USN59-79

Well, I did delete the job offer from the UK company. Not sure how long things stay in the deleted file, but it is empty. I think the odds are that it was an honest mistake. I suspect either the applicant or offeror will follow up and contact each other this Monday or Tuesday without any help from me. Not sure that Tia really wants to know that she just offered a truck driving job with her company to an 84 year old man who lives near Seattle, Washington, USA. Ray

Thanks, Graham. That is the company. They expect me to start work there next Wednesday. I will just delete the email. I wonder if someone in the UK has an email address very similar to mine and is waiting for a reply for a job offer. Ray

Well, I finished the income taxes and went to the post office to mail it this morning. They will probably wonder why someone who owes taxes would mail it in so early. I just received a strange email. It is a job offer, thanking me for speaking to them and offering me a job as a FLT Division driver at a company called Board24. I am to start work next week. They even list the safety shoes I should wear and that they will provide ear and eye protection. The strangest thing about it is the company is located in Leicestershire, UK. I have never heard of the company and certainly have never interacted with them. Wonder if @grapau27 Graham has heard of them? Wondering if it is some type of new scam or that the sender, Tia Bettan just made a silly mistake. Ray

I am surprised that they still do that. We experienced it on a 49 day Carnival cruise back in 2009. I told the Maitre D how much we hated it and the loud music they played so you couldn't talk to your table mates at the time. He told me that I was in the minority; that everyone loved it. It was also our last Carnival cruise. Ray

Looking at the bar menus, I was surprised at how few drinks were available for $11. or less; less than 10%. Also, the menus are not very useful. Do they really only sell 5 or 6 different mixed drinks in the various bars? What is the point of a menu if you don't list the available drinks? I have never bought HIA, and it looks like I won't in the future. Our next cruise is on Seabourn, where they charge more up front for the cruise fare, but don't nickel and dime you for the drinks. In fact, most are free. Ray

Spent most of yesterday working on my income taxes. Should finish today as it is one of the last things I have to do before we leave for our cruise. Interesting to hear about Boy Scouts and golf as my experiences are different. Growing up on a farm, I was a member of FFA (Future Farmers of America). Our son wanted to join Cub Scouts. He went to one meeting and said he didn't fit in with those people. They kept a goat in their house. So it was one meeting and done. I never golfed, but as a child we lived for a short time near a golf course. My brother and I would go there to search for lost golf balls, sometimes diving in the river to get them. Used to get a quarter for the good ones, so it was a good source of funds for a kid at the time. Ray

Thought I might mention something about hot pot for those who haven't heard of it. It consists of a large pot of boiling broth in the center of a table with plates of many things that are added one by one by the people sitting around the table and eating. Those things are shrimp, thin sliced beef, fish balls, spinach, etc. Each person has a small bowl with a sauce to dip the cooked item they remove from the hot pot. It is common among our Chinese friends to get together for an hour or two over a hot pot. Sara makes the sauce with Bull Head Sacha Sauce and beaten egg yolks. Everyone uses chop sticks. The chop sticks you use to place an item in the pot are not the same ones you use to eat it with. Ray

@Tigerlily75 You are a great spokesman (spokesperson?) for Hong Kong. I remember a great goose restaurant we used to go to and now I want to go there again. Ray

It is called "Sons of the Profits" by William C. Speidel. I had it in my library for about 20 years and finally got around to reading it last week. Ray

Interesting to read @Hlitner comment about the overcharges on the Westerdam. I was on the same 42 day cruise and spent a couple of hours at the front desk dealing with overcharges. They still owed me more than $300 when I left the ship in Seattle, but I decided to not waste more time pursuing it. On a pre-covid Westerdam cruise they had an instructor giving courses on how to use a phone instead of a camera and how to use the phone's software to enhance your pictures. Probably the most useful course I have had on a ship; much more useful than the old Microsoft courses. Ray

Reading a book on Seattle's history and just learned an interesting political fact. Most people know that women were first able to vote in the U.S. in 1920. Women suffrage first became legal in Washington Territory in 1883. Apparently men weren't happy with it and a local court struck it down in 1887 with the phrase "the legislature erred when it assumed that women were "citizens"." In 1888 the U.S. Supreme court concurred with that conclusion. Ray

Interesting that Puget Sound is the Port of The Day. A lot of history here. If you look at @Marshawk's picture of downtown Seattle, the small white pointy tower on the right is Smith Tower. It as built in 1914 and until the Space Needle was built in 1962, it was the tallest building on the West Coast. Our family has been here a long time. My grandmother was born in Seattle in 1867 when the population was about 300, my father in 1897 and I in 1939. When I got out of the Navy in 1979, we moved back to this area again, so this is home for us. Ray

One of the unknowns when something like the covid pandemic happens is also how other countries will treat a cruise ship. On the Westerdam in early 2020 we debarked from Hong Kong and were headed to Manila. The Philippine government refused to let us go there and after a day in Taiwan we got permission to disembark in Thailand. We were all allowed to use the ship's phones to make our airline reservations out of Bangkok. Took me until 3 in the morning to make mine. Someone in the Thai government changed their mind, and a Thai warship came out to escort us away from their country. Eventually Cambodia welcomed us. Some were able to fly home from the port, but most of us were put up in an excellent hotel in Phnom Penh. Everything was taken care of by HAL, but to took about a week for everyone to get flights home. One nice gesture was that HAL booked your flight at the same level you had flown to Hong Kong or better. Since I had booked Premium Economy, they booked our flight back to Seattle in Business Class. Ray

Thanks, I am enjoying this for a number of reasons. First, we were first on the Westerdam in 2004, when she was new. Then in 2015 for a short Alaska cruise, then 43 days in Asia in 2019, in 2020 when we were dumped in Cambodia (actually a great cruise) and 42 days Japan to Seattle in 2023. We like the ship, but are wondering how it is now because we are considering the 1 September 2024 cruise Seattle to Seattle via Asia. The other reason is your experiences in Hong Kong and China now that China controls HK. I was thinking of avoiding them for political reasons, but starting to realize that the good people that were there before are still there, the same stores and restaurants are still there, so maybe not too much has changed. Ray

I learned something today about about eating grapefruit and taking certain drugs. I take a statin drug and fexofenadine so I googled it to see if I had something to worry about. Looks like if I eat half a grapefruit more than three hours before or after I take the drug, no problem. The adverse effects were studied by drinking a quart of grapefruit juice. Was hoping to see some pictures or description of Airlie Beach today. We will be stopping there on 24 February and it is one port in Australia that we have missed so far. Ray

OK, this is a pretty good sample. Maybe I was being a little paranoid. There are a lot of things to think about just before you leave for a cruise and this was one of them. I should admit, over the last 25 years we have taken 45 cruises, many 60-70 days in length, and have never had a problem. In fact, our next cruise is the only one I have bought cruise insurance coverage. I also do not use Face Book or similar social media. Ray

I am starting to wonder if it is a good idea to let the world know you will be away from your house for the period you will be cruising. One of the trusted members of the Fleet Report and Daily stated that his home insurance policy required him to not mention that on any social media site. I actually stopped my subscription to the local newspaper when I heard that a delivery person was notifying his friend the thief when customers notified him that they would be away. I wonder how many CC members feel this way. Ray

I have received a lot of HAL certificates, but never one with my Cruise Critic name on it. Can I assume it was changed by you? Ray

Looks like our weather is wetter but warmer in the next week. Here is my saga about dealing with my TV provider, originally Direct TV, but now controlled by AT&T. They asked me if I wanted to look at Max, or HBO Max for a couple of month for free. I said OK, tried it an wasn't impressed. My latest bill said I would be charged about $16 a month unless I cancelled. Spent about an hour on their website and couldn't find a way to cancel. So I called the 800 number on my bill and talked to two computers until finally a nice lady from Idaho answered. We talked about the weather here and there and she said, sure, I can cancel that. Asked if I had other questions, and I asked why my bill went up a dollar this month. She couldn't answer that, but said she could reduce my bill by $20. a month for the next 12 months. So now I am a happier Direct TV customer. Ray

I remember the x-ray machines at the Seattle Nordstrom's shoe store where they could see how well a shoe fit many years ago. Guess they finally realized it wasn't a good idea. Don't remember being taught cursive writing, but learned to print in an engineering drawing class. So I still print when I need to write with a pen or pencil. I am kind of envious when I watch children text on a cell phone. I could never do that so fast and easily. Ray

Thanks for the kind offer, Steve but it looks like we will have a lot of choices. I am looking forward to the sushi someone posted pictures of awhile back. Just checked and see that we have 1274 days at sea with 627 on HAL and about 400 on Princess. We are also pretty familiar with that part of the world having lived three years in the Philippines and three years on Taiwan. We plan to spend two weeks in Taipei before flying home. I remember you mentioning that you might fly to Bali to buy some furniture for your new house. We bought a lot of our furniture in Taiwan while living there. Might be something worth looking at while you are there. Even bought some Taiwanese furniture when living in the Philippines. Ray

Well, it took four hours, but got my iPhone repaired today. I learned that everyone who works at the "Genius Bar" is not a genius. The person we dealt with (I was going to call her a lady, but am not sure. The person wore a tag that said "Ask me about my pronoun" and also wore a tag that said "They Them". So I assume that it wasn't a he and wasn't a she, but something else. As they and them are plural pronouns and there was only one person, one can only wonder. Anyway, they told me that I needed the upper speaker for the phone, but they had none in stock. So I had a few alternatives. I chose the one where they would loan me a phone and send mine elsewhere for repair. Told to come back in half an hour while they took care of it. Came back, and they had different news. While they didn't have the speaker, they had the circuit card that it was on and they could do the repair. The part costs $279., but is included in the warranty for my battery replacement in December. Would take another hour to complete. Came back after an hour and they needed another half hour. Came back and they needed another 15 minutes. Finally got it and tested it and now I can hear the caller. They tried to charge me the $279. plus tax, but after I told them that it was supposed to be free, they agreed to that. We got home while the weather was still mild, so everything worked out well for us. By the way, I knew better than to "Ask me about my pronoun". Ray

Looks like our week of bitter cold is changing today. Should warm up enough to snow and then rain by this afternoon. I need to drive to the Tacoma Mall Apple store today to get my iPhone repaired. Had the battery and speakers changed a couple of weeks ago and now I can only hear a call when on speaker phone mode. Not sure about the Beckett quote. Without context, does mad mean angry or crazy? Ray

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. We will wait till we are onboard. Ray

I suspect that is true. However, once when I was on active duty she flew Space A from California to Taipei to visit her sick mother on her own. I am fortunate that my daughter retired from American Airlines, so that offers me opportunities to fly space available with them and also get an interliner price on a cruise. So I have never tried to use military Space A since I retired.