Ok, I came up with
another list of short stories I need to capture before concluding with our
final week in Australia! Hang in thereJ
So, our first morning
waking up on Hamilton Island at the Great Barrier Reef, we went to talk to a
dive master and this is how we learned about the real bad conditions under and
on the water. I was quickly realizing I wasn’t going to get to see much under the
sea/ I had a decision to make. How would I deal with this? Immediately, I knew
I was totally ok. A bummer to be sure, but I’m still there standing in front of
the great barrier reef! This is STILL amazing! We were walking on the beach
just enjoying the interesting shells and rocks and I was just feeling so
thankful and happy, and then I saw a heart shaped rock sitting all by itself,
just waiting for me to see it. I accepted it as a gift:) We did later go ahead and do some
snorkeling, but the conditions were probably the worst I’ve ever been in. And,
that’s ok.
The cruise director
was a young guy named Andy who was really cool. We watched him stay totally
calm and positive while people complained about the most absurd things you can
imagine. At our final sip and savor with only 1 or 2 nights left on the boat,
we caught him during a relatively quite moment and he started telling us some
even better stories. The absolute best had to be the guy who, 2 days into a 42
day journey, complained that he didn’t like his cabin layout and asked Andy to
swap the bathroom and the bed so the arrangement would be more pleasing. I told
him about the lady I stood in line behind who threw her head down on the
excursion desk when she heard the ferry would cost $2 each way and
wailed, “what am I, rich!?!?!?!”
Jason is much more of
a TV person than I am. In fact, had he not been with me, I likely never would have
turned it on a single time. He’s the kind of person who turns it on the moment
we return to the cabin, even if not really intending to watch anything. Because
of this, we had 31 days to hear south pacific commercials. Day 1, we saw this
soccer commercial about the Road to the Russian Cup. This is not terrible because
the stupid commercial had the catchiest song ever. From there on, we must have
heard it 5+ times a day and we always had to stop and head bob to it. On our
last day, I recorded a video of it so we can hear it again later;)
There was a piano bar
on the boat that I wanted to go to every day but often couldn’t stay awake long
enough. We eventually made it 3-4 times. One such time, it was a shout out a
request session. The pianist had provided a long list of songs he knew. A
couple sitting in front of us did 2 things quite quickly: dominate the song requesting
and really annoy us. After the lady requested about 5 in a row, she then
requested Lady in Red. Sigh. Now, listen. I love 80s slow songs as much as the
next person and I even love this song, but one guaranteed way to kill the crowd
in a piano bar is sing back to back to back slow songs. Anyway, somehow
after this song, a conversation breaks out across the bar. A random lady yells
out, “Who sings that song?” The song requester hoarder yells back, “Chris
DeBurg!” Question asker, “Oh, Who’s that?” Hoarder Face Rude Lips, “Chris
deBurg? OMG!!! I love Chris DeBurg! I’m like totally his biggest fan!” About this
time, I lean over to Jason and whisper, “This can’t be happening because there
are no Chris DeBurg fans and he only ever had one song” About that time,
Question lady pipes up again (sigh) and yells, “Oh yeah? What else has he
done?” Chris DeBurg’s biggest fan, “OMG! Well, um, gosh (grabs head with both
hands while pondering deeply) OMG, well, wow, I can’t think of anything
else” Me: smiles knowingly Jason: orders a double Crown, no ice.
There was always live
music at night across the boat. I wish I was more of a night person because I
absolutely LOVE listening to live music and rarely are bands sitting around at
3PM playing. Anyway, there was a duo called Adagio who played several shows a
night in the lounge next to the art gallery. The duo was one pianist and one
violinist. They were quiet good. That said, we started a game where every
time we’d walk by, we would count the number of people who were asleep “watching”
the show. I can fall asleep with the best of them and that music could
certainly help me, but I really didn’t get why this happened night after night.
If you are going to nod off in the middle of a performance, get up and go to
your cabin! So rude!!
We started a nightly
tradition of writing praise cards to the staff. We went to a coffee chat with
the staff one morning, and I asked the hotel director how the staff and crew
got rewarded for great service. We loved her answers and after that we
endeavored to turn in a card every day with praise for at least one crew
member. We didn’t always get this done, but we tried! And let me tell you – boy
did they appreciate it. Turns out, when we turned in our cards, they were called
into their boss’s office, shown our praise notes and given their appropriate
rewards/ Consequently, they were so happy when they saw us again! Pulling us
aside to say thanks and let us know how much it meant. I loved seeing this go
full circle so quickly and love a management philosophy of rewarding and
acknowledging your teams for a job well done.
So, I’ve mentioned
that we attended ALL the art sessions, lectures, auctions, games, etc. I still
can’t believe that really happened. Anyway, at the auctions, there were always
several ways to win things in addition to being able to bid on art, of course.
We got really good at winning. There was a “loud” prize – Shocker, but we won
that sucker a few times;) The prize was a bottle of (great) French
champagne/ Jason has the quickest arm I’ve ever seen and always managed to
fling his bid card in the air before absolutely everyone else for another
contest/ This lead to us winning 4 or 5 pieces of art. As a stark comparison,
when I was holding the bid card, I would hear the cue given and sit there like
a lump. Jason would look at me and say, “really?” and only then would I realize
I didn’t put my bid card up. We all have our strengths.
I love learning about
various places and things from fellow travelers. One night at a wine dinner,
Karen was telling us about her trip to Cuba. Oh man, was that ever fascinating.
I can’t remember how she met a local Cuban, but she did. When she was ready to
go down and visit, he asked if she would bring some things. I remember that she
brought coffee and cash – there was something else but I can’t recall what now.
So, she goes out on this tour with a local who eventually tells her the truth
about what it is like to live there. He tells her of having a separate monetary
system for locals which prohibits them from even shopping in certain places.
Visitors would use a different currency and shop in different stores so they
wouldn’t even see the conditions or rations that were forced onto the locals.
They aren’t allowed to buy even their delicious coffee! Instead, they have a
ration of something else that was described as a watered down, weak chicory. They were so excited with the things Karen
brought them. Also interesting that the government had no worries about her bringing all the stuff in.
No comments:
Post a Comment