Day 5, October 8, 2014, Symphony Crossing – Third day of cruising

Day 5 – We gained another hour in time last night.  We got up earlier (6:55) because we gained an hour and we wanted to exercise a full hour.  We went out and the weather was really nice.  About 65 degrees and not much wind.  The deck was a bit wet in places, but not too bad.  We ended up walking for about an hour including hitting nearly all of the machines on decks 7 and 8.  It was very pleasant.

We went to breakfast and had our usual omelet and fruit.  After breakfast, we went to a talk by Professor Michael Smith from the University of Kent on Astronomy.  He talked about what was visible in the skies while we are crossing the Atlantic, including a full moon, Mars and Saturn, and a meteor shower tonight.  We plan to go out and check out the skies tonight.

After that, we went to the room and worked on the computer and did some reading.  Then we went to the team trivia.  The place was packed and there are 30 teams of up to 6 people per team.  We did better, but didn’t quite get to the winning circle.

Then we went to lunch and had salads.  After lunch, we went to the second talk by Dr. John McMichan, this one titled: “Arthritis: New Joints for Old”.  He discussed osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, and what to do to avoid them (such as exercise more, do not smoke and do not take Calcium supplements, but get Calcium from your diet via calcium infused orange juice, low-fat or skim milk, or beans and green leafy vegetables).  You need about 1200 mg per day (and get about half normally, so need to beef up the dietary intake to get the 1200).

After that, we went to see the movie: The Art of the Steal starring Kurt Russell.  The movie was decent and had a nice twist at the end.  A few contrivances, but not too bad.

Tonight was elegant casual for dinner.  We went to the dining room at 6:15pm for dining by reservation.  For the appetizer, Bob had a Pressed Tomato Terrine with a Petite Vegetable Salad and Aged Balsamic while Julie had the Balsamic Vinaigrette Tossed Rocket Salad with Eggplant Chips and Shredded Carrots.   For the second course, Bob had the Rocket Salad and Julie had a small portion of the Homemade Potato Gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce.  Bob had the Gnocchi for his entree, and Julie had the Pan-fried Lump Crab cake.  For dessert, we both had Crème Brulee again.  As usual, the whole dinner was excellent.

Pressed tomato:

Rocket salad:

Gnocchi:

Crab cake:

After dinner, we went to the new show, Diva, staring Karen Grainger.  She is a vocal impressionist and was amazing, singing like about a dozen different female singers.  Everyone loved it, although we thought that it was not quite as interesting as it could be because about half of the singers and songs, we didn’t know.