Birthdays

Many people don't make a big deal about their birthdays. I do. I love my birthday. It's MY day. It only comes once a year and I like to make the most of it. I remember a conversation with a woman who was so disappointed because her husband forgot her birthday. That could never happen aboard Nine of Cups. I start reminding David of the momentous occasion a month in advance. There's no fear of being disappointed here. So what's my idea of a perfect birthday? Aha...now we're getting right down to it. A perfect birthday has many facets, anticipation being one of them. There are not usually gifts involved...at least in the traditional sense. No diamonds or furs. Also no boat parts, blenders or toasters. We found some beautiful shells on the beach once and David fashioned them into a necklace for me. That was a good gift. Flowers? Yes, but not too many. A single rose bought spontaneously from a street vendor and presented with much ceremony did the trick in Ecuador one year.

Parties are not involved either ... although champagne might be. Last year we had just arrived in Bundaberg on my birthday and I was anxious to do a little land travel. We rented a car for the day, chose a national park not too far away, packed a picnic and spent the day walking and taking photos. I saw my first kookaburra, my first goanna and a huge python on the path. We stopped for ice cream cones along the way. We puttered around in some shops and window-shopped, but didn't buy anything. We had dinner at a little, inexpensive Indian restaurant in downtown Bundaberg. It was a pretty perfect day. Just me and my best mate...and my camera.

So...this year, the big day loomed and I was at a loss as to what I wanted to do. I get to choose the gift...no matter what activity or trip it might be. David was geared up for anything and even got the use of the marina's courtesy van for the weekend! That was major. We could go anywhere. I thought and thought about the perfect day. We didn't want to overnight anywhere nor spend the whole day driving nor spend a lot of money. David came up with the winning suggestion. A return to Bruny Island by car. I wanted to see and photograph the very rare Bruny Island white wallaby for my birthday.

I know we're going there by boat, but being on the boat sometimes has its drawbacks. It's very weather-dependent. If we're in an area and the weather turns (which happens all the time in Tassie), we need to be on the boat, not looking for white wallabies. Plus we're limited in our explorations by how far we can walk. So a whole day on Bruny Island driving the roads that criss-cross it sounded like a wonderful outing.

It was rainy on my birthday morning and we decided to postpone the Bruny Island trip till Friday. We had the courtesy van and did some errands in Hobart. We shared a small scallop pie for lunch (good, but dear!).

David prepared the birthday dinner, his specialty: white pizza. And what goes with pizza? champagne, of course... and blackberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream for dessert.

Tomorrow's forecast is a bit more sun...we'll head to Bruny Island to find my white wallaby.

Life without television

Yes, Virginia, there is life without television. For the last 13+ years, we have been without a television. We don't miss it in the least. We do have friends who have given us some TV series on DVD along the way which we watch on our laptop. We watched The Sopranos while we were in Venezuela. The West Wing was among our favorites. Deadwood was crude, vulgar and violent, but we really enjoyed it. We race through an entire season in just a few nights ... none of that waiting impatiently for the next week or sitting through ads and commercials. We watch them like movies with time for popcorn in between episodes. Although we have a large DVD library, instead of being entertained and glued to the computer screen, more likely than not, we tend to entertain ourselves and each other aboard ...reading, games, writing, hobbies, projects, watching sunsets. There's always plenty to do beyond chores.

Being back in the USA, we were inundated with TV again. Everyone has one...or two or three, strategically located in bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, family rooms. They always seem to be on, providing background noise to the usual household din even when no one's in the room to watch. I'd find myself walking into a room with the TV playing and, noticing no one watching, shut it off. Within minutes, the set was back on, droning away to a non-audience. Each time we return, TV's are bigger and better...huge screens, high definition pictures, increased costs for cable. It's hard to discuss cable service and costs with people without at least some swearing during the conversation.

We find that normal chat and conversation cease when folks sit in front of the tube. Eyes are drawn like a magnet away from the conversation to catch what's showing … no matter what it is. That's fine, I guess, if you've got lots of time to spare, but if you see people infrequently, it seems such a waste of time when you could be interacting, chatting, playing a game. Don't get me wrong. Watching a ballgame once in awhile or a good movie can be most enjoyable. However, with 500+ channels available in some places, we still found more frequently than not, there was nothing worth watching. Bring out the good books or the Scrabble tiles or the cribbage board.

Now we admit that we are hopelessly out of date … most of the time. We don't know who's winning on America's Got Talent. We have no idea what TV series are currently shown each week. We haven't the faintest idea who won the SuperBowl till weeks after (or even who was playing). Unless someone tells us, we don't know whether a famous person has died. We always lose at the “alive or dead” game. We are, however, usually attuned to countries with whom the US is at war, though, lest we arrive on their shores and be embarrassed.

The 90-day rule...part 3

These special occurrences are not planned, nor are they contrived. Sometimes we go for awhile and nothing special seems to happen, then all of a sudden, we are overwhelmed. For instance, we expected our stop at Pitcairn Island to be special, but it was over the top. After all, anchoring in Bounty Bay and having breakfast with Brenda Christian of Fletcher Christian fame (or infamy) cannot help but be special. Brenda had breakfast waiting for us when we arrived and her husband, Mike, took us on tours of the island. They loaded us up with the best of the island's fresh fruit and souvenirs when we left. When we moved on to the Gambiers, our entrance into French Polynesia, we weren't expecting anything quite as special. Our French was adequate, but not great and the locals were pleasant, but not particularly outgoing until we met a young pearl farmer named Dada. For some reason, Dada took a liking to us. He was a commercial pearl farmer, but did not run commercial tours like others in the area.

He invited us to his pearl farm where he actually allowed us harvest pearls from his oysters and then experiment with the delicate process of reseeding them. Much to our chagrin, our reseeding technique was unsuccessful and we ended up having oysters for lunch. We offered to pay; he was insulted. Not only did he not accept our offer of money, he gave us the exquisite black pearls we had harvested. We always try to pay back in friendship and small gifts, but quite honestly we had nothing to equal his gifts to us.

Let's move ahead to Niue, another tiny island nation, this time in the middle of the South Pacific. We had made the acquaintance of Keith well in advance of our arrival through our association with SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association). We kept in touch as we traveled across the South Pacific, so he was well aware of our arrival time. He greeted us with traditional tiare flower leis, took us on island tours and made each day in Niue special and exciting. The serendipity came into play when he asked us if we'd like to meet the President of the country. And we did!

How about friends of ours coming to visit us in Sydney last year and Fay announced she'd been in contact with a long, lost cousin. Would we mind taking a road trip to Canberra, Australia's capital territory (like Washington, DC in the US) with them? We're always up for inland travel and this portended to be a fun trip. It was beyond fun when we discovered her long, lost cousin worked for the Governor General of Australia. He took us for tours of government buildings and monuments, gardens and galleries. The piece de resistance...a trip to Government House, the residence of the Governor General. We were astounded as we drove up to the gates and the guards just opened them and let us drive through.

Innumerable times people have walked by our boat on a dock or paddled by in a kayak or dinghy and we poke our heads out and say hi. An instant conversation ensues and before you know it, we're sitting at their dinner table or they're sitting aboard Cups...old friends.

If we sound like we're bragging, forgive us...it is not our intent. We are sharing with you our utter amazement at the generosity and kindness of strangers. People, one on one, are so much alike. Despite political, religious, cultural and racial differences, we find that we are all so much more alike than we are different and what differences there are can most times be celebrated rather than merely tolerated.

What's the moral of this story? To paraphrase the good luck dragon: Good luck finds you if you keep on trying. He's right!

Now you'll have to excuse us. New friends whom we've just met on the dock have invited us to go on a Tasmanian wine tour with them. Wow!