Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Tuesday, August 6, 2013 -- Mattie died 203 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken on August 6, of 2008. Mattie was on his way for a scan. We learned early on that NO scans could be done without sedation. Which was why the lovely lady in pink was walking besides Mattie. Debbi was Mattie's sedation nurse angel. It was thanks to Debbi and Linda, who advocated on behalf of Mattie, that all scans were done with sedation. Mattie's first oncologist felt that he could easily do an HOUR long MRI without sedation. Honestly!!! A total clueless wonder. I tried appealing to this doctor but got no where, until Linda and Debbi came on the scene. All they had to do was observe the terror on Mattie's face to know that there was no amount of reasoning or distraction technique that would work during scanning.

Fun Facts of the Day: The Straits of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar and Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa. Europe and Africa are separated by 8.9 miles of ocean at the strait's narrowest point. Ferries cross between the two continents every day in as little as 35 minutes.

Greetings from the Mediterranean!  It is Peter writing today, which as you might have already guessed, means we have an “at-sea” day on the cruise.  Vicki has been doing a wonderful job as usual with her travel logs, so let me set the expectation right now: my blog today will not be able to compare with any of her past postings… ever.  So, I’ll try to make this one as short as possible and I will endeavor to avoid talking only about the sea (even though there isn't much else to look at).

I woke today early as I was intent on getting up topside and into the line for the Sanctuary.  Princess has a special section up in front called the Sanctuary that has a special access area, luxury lounge chairs and steward service.  It is quiet, calm, serene and not crowded!  Passengers lucky enough to secure a lounge chair in the Sanctuary get to enjoy beautiful views and a quiet area away from the throngs and hordes of people angling for deck chairs and lounge chairs topside, not to mention not being able to hear the 69,000 watt Movies Under The Stars speaker system that apparently can be heard from every part of the ship.  

We learned the chairs are doled out on a first-come, first-served basis.  So, I got up topside at 6:30am and I was number 11 in line (yes a line had already formed, which should be a tip-off) or as the Brits refer to it as “the queue”.  I waited in line until 8am, when they started processing the people, only to be told 10 minutes later that they only had chairs for the first 6 people in line, and they could not accommodate any more for the day.  Talk about crazy, yes?!  Keep in mind you cannot reserve the chairs except on the day you wish to use them, unless of course on the first day that you sail, you purchase the chair for all 14 days of the cruise.  The chairs are rented from 8am-12pm and 1-5pm for a charge of either $10 for a half day or $20 for a full day.  What I deduced is the that the majority of chairs were purchased for the entire cruise (mind you that is $240) just for the privilege of having access to your own chair on each day of the cruise.  Now stop me if you’re thinking the same way as I am: why should I have to get in line and pay hundreds of dollars to be guaranteed access to a deck chair?!  Doesn’t quite sound right, does it!  

So, with only 6 free chairs today, everyone else (there were almost 50 people in line by 8am) were out of luck!  Frankly, we think this policy sucks, and when we went to passenger services to complain we got quoted policy and not much else.  We think it is unfair that to guarantee access to a deck chair you need to spend $240 on day one of the cruise, otherwise you are left to compete for the regular deck chairs, for which competition is fierce.  In fact, if you are lucky enough to get a regular deck chair, you cannot be away from it from more than 30 minutes or the staff will remove your things!  Crazy stuff and a real turn off to ever using Princess Cruises.

With that said, I took a couple of compulsory pictures of the sea (see below) as it is simply gorgeous to look at and stare at the sea throughout the day as it is really is a glorious color and so calm!  By the way, the pictures really do look like they have been created in an artist's studio, when in reality, we are simply looking outside!

We did zumba this morning after the deck chair fiasco, which I loved as it is less dancing (although there are a lot of dance moves) and is very athletic in nature.  My prior blogs talked about how athletic to workout is and frankly, if the zumba instructor ran this class in Washington, DC., I would go 7 days a week as it is truly a great full-body workout.  I worked up a great sweat as it pushed my cardio level, which always makes me feel better.  I am trying to watch what I eat and keep my activity level up as it is very easy for me to gain weight.  We had a nice lunch in the dining room and then walked around the ship on deck 7, the Promenade Deck that has a track running all the way around the ship.  We did four miles of walking, which felt good after zumba and then lunch.  I am now back in the room typing up the blog while Vicki and her mother are having tea up on deck 15 in the Horizon Court.  Tonight is a formal night, so we’ll get dressed up and have dinner.

While we were walking around the deck, we paused at the bow (the front) of the ship to gaze at the water.  We noticed as the ship was plying through these beautifully blue and clear waters, that we could see enormous jelly fish just below the surface.  Keep in the mind the ship is doing about 25 miles an hour, so the water is passing by us fairly quickly, and looking down into the water you could see the jelly fish go by looking almost like ghosts floating perhaps 10-20 feet below the surface.  It was quite a sight and one that I will never forget.  Later we saw fish jumping out of the water, so clearly someone was chasing them.  The sea is never a dull place!

I cannot let a blog go by without mentioning Mattie.  Today marks day 1,428 since Mattie passed away, and I miss him so very much.  I look at the children on the ship, and they are so full of life and enjoy each moment as it happens, and I miss those days when that was a part of my daily existence.  I still remember living life through Mattie and how he took in his world and experienced things, and how I got to enjoy both the event as well as enjoy Mattie enjoying the event.  I think every parent knows what I am talking about that you live life both as yourself but doubly so as a parent living through your children.  It is a special gift and one too often squandered and neglected.  Mattie was life Vicki in that he thrived on people and interacting with them.  I learned a lot from Mattie and I continue to learn from him each day even though he has been dead now almost four years.  Given this, Lord only knows what he might have accomplished had he not had cancer and had gone on the live a healthy life.

So, tomorrow we are onto Gibraltar to see (of course) the rock and also to visit caves and a colony of monkeys that have been living in and amongst the rocks and caves for decades, and which apparently either were brought over or swam over from North Africa.   Vicki will be back tomorrow to give you a full read out on Gibraltar as it is technically part of Great Britain, so we’ll see what that is all about.  I am not sure what to expect when we get to Gibraltar and what it will be like, so it will be an adventure!

Thanks once again for continuing to follow along!