Day 40 ~ Transiting the Strait of Malacca

Overheard on the tour bus in Singapore yesterday: “Oh! They drive backward here. I mean sideways.”
(She meant on the left hand side of the road. Well, being a former British colony, they would, wouldn’t they?)

Today we are cruising through the Straits of Malacca, a narrow waterway between the island of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. It’s a busy shipping route. 25% of all the goods shipped in the world transit this strait on its way from Dubai and India to China and other points east. So the captain and bridge crew were pretty busy making sure we stayed in our lane!

Sunrise over the Malacca Strait

We were busy today, too. It was laundry day. It’s not too bad a job if you’re standing at the launderette door when it opens at 8 AM. We were able to snag three machines and get our loads started before anyone else joined us.

I’m pretty much over the cold, but I had problems in choir today. Several people were wearing strong perfume or aftershave. And there were several others who smelled like they’d sprinkled themselves with baby powder as well. I understand the urge to do so. It’s very hot and humid here within 5 degrees of the equator, and people don’t wish to offend.

But, unfortunately, in addition to my lung condition, I’ve developed a sensitivity to chemical smells. I can taste them in the back of my throat and it makes me start coughing. To combat this, I take allergy medicine everyday and when I know I’m going to be singing, I add a decongestant, but my precautions were not up to the cloud of scents that assaulted me. My vocal cords were swollen and my voice ragged by the time the rehearsal was over.

I may have to leave the choir if this continues.

I hate that my body reacts this way. I hate that I have to ask our director to request no perfume/no aftershave on days when we have choir. I wish I weren’t so sensitive. I wish I could still wear my favorite perfume, too, but I had to give it up years ago.

I don’t know what the solution is. Asking others to give up something as personal as their scented personal care products is a terrible imposition. But this makes me appreciate my friends in choir back home so much. Once they learned about my problem, they stopped wearing perfumes and aftershaves right away. Bless their hearts!

This afternoon, I worked on the final proofread of The Singular Mr. Sinclair, my book that will come out in July. I got the PDF from Kensington a couple of days ago and I’ve been giving it another read, marking a few typos when I catch them. I need to have it back to my publisher by March 13^th.

Then I did some walking on our deck. There’s a walking track outside up on deck 10, but Herkimer and I do better in air conditioning. I’m happy to report that after going to the show (a terrific soprano!) and supper, I pegged out my pedometer at over 5400 steps!

Tomorrow we’ll leave the strait and enter the Indian Ocean again. The water has been so placid, I haven’t put on a new scopolamine patch since we left Esperance, Australia. However, I suspect the open ocean will be choppier than the mill pond we’ve been sailing through, but I’ll hold off until I feel I need another patch.

Another lovely sea day tomorrow on our way to Cochin, India! More later…     

PS. Mom, can you please take a look at the duet of Amazing Grace that you played for us and tell me what pitch it starts on? The DH and I are thinking of trying to sing it accappella for the next passenger talent search. Thanks!

PPS. We had to turn our clocks back another 1/2 hour tonight which puts us 13 1/2 hours ahead of home.