Every day that we are at sea, right after breakfast in the regular dining room, I take my bag of applique projects and head to the Tahitian Lounge. There are floor to ceiling windows on 3 sides, and it is a perfect place to do handwork. The chairs are quite comfortable. However, the entire right side of the lounge is devoted to those who love to smoke, leaving the left side of the lounge for non-smokers. I sit on the left.
The lounge is used for many things. When I arrive there early, I find several people reading quietly. Often there are scores of large paintings stacked deep in the first half of the lounge area, awaiting the afternoon art auction. Passengers seem to be getting more vocal in their displeasure of having art auction items taking up so much space. They start realigning the framed pieces so that they can reach the comfy chairs.
As time progresses, the dancers move in to the dance floor (also surrounded by paintings). The CD player belts out Cha-Cha-Cha music while the ship’s dance teacher yells out dance commands over the music. (I just sit and stitch.) Following the Cha-Cha-Cha lessons, the line dancers appear. Time to switch the music to loud renditions of “Elvira” while the line dance teacher yells out the movements over the music. (Same ship’s teacher -- I think the ladies only show up because he is rather young and handsome.) I am still stitching.
Oh, dear! Here come the Trivia crowd. They need to form groups of 6 in order to having the winning team. And what are those people doing in their favorite chairs, reading and doing handwork!?! I think the trivia players have given up (finally) trying to shame us in to giving them their rightful places in the lounge. Amid rather vocal protestations, chairs are frantically moved around the room, players shout at each other (“We’re over here today!”), and remarks are made about the amount of space being used by the paintings. I sit and listen as the Trivia questions are asked by young cruise personnel. There is a hum throughout the lounge as the teams strain to be the top team. The glory! The prizes! The shame in not being #1. After the winning team is presented with it’s cruise lanyards, or small bags, or whatever, there is talk about what to do with the winnings. Perhaps give them to a second hand shop when they get home.
Time for lunch!
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