Day 52

Breakfast on Lido. Tai Chi was held in the Ocean Lounge today. It is much smaller but in some ways it was nicer. Less furniture in the way and being closer to the instructor were both advantages. The Vantage lecture today dealt with Hong Kong and China.

Then came Trivia. WE WON! I can truly say that I was responsible for our win. One of the questions was, "what year did Texas get independence from Mexico?" No one else in our group had a clue. We only won by one answer so.... OK, everyone else can make the same claim because of different questions but if any one of us hadn't offered up our contribution at the appropriate time we would not have won. The winners got a bottle of champagne (we gave it to Shiela) and we each got a mouse pad which has a slot into which you can put a 4x6" photo that you can see as you use the pad. The fact that I haven't had a mouse for my last three computers (all laptops) didn't diminish my excitement at winning. What fun!

Aileen Bridgewater's 2 PM talk was about several things but the most outstanding was the story about a Hong Kong policeman who "committed suicide" (the official verdict) by shooting himself five (5)! times in the chest. She became involved in a popular movement to reopen the case and find the truth and it led to some dangerous times. The final result was never clear but she did learn much later that the policeman was actually involved in deep undercover work to root out corruption in the police department and was no doubt killed for his efforts. Hopefully the police in Hong Kong are better now.

At 3:30 PM I walked the last half hour of a crew walk for the On Deck for the Cure campaign. This is the third event for the charity and this time instead of the passengers walking the crew took turns and walked for 24 hours. Passengers were just asked to sponsor the walkers with donations. They raised over $7500. The amazing thing is that the crew members never walked alone. Even in the wee hours of the morning at least one passenger was out there walking the deck with them! I was about to go run on the upper exercise deck and decided to walk with the crew member instead (I later went up and ran a mile for a bit more exercise). I discovered walking with the last crew member for the 24 hours was a good way to get myself in the cruise video, too. Although it isn't likely I'll buy the video. It costs about $200 for the 5-7 DVDs it will take up.

At dinner Anita loaned me a book by Michael Moore, "Stupid Whitemen". I guess I'll have to find time to read something real. I'm so lazy about reading books. Never seem to have time except when I'm at the beach in the summer.

Another gift tonight. This one is a lighted magnifier. About the size of a credit card. Not sure when I'll use it but the print on some things does seem to be getting smaller from year to year.

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