February 21 -- Cruisin' on the Rebound

Today was another day cruising at sea, as we headed from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam towards Laem Chabang, Thailand. Laem Chabang is the port nearest Bangkok, which Google says is about 90 minutes inland from the port, by car or taxi. The Our Gang Tour of Bangkok is set for Friday morning, so we are free to explore on our own tomorrow. We will see how Patrise is feeling and make plans thereafter. Here are three photos of the ship's route, to show you where we are now relative to Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, and our upcoming port of call, Laem Chabang (Bangkok's nearest port.)

We took it easy today, because Patrise was still trying to recover from this chest infection. However, she was able to do more today than the previous two days and for that we were both grateful. She got up and went to the Gold Lounge for breakfast this morning about 8am, while I slept in a bit longer. By the time I got up and got to the Gold Lounge -- thinking I'd catch her there near the end of her meal -- she had already finished, ordered breakfast for me, and had left to return to the room. Xinyi (Zhin-yee), our regular waitress, informed me once I sat down and ordered tea and apple juice, I gulped down the apple juice, got the tea in a to-go cup, then headed back to the room. Sure enough, Patrise was already there, resting in bed and wondering where I had disappeared to.

I began eating my breakfast, and shortly thereafter, I had a business call, while continuing to nibble on my fruit and drink my tea. My call was with Monica Baugh, my new executive assistant for the Connector Park Project and a Godsend. As this conversation was taking place, I had been concerned that Patrise would be disturbed and unable to rest. WRONG! After the phone call, I peeked into the bedroom and saw that my dear wife was absolutely knocked out, while the television watched her deep slumber. "That's good, I thought. She really needs the rest." I turned off the television and began working to finish yesterday's combined blog entry.

About 11:15 am, I started getting dressed for the '70's themed birthday party that we were planning to attend from 12-2pm today. Sheila Cartlidge is the Vice President of Our Gang Travel and the wife of Alonzo Cartlidge. Today was a planned birthday celebration for her and the theme was 1970's attire. So I got dressed, not knowing whether Patrise would awake in time to go, and I did not plan to wake her. However, my wife has an uncanny internal clock. She woke up at 11:58am and asked me the time. When I told her, she said we needed to get dressed to head to the party. I told her I was already dressed, except my Afro wig and special sunglasses. She dressed and we left.

It was clear that everyone on the group took it seriously and wanted to help Sheila have a great birthday celebration. The many costumes and hairstyles quickly took me back to college days. We enjoyed ourselves, took several pictures, participated in the group photo, joined in one line dance, then left. That was all Patrise had energy for. By this time it was after 1pm, so we headed straight to the Silver Lounge for lunch, then returned to the room, so she could continue resting. Here are some of the photos from the birthday party.

(Row 3: Birthday girl, Sheila, talking to friends, Birthday girl's beau [Alonzo], and the Birthday girl poses with Patrise and Doug.)

After lunch, as I said, we returned to the room. Patrise lay down, but she could not fall asleep. I looked at a Netflix series that I have just gotten caught up in, "The Rig." We chilled for much of the afternoon, until 6pm. At that time we went to Deck 15, so that I could get a good walk in. I was proud that Patrise pushed herself to walk the first lap with me. Beginning to get some exercise will help with her recovery. I was also proud that she very wisely laid down in one of the lounge chairs and left the rest of the walking to me. After the walk, we went immediately to the Gold Lounge for an early dinner. We both had a Thai curry soup with mussels and shrimp for our starter. She had the jerk pork with plantains as her entree, while I had duck confit. She did not get very far with either of her orders; whilst I managed to devour both of mine (yum, yum).

We skipped dessert and returned directly to the room. We watched the rest of a movie (The Towering Inferno) together. She continued to watch television while I worked on today's blog. Tomorrow we land in Thailand, and we will decide what to do, based on how well she is recovering.

Sights seen from the ship during my walk around Deck 15..

And here are a series of sun setting photos I took from the Gold Lounge during our dinner.

(It's almost as though the ship is putting the Sun to bed, as it traverses across the horizon.)