Well, the technicalities of boat travel continue to go swimmingly (hee hee), today the parents and I went through "Customs". We gave a woman our boat ID and she scanned it then we gave our passports to another guy and he scanned that and stamped our passports and then, well, then we were done. I mean, really, anyone who has done international air travel knows that the wait in line for customs can be quite time consuming and here we were in and out in under ten minutes. Crazy.
Last night I got back to the cabin rather late, though exactly what the time was is unclear as every day we forward our clocks an hour, but I'd say it was between 12:30 am and 2:30 am. Due to the double espresso I had with dinner, I stayed up even later and read more of my book.
Today got the best of me and I, along with my parents, didn't get up until 10:30 thus missing breakfast in Britannia. Right now I'm in the Commodore Lounge sipping on a virgin mary and doing this...oh yeah and you'll never believe who was at the next table, you're thinking Uma but you're wrong...it seems that there are at least two people of celebrity status. This latest sighting/sitting nearby involves one Frank Black (wait, not Frank, shit Louis? The comic guy, you know who I mean). Sightings, left and right!
I was awoken at some ungodly hour to the sound of my father snoring. This is not run of the mill snoring, no, this is like the philharmonic of snoring and I am seriously thinking of video taping it…not my father as much as the darkness and the overwhelming sound of him trying to breathe. Mom and I, again, got up before my father and went to breakfast. This time we opted for the non-buffet Britannia Restaurant where we sat with a whole new bunch of faces and had Eggs Benedict. I'm still adjusting to mom's camera so please excuse the shoddy-ness of most of the food photographs.
The day went by in a flurry of non-activity. I read outside, though the weather continues to be windy and intermittently rainy. I read inside and drank Earl Grey tea. I met up with my parents and had a midday pint then went through customs. Mom and I played a scrabble game next to a window with a huge view of the ocean (as opposed to a huge view of, hmmm, well, the ocean) and I beat the socks off of her…though she wasn't too shabby a player. Then she and I had a small bite to eat in the buffet world, I had a small salad and a hot dog…she had two very cute ham sandwiches. We had a brief Uma sighting and then I went off and finished reading my book.
I joined my mom and dad in the hot tub briefly and then jumped in the pool but I didn't stay long because right before I got into my bathing suit I realized that I had misplaced the camera…so swimming wasn't quite as enjoyable as it could have been…I retraced my steps and quickly located the camera and was quite relieved…the wrath and disappointment of my mother would have been immense.
The 'rents and I attended the Captain's reception where we received complimentary champagne and canapés (or 'can of peas' as my father would say). I've been taking the occasional bad video of certain events, which I guess I will upload to youtube once I get back to the land of free internet.
The thing about all of this is that it is all happening on a boat. One can forget it a little as the weather is so lackluster. The first morning when I took a swim I lay on my back and just floated, the water gently swaying itself (and me) back and forth with the boat. The horizon exists but in such a way that it's hard to completely fathom (hee hee) how much in the middle of deep water we are. Today we were within an hour and a half's boat ride to where the Titanic silently sits…I thought it was a bit strange that they pointed this out to us over the intercom system but then I would probably be disappointed not to know it.
For dinner I had the vichyssoise soup, a salad with smoked chicken and blue cheese, an amazing sea bass with vegetables and for dessert I had another cheese plate that included a delectably potent Roquefort. All members of our dinner table were in attendance. In fact I'm currently type type typing away at a table right next to Fred and Samantha. There was, until this very second, a jazz band but they seem to be done for the night.
The amazing thing about this, this being everything that has already happened and that will happen in the next month, is how big it is. This is a full blown vacation/travel experience complete with parents, friends and even another relative (my cousin, at the last minute, has become a member of the French part of our trip). It's what memories are made of and all that (gag).
My days are full of time. In Chicago my days were also full of time but it was time laced, always, with guilt. This guilt stemmed from a firm knowledge that I am old enough to be doing more than I was. Here, though, I am happy and comfortable. I am doing exactly what I like to do…sitting in beautiful places writing, reading and smoking. How I can ever thank my parents properly for this week and the coming month is a bit unclear but I am sure I'll think of something.
I think because I'm not writing online my posts are changing a bit…obviously in length and location but also—well maybe they're not changing so much, I'm still not proof reading nor am I writing about the great questions of life. Rambling is what I'm doing, but I'm not feeling too bad about that either.
As I said before, the most important thing to remember is that I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat, I’m on a boat!
3 comments:
i miss you, very much. I think you should jump off of that boat and swim home!
You're on a boat. Holy jesus.
We used to be able to see that boat from the F train, but now it's halfway to Enga-lend.
My jealousy knows no bounds. Have a great time.
It's Lewis Black by the way.
Yes! Yes it is Lewis Black!! Good job. We sat next to him during lunch too, but he didn't seem to find our conversation very interesting...I was talking about uploading photographs to the blog. You just wait, you won't believe the image I can show you tomorrow. Really, you won't.
Post a Comment