Day #25--at sea

Day #25--3rd of 4 consecutive sea days.  Sailing toward the Cook Islands

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Today's big deals were a talk and book signing by Paul Theroux, world travel writer and author of The Happy Isles of Oceania, a book we all received last week. He is an acclaimed author and wrote The Mosquito Coast.
 
See my post here:
http://globalwaysusa.blogspot.com/2016/03/you-are-temptation.html

And, another line dance class. George did a great job, yet again. Was so much fun. I have bonded with more of the women who also enjoy line dancing.

Tonight's show was another performance by Bobby Brooks Wilson. Previously, he told us he had never planned a career in entertainment. He had served in the military and was living in Hawaii. After singing karaoke in a local bar, an agent of a family of entertainers discovered him and the family took him under their wings. That family, Bruno Mars and family, are like his family. He has even opened for Mars on several tours.  I heard he revealed in an interview that his Mom was 17 when she got pregnant by the late Jackie Wilson. He was raised in an orphanage, not knowing his birth family growing up.

Apparently, an older Motown performer saw him performing and recognized his close resemblance to Jackie Wilson.  He pursued this and eventually discovered the truth. Amazing!

I had an engaging conversation about Victorian dress and cancer treatment evolution from new friend, Charlie, born in 1926. His grandmother had a mastectomy and his Mom took her for secret corsetier appointments. They certainly lived in Downton Abbey era. As he walked away, I noticed the cane and the two prosthetic calves. Another 90-year old traveling solo!

Then, I spoke with Herb who's on his 2nd Amsterdam world cruise. His beloved wife with whom he loved to travel, passed 7 years ago and they had visited 90 nations and 27 states together. He brings some of her ashes and spreads them every place he feels she would have wanted to visit.

"Beef cheeks" were on tonight's menu.  They looked like rib tips.

We won both the AM and PM trivia games. Our team wins often! We are the best!

We played "name that musical movie trivia" with the piano bar entertainer, Debby Bacon. A mother and her two daughters (aged 10 and 13) joined us. They contributed absolutely nothing, and only knew to half answers. We did well but did not place.

Since our dinner table conversation is dominated by US politics lately, I think I will quietly bow out and switch to anytime dining.