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Cruising, Seeing the Scenes, and Reading

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It is with some trepidation that I embark on my first long cruise, ever. Jack and I have done overnight from Scotland to Belgium. I sailed once from Ireland to France as a student. But this is our first time on a floating city tour boat.

We wouldn’t normally want to do a cruise, especially as COVID rates are on the rise again, but this is the Alaskan fjords. Of all the things I have wanted to see in the world, only Alaska and Finland’s fjords remain—well that and hiking the W in southern Chile, and my friend Cami and I are doing that for our sixtieth birthdays.

I have sought advice from many friends who have lived in Alaska or gone on a cruise with Royal Caribbean. They have poo-pooed the need for waterproof clothing unless we plan to do serious hiking (we don’t).  They told us to book the Skagway scenic rail adventure (we did). And they said pay extra for a balcony room and don’t buy the internet package.

My friends are very smart people. I plan to spend the seven days of sailing and port-hopping sitting on said balcony, low-alcohol cocktail in one hand, book in the other. I will be writing or reading books all week long on the balcony, happy as a clam, emerging only to visit the heated adults-only pool at the far end of the ship, or hit up those famous buffets I keep hearing about.

Five books are packed in my bag, and one is on my computer: Immune is the story of how our body’s defense systems work, and while it came out at the time of all-COVID all-the-time it’s about viruses and bacteria. I like the way the author writes (having started the book twice and gotten interrupted by life and other circumstances). He was describing sizes of a defense cell and an attacking virus once, and he said, “Picture an average height person staring at a bunny.” That makes it accessible.

I have Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Nope, never read it. (That’s probably grounds to revoke my Appalachian card.) And I have a collection of short stories from a local author under the charming title of The Widow’s Guide to Edible Mushrooms. That’s fun because I’ve started mushroom foraging of late, and because my first story for West Virginia Public Radio as an Inside Appalachia reporter is on the recent rise in popularity of mushrooms.

Then I have my friend Janelle Bailey’s debut, An Invitation to Read, in manuscript form on my computer. I’m looking forward to returning the favor she did for me during my NYT Short Story Contest rounds (made it through Round 3!). Janelle did a LOT of reading and content editing on the fly. (The deadlines go down to 24 hours by round 4.)

All in all, between the waves and the words, I am looking forward to forgetting I am on a floating city and cozying up in my fleecy sweatshirt to some non-stop writing and reading time. And of course gawping endlessly at the scenery, weather permitting. Sail by, mad world.

Hey Ho, Hey Ho. It’s Off to Work–

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Jack’s Wednesday guest blog continues the travel theme –

I didn’t expect to continue working after I retired in 2002, following over twenty years teaching in a Scottish community college. But because my final years had involved teaching management programs – mostly team dynamics, leadership skills and quality systems – I found myself in demand as a training consultant.

A very nice guy called Alan, who ran a training organization based in Birmingham (England), hired me to go for a month to the town of Ploesti in Romania where I would provide training for a group of managers working for the national oil pipeline maintenance company. I would be provided with air tickets, transport, a nice hotel and meals plus a generous payment.

What could possibly go wrong – – –

I discovered shortly before departure that I would be expected to teach how to use MS Project, but I knew nothing about project management. However, I obtained a copy of the software and loaded it on my laptop before setting off.

I would be lecturing to a different group of twenty or so managers each week, and the first morning I did some checking to determine their existing skills and knowledge. That’s when I discovered that they weren’t managers – they were administrators. They didn’t have any budgets and couldn’t make any decisions. The head of the company had previously been the chief of the secret police for the dictator Ceaușescu – a very ‘top down’ kinda guy!

The next discovery was that none of them had a computer or access to one, so MS Project wasn’t going to be much use. But I would have a meeting each Friday afternoon with a formidable woman who would be checking boxes on her list to make sure I was following the agreed curriculum. So I went ahead and taught basic management techniques through the week and then demonstrated the software using my trusty laptop with a projector and screen on Friday mornings. That way all the boxes got ticked.

On the up side, I had a couple of colleagues teaching other groups more oil-related stuff for Alan and staying in the same hotel. We were taken for sightseeing trips at weekends and to some lavish evening banquets where a goodly amount of excellent wine was provided – and consumed.

I also had a couple of really great interpreters who took turns from day to day standing beside me and translating my very technical, and very Scottish-accented English, into Romanian.

And there was Horton – Alan’s ‘Go-for’ in Romania. He picked me up from the airport when I arrived in Bucharest, and from my hotel every morning. He drove an ancient Dacia with holes in the floor and had been a mining engineer in various parts of the world. When things went wrong his favorite phrase was, “Africa wins again!”

Ultimately, I felt rather guilty that I had introduced the administrators to the possibilities of management techniques when they didn’t have the authority to use them very meaningfully. That’s something that still haunts me to some extent, and I just hope that some of them did find a position where they could blossom.

But I must have satisfied ‘she who must be obeyed,’ as I was contracted by Alan for another one-month stint shortly afterwards.

Next week – Wendy joins me for the second Romanian adventure – – –