FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 9th Port – Sydney, Australia – Day 22
February 21, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 9th Port – Sydney, Australia – Day 22
Tuesday, February 16th
- Paris has its Eiffel Tower…
…New York has its Statue of Liberty…
…and Sydney has its billowing Opera House that dominates the downtown harbor.
- And just like them, she was a runner up vying for one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
- Unfortunately for us, Princess got the good (and only) downtown dock. So we had to anchor, and tender in on the local FantaSea ferry. We were dropped directly at the end of The Rocks, under the iconic Sydney Bridge. The water front was alive with activity and we were greeted with a symphony of sounds. The clickety-clack of the overhead trains, the motor boats buzzing around the bay, the helicopters and the seaplanes soaring above us.
- It felt good to be a part of the hustle and bustle of a big city for a change of pace. And today we just meandered through the streets enjoying the eclectic mix of old and new architecture.
FUN-fact – The Sydney Opera House was completed in 1973 after 14 years of contentious construction, is covered with over a million ceramic tiles, and features five performance halls.
More FF – The last time we were in Sydney was in 2005, where we spent New Year’s Eve in a boat, in the parade of lights, with the most fantastic fireworks shooting off the Sydney Bridge.
FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – On Board & Un Bored – Serenity Sea Days
February 20, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – On Board & Un Bored – Serenity Sea Days
- The Serenity staff loves to make special occasions grand, and creating them to keep sea days fresh & exciting.
- Every hour is filled with any number of activities ranging from educational, spiritual, fitness, hobbies and games (today we had 52 options) plus there’s even a movie theatre. To date we have seen Black Mass, The Bridge of Spies, Trumbo, and Steve Jobs. And this week we started Bridge for Beginners.
- My favorite featured lecture was “Writing Like a Pro” with Karyn Planett & Geoff Thompson who are the authors of “WORDS &
PICTURES.” Their specialty is the ability to create colorful captions and riveting stories for their travel photos.
- I checked their book out of the ships library. It was great. And so great that I bought a copy! By incorporating their advice of using all five senses, I feel as if I am on high alert now, which takes “being in the moment” to a whole new level for me!
FUN-quote – “I drifted into photography like one drifts into prostitution. First I did if it for myself, then I did it to please my friends, and eventually I did it for the money.” – Philippe Halsman
- It was pretty much smooth sailing once we left Hawaii until we hit the open ocean on the last 2 days before we arrived in Sydney Harbor. Both scary & funny at the same time, while having dinner in the Main Dining Room on Deck 5, a rogue wave full on hit the port side windows and the waiter’s response was “They’re just washing the windows.”
FUN-cocktail – Sun Splash – Absolut Mandarin, triple sec, cranberry juice, fresh OJ and lemon sour with a lemon twist garnish.
Grand Buffet – Hard Boiled Egg Penguins – Just Too Cute!
FUN-facts – The Pacific Ocean, the world’s largest, covers an amazing 64,186,300 square miles. It is also the deepest with an average depth of 12,925 feet.
More FF – The spot that holds the record as the deepest is the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench measures an astounding 36, 198 feet deep. Compare that to Mt. Everest at 29,028 feet tall.
FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 8th Port – Nouméa, New Caledonia – Day 19
February 19, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 8th Port – Nouméa, New Caledonia – Day 19
Saturday, February 13th
- A market is a market is a market…
…except when you are in the city dubbed the “Paris of the Pacific.” This very French and very cosmopolitan city is home to La Marché, the colorful multi-hexagonal shaped downtown market. With each building organized by its specialty, just steps from the first one my nose knew – it was the fish market!
- The fresh produce section had lots more options than previous markets and more that I actually recognized. And the curries and spices weren’t hard to spot when I rounded the next corner.
- Taking a different route back to the ship led us through China Town, decorated with bright red paper lanterns criss-crossing the street.
FUN-fact – Offshore is one of the longest barrier reefs at just over 1,000 miles, second only to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef at 1,200 miles long. And home to 350 species of coral and 1,500 species of fish.
More FF – New Caledonia’s protected lagoon covers almost 9,000 square miles, making it the largest lagoon complex in the world.
- Today’s excursion – Snorkeling at Signal Island – took 40 minutes by boat. While the water was a bit cloudy, I saw more shapes and colors of coral than ever before. They ranged from periwinkle to peach, mauve to milky white and soft pink to purple. The shapes were incredible and bizarre at the same time. And so vastly different with some looking like brains while others were spiky with starbursts of color on their tips. As for the fish, the usual suspects with a nice school of barracuda but no Nemo’s.
View From Our Balcony
FUN-cocktail – Cable Car – Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, orange Curacao, fresh lemon sour served in a sugar & cinnamon rimmed martini glass with an orange twist.
- Chris says, “You make these islands sound so wonderful when in fact they have their flaws.” Well, I never used the word pristine! And my first long distance view did color my perception, which was not the actual reality once I got “up close and personal.”
- Hawaii is looking really good right now. Not that far, not that hot, and not that humid!
Heading Out of the Harbor
Word Of the Week #602: Refresh
February 16, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #602: Refresh
Refresh – to revive or reinvigorate.
How much caffeine do you consume each day? How much sleep do you get each night? Do you ever take naps? How do you keep negative self-talk from becoming all consuming?
This is part three from “How Successful People Stay Calm,” written by Travis Bradberry. He writes, “The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.
- They Limit Their Caffeine Intake
Drinking caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight-or-flight” response, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you’re responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyperaroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. The stress that caffeine creates is far from intermittent, as its long half-life ensures that it takes its sweet time working its way out of your body.
- They Sleep
I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and managing your stress levels. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. Stressful 
projects often make you feel as if you have no time to sleep, but taking the time to get a decent night’s sleep is often the one thing keeping you from getting things under control.
- They Squash Negative Self-Talk
A big step in managing stress involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you’re doing and write down what you’re thinking. Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.
You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.
This week’s focus is how to refresh. Does drinking caffeine ever make you feel tense and on edge? Are you making sure you are getting enough sleep every night? How often does your inner voice engage in negative self-talk? Have you ever taken time to separate your thoughts from the facts at hand?
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FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 7th Port – Maré Island, New Caledonia – Day 18
February 15, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 7th Port – Maré Island, New Caledonia – Day 18
Friday, February 12th
- A beach is a beach is a beach…
….the sand comes in different colors and coarseness
….and the water pretty much covers the full spectrum of blues and greens.
- Today’s adventure took us from the tender, to a small craft market along the dock, to the free shuttles. And this island had more of the same lush landscape of coconut palms and huge canopied trees contrasted by towering pines. After a 20-minute drive they dropped us at Yejele Beach where we plopped ourselves down.
- Today’s beach was so pebbly and sharp it made water shoes a must. The strong almost rip tide current made it impossible to venture too far out. But lucky for us clusters of coral reefs ran the length of the shoreline at a depth of only three feet. The fish were plentiful and easy to spot in the crystal clear water. They varied in size and color from teeny electric blue, to lime green with black stripes, to mid-size pale peach, and soft gray with yellow.
Our Waterfront Bar & Grill
FUN-fact – Maré at 42 miles long and 20 miles at its widest, is the most southerly of the Loyalty Islands.
- And today I celebrated my 4th “Surprise Birthday Party at Sea” with four lovely couples! And not one of them was born in the US – all from the UK and one from Prussia.
FUN-family fact – My niece Kellie’s birthday is the 11th and because I am a now a day ahead, we are both celebrating on the same day!
