I have been working with passengers from the Regal Princess cruise ship. People will ask you the strangest things. I had one lady who wanted to make sure there were professional escorts/ dancers on board (remember Igor and the owl on the Olympic cruise last year). When I suggested she attend the singles party on the first night to meet potential dance partners, even if they might be amateurs she informed me that only a professional would do…She will be disappointed. as I inquired today with the tour director on the ship and was told that professional escorts have been abandoned a long time ago …
We get a lot of enquiries about restaurants, some people want steak, others want pizza, some are a lot easier to please: I was asked for anyplace that serves fattening food. But what I like best of all is people asking me for the best restaurant in town with no budget limitation! I have a field day with those!
I saw a few people arrive wearing shorts (it is below freezing here at night this week), one of them even left for a walking tour this morning wearing them. (I was wearing a wool tuque and mittens) when I asked him if he might suffer from the cold he replied “I am from Singapore” I must be very ignorant because I did not know that Singapore could be that cold. Or maybe he meant that people from Singapore are very tough…I may never know…
But the person who wins the prize as the most special passenger was an older gentleman I met today. There was a group of people bent over a map and a cell phone looking puzzled. I went up to them to offer my help. They were from Utah and had seen a Mormon temple from the ship as they came into port. They wanted to go visit it. Together we managed to get the phone number and the address and speak to a sister there who gave them the schedule of events. Then the older gentleman, holding a pale blue leather book in his hand, took me aside to tell me he was on a crusade and wanted a few minutes of my time. Right away images of Jehovah’s witnesses sprang to mind. I confess I am not very knowledgeable on religions. But I was not in the mood for a conversion so I excused myself to go to the washroom hoping they would leave. I took my time but he was still waiting for me when I came out. So I had no choice but to listen to his story. He explained to me that his wife had always written poetry and that from the early days of their marriage she had wanted to publish a book of her writing with photographs taken by her husband, but they never got around to it. She passed away in July of 2002 and so he has assembled and published the book since. And now he travels the world and offers the book to people he meets through his travels. They were married over 50 years and had 8 children. Most of the photographs in the book are of members of their family. There even is a CD with the book of songs related to the poems. So he gave me the book after writing a personal message on the first page. It was very touching. Leaving books all over the world like planting so many seeds.
In a way this reminded me of the movement in Europe that consist of leaving books, that one has read, in public places with a notice inside inviting anyone who picks it up to read it and pass it on but also to write back via E Mail to the person who left it there. So that the itinerary of the book can be followed by its original owner. I will definitely write back to this man thanking him for his kindness.