Really ?

The adventures of Carol Brown, representing Norwegian Cruise Line on a 6-month mission on the open sea to train the crew, explore new ports, seek new friends and experiences, and to boldly go where she has not gone before.

Carol’s log: Cruise Date: May 14, 2011 (Vancouver)

Today is one of the best day’s I’ve had since leaving home. Why? Because I’m in Vancouver with some of my favourite people on earth. I meet Klodyne at her place and we get the opportunity to catch up on almost 11 years of living. She has put on quite a bit of weight, as have I; but to me she looks luscious and sexy. We talk about our jobs, my children, her partner, my lack of one and when I’m moving back to Vancouver. I go shopping in her closet for warm underwear that I can wear under my uniform. Of course, I end up taking her favourite items and I’m thrilled when I realize that they smell like her. Se shares her most recent project and as usual I feel honoured to know someone so talented and brilliant. I get to meet her partner Jack just briefly before we head for breakfast at Havana Café where Virginia is to meet us.

At Havana, It is more catch-up because even though they live in the same city, it has been years since Virginia and Klodyne have seen each other. I guess they were waiting for me to return. We order omelettes and fajitas, take photos, laugh and cry. Klodyne cries when she tells me how much she has missed me. Virginia returns from the bathroom to find us hugging and crying and thinks we’ve both lost our minds!

After breakfast, Tanya, my favourite cousin, picks me and Klodyne up and we head into downtown Vancouver. We walk the pier taking pictures and sharing stories. We discover that we are all using “Really?” “Seriously?” “Honestly?” when we can comprehend things that people do or say. It turns into the joke of the day.

We have a couple of near run-ins through the day. First there is the security guard at the convention centre. We ask to use the bathroom and she’s nice enough to let me go but afterwards she seems to want to throw us out. Klodyne reminds her that her tax dollars build the building and probably pay her salary. Then, there is a man on the pier that throws or drops garbage and Klodyne points it out to him. He seems to want to deny that it was him but easily loses that argument. And then, on the way back to the car, a woman was taking pictures of her friend when Klodyne approached her because her tag was sticking out. Only Klodyne said that there was something on her and caused the woman to panic briefly thinking it was a bug of some sort. It was funny but I guess you had to be there. These two ladies had me laughing and crying so hard all day that I almost jumped ship to stay with them. They did manage to convince me to move back to Vancouver though so I’ll be saying good-bye to Toronto again shortly after my return from this contract.

They deliver me back to the ship under protest and they promise to visit me in Seattle on Saturdays when their schedules allow. It was so good to me with those two. I felt loved and got some of the physical contact I’d been missing.

Once back on board we crank the music in our office and Laarni and I work until dinner though I continue to have computer problems. We decide to go to one of the specialty restaurant and choose Le Bistro where we have mussels, lobster tails with artichokes and potatoes and I brave dessert and eat a chocolate fondue for one. I am beyond sated when we finish eating.

We stroll around the ship stopping at the Gift shop because I forgot to get chocolate for Filippo while I was running around Vancouver. This is a crime worse than death! Laarni did not bring him chocolate back from Miami and she is still in his bad books for it. I buy a large bar from the gift shop, peel off the price tag and ship’s label attach a post it note from the two of us and drop it off at Filippo’s office. I hope he believes it is from Vancouver!

During our stroll, I bump into Stan Sykes aka Mr. Motown and musician extraordinaire. He plays a mean piano and gosh can he sing R&B and the blues. He’s a little African-American man about 5”4” but his personality—and his voice are about 7 feet tall. We always engage in witty banter when we see each other.

It has been a splendid day and I fall into bed happy, loved and well fed.

The voyage continues…