Yes I am giving the thumbs up. And yes I am wearing a sow-western hat. The definition of a sow-western hat is: A sou'wester is a waterproof hat that is worn especially by sailors in stormy weather. It has a wide brim at the back to keep your neck dry.
I bought this hat for my Newfounland presentation on board the Caribbean Princess. I thought why not get in the spirit and throw this on when I talk about Screeching in! Although since I am not an official Newfoundlander I can't conduct the ceremony.
But the whole reason for this post is to just to up date you all that I have been so busy writing and putting my lectures together for this 16 day cruise to Canada and Greenland.
I have completed 6 lectures:
- Pier 21 - Canada's Ellis Island
- Cape Breton - More Than Just a Big Fiddle
- Halifax Explosion of 1917
- Expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia
- Newfoundland - Living on the Rock
- September 11 - The Day The World Came to Town
In all I would say each lecture takes about 40 hours to write and prepare. Then it is practice, practice, practice. Trust me Bernie is tired of hearing them. But truly he is my biggest supporter and is happy to do it.
Then I have spent the last week staring my South America Lectures. In total there are 19 different ports. Meaning 19 lectures.
Thankfully I have 16 lectures already done, and only 3 to write (San Francisco, Astoria, and Victoria). All the 16 lectures do need to be updated with new information. Especially since it has been a few years since we have been to South America with Covid and all. Are sites still open? What are the policies in each country re Covid? What are current costs for entry to sites, taxi prices, currency. Then Princess has a new template and all the presentations need to be updated with it. Easy to do, but I do need to go into each slide and just double check things, making sure fonts, pictures, text sizes etc have been altered with the new template. In all each lectures is taking around 4 to 5 hours to update.
And a lot of note taking for further research once I board the ship. Clarify port shuttles (cost or free), docks, Covid protocol, Tender protocol and so much more. I keep a note book with the port name and then the questions below. Also when we arrive into each port for the first time I have a lot of checking to do. Prices for transport, taxis? Uber? New and updated pictures of things. Has protocols changed once ashore?
In all I love doing it! Many days I sit at my computer and the hours fly by. But don't get me wrong, I will procrastinate if I can. I have a big head start for the Sapphire contract, but still a lot more to do.
I still need to finish off the updating of the lectures. Write the three new ports. Prepare my binder with each port and the detailed information for each port. This binder comes with me when I do desk hours so I can assist guest with their answers.
Oh and I am also tending to my garden that is growing like crazy. Started preserving yesterday some of the veggies.