Our time in Singapore was not too easy on the medical team. They disembarked 7 people and had one death. The man who died had told his wife that he wanted to die at sea, so it wasn’t totally unexpected. Of course, it was hard one everyone, especially his wife. She decided to fly home from Singapore to be with her children. The other 7 who left may or may not return to the ship in India, or whenever they are fit enough to do so. Once all of the medical problems were dealt with, the paperwork took over. I felt so sorry for the nurses as they tried to sort thru the requirements for each individual insurance plan. One of the nurses was speaking with the insurance company and the lady at the other end was being rather critical that they hadn’t been notified earlier. Cindy finally said to the woman, “I came on shift 16 hours ago and have been working with sick patients the entire time. What time did you come on shift?” That shut the lady up.
Hopefully, all of the sick ones are off since we are headed into less than friendly medical territory. India is not bad in Mumbai, but other places aren’t that reliable.
The second day we were in Singapore offered more free time. After Carter did his boat drill (they never end….), we took off on a hop-on/hop-off bus. We were here 30 years ago, but it was almost a new city to us. I was feeling that this was just another port with the container cranes and hustle and bustle, until I looked out the window and saw a huge marble statue of a merlion (1/2 lion and ½ mermaid) perched on the hill right outside the ship. I remembered that from before. Otherwise, the city had grown into a huge commercial hub. Everything is sparkling clean – not a cigarette butt or piece of trash visible. I have never seen so many shopping malls, all new and pristine. Alemitu would go crazy here.
After our tour we went to eat at a very strange restaurant. I guess it had opened the day before and there were many nationalities trying it out. There was a huge Indian family, several people who looked Asian and even a Muslim family. I decided to stay on the safe side and eat a meat pie. I figured this used to be an English colony, so I could get a good meat pie. It came with a salad, but I decided I would skip that. Carter, however, ordered a fajita. Well, my chicken pie was filled with jalapenos – so much for the mild, boring British and the salad had juiced jalapenos on it for dressing. Carter’s fajita meat and veggie mixture was made with soy sauce and tasted like Chinese stir fry. I ate some of each and Carter finished the rest. I took a Tums upon return, he felt great!
Labels: Personal
posted by Hills @ 8:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home