Feb 10-11 9:34 pm

Feb 10-11 9:34 pm

Got off the ship in St Maarten this morning. We had to rush to find the McDonalds where we met Jack, a friend from work, and his wife Beverly. First though time for a little shopping. A huge bottle of vodka for my friend Joe who is watching my cat and some cigarettes for me. I had planned on buying a lot as my native supplier fell through in the quality department and the price went over $10 a pack in Toronto. As I was leaving the airport I forgot my cigarettes at home and had to buy a pack at the airport, over $13 there, so I needed to buy a few to tide me over. They had five cartons of Marborolo Ultra Lights for $85 so I got those, then found some no name brand of for 5 cartons for $40 so I also got 10 of them. My allowance is one, and I now have 15, so I need to smoke a lot in the next two days.
We met up with Jack and Beverly and it was so nice to see a familiar face. I had tried to call my mom in St Thomas but it didn't work so I was glad to see someone I knew from Toronto. We had an amazing expansive tour of the island and their beautiful home with the incredible views and their commissioned artwork.
The view from their property:

Their bedroom.  Imagine waking up to this view ever morning.
From there off to a market where I bought some pure vanilla. You can't buy that back home and i love it in my coffee, the problem is I go through it so fast. The last bottle I got from Mexico I went through in a week, so this time I bought three bottles. I was hoping to find like a huge gallon jug for cheap but no luck in St Maarten.

Then on to a local restaurant for some Cajun ribs with all the fixings and a stop at a French bakery.

Apparently on the French side of the island there are all kinds of beautiful patisseries and high end French restaurants.  We walked around, I petted a dog (no cats around) and back to the ship.
First a walk along the beach:

The Newlywed Game was alright, and the big production show Blue Planet. Everyone was wetting themselves over this before and after the show and I thought it sucked. It was like a tree comes to life as the music of Enya plays and everyone went nuts. I fell asleep.
Afterward we stopped by the karaoke club for "finish the music lyrics" trivia. I volunteered, figuring I know music. There was five of us on stage and soon two were cut and we were down to three. At this point I looked around the room and noticed it was full. I started to alternate between being happy to be there and excited and nervous and trying to breathe. I looked around the room and saw Pandora Box from Ru Paul's Drag Race in the audience which didn't make me less nervous.
It was down to three of us and one guy got cut so it was down to two of us. The host started to ad lib comedy and was asking who else in the audience was Canadian like me and I had to fight the urge to cut her. Get on with the show!
It's the final round and tension is high. My opponent goes first and has to complete the lyrics to "Dancing Queen" by ABBA, the gay anthem of the century, so of course he does. Then my turn and I get "All star" by Smashmouth. A song I hate that I remember always turning the radio station every time it came on. So of course I lost and he won, the grand prize was a highlighter and a luggage tag so I didn't feel too bad. I did feel about a thousand years old when he then didn't know a Paula Abdul song as it was from before he was born but what can you do?
Afterward I had about 100 heart attacks from being on stage for so long and sat down for a while in another Brad Loekle comedy show. Then something I've never done before, I'm spending some time in my beautiful room.
Usually on these cruises I have a crisis of self esteem but not this time. I feel good, I don't feel inferior to anyone else and if I feel someone is trying to snub me I know they're an idiot, that it's their loss. But, there's always something and now after seven days away I miss some of the things that make me be me, that help me feel happy about myself, like my cat, my home, my city, my theatre shows, the gay archives, my family, my friends, stuff like that.
Hopefully will get a second wind tomorrow.
This was my favourite door.  I hope to find a copy of this artwork:


Update:  For some reason I don`t know why, I thought I would be able to find this artist on the internet as the work on this door was unsigned.  I thought if I Googled things like `Gay art nude apple`something would come up.  I was wrong.