Sunday, February 23^rd, 2020

At Sea

We put our watches forward by a half hour last night – I thought that Canada and India/Sri Lanka were the only countries with a half hour time difference, but clearly this part of Australia does too. I don’t know why I find this half hour business so annoying, to me, it’s like they can’t make up their mind which time zone they are in, or they are just trying to be different. Imagine what the world would be like if every time zone was a half hour different, or even 20 minutes different. It would make life much more difficult.

So now it’s 10:30 AM on Sunday February 23^rd on the ship, and 5:00 PM on Saturday February 22^nd back home. Very confusing.

When I was in the shower this morning fighting with the fabric shower curtain, I was initially wishing that when they do the next upgrade to the ship that they improve the Britannia bathrooms. The bathrooms in the new Britannia Club and single cabins are all glass and marble, and look great.

However, I then thought that they are so old fashioned that they would qualify as being retro.

I have always been put off by the showers in the Britannia cabins, but as I was fighting with the fabric shower curtain this morning, I came to the realization that they are OK. Yes, it would be nice to have marble and glass bathrooms like the new Britannia Club and single cabins. However, there is something pleasingly retro about them. The bathrooms on Queen Mary and the QE2 reflect the eras of when the ships were in service, and that is part of the charm of staying there.

These bathrooms are definitely not modern, but quite honestly nor is the ship these days, so why not have bathrooms that reflect this. I am also a bit wary of glass showers on ships. There was an occasion when I fell out of the shower as the ship hit a big wave. Falling through the shower curtain was one thing, crashing through a glass shower door would be something else again. And besides, those glass showers are a real pain to keep clean.

In the afternoon I first went to an excellent piano recital by two lads called Esnult and Dantas.

Then I headed off to Professor Nigel MacLennan’s talk on “Thrive Beyond Fifty Five: Using the Mind for a Healthy Body”. He had made everyone temporarily happy with his talk on happiness, so I was expecting great things. Illuminations was packed, obviously this was a popular topic.

I emerged from the talk feeling depressed. I really didn’t learn much that was new, but it is always difficult to hear facts that you wished would go away. The answer to thriving lies in not drinking alcohol, no red meat, eat less protein, lose weight, exercise more, eat less sugar, and no caffeine. Doing things like crossword puzzles and soduku do not help your brain, you need to constantly learn new things as brain activity thrives whilst you are on the learning curve, but declines once you have mastered something. So you have to constantly be learning new stuff. It’s like learn Mandarin today, after you have mastered Mandarin, then you have to learn how to paint, next you have to learn how to drive a speed boat, and so on. It all sounded quite exhausting. He also said that doing 2 things at the same time was good – so Bruce the didgeridoo playing guitarist should be thriving.

Yes, I do know he’s right, but I wish he wasn’t. It made me head up to the Kings Court for a cup of tea and a chocolate éclair.

Tonight was the Black and White Ball, so I got to wear my white top that sheds sparkles. It is shedding less, and the day will come when it sheds no more. With all of the newcomers on board I was quite expecting that there would be several people not keeping to the dress code, but at least in the dining room everyone was dressed very nicely, and most were wearing black and white. It was really good to see that.

The meal included all of the bad things that we aren’t meant to eat if we with to thrive. It did have all of the good healthy stuff too, but a gala night is not the time or place to change life long poor eating habits. Especially when there is liver pate, tenderloin and chips, and chocolate mousse. Life is good on QM2.