Tuesday April 28, 2015

Debbie and Lilly were the first to awake. Debbie went to breakfast and to walk and work out then yoga since her trainer had advised her that would be a good thing. Lilly joined Debbie at Yoga. The first clue about the class should have been when the buff instructor said he was an Olympic medalist in Judo from Romania and also was a trainer for the London Olympic medalist swim team. He asked who the beginners were and advised us to do the best we could on all the exercises and stated, “ I have not to my knowledge hurt anyone yet”. Debbie was confident that my training had gone so well surely she would not make a fool of herself! So both Lilly and Debbie watched those around- got a mat and for whatever reason took off their shoes and socks. Lilly was on the back row, Debbie so confident was on the second row middle- right in front of our Olympic instructor. Given the average age of the group was probably 65 we had no reason to fear. WRONG! It took no time and both of us were completely confused. Lilly was struggling trying to figure out the breathing because if you listened it sounded as though we were to hold our breath for 5 minutes. Debbie could not touch her toes and ankles and the same exercises she had learned to do for 30 seconds did not prepare her for 3 minutes of work! Lilly hung in there for the entire hour, Debbie left after 45 minutes not feeling well, exhausted, embarrassed and dehydrated!

Everyone went to the Cruise Critic party and all look forward to the slot pull on April 30. Next we all went to the shore excursion talk. At lunch we discussed the options and all agreed we just did not like the rigid schedule of the shore excursions and all seemed over priced. We created our own plan using taxis and Hop on Hop Off buses for the ports. Savings will be great- to be calculated later. After a great lunch we all went to the Persian Garden for naps and captured the final four hot stone beds.

It was formal night tonight and Lilly did the girls hair, they were beautiful. Becky made sure we all matched nicely. Debbie went to the Elite member social and met another lady who had just experienced her husband’s 1 year anniversary of his death. Just what she needed as she had a wave of grief hit her late afternoon getting ready for formal night. Many formal night members came crashing in- David looked so amazing in a tux which he rented so many times. The talk with the lady, her own age provided tremendous relief and most of all hope as well as some well needed advice. No doubt David steered her there and led her to sit with a stranger in a social event, not usually her style. Things happen for a reason.

All of us, including tablemate Carol ordered the beef medallions which were fantastic. After dinner we headed for the casino where first Debbie taught everyone three card poker, then Ultimate Texas hold em. Becky was the only brave one to play, investing $25, winning $50 and then loosing it. Debbie ended up $100! Back to the room for the night. Clocks went forward one hour at 2:00 this afternoon, let the fun of daily time changes begin!!