20241223 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 28/96 - Sea Day

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 28/96 - Sea Day Windmills, Wildlife, and Questionable Cuisine

We're into Day #1 of four sea days until we reach Cape Town, South Africa. That gave us the option to sleep in a little. Getting up later meant the patio grill near the pool was open for breakfast. We enjoyed a nice breakfast outside before starting our day.

This morning, Arlona's art project was a watercolor elephant.

The inspiration

Arlona's execution

At 11:00, they had a fun distraction with a "cooking competition" among crew departments - no culinary crew allowed. They had to include a mystery ingredient  - proper British beans. It was all in good fun. 

It was a form of organized chaos - still, they produced some edible and some inedible results

The Destination Services team's steak was so rare that it was still mooing

The winning Hospitality team's effort and the chef-cooked meal they swapped in when Harry reminded the chef that Harry wrote the chef's performance review

The Entertainment team's effort was actually great and Cruise Director Nick and Chef Ainsley were impressed with the flavors

The scoring by Chef Ainsley was skewed since his boss, General Manager, Harry, was on a team and reminded Chef Aisnley of that fact. It didn't matter as it was all for fun.

Trivia was tough again today. We made some simple mistakes. One issue is that one of our regular players missed today's match to watch cricket. We also lost three other members for other reasons. That left us with five out of a possible ten players - a definite disadvantage. We held our own, but missed too many, dropping us in the cumulative standings. The goofs:

• Mariachi music originated in which country?
• We thought Mexico was too obvious and guessed Spain - it was Mexico
• Often a bridesmaid and never a bride was an advertising slogan for what personal hygiene product in the 1920s?
• We guessed hair conditioner - it was mouthwash, specifically Listerine
• What are the only two South American countries that do not border Brazil?
• We guessed Columbia and Chile - it was Ecuador and Chile
• Tanzania, Tasmania, Transylvania - which is farthest from the equator
• We guessed Tasmania - it was Transylvania
• What is the Ishihara test used for?
• We guessed vision - it was color blindness
• What five countries have competed in every Summer Olympics?
• We got Australia, the U.K., France, and Greece but guessed the USA and it was Switzerland

Arlona's afternoon art project was a giraffe - getting us ready to see the big game.

I took part in a Baggo competition out on the pool deck this afternoon. I came in second in a tough match where it was hard to get a bag to stay on the slippery boards.

I also walked past the cookies table and noticed something.

Look - I'm wearing a windmill shirt (from Kinderdijk, Netherlands) and they had windmill cookies - it was a sign

Nom, nom, nom...

They held another Liar's Club tonight before dinner. Once again, a panel provided one correct answer and three intricate lies as definitions for unusual words. The audience team's job was to determine who told the truth. We didn't fare well but had a lot of fun. The panel did their usual excellent job of spinning fabrications that sounded plausible and truths that sounded sketchy.

The fear of sticky/slimy things

Blows to the hand/knuckles as punishment for losing a game, especially card games

A person who thinks they have more influence or importance than they actually have

Tangles in your hair as the result of fairies twisting and knotting it in your sleep

The same team that won the last Liar's Club also won tonight as well, identifying all four truths. Either they are all etymologists or they were getting some outside help. :-)

We were invited to dine this evening with Ivo Rusev, the ship's Staff Captain and the Captain's #2 officer. It was another nice hosted dinner with Ivo, a couple from New Mexico, a Norwegian couple who now reside in Spain, and us.

Tonight, we time-travel once again, moving ahead an hour to get onto Cape Town time, UTC+2 or seven hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast. Tomorrow is sea day number two of four en route to Cape Town, South Africa.