Chocolate martinis???

Java Sea, 12 noon, May 25

5 08 S,112 10 E, Sort of near Borneo

Tonight we are having a small party in our cabin before the formal dinner. We have carried some really smelly (but presumably very good!) cheese from Sydney to here (see the GPS coordiates above) and bought some crackers in Darwin to go with said cheeses. We’ve asked everybody to BYOB plus a glass or two but if we do this again, we may have enough booze to supply our guests as our room steward, Carmelo, resupplied our soft drinks AND liquor (8 mini-bottles) and says we get resupplied every week. We shall see!

Life on board is very casual interspersed with an occasional formal night (tonight). But except for no shorts in the dining room at night, pretty much anything goes in the way of clothing. I had heard that the Aussies were much more casual than Americans, at least on cruise ships, but they certainly get dressed up for the formal nights!

Steve and Donna in their Cool Cruiser t-shirts

Yesterday was the first lunch I have organized for the “Cool Cruisers” and it went very well. The dining room staff was a bit hesitant at first but they came around to having us line up at 11:45 and letting us in just a bit before the general hordes of people who are afraid they will starve to death before the next meal arrives. Not, of course, that Randy and I ever miss a meal on board! We had over 90 people for lunch and we were able to all have a corner of the dining room to ourselves and got to visit with some that we hadn’t had a chance to talk to before. Quite fun!

In two days time (Saturday) we cross the Equator (Singapore is about a degree north of the Equator) and there will be a Ceremony for all the Polywogs (who haven’t yet crossed the Equator) who need to be initiated by the Shellbacks (who have crossed the Equator).

When we haven't anything else to do we can learn how to shake a chocolate martini. Yes, sacrilege, I know, but these two women are actually shaking (tsk, tsk) a martini that will be poured into a glass with chocolate.