A couple of days ago I found the bird that had been following us. It was lying dead under a lounge chair on deck 5 forward. At first I thought it was alive – but it was only the wind animating it. This time it didn't hop away as I approached. The next day it was gone – taken care of by the cleaners. I wondered about whether I was the only one to have noticed the bird's struggle.

Then today, much to my amazement, I saw another bird – apparently identical – following behind the ship. Or was it another bird?

***
The ship's been rocking and rolling pretty much since we left Port Canaveral yesterday. Large, deep swells. Last night during the Welcome Aboard show a part of the stage curtain, which had been swinging with the ship's movement, ripped off the rail and was left hanging in mid air. It's a heavy curtain. I worried a little about the heavy stage lights above our heads crashing down on us but I've been assured that they are absolutely secure.

I slept well. The ship's movement is to me like being rocked to sleep. But not so for a lot of the guests. I had breakfast with a guest relations person who had been on night duty. She said it had been a very quiet night, except for the noise of the carpet dryers. There had been a lot of puking incidents to clean up. This means that the medical staff was, and probably still is, busy. I'll go in another day for my INR test.

Although it was quiet for the guest relations person last night, it's not always so. I asked her about her work and what were some of the more amusing experiences or requests she's had. She told me about a woman who asked her to call a cab because she wanted to go home. Obviously a little confused. Last night, in the middle of the night, some guy locked himself out on his balcony. Finally he got someone's attention on a deck below, and yelled down to them that his cabin number was 8492, but of course it wasn't. It was 8942, as it turns out. The occupants of 8492 were not amused.

And then, of course, there are the common marital spats, usually with gambling or drinking at the root of them. Most often it is a woman who wants another cabin to sleep in for the night.

Speaking of marital spats, there are a lot of weddings on the ship. Maybe 40 or more per cruise. One marriage, at least, was cut short when the groom was discovered screwing one of the invited wedding guests on a grand piano in a backstage storage area. In this case, the bride wanted to be let off the ship altogether.

And speaking of screwing and guest relations – a bartender was fired on the spot yesterday for being discovered in a compromising position with one of the guests. This is strictly against the rules, but it is not uncommon. They even warn about it in one of the training videos. “You may find a female guest becoming overly friendly with you...”. It seems some women start feeling quite frisky when at sea. And the sea swells were rather suggestive last night...

Everyone feels bad about the bartender loosing his job. He was well-liked on the ship.

I'll try to get to know the guest relations people a little better. They're bound to be a great source of material for this blog...