Saturday, May 30Two more sea days. I got to attend Sam DeLong's talk about iPad gadgets and Cynthia's talk about the black pearls which are famous in this part of the world. They are cultured by a special technique where they inoculate a mature black lipped oyster shell and let it grow for 2 years before harvesting. Black pearls are graded by luster, size, shape, and color. Color is just your preference, there is no color more valuable than another. There is a $59,000 strand of perfectly matched pearls, very large size, in the window of the boutique. You can also buy a single pearl to put on a chain. She sells Tahia brand pearls.
I had another massage, I worked on the blog, and as always, worked on the needlepoint which has become addictive. I see other women working all the time as well. We are all looking in the various lounges for the seat with the best light. We can work while we wait for the activity to start.
They other night Deanna responded to someone commenting about them dancing the night before. She said: "I danced my butt off - but in the morning it was still there".
There have been earthquakes in Japan and Alaska that were pretty big.
Flowers we bought in Samoa
Sunday, May 31
There This was finally the Country Fair. My knee is still acting up. I even woke up with my left ankle quite swollen. So I was not going to participate in the festivities, but watch. However, the various booths were not physical things.
The first booth was from the bar. You were blindfolded and had to smell various glasses to guess which liquor. That line was so long we never did that one.
Next to it was the rope tying. You had to tie a knot or two from the display of nautical knots.
Next was the spa. Here David donned a blindfold, and used blush, eyeshadow and lipstick to put makeup on me. This was fun. I actually didn't look as bad as some. Next to that was the chefs. They had jars of spices covered with cheese cloth. You had to guess which ones corresponded to which listed spices. David and I both got them all correct.
Chef challenge smelling spices
Another challenge was to move eggs from one basket to another with a spoon. Two challengers vied to see who could gather the most eggs in 20 sec. It was a tie for me at 3.
The casino put down four cards. You had to guess if the next card was going to be higher or lower. I kept getting 7 or 8 so the hostess gave me hints.
Another challenge was at ping pong. You had to put a ball into cups of water. That line was also very long.
David and I did pretty well at the Destination Services booth. They had 9 photos of famous places and you had to pick which city it was from.
Another challenge was multiple choice guessing where the various officers of the ship were from. They are from all over the world - Croatia, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, etc. It was difficult to guess except for the spelling of the names gave some away.
Housekeeping had an interesting challenge. You had to put a pillow in a pillow case faster than your challenger. I won, but it wasn't easy. Our pillow cases have a lip and the pillows are soft and big. Actually the bedding here is fantastic.
Sunset.
Our evening entertainment was Terry Bishop again, one of our guest lecturers and also an entertainer. He tells stories and jokes and plays songs on his guitar. I liked "Its the morning of my life". He writes new funny lyrics to old songs.
He told the story of his 80 year old Grandfather who had a wish for a new pair of cowboy boots for his 70th birthday. His son helped him carefully picked out a fancy pair of boots and then proudly showed them to his wife asking her if she noticed anything new. She looked him up and down and said no, she didn't notice a thing. He wanted her to see them, so he went out and took off all his clothes except the boots and came back in and asked her again if she saw something new.
She said no, she did not see anything new. He asked again. She said, "well I can see something between your legs hanging down, if that's what you mean." He said "Yes, it is looking at my new boots!" She replied, "Well you should have bought a hat".
