. This turned out to be a major mistake. The clouds rolled in followed by first a mist, then a rain which continued with added thunder, just in case I didn’t get the idea.

So after chatting with a French colleague (currently on vacation in Japan) for barely a couple of minutes before the  internet failed again. We never had a chance to get to the business portion of the discussion. I went back to stitching. The last section of The Haunted Library by Lola Crow arrived in my inbox this morning. It is fun – Mary Shelley writing …..

It was still raining when we headed back out to sea

which made for interesting looking ships, lights, skies, and reflections.

We have just tomorrow and Monday left at sea before docking on Tuesday.

And here I am, on the other side of the dateline from just about all of you. So for me it is evening on the 28th (Friday @ 1848). I find that it is better that I just don’t do time conversions and just follow the clocks, my phones, and accept that I will be watching some webinars at weird times.

It was also obvious that the RCCL app is not equipped to handle a dateline change, since it kept insisting that today was Day 15 and everything (as in any place to eat) was closed and would reopen tomorrow morning. Ok – I haven’t been doing anything useful with the app anyway.

I have been working on the Halloween Countdown

and the Halloween Decorations are starting to appear on cabin doors…

Perhaps, if you are from the US, you remember the old TV show Gilligan’s Island?  It was the silly (not reality) show where some passengers and a couple of crew went off for a “Three Hour Tour” and got stranded on an island. Some where, some how. Roy Zimmerman did a fabulous take-off of it ( link here – it is political so up to you).

Well, we sailed across the International Dateline. Not being completely clueless (altho it is obvious that a large number of the passengers on this ship are….) the ship is changing both time and date at 0200 in the morning.  That means that I get exactly two hours of 27 Oct 2022 before the day vanishes into my past.  I will gradually get the hours back as I travel west, but at an occasional hour a day I am never going to notice the return of my lost hours.

I need  sleep……

Or turning it back, or having another time zone change. 

Whatever. There were three hours change from the North American west coast to Hawaii. This morning we had another change of an hour to put us on the same time as Pago Pago in American Samoa. Tomorrow morning we will do it again taking us to GMT – 12. This particular time zone creates a bit of a challenge. There isn’t anyone who lives there – so attempting to look it up on a smart phone doesn’t work. The two islands – Baker & Howland  aren’t inhabited by Homo sapiens. 

I can throughly understand why the ship doesn’t want to change two hours at once, There is enough confusion as it is. Of note – some of the confusion could be decreased if whomever controls the electronic wayfarer boards around the ship was a bit more prompt in keeping them on time. Not changing them till 0600 (back to 0500) creates a lot of confusion. and irritation among those who are up early.

BTW – the above discussion isn’t academic for me – I have some CME Zoom’s every Tuesday. Do I stay on the old time zone so that I know when to log in? Or do I attempt to stay on the ship’s time while mentally tracking the old time? ARGH!

The seas have been a bit rougher today. Nothing terribly major, but enough that the rock & roll is easy to feel.  It has been enough that I have heard complaints, whines, and discussions about which sea sickness meds work the best. 

There are those things, mostly daily household chores, which go away when you sail on any ship that owned/operated by someone else. So I am not speaking about family sailboats, houseboats, or any of the ‘work for a living” type of ocean travel. And yes, I do mean to exclude you Navy types – your experience is not exactly the same as a cruise ship passenger. I don’t have to cook, clean, do dishes, vacuum, shop, etc. Not having those chores can free up an amazing amount of time.  (Ok, to be fair, there are a number of things on that list that I don’t do at home either. Just saying…)

But anyway – I am not including laundry on the list for a number of reasons.  First – if a trip doesn’t exceed your suitcase space, laundry isn’t an issue. Second, if you don’t mind paying a lot, you don’t have to worry about laundry. Third, if free laundry is included – also not a problem. Fourth – if hand washing is a favorite thing, then there really isn’t a problem either.  Five – and this seems to apply to significant number of passengers – if you spend all day everyday in your swim suit there really isn’t much need for laundry. 

All of this takes me to the last option. On this particular cruise line, I get one bag of “wash & fold” per cruise. The plastic bag isn’t all that big, but it is better than a flimsy paper bag. I have also gotten extremely good at rolling, stuffing, and smashing down. How else would I mange 4 shirts, five pairs of long pants, six support tanks, socks and more than a week’s worth of underwear leaving enough room at the top of the top of the bag to tie it shut.  Hint, you don’t pick it up by the top of the bag.  Then there is the challenge of filling out the laundry slip which seems to cover swimsuits, pjs, underwear, shorts, socks, t-shirts….

 Timing is also everything – managing so that I will be ok till the end of the cruise without too much hand washing. The last is important since there is NO clothes line in the bathroom.. None, nada, nothing other than hanging things over the shower door. It is humid. So even if we were in a port, drying something on the balcony isn’t an option. Moving? Eh, I am not interested in either littering the ocean or watching clothing blow away.

Thinking about it – reading books, talking to friends, drinking coffee, and stitching are all MUCH more interesting. 

Part 3/4 of the Happy Haunting mini-SAL. Still need to complete all the backstitching.

and obviously, this is another Barbara Ana – dreaming of Butterflies started today (because I really didn’t want to work on the Halloween Countdown)