Day 89

at Sea

Three recovery days before we arrive in Seychelles.

I have been tossing ideas back and forth about local currency. I do need 75 Seychellois Rupees each of us for the Tourism Environmental Sustainability Levy. 150 scr = $10.50. If the payment is made with a foreign currency, a $6 Euro fee is charged. The fee must be paid in scr through credit card or cash. I can get cash at an ATM but I doubt if such a small amount will be dispensed. The joke is that it is illegal to take currency out of the country. It sounds as if they want foreign currency and they also want to charge you more for using it. Levys like this must be decided on at the World Economic Forum. I’m not sure how else all of these countries decide to implement these taxes.

I have been chatting with the taxi driver I hired on Praslin. He will take USD. The hotel is already paid for and so is the ferry. We will decided how to do the 1.5 miles from the ship to the ferry when we get there. Our tee time is 2pm and the following morning we are on the first ferry out. We aren’t taking any chances with a ferry arriving late.

After lunch team trivia. Which mail service is owned by Microsoft? Octopus blood is which color? Which member of royalty wore black for 40 years after her spouse died? Which Ancient Wonder of the World is thought to have been in present day Iraq? Globe and Jerusalem are varieties of which vegetable?

Our waiters at dinner have slowed down a bit. I did notice one had a new shade of lipstick on. Maybe he had trouble applying it and got a late start? The gentleman across from us complained to Oscar about the two Francis’ serving us. He waited for an hour to get his entree. Oscar gave his best line of excuses to the gentleman. I have a feeling he will not be so friendly after dinner.

There seems to be a new sommelier aboard. Oscar sent him over to talk to Terri. He made several suggestions of wines that are in the wine package that Terri purchased. Lots of head shaking by Terri. He didn’t want to be wined and brought several samplings until the head shaking went the other way. Good work!

Evening trivia was Disney musicals. Thomas played a portion of a song. We were to name the movie. None of the clips had the title of the song in it. Sometimes I was able to name the song but not the movie. Other times it was just the opposite. Thomas decided he wanted to play the whole song during the answer portion. He likes to watch himself dance to the tunes. It added 30 mins to trivia. We left before the winner was announced.

The evening entertainment was comedian Jim David. He started with a clip of his parents introducing him. It was quite funny. When he came out and did a few jokes, Terri flashed me a 2 and then took her nap. He made a comment about how “we all survived the pandemic and the last president”. That one didn’t sit well with me. No one laughed and I have a feeling many will not be at his second show. Instead of keeping his political views to himself he clearly revealed his bias. It’s ok to have a bias but when you are performing in front of an audience and want them to return, that bias shouldn’t intentionally show. He told a few jokes that his father told him. I did laugh at those. Show kept going downhill. I gave him a 5. Terri awoke refreshed. I wanted 45 minutes of my life back.