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Europe 2013 Journal
Day 9, At Sea, Friday,
July 12
9:24 a.m. Up at 6:15,
showered, dressed, went to breakfast at 7, only to realize that we
have crossed into a new time zone and it was officially only 6. Oh,
well. I was one of the very first to arrive when the restaurant did
open. Sitting at a table near the aft railing, looking back at the
ship's wake, I waxed philosophical (as you may have noticed I am
occasionally wont to do) and thought of my life being very much
similar. I go through life looking at the past and seeing it receding
further and further. I really should spend more time on the bow of
life, watching for what lies ahead.
With only one exception
(when I had to charge the camera's battery) I've taken a photo of
every meal I've had aboard. This morning was...a raspberry crepe,
yogurt, smoked salmon with cream cheese and onion slice, orange
juice, coffee, and my 350-calorie packet of nutritional supplement. I
didn't eat it all, of course, but it was nice to sample.
Came back to my cabin and
washed out a pair of pants. The shorts and socks I washed day before
yesterday are still damp. (“You wash your clothes in your cabin?
How very lower middle class of you,” I can imagine a lot of people
saying. To which I reply: “Live with it.”)
The entire day at sea, and
I'll spend a lot of it on the observation deck trying to make some
sense of this mess that is my computer files. I have so many photos
the most recent are difficult to move through easily. I don't have my
backup drive here, and while I assume I can just delete most of them
without losing them on backup, I don't want to take the chance.
11:41 Did I say somehting
earlier about best laid plans? Well, just came up to the observation
deck to work on the computer, and it is like someone has grabbed you
by the shoulders and shaken you, gently but consistently, non-stop.
Jiggle-jiggle-jiggle-jiggle-jiggle. I think I'll head to a lower
deck.
11:50 Now on the Promenade
Deck, sitting in a deck chair looking out over the Mediterranean. Me!
Sitting on a deck chair on the prominade deck! Will wonders never
cease? Lovely day, very light haze but not a cloud in the sky. Passed
a large cruise ship just as I was leaving the Observation Deck, but
at the moment there is nothing but horizon.
12:44...not. Dorien,
sophisticated man of the world that he is, did not bother to tell
Roger that the one hour time change is tonight, not last night, and
that it is therefore now 11:44, not 12:54. Ah, well.
2:06 (or will be tomorrow at
this time). Just back from lunch. They always have a separate buffet
table on the back dining deck...it's where they serve the tapas at
dinner...and today they were featuring a panoply of various cheeses,
bread, and crackers. I had camembert, asiago, and stilton, together
with a half-bowl of cream of chicken soup. The bar waitress came
around and asked if I wanted a beer...she always remembers that I
like Guiness, and I had forgotten that beer (though not Guiness) is
free only at dinner. I had a Heinekin for 3.94 euros...around $5.
Everything aboard is charged to your room and paid for when you check
out.
Being gay is not all of who
I am, but it influences nearly everything I do or think. Some cute
crew and staff aboard—head waiter Danya, a Ukranian, Rolly, a
Philippino...and married...waiter, etc., and I think I told you about
that very nice 30-year-old (looks younger) Swiss young man, Fabian,
traveling with his sister. The fact that I am old enough to be their
grandfather or great-grandfather, and that there is no possible way
they could be expected to have any physical attraction to me, that
does not stop me from being attracted to them. At
times I suspect I bear an unhealthy emotional kinship to the
protagonist in “A Death in Venice.”
4:10...okay,
so I'm stuck in tomorrow's time. Went to the Promenade Deck to sit on
a desk chair (well, they're really more like a chaise lounge) and
stare out at the ocean, trying to count the waves. To imagine all the
waves in all the oceans and seas of the world since the beginning of
time...have there been more of them than there are grains of sand?
Who knows? And would all the grains of sand multiplied by all the
waves in the sea come anywhere close to the number of stars in the
sky? I'd like to know, but doubt I will.
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