happy birthday to my sister, donna!!! nice to chat with you and brother dan on the ski slopes!
today i had in-port manning, so i didn’t plan on doing much… i had to write a little, i had arranged to have lunch with my friend, brianna, and i had to write my port song for mumbai… bob and i also wanted to spend a little quality hang time together, so i had a good day cut out for me. my friend brianna is moving to china in june, to a town just out of shanghai about an hour. she has her masters in chinese medicine and will be pursuing some further experience working in china for the next few years, staying in one place instead of being on the road so much. nice to have a couch to crash on there! she has a pretty fascinating life; i think i want to base a character in a screenplay on her! i also had a nice conversation with a jewelry designer on board from india. his dad used to organize a huge jazz festival here, and he suggested that an email intro to someone from the taj hotel chain might facilitate getting an audition for a gig there… since he seems well connected, i got his info, and if bob and i get a chance to pitch that chain and tour their 10 palace hotels through india, that would be alright with us! both the ones i saw had empty pianos, and one on a busy sunday afternoon…
my theme tonight was called “all about the numbers,” featuring songs with numbers in their titles (“fifty ways to leave your lover,” “when i’m sixty-four,” “if i had a million dollars,” etc…), my 7-8 and 9-10 were busy, but it died early again after two days of early wake- ups and adventures in mid 90 degree weather… people were just completely faded!
the captain addressed everyone on the pa and in a letter to assuage any anxieties about sailing into pirate-y waters… we have escorts in many places, scouts along the way and much security on board and in ports… we are also very high and very fast! i noticed we are indeed clipping along at quite a sprightly pace! usually they are slow enough to save a little money on fuel, but i know safety comes before expense, even to a dutch captain (haha), so we are sailing at frank speed towards dubai
port song for mumbai
(to the tune of “one tin soldier”)
listen people to a story that was written just today
about a visit to an ancient culture and the people there this day
my friends and me from north america on a ship came across the sea
from a life of privilege more than most folks there whom we would see
we drove to town and to a hotel where hate and tragedy have been before
so the soldiers with machine guns guard the luxury hotel’s door
they’re posted at the elevator and here and there throughout the halls
no doubt that we were safe but ghosts of terrors past live within those walls
we made our way up to the top floor, the gateway to india
and feasted on the dishes of many lands who from the nightly news we know
like egypt syria libya jordan israel india
with flavors even more rich and complex than the troubles they all share
an indian daughter and her husband and her father brought out a cake for mom
a birthday song and smiles and clapping, and at our table we clapped along
and sending our birthday wishes over with a smile that was sincere
the daughter soon came to our table with birthday cake for us to share
go ahead and hate your neighbor, maybe you don’t have many friends
but relating to each other seems better, and is much sweeter in the end
instead of guns and bombs a blowing, there was cake and smiles this day
one happy afternoon after… at least one old sad ghost just flew away
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