Gu Ben Wan...

Yesterday, on our last day on board the Ruby Princess, maaseru and I went to a shipboard talk on Chinese Herbal Medicine, given by an Australian woman named Tanya. It was held in a room on the Sun Deck (Deck 16) that I hadn't been in before; in style was a nice blend of Shinto temple and Christian church, though there were no religious symbols on any type. A nice meditation room, suitable for weddings but probably not used for funerals.

The talk was very interesting; Tanya talked about the history of Chinese medicine difference between Chinese herbs and western drugs, and their uses and prescriptions. She said that practicioners of Chinese style medicine are passionate about their field, as it is marginalized in Western medicine. 3,000 years old, she said, and tested by time.

She showed a chart put out by the World Health Organization of ailments acupuncture is particularly good for, and showed us examples of remedies from a company called Jou, which suggests, in its instructions on taking the pills, not only how and when to take them, but what mantra to chant when doing so.

Because she offered free consultation afterwards, we each made appointments. I went with maaseru to her appointment, because she wanted me to take notes for her. (Mighty note-taker, me.) The remedy she suggested for maaseru was not a Chinese herb, but an enzyme available in any Canadian drugstore.

When it came to my appointment, she took my pulse twice on each wrist and arm, and looked at my tongue, and listened to my assorted complaints. Then she figured out what it was: "a lung and stomach Yin deficiency and fluid deficiency", and she even pointed out some symptoms I hadn't mentioned. She didn't have that particular remedy for sale but suggested I could buy it in any Chinatown store that sells Chinese herbs: Gu Ben Wan. Okay, said I, taking notes.

Fort Lauderdale again...

We are on land. Ordinary, plain, firm land. I miss the ship already.

maaseru and I, and redmtl and her mother, are now at our hotel in Fort Lauderdale, and will be here for a few days. We disembarked this morning, a process which (inevitably) involves a lot of hurrying up and waiting, even with wheelchairs in tow. (Or maybe: especially with wheelchairs in tow.) Then we did errands: getting the rental van, going to the bank, the post office, the drugstore, and the grocery store. We had lunch at Denny's, which has changed its menu - not for the better, as some of our favourite items are now missing from it. For dessert, I had apple pie with maple crust - what a concept! - and ice cream.

Along with Lil and her mother, we met redmtl's friends Margaret and May for dinner at Waxy's Irish Pub - I had corned beef and cabbage,
maaseru had potato skins. Afterwards, we went back to redmtl's hotel room for tea and cookies, and chatted about any number of things while redmtl looked at her gorgeous photos of the cruise on her laptop. It reminded me of happy days at conventions - like, for example, the Dunnett convention in 1990, one of the best ever - where after the day's events we would go back to someone's room and talk for ages. Good times.

But now I'm too tired to articulate.