I haven’t had time to put together a little review yet, and I’m waiting for the pictures to get “developed” (ie. Rob to take them off the camera) before I really do, but in the meantime there is an interesting story to share. To start it off, our waiter ended up being a bit talkative near the end of the week and started filling us in on what the secret codes meant that we would hear over the ship. We had heard “Alpha!” repeated three times, and we found out that meant there was a medical emergency. There was no indication of what kind of emergency had taken place, although I can tell you that I’ve heard more than once that an average of two deaths take place per ship, per week. Before you get bent out of shape they’re usually natural causes and older travelers, although two years ago I was on a cruise with an obese man who drowned on snorkeling excursion.
Anyways, the fun warning you want to hear is “Oscar!” three times, which means “man overboard”. While we didn’t hear it ourselves we were treated to a few stories of times it had happened. What we didn’t know is that it was happening on another Royal Caribbean ship elsewhere on the seas:
I’ve been back for 22 hours now – it was an all-day trek and then some to get back from Miami, and I’ll have more fun to explain tomorrow. My system is right off its rocker because I was going to bed at 3AM every night on the cruise, so here it is 1:30 and I’m not tired yet. Gotta get back in the groove.
Thanks to Cliff and Alex for posting while I was gone. My comments after a brief once-over:
a) Cliff, the water on yet?
b) I have no use for NASA in general. Can someone tell me exactly why we’re still allowing our tax dollars to go towards useless trips into outer space? Unless we’re planning some sort of simultaneous jump to Mars when the Earth starts to burn up I fail to see how this is more valid than health care, education, or me owning a PlayStation 2.
c) The Atkins Diet is crap. Alex’s opinion does not yet matter because he hasn’t been on it for over 12 months. Just because it helps you lose weight doesn’t necessarily make it good. For example, you could lose 25 lbs instantly by slicing off your head, although I wouldn’t recommend it. Eat smart, and eat less than you work off. I don’t agree with either “eat to live” or “live to eat”, but I’m pretty sure there’s a happy middle.
Most importantly..
SOMEBODY GO TO THE JAYHAWKS/JOSH ROUSE CONCERT WITH ME ON TUESDAY!
Cheers!
Whilst in London (har! har! he talks English!), as I do during all foreign trips, I stopped by a local variety store to try out a couple weird chocolate bars. I find the sampling of odd bars and beverages to be one of the more enjoyable elements of international travel, and this visit led to one of the stranger product ingestions of my years. I’m hoping a Brit is reading this and can explain exactly why it is the Yorkie bar is, and I quote, “not for girls”. I readily admit to finding this product funny, and it actually tastes quite good too, but why not for girls? For those that don’t trust in my always truthful word I offer this photographic proof:
Cheers!
You boys done good, lots of excellent posts over the last few days and no lack of discussion material for the masses. When the new site to replace this one launches in the near future I’m thinking it might be an idea to include a second blog for all these boy-eez to talk the talk and walk the walk. You can’t deny the unmitigated entertainment present in a week’s worth of posts that include discussions on everything from La Linea to LeVar Burton to beating people with olive branches to “losing your smile”.
As for my time away, it was pretty cool. London is a great city, although my schedule left me no time to actually see it. Perhaps some other day I’ll make it back without having business to tend to and actually see the city. The only unfortunate element of the whole thing is the fact that London is FAR too expensive. Everything is insanely overpriced when the dollar is taken into account. To give you an idea, things are pretty much at par as here in Canada, with the slight exception that every pound costs $2.50 CDN.
Later I’ll have to go into the latest entries in Rick’s odd travel tales. It seems long distance travel has it out for me, and this trip was no exception. But all’s well that ends well, and I sit comfortably in my chair working now.
Special thanks to Kip, Rob, and Alex for their efforts this week in getting things humming here and helping keep the place fun to read. Y’all done great!
Cheers!