Queen Mary II, Day Two

Queen Mary 2, Day 2

After writing in the pub last night, I returned to our cabin and continued reading my latest book…a very middle aged chick-empowerment-lit book. I woke up around 8:00, though I wasn't exactly sure what time it was due to the lack of outside light in our cabin. Once I realized that I wasn't actually being a sleeper-inner I debated with myself about whether I should get up or not. I decided to get up and take a quick swim in the pool on our deck. I assumed that it wouldn't be crowded that early in the morning and I was correct. The pool is very short and square shaped and never gets deeper than about five feet. It is flanked on one side by two hot tubs, on the other is a small stage where a pseudo Caribbean band plays during the afternoon. I say pseudo because every time I passed them later in the day they were playing songs that lacked any trace of the island vibe…they were more easy listening, lounge rock…in any case I swam back and forth a few times whilst a teenage boy partook in one of the hot tubs. The boy came into the pool at one point and I said hello but he wasn't into conversation and, frankly, neither was I. The boy disappeared and then I partook in the other hot tub briefly before returning to the now refreshingly chilly pool for another few back and forths.

When I got back to the room my mother stirred and we went to the King's Court Buffet for breakfast. I had a rather disappointing omlette along with a slice of bacon and a sausage link. Oh and one half of a fried tomato, that was very nice. We then went to the Golden Lion pub to watch the England/Paraguay World Cup match. There's something quite lovely about being in a pub surrounded by, mainly, English people, drinking a bloody Mary and watching a game of football where everyone actually cares. We could hardly see the screen as we arrived just minutes before the game whereas many of the others there must have been camping out to get the best seat to view either the large screen or flat screen televisions in the pub. A little ways into the second half we learned that they had the game playing in the Royal Court Theater. We decided that though it was lovely to be able to drink whilst watching the game it would be even nicer if we could actually see what was going on and so we walked down to the theater and sat in the front row for the rest of the game.

Afterwards we met up with my father and wandered around a bit before lunch. This is where I drop my one big piece of gossip…you simply aren't ready for this jelly…while trying to find our way down to the food we were on one of the upper outside decks when we saw a woman walking in our general direction. My father was a few hundred feet ahead of my mother and I, doing dad-like things (trying to open clearly locked doors), but we were facing this woman. It seemed like she was asking my mother a question but then I noticed that there were two kids behind her and that, in fact, she was addressing these questions to them. Okay. Well. This woman looked kind of familiar and as she got closer I became rather certain that she was none other than Uma Thurman both in looks and voice. And I was right. Yes, folks, I'm voyaging across the Atlantic in a boat with Uma Thurman. It's entirely possible, if not probable, that I won't see her again as I can only assume her lodgings are in the "Queen's Grill" section of the boat. The Queen's Grill Section of the boat is for people with tens of thousands of dollars who want an even more luxurious cruise than the rest of us and I'm pretty sure that Uma probably has a few thou' to spare. Anyways it was kind of neat and I couldn't help but share…If I see her again I'll be tempted to take her photograph but I am loathe to be just another celebrity hound….but then again I'm pretty certain she and I aren't ever going to be friends so what, exactly, is the problem with being like everybody else in this situation? I guess common decency. Damn you common decency, damn you!

After the Uma sighting and a nicely made turkey sandwich I began to do a more thorough deck by deck exploration of the ship. I saw the library and the bookstore. I also took in the bridge viewing area. Actually I went to the bridge viewing area with my parents after we ran into the captain of the ship and I father asked if he could come onto the bridge…the answer to that was: well, no but you can look through a window at us like we're monkey's in a zoo…only the Captain didn't actually say the monkeys part. I sat on a deck chair in the extremely windy and rather gloomy weather and listened to my ipod while reading my bad chick book. I had a cup of tea inside and continued reading my book. I went to where they hawk the photographs they insisted on taking of us when we boarded the ship…I took a photograph of the photograph thus getting around paying for the print.

Paying for things is a rather big part of this experience. The meals are included and are excellent, especially in the Britannia Restaurant but most everything else (drinks, laundry, room service, water color class, the spa, the Oxford lectures or Royal Academy of the Dramatic Art workshops etc etc) is not. Let me make it clear that I am not, in any way, complaining as much as finding it funny. I am not overly surprised and most of the above things aren't really things I care about one way or the other. The trivia games, however, are free to participate in and I may just do that some time tomorrow. If there's one thing I can say about myself it's that I know a lot of useless shit. Right now I'm sitting in one of the more sheeshy lounge areas, drinking a beer, smoking a cigarette and watching the staff close the place up for the night.

Dinner tonight was lovely and Fred's wife Samantha was also at our table. That lady's got some spunk. I had the mussels in a saffron sauce for an appetizer, a frisse and boston lettuce salad with duck confit, the cheese ravioli with a sage/crème fraiche sauce and the cheese plate for dessert. We had one bottle of white wine and one bottle of red. A cruise photographer came around and insisted (strongly) that we have our photographs taken. I insisted (strongly) that I would only have my photograph taken if it could me of me taking a photograph of the photographer. He acquiesced but immediately after insisted that he take a photograph of me without the camera in front of my face. I tried to say no but basically said that if I didn't say yes he'd be fired. He then made Andy (is that the made up name I made for our other table mate?) and I pose for a photograph though we were pretty clear that no, we were not a couple and that no, we were not siblings and that no, we did not, in fact, know each other at all. In the end I suggested he hold up his glass of red wine while I held up my white. It was funny enough.

Samantha livened up the conversation a little bit but at the expense of her husband. Well, not really at his expense so much as at his having to be happy with being interrupted constantly. Their story is a bit interesting, the little we learned…it seems that about forty years ago, when Samantha was 18 and Fred was a bit older, they met under the circumstances of Fred marrying Samantha's best friend. She said she fell in love with him then but, well, they ended up with different people…she married a guy into the Spanish language who, it seems, turned out to be less than a perfect match. So, that was interesting. After dinner my parents, Andy (or was it Arnold?) and I went up to the tenth floor and to the Commodore's lounge. I had a dirty martini and then a peach martini. We talked about speaking French and had other strange turns of conversation that can only happen when you're a bit in the sauce and talking to a complete stranger while on a boat.

I was going to try for another image or two but things are getting a little wonky. So yeah, that's that.