We slept better on Monday night - the sea was less rough and our sleep wasn't disturbed by the bouncing around that we experienced the previous night. Fortunately, I haven't felt any sea sickness, whereas Ann has felt queasy when she forgot to wear her little wrist bands (with an acupuncture pressure point on the wrist). Whenever she has worn the wrist band (which she bought last year at CVS in Florida), she has felt fine.
We had to advance our clocks another hour last night, so we are now 3 hours ahead of Ottawa time (taking into account that they jumped ahead one hour on Sunday for EDST). We will advance our clocks another hour tomorrow night. This morning, we slept in until 8am and, instead of starting our day with a continental breakfast in our cabin, we headed for the restaurant where we were seated with a German couple and a woman from Vienna. The Austrian woman spoke some English so we were able to converse a bit, while I used my broken German. Most people mistake me for a German (I guess I look like a typical one...) and, in this case, the waiter probably seated us with "other" Germans.
While working out in the fitness centre this morning, I noticed that there were a lot more women there than men. Given the general older age range of the passengers on board, the ladies were mostly my age or older, and most in impressive physical condition. All the treadmills, except one, were being used by women and more were waiting for a machine to become available.
Today's weather was not very comfortable outside - I estimate the temperature was in the high 60's F (about 20C), the sky was mostly overcast and the NE wind continued at 20 to 40 km/h. Later in the afternoon, I sat at a table on the pool deck to read a book and even wearing a jacket, I got uncomfortably cold after a while, returning to our cabin to check my email before dinner.
We met our German friends again for lunch and were seated at an empty table for six. After a while, another couple joined us and the man, with the name of "Oriel", started dominating the conversation. He and his wife own 5 condominiums in Baco Raton which the rent out for winter occupancy. Ann took the opportunity to ask a lot of general questions about renting versus owning in Florida. If we did go to Florida for a month or two in future winters, we would want to take our dog but Oriel warned us that it would be hard to find a place that would accept a dog and, those that do allow dogs, would likely not be in an acceptable condition. We still have some further thinking and research to do on this score.
Ann won today's Scrabble game, coming up with a number of good words. Maybe I'll get lucky tomorrow!
We joined Brian and Mary, who live on Jersey Island, at our dinner table at 5:30pm; the other couple (Tom & Marjorie) who were also assigned to our table had asked to be moved to a table for two a couple evenings ago. They aren't "anti-social" but seem to want to arrive early and rush through their dinner so they can leave early to catch the early theatre performance at 6:45pm. The rest of us usually don't arrive on time, and are in no rush to get through dinner, so everyone is happy with this new arrangement. Brian worked as a lawyer on the Jersey Island for 12 years before retiring 2 years ago. Mary retired a couple months ago from a health services management position. She has an MBA and we shared our impressions and experiences with the health care systems in Canada and Jersey Island. (Curiously, Jersey Island does not participate in the UK National Health Scheme, chosing to have a mostly private health care system). Residents pay about 65% of the cost to a GP, and the island government funds the remainder. Mary also explained the difference between the "United Kingdom" and "Great Britain": the UK includes the 4 "nations" of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whereas "Great Britain" includes the UK and all Crown Protectorates, which Jersey Island is one. She was hard pressed to name others, but likely the Isle of Mann is also a protectorate. In days gone by, probably some of the Caribbean Islands may have been Crown Protectorates as well. Another curious detail about Jersey is that it has no "Access to Information" legislation, no anti-discrimination laws and a secretive tax system - all of which are desireable features for those who want to park money in a "tax haven". I'm finishing a book by Edward Rutherfurd called "The Rebels of Ireland" and the Jersey situation sounds like a continuation of the state support for the privileged people of Great Britain.
The theatre presentation this evening was a "local" talent show which we enjoyed (well, most of the performances). We weren't surprised to see that Oriel appeared as a stand up comic: Ann & I winced at his off-color jokes, but many people in the audience seemed to enjoy his routine. In our opinion, the best performer was a ship crew member from Barbados who sang the song "Hallelujah" by Leornard Cohen - she got the only standing ovation.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is another quiet day at sea as we continue to make progress towards Madeira. The dress tomorrow is "formal" and we have received an invitation to join other repeat MSC "cruisers" to a cocktail reception with the Captain at 7:30pm. I doubt it will be the highlight of the day, but it will break the monotony!
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