Monday 7 Catania Sicily – Mt Etna
Ummm retrospective thought - the Captain’s announcement during the fire
drill on day 1 : “I am the Master of the ship and if I am disabled then the
Staff Officer takes over – if both of us are seasick then the Chief Engineer
will steer the boat and if all three cannot proceed then you will know you are
having a better day than us”. Just
seemed strange at the time. Last night
on stage he said “I hope you will all go back to your cabins and add your
fervent prayers to mine that in the morning we can find Catania. I haven’t been
there before. The last two times we ended up at Syracuse.”
He is apparently 36 years old and
claims to have got to be Master by getting photographs of the owner in Las
Vegas with his secretary. Not that you would care, but there are 4 Captains on
board who all wear 4 stripes – he is the only Master and his 4th
stripe is much fatter.
We got back to the cabin last night to find
that Nyoman had dropped us off the new program and left us a strange-looking towel
creature and an extra CHOCOLATE! The good news is that the mountain is not
erupting at present, which is a good thing because we are right next to it. It
made an impressive sight as (did we in
the gym as) we cruised in at 7am. We did the double AGAIN (stretch and ABT)
before brekky. All this exercise is generating laundry aplenty and, being too
tight to pay for it, we have to wash and dry it in the cabin and balcony.
We picked up a couple of stragglers
to make a team of 4 against 7 and beat them to win more Celebrity pens. Then it
was off into Sicily. Catania is a lovely city – the front row looks unimpressive
but, when you step through the arch into the first big square, it suddenly
opens up into a beautiful old city. And the people we met were very nice. I
paid E1.80 for a cappuccino while I blogged for an hour (while J walked the
city) and we met the nicest old chap who was quietly encouraging people into
his store. We bought a fridge magnet and later a classic Sicilian marionette
clad in tin armour (there goes another
old jumper ). He was most impressed with any relevant Italian word we
remembered and when I tried to pay him he pointed to (presumably) his son and
said “he takes the money”. I pointed to
the old guy and said “Il Duce?” (the boss?) and he smiled and said “No . . . Il
Guardo . . . the guardian . . . I am Kevin Costner”. The thought obviously
tickled him immensely.
We returned just after 1pm and
found ourselves seated for lunch at the opposite end of a long table from FatAmericanWomanFromHell.
We couldn’t tell if her husband said anything but her extremely loud dialogue
went “This one is better for me. I can’t fit in a booth (very true – she had a
HUGE ass) Can you get me an iced tea? (This was the closest she came to a
“please” or “thank you”) Get me two. Can’t you carry 3? Well you will have to
go back then.” Choice.
As we walk round the ship we have
noticed a number of MBAs (more Australians). Its nice not to be the only ones.
We are moored just next to the old fishing harbour which can have changed
little over 50 years. It is full of small old 1 or 2 man boats that are all
faded and peeling.
On the way back from town, we were
musing about careers at sea as
professional quiz sharks, and then reminded ourselves that we did that once before
(on Cunard) and promptly got severely thrashed at the next quiz. As if on cue,
we formed an unbalanced team with 5 Aussies and got trounced with a score of
6/15. We did half an hour on the machines in the gym and then I stayed on and
did the ABT class. Then it was time for dinner. We swapped seats so J sat next to
“Omar”, which was a cunning plan to get her out of his eyeline. This dulled his
ardour and, after allowing him time for his pulse to settle, we had a bit of a
4 way chat after the main courses. I know you are all salivating to hear what
we ate . . the seafood entrée of mushrooms stuffed with crab meat and some grainy
stuff, which came served in a tray with 6 individual dents in it, which would
normally be used for snails; this was highly peppered and we didn’t really
enjoy it. Then J had a seafood dish with a collection of little delicacies,
while I had the aged sirloin. Both were served with minimal veggies, which is
good. Just a couple of asparagus spears and a carrot stick. Dessert was evil –
ganache chocolate on a bed of Rice Crispies with praline slivers and caramel
sauce, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
We had to charge off after a quick
coffee, truncating Omar’s life story from Bulgaria via Brussels to Canada,
where he “manages a large house” (a lighthouse . . . Fast Fanny’s?) Sunset was
imminent and we scuttled off upstairs to the back of the boat. This was a part
we hadn’t seen before and it was beautiful – a large expanse of REAL grass and
a bowls club. That may be part of the area reserved for the high rollers but
the very rear had a glorious view of the sunset behind us and Mt Etna gradually
receding. We had heard that it often glowed in the dark but it was a bit murky
and not yet fully dark. Very pleasant anyway.
Downstairs again for the evening
show – Andy James whom we had seen before
- probably on Cunard. An amusing English magician. And that was that. J
didn’t want to hit the spa again so we sorted pictures for blogging tomorrow
and had an early night.
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