Feb 6 - At Sea (Western Mid-Atlantic)

SANDY SHORE : I decided to drag myself to the onboard doctor…
I just can’t go one more night hacking ‘til 4 in the morning until I collapse in a heap of exhaustion in mid wheeze, in some random corner of the cabin.

This morning I woke up in a coughing blaze of glory all slumped over on the cabin couch with my neck crunked in an unnatural position…

I found a tightly rolled towel in the bathroom that I created a makeshift neck brace out of and adjusted my neck and spine back to normal before resuming my ‘expectoranting’ position. Look, you should see what the cabin stewards make with these bath towels, I don’t think a little neck brace is all that creative, but it was surprisingly helpful.

Very nice doctor… a gentleman from South Africa. He said that I have a really yucky flu virus (“yucky” is my word, he actually used more professional words to describe the condition). Anyway, I’ve been told that I should be fine in a few days and I was given something to help me breath a little easier, which has almost given me a sense of elation. ~ss

DONNA KAY PHILLIPS : For the moment, we are living in a pretty tight circle on this massive ship. Late nights spent coughing... lead to late morning Codeine Cough Syrup hangovers... lead to hunting and gathering scraps of brunch before we crawl up onto the Lido aft deck. Boy, what a pretty sight we must be when we make our grand entrance. If it weren't for the food centric focus of the typical cruise ship crowd, we would feel like a couple of conspicuous typhoid Mary's.

As you can imagine, the average age of this cruise demo is a bit older than most on a "FunShip" Cruise. Carnival tends to trend younger family types but 49 days around South America pretty much rules that crowd out. However, there are a few more folks in our age group that are also able to maintain their lives while traveling and, like us, are managing things on this snail-paced internet connection. Nice to know that the world is becoming more mobile for some.

Right now we are grateful for sun-filled salt water days in the pool to float out the toxins of our exhausted bodies, spicy Indian food ( a new addition to the Carnival Lido Pool-side Menu), plenty of onboard movies and helpful Room Stewards and Dining Room Servers to send us plenty of hot water for tea and various arrays of Asian spicy soups - YUM. Other than dragging ass while touring a port, it's not the worst place in the world to be sick. -dkp