TIME ZONES, GLOBAL WINE QUEST, CAVIAR AND DISCO TIME

This was our best day on our trip so far. However, first, Australia has some strange time zones. We just changed our watches by 30 minutes, traveling south and west of Sydney along the coastline below the yellow zone.

So what time is the Academy Awards program on TV? Yes, it is being shown live on this ship. Let's see now, New York start time is 8PM on Sunday. Sydney is 16 hours ahead, so that would be 12 noon on Monday. But wait, the USA just went on daylight savings time last night, so that would be 11AM. Except we just moved half an hour towards, or is it away, from New York. So 10:30AM? Then on April 2, Australia goes into Daylight Savings Time.

Anyway, I am watching the Oscars as I write this blog, and for lunch plan to order a cheeseburger with beer and a red wine, plus Caesar salad, to continue viewing the program.

Yesterday on the second sea-day we had a decent lunch with side skirt steak, chicken, Caesar salad, tomato soup and rosé.

Then on to a Global Wine Quest featuring three whites and seven reds. Our sommeliers are all from around the world. With 1 being good and 10 bad, here were the rankings. Note the $350 and $315 notations. If we wanted to order these two reds with our meal, we would need to pay this extra amount per bottle.

A few tidbits.

Yeimi, who in a few days will become the chief sommelier, with my #1, a Chateau La Gravette de Certan 2019 Pomeral Bordeaux. Note that it would cost us $350/bottle if we ordered it with a meal.

This was one of those free-wheeling tastings where you go to the bottle and they pour it. Only a tad, for I ended up actually tossing away more than I drunk.

Then went for a short walk. Dinner was in the Colonnade.

I should mention that the drinks started with a gin martini, then on to vodka with red and white wines, ending with a port.

And the night was just beginning, for we went for a drink in the The Club to listen to The Trio.

At 9:30PM on to the Grand Salon, our theater, for guitarist, Bruce Mathiske of Australia. We almost decided to skip him, and almost went back to our cabin to go to sleep. However, glad we went, for I thought this was the most enjoyable stage show I've seen on a ship, maybe ever. He gave us a musical tour through his country, and also played what you see below, a didgeridoo. Very creative entertainer. He would win a World's Got Talent competition.

Now feeling good, we went back to The Club, and the place had become a disco dance room, first with The Trio. followed by Nikki and The Band. Nikki was incredible.

Made it back to our suite just after midnight. Took 6409 steps today.

When we leave Kangaroo Island today at 6PM, there will be a Caviar Serenade Sail Away. Yes, more caviar. Best of all, five days into the cruise, in sometimes bumpy weather, where it can be dangerous just walking around room, I feel great.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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