A to Z from the Queen Mary 2

It is 6:38 AM on Saturday March 31st and I am on the glorious Queen Mary 2 ocean liner, soon to dock in the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand. Today is the day for visiting Bangkok. Since I stayed for several weeks in Bangkok when consulting on laboratory services several years ago, and recently spent a couple of days there after doing an SE Asia Dance Cruise, I decided to enjoy having the ship quiet with few passengers on board, and catch up on my writing.  

The A to Z Challenge officially starts tomorrow and I wonder how may participants are writing from vacation spots rather than their homes?  

My dual challenge will be to keep up the daily A to Z posts while not getting too behind on my Travelblogue on Dancing to Dubai.  And of course enjoying the fantastic posts from all my co-A to  Z Challengers. I better get reading.  See you on line soon!

Toronto Time

From Bata Museum Collection

Three days to go till I  embark on my ballroom dance cruise. I am here in sunny,  warm Toronto. And no I am not exaggerating. Amazingly it is a spring-like evening in Toronto and it is only March. I arrived in Toronto from an unusually frigid Vancouver. On the other hand there are no crocuses out yet  in Vancouver - and it is already March! Oh how one's perspective is changed by travel.

I have been enjoying exploring the city with a friend and sharing some excellent meals. So far the food we have enjoyed includes lunch at Caplansky's Deli and at Wish restaurant, and dinners at Lucien and Smith. 

We have also visited the Ontario Art Museum and the Bata Shoe Museum. I especially loved the exhibit they had at the Bata Museum, of the Roaring Twenties, great dresses, great shoes, liberated women and the Charleston and they were playing great music as we wandered around. Although my museum-visiting attention span is remarkably short,  I perked up and my exhaustion disappeared when I heard the dance music.

According to the curator of the Twenties Collection the shoes shown on the left  were called Lido sandals after the pool area on cruise ships. I thought it an appropriate picture to use in happy anticipation of my cruise.

Let them eat pigeon! unless I win the lottery

from www.Copyright-free-photos.org.uk

Perhaps it is something to do with St. Patrick's Day. P is for Patrick, pigeon and for poop. Or maybe it's because I have been starting my dance-fit class  by warming up to Stevie Wonder singing Superstition. But whatever the reason, for the first time in the many decades I have inhabited this planet I got pooped on by a pigeon.  And that pigeon had diarrhea plus.

I was just outside the Bay store at Oakridge  when the darn bird targeted me. I was dressed in an unusually funky (for me) style.  Tight fitting pants that kind of looked liked leggings, and a black tunic sweater  mid-thigh length.  Maybe the mistake I made was not wearing green.

Fortunately I was dashing across the driveway because the stream landed on the back of my sweater.  A touch slower and it would have hit my hair and that would have been irremediable. But thanks to the kind lady at the Valetor dry-cleaning at the Oakridge entrance, who handed me paper and a hand sanitizer,  I was able to wipe most of the poop off my sweater and then gingerly take it off, leaving me shivering in a short sleeved black T-shirt.

So off I went on a mini-shopping spree and acquired a white top and a green funky bolero (to appease the Irish saints.) Three people then told me that being pigeon-pooped meant really good luck! Feeling icky not lucky  I thought "how can that be?" but then to honour Stevie Wonder and his "Superstition", I bought a lottery ticket anyway.  So wait for it folks. If I win I will let you know and you can go out and look for your own pigeons to poop on you. If I don't win, I think we should turn the darn things into food supply.

Dancing around the world

Live it And write it! I plan to be more efficient from now on. Currently I am preparing for a marvelous dance cruise on board the Queen Mary 2, sailing from Hong Kong to Dubai. That's where I will be, when the A to Z challenge begins, writing my daily challenge post in between documenting my travels in my Travelblogue, and dancing  up a storm with workshops,  a dance bootcamp, and dancing for fun in the evenings.  The Cunard ships have the best dance floors of any  cruise line that I have seen - not that I have cruised on all of them. And the ballroom on the Queen Mary 2 is the best of the best.

I can't wait to get aboard.

Here is a formal dance dress made for me by my amazing dance instructor / couturier from California, Robert Cooper. The photograph was taken by me, trying out the timer setting on my camera so it's not studio-perfect but it shows off the dress.

Don't you love the colour?