Traveling on New Year’s Day is supposed to be easy. Maybe not so much with Turkish Air. The flight was cheap and convenient and I paid for it, and my Singapore Hotel, with my RBC Avion points. So far so good, but when I went to check in and see if I could buy an upgrade to Business with money, that option wasn’t there. They wanted more points. If I had more points I would have bought Businss in the first place. So, I called. The agent I landed, was less than useful. He just wasted my time, oh well. When I got to the airport and tried to do the money upgrade, they wanted too much of it.
The plane took off more than an hour late, which caused a bit of angst about the connection in Istanbul, but it went off OK. The Istanbul to Singapore plane was delayed even longer. My aisle seat was occupied by a very large man, who wanted me to take the window, because he was so very large, but his companion was pretty big, too, and I didn’t feature climbing over the two of them as many times as I would have to on a 10-hour flight (after a 9 and a half hour flight and all the waiting). I played the age card and made him take the middle seat. He told me I world regret it. I didn’t. He made me very uncomfortable but the alternative was worse.

I got to Singapore around 10:00 am, on January 3, took a taxi to the Holiday Inn on Clarke Quay, had a nap, and went shopping. When you travel with carry-on, for a long cruise, there are things you need to buy before you board, like scissors and skin-care products. So I did that and went for my Singapore treat.

It was soo good but I didn’t last long after I ate it. I did manage to complain to Fido about the disturbing messages my phone had put out on arriving in Istanbul and Singapore about roaming like home, only for $15/day. I didn’t think so. I already roam with T-Mobile for nothing. The difference this trip is that my new phone has both California and Quebec SIM cards. I asked to be contacted by email because of the time difference but at 9AM the next morning I got a phone call from Rogers, Fido’s master. I was warned I was paying for the call, if you can believe it. That is I was paying for it if I canceled the “Roam like Home”, which I was doing, in a hurry. They will credit me two days, but might charge me three. The Rogers rep had a problem understanding that I didn’t need the service because I have T-Mobile’s. Later in the day, January 4, I was a little smarter and found a way to just turn off the second SIM card, which I should have done in the first place, and will from now on. But for now, I had a ship to board, the Noordam. That went well enough and I was in good time for our meeting with HAL personnel. Due to a great mix-up, I am the second host on this cruise, for the first 28 days, ending up back in Singapore and prime for the last couple of weeks, on to Hong Kong. I am going to be able to relax, take the Bridge lessons, and play Duplicate.
And that’s just what I did the following day, January 5, but just the lesson, as we had our Distinctve Voyages cocktail party that night. Seventy people came. Keith did the talking and I did the checking-in and photography. It was a bit of a madhouse, but a lot of fun. As usual, we have a lot of very nice people in the group. I finished up with two particularly congenial couples.
The singles group was meeting at 6:30 in our venue, so I stayed for that. As always, the ratio of women to men was about 5 to 1. I think there were three men. One of them was a real card. On being introduced, his first words were “Will you marry me?” I rather thought not, but you never know. He’s Welsh, spells “Glenn” with a y.
Then I went to dinner and was matched up with 5 very nice people, two of whom I had eaten with on the Queen Mary 2, last year, and two of whom were Canadians. We liked each other so much we are going to plan to get together again. The entertainment was Rebecca Kelly, a comedienne who sings. She was good and is coming back later as a singer who does comedy. I’ll go,
Keith and I had our office hour, where we sorted out the paperwork resulting from last night’s cocktail party and I made the Bridge lesson, which started right after.
I was claimed as a partner by Patricia, a nice lady from Florida, who had been Bridge Director at her local club. I have to pay attention and pick up my game. The instructor is good. His name is Mike Cochran and he’s a retired lawyer, who taught dancing at night while practicing law. Ya gotta be impressed. The first lesson was on bidding 1 NT with a balanced hand, even with a five-card major. I got to use the bid and ended up in a 4 spade contract, which I made in spite of myself. I took three club tricks, under the delusion that I was playing three no trump and only wised up when I realized my partner was sitting there in agony. Luckily the clubs had split evenly, I switched gears to four spades and made the contract. Patricia will play with me again.
I had dinner with two nice British couples and sneaked into the show, just a minute or two late. It was the Step One Dance Company, doing “Humanity”. I had seen it on the ’23 World, and it was still exceptionally good. The special effects keep getting better and the dancers are great. Glynn slipped in and sat beside me but I gave him the slip while we were talking to the dancers, because I was just too tired.
Today, (don’t faint – I’m up to date), January 6, we are in Puerto Princesa, Philippines. It’s a new port and I had high hopes for it, but when I went out at eleven, I met one of our people who said to not even go to the mall. It was dead and there was nothing to buy. That was sad, but I took her advice and came back here to spend time with you, gentle readers. I’ll want to be playing Bridge tomorrow.