Albany, Australia

Albany. This is a small town and has a small town atmosphere. It is much cooler then the other cities we have been to. We were only here from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. There was nothing to do except take a shuttle into town. They dropped us off at he far end of the small down town area. This was also the top of a hill that ran down all the way back to the harbor.

This was a business harbor and not a place for homes. The down town area we were in seemed that it was mostly for tourists. I have no idea what the locals do for their needs. We walked down the hill through the down town. They had not ordered nearly enough shuttle busses and there were long waits so Bobbi and I jumped into a cab to return to the ship. This is not a place where I would be happy to live. I could live in most of the other towns.

This was the big day for Dag. Yes, we have a captain named Dag. On passing I always say Hey Dog. The captain does not like me. This was his 50th birthday and of course the crew and staff had to make a big deal out of it. For lunch they had a special buffet on the pool deck. They had not anything you could think of but everything. Caviar in a hand shaped tub made of ice, lobster, ribs, steak and you name it. They had also invited about 100 local children to come sing Happy Birthday for the Dag. Each had a birthday card for the Dag. At the evening show in the main theater they had a kind of roast for Captain Dag. It never got real roasty. They were a bunch of chickens. It got real corny with pictures of him as a child on up thru college. Far too much of this crap for my likes. Why would I want to honor this guy so lavishly? I paid for this Cruise. He is the employee. He should be honoring me. It is not like he is some national hero. He can barely speak and can’t even say the letter W. Most of the time he is laying around by the pool and not even driving the ship like he is supposed to. This clown doesn’t even have dinners with people invited to his table nightly as other captains do. Big deal. All he is, is some glorified bus driver on a big bus that floats. In fact, when he comes on the intercom he quite often introduces himself as, “this is your driver.” Every morning he comes on the intercom and does his “Verds of Visdom.” He reads a poem in broken Norwegian. Just what I need. Bobbi says , “Oh, it’s very nice. His verds are so inspirational.” Yeah, right. So is stubbing my toe.”

Dag Catcher Sherm Out.

(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)