Both Birt and his boss greeted me this morning. There's an appeal to being recognized by staff! After my omelette, I went to Carinthia to blog, chatted with Marcus, again, found he is the only Nicaraguan on staff. He's been to Iguazu and to the markets in Paraguay, so we chatted quite a while. He's an old school notes on paper guy so he can recall things he wants to do when he's off duty.
Sheila stopped by on her way to get juice and returned with Miranda, Gary and Harley. Harley and I discussed the Flavia de Luce books I'm reading and he's going to read them and email me his thoughts. Gary is a Quality Control supervisor at Intel (34 years) and we talked about RFID tagged clothing that Julie Vargas is promoting, he's been to CES several times. Miranda and Sheila visited. Gary took a picture which Miranda promises to send me. She remarked again how special we are to her. As previously noted, you never know how you can effect a change in people, conversations you deem inconsequential can have lasting results.
Heard Christopher Ward's talk on Titanic's sister ships Britannic and Olympic. Interesting. He began with an anecdote about being at the Daily Mirror in 1968 when the first NASA image of the Earth from space came over the fax machine. He took a copy down to Greenwich and showed it to Sidney Shelton, founder of The Flat Earth Society in search of a comment. Shelton argued it was "a pretty picture but utterly faked." Intransigence is not a 21st century phenomenon! Ward's story was an introduction to the conspiracy theory about Titanic not really being the iceberg-holed ship (despite James Ballard's proof) as Olympic was drowned ship since White Star had planned to sink her because of her damage after the run-in with the British warship, but the iceberg took care of it for the company. Interesting facts but I was irked that this "expert" had to read his lecture from notes. He concluded with mention of a novel by Morgan Robbertson written 10 years before Titanic about a supposedly unsinkable ship with no lifeboats that was crushed by an iceberg and sank with nearly 100% passenger deaths. His ship was called Titan. Robbertson was hailed for decades as a psychic of tremendous talent!
Knitting was good as I said farewell to Ruth and the ladies. Three are remaining for the return to USA. Tommi's Mum requested a group picture, so here we are with Tommi at the front.
Finished the second Flavia de Luce, this one immediately precedes the first one I read. When I returned it to library, I found the latest in the series had been returned, so now I have two more to read before QM2 gets to New York harbor. Won't be a problem as days at sea encourage reading, especially if we have days like today. Though the air temperature was cool and the ship's speed created wind, my balcony was protected by the lifeboats before me, so I nearly got a sunburn sitting out there today! It's wonderful sitting in the bright sunshine hearing the sighing of the waves as the ocean flows 7 stories below me while the rigging creaks in the wind that I don't feel sitting in my sheltered nook.
Finally made it to hear the pianist the entire ship has been raving about for a week. Madalina Rusu is fabulous. Her performance ranged from DeBussey to Ibanez. She garnered a standing ovation which she totally deserved. I found that she had earned one every performance she has given, one is rare, four in one week is amazing, especially as this passenger group is very old and very selective. each performance her audience has grown, today's final one was SRO!!
Sheila and I dined at Aztec tonight. Appetizers (a tasting menu) and main dishes were wonderful. Dessert (red velvet pancakes) not so much.
Great day to end this crossing. I'll wake tomorrow in England!
No comments:
Post a Comment