April 16^th, 2023

At Sea

We woke up to what looked like a beautiful sunny day, although on closer inspection it was rather hazy.

When we left our stateroom for breakfast this morning there was a very official looking envelope in the mail slot outside our room. I opened it with great expectations assuming it was an invitation from the captain or a senior officer to have drinks with them (don’t ask me why I thought that, it’s just my strange brain at work). Alas, wrong again. It was 2 coupons giving us an extra (I didn’t know we had any) 10% off Tissot, Radley, ghd, Citizen, and Clogau purchases. Well I wasn’t planning on any such purchases. If it had been a deal on that Liberty scarf, now you are talking. On the back of the coupons there was a form for requesting duty free liquor for stateroom consumption. Our bottle of Laphroig is still going strong, so no need for this either. Still I expect that there are people on board who will be happy with these offers. I put the coupons away just in case they may become handy at a later date during the voyage.

Looking out of the window of the Kings Court at breakfast, I could see where I wanted to spend the morning.

However, we both needed to do some work on our computers, and it was difficult to do this on the promenade deck, so we headed upstairs to the Commodore Club. The promenade deck will have to wait until all of our work is done, and we can dive into our novels again.

I stopped by the Pursers Desk to top off my logbook for Captain Hall to sign. It does feel a bit like an autograph book that I used to have at school and got all of my friends and teachers to sign, and then my parents poor friends had to do it as well. However, this one is just for captains, and Stephen Payne.

The afore mentioned Stephen Payne came and sat next to us. Captain Hall and 2 officers who I didn’t recognize (I wish they would go back to introducing the officers to us at the welcome on board party), stopped by to speak with Stephen, and I ended up joining in on the conversation. After they left, Brian and I continued chatting with Stephen for ages. He is clearly still in love with this ship, his ship. He talked about the trials and tribulations of getting through all the rules and regulations of ship design, the problems of having staterooms and public rooms with different ceiling heights, the best place to put life boats, and suggestions for future liners. With the current focus on keeping costs down in ship construction I am sad to say I am not sure that that his ideas will ever be seen on the sea, but they would certainly make for interesting ships.

It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to talk about both of our passions – ocean liners – past, present, and future. Also to find out that he shares our love for sitting and working in the Commodore Club. His Commodore Club.

In the afternoon, the highlight of the final segment of the world voyage was held – the Country Fayre.

This is basically a fund raiser where people can donate all of those things that they bought and brought on the world voyage, that are not going to make their way back home again. There is the always very popular Second-Hand Rose stall, where guests and staff vie for prime bargains.

There is food

And drinks on sale,

And a real treat is that one of the head waiters makes crepes Suzette. Yummy!

You can make DJ requests for $1, play a variation of pin the tail on the donkey; pin the star on the captain (a photo of him, not the real captain),

Match up baby pictures of the senior officers with their current photos,

Bowling, getting your photo taken with the Royal Court Theatre company, raffles, massages, all sorts of games and activities, and one of the Insight Lecturers, Gloria Barnett, the self-proclaimed “Weird Fish Lady” was there signing her books.

There was also a small propeller and some random hardware I have no idea what that was all about.

The Queens Room was packed, and with the DJ’s music blasting out (Delilah was a popular choice) it really was quite overwhelming. Still they raised over $17,000 for the world voyage charities, and a lot of people were glad to get rid of their excess goods, and apparently there were some real bargains to be had in terms of clothing.

We retreated to the Pavilion pool for a bit of peace and quiet. It was perfect there.

At dinner, Stephen Payne struck up a conversation with me. The ice has been broken! Apart from this talk on Queen Mary 2 tomorrow, he will be giving talks on airships and the Union Castle line. My parents met on the Llansteffan Castle in 1951 when they were both going from the UK to South Africa. Dad proposed to Mum in the library on board. All very romantic. By the time they reached Cape Town they had already made wedding plans, and Mum gave up her place at medical school in Cape Town and followed Dad to Kenya where he started his new job. So I suppose I have the romantic atmosphere aboard those old Union Castle ships to thank for the fact that I am here at all.

Showtime tonight was that very talented duo, Tiano; Chris Hamilton and Shimi Goodman. Shimi is a tenor, and Chris a  pianist, who could also make a living as a comedian. The performance was really great, and I especially enjoyed their parody of Maria from Westside Story, IKEA. They ended their show with ”Time to say Goodbye”. This always makes me cry as it reminds me of saying goodbye to QE2. I am sure it had the same effect of many others in the audience.

It was a poignant way to end yet another fantastic day on Mary. Why can’t every day be a sea day?